Most of my favourite recipes come from a desire to make the most of a particular ingredient.

For me, it’s about using things that are at their best, in the right season, and sharing them. A Saturday lunch spent with one of my great friends, Michael Birkett, at his farmhouse in Sussex epitomises this.

It is the nicest meal of the week, and usually begins with a couple of his stupendously good – lethal – martinis at 12.30pm. Friends will arrive about an hour later, and I will put together lunch to be eaten at 2.30pm.

The meal will meander long into the afternoon, winding down at about 5pm. Proper lunch, we call it.

Grown-up lunch. And these are the types of things we will eat.

All recipes have been extracted and adapted from Week In Week Out by Simon Hopkinson, photographs by Jason Lowe (Quadrille £20). To order for £16 (inc p&p), call The Sunday Times BooksFirst, 0870 165 8585

Recipes

Devilled whitebait

Veal chop with sage

Salad of green beans and anchovies

Small new potatoes with caviar and chives

Grilled fillet steak with mustard and tarragon butter

Edouard de Pomiane's tomates a la creme

Strawberries with vanilla ice cream and creme chantilly

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