Green Capital: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

As Bristol Green Capital ambassador, TV chef and environmental campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has ambitious plans to make Bristol a happier and healthier city.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall scrubs up well. Long gone is the shaggy hair and general air of dishevelment from his early River Cottage days.

Indeed, if truth be told, he looks just a little bit corporate, as well he might with a hugely successful TV career and a chain of restaurants under his belt, but don’t be fooled as appearances can be deceptive.

He has lost none of his campaigning zeal and passion for the environment which he is bringing  in bucket loads to his role as ambassador for Bristol Green Capital.

“It’s a brilliant opportunity for the city, a brilliant opportunity for the rest of the country and Europe and frankly the world, to see what this city can do,” he says.

“We need to keep encouraging people to think about the issues around the environment and sustainability. People need to be prepared to make changes in their lives because ultimately that is what we are all going to have to do.”

Sitting in his restaurant in Clifton serving up free-range, organic fare to the well-heeled he is well aware that the concept of Green Capital needs to be sold to the rest of Bristol. It is, he admits, “a massive challenge for the city”.

“It’s not about a small group of people in Bristol patting themselves on the back and keeping the conversation to themselves. As soon as people from across the city start to feel that they are connected in the smallest way, they can create a positivity that moves through the city with its own energy.”

But Hugh is not just some some celebrity parachuted in to extol the virtues of Green Capital and sustainable living – he has past form in Bristol.

Several years ago he helped a group of Knowle West residents start their own urban farm on scrub-land . Bramble Farm is still going strong and its driving ethos is something that is incredibly important to Hugh.

“The decisions we make about food first and foremost are incredibly important for our health but also they are very important for our environment and the communities around us.

“Of course we can’t all be rural small holders and grown huge amounts of our own food but what we can do is just care a little bit about where our food comes from, go to a little bit of trouble to find out the story and make sure that we are buying things that we can feel good about.

As one of the original group of TV chefs at the vanguard of the food movement which swept the country in the 90’s, he is well aware of the challenges involved to encourage people to change habits of a lifetime.

“As an ambassador I will be having conversations with the mayor about what we can do to improve people’s access to good food in the city, what can we do to help people develop their cooking skills.

“In the end we can do few bigger favours than teaching people how to cook. If you can send young people into the world with cooking skills they can find inexpensive ingredients…that’s the first step in a healthier life and a more sustainable relationship with  food.” 

With the formalities over he launches into a story about saving one of his chickens from a fox the previous night – truly a man who practises what he preaches.