Interview with Chef Dominique Woolf

This week we caught up with Dominique Woolf to talk about winning The Great Cookbook Challenge, creating a new line of sauces to sell in supermarkets and much more.

Your food blends a lot of different influences. What’s the first dish you ever made that made you think, “I could do this for a living”?

It was probably a Thai red curry. I've always been good at balancing flavours, especially the spicy, salty, sour, sweet combination that you get with Thai cuisine.  I remember friends saying to me how much they loved Asian flavours but didn't know where to start. My Thai curries are so simple but delicious - I knew I could show people how to make them easily and that's where the idea came from.

You won Channel 4’s ‘The Great Cookbook Challenge’ – what was the most challenging part of that experience, and what did you learn from it?

Cooking dishes to time in a competition setting. I'm not so good with pressure in the kitchen so it definitely pushed me. I used my time planning skills I learnt at Leiths cookery school and stuck to the time plan. I learnt to keep calm and focus.

Your sauces have become a hit! What inspired you to start your own line, and how do you develop the flavours?

It started with my Auntie Dang's tamarind sauce. I was blown away when I first tried it - I had never had anything like it. I thought 'wow, I need to share this with the world' - and so Woolf's Kitchen was born. With the other hot sauces, I thought about the kind of flavour profiles I wanted and played around with a lot of recipes and created my own until they were just right. With Chilli Crunch - I started making it in lockdown. Again, I played with the flavours and textures, tweaking the balance until it was perfect.

Which ingredients do you think are the most underrated in home cooking?

I think vinegar is probably over looked - it can really help balance flavours and give some much needed acidity. I often slice some chillis and add them to rice vinegar, then drizzle it on noodles like in my recipe for Spicy garlic and ginger lamb noodles in The Asian Pantry cookbook. It's so delicious and really lifts the dish

Thai curry pastes are another one - they are actually really versatile and you can use them for so many other things aside from curries such as marinades or in noodle soups.

What’s your go-to dish when you want something quick but still packed with flavour?

A Thai curry. I always have a good quality Thai curry paste in the cupboard or fridge, along with coconut milk which means you're only about 20 mins away from a delicious dinner.

What’s next for Dominique Woolf? Any exciting projects or new products we should keep an eye on?

Woolf's Kitchen is keeping me busy with my listings in Ocado and Co-op and I'm working on developing the brand further. I'd love to get into TV as well so watch this space!

What would your ideal day in London be like?

I live in north London with my husband and our three young kids so we would try and combine some activity with a foodie adventure. The kids love to rollerblade so we'd get the tube to Hyde Park and let them have a good rollerblade and explore, stopping at one of the playgrounds (my 7 year old loves a playground!).

It's a bit heavy carrying all the rollerblades but worth it as the kids need to be active - a mooch on its own wouldn't cut the mustard! We all love dim sum so we would then catch a bus to Chinatown, sitting on the top deck to have a bit of a sightsee on route. After a wander around, including visiting an Asian supermarket, we would have a dim sum lunch at Royal China. The kids love bubble tea so we would head to Newport Court and choose somewhere there. Last time we were there I discovered the most incredible toasted ice-cream sandwich from Mamasons Dirty Ice-Cream. I had the milo flavour and have been dreaming of it ever since so would definitely have to get one.

From there we would walk into Covent Garden - the street performances are always a big hit with the kids and a great way to spend a couple of hours. We would then take the tube home, ready for a chilled evening.

To find out more about The Asian Pantry cookbook or the Woolf’s Kitchen range visit https://thewoolfskitchen.com/

Dominique's instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dominiquewoolf/?hl=en