FOOD TVPhil Vickery: 'I like the occasional KFC'

This Morning’s Phil Vickery is an advocate of simple, quick cooking – and the odd KFC!

There are few people more amenable than Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby – although This Morning’s resident chef Phil Vickery may disagree! Phil’s regular cookery slot on the ITV1 show finds him often facing the dilemma of what to cook given the strong dislikes of the popular presenting duo.

"Phillip and Holly can be tricky customers to impress," grins Phil. “Holly doesn’t like fish or offal, whereas Phillip hates couscous and eggs – so I occasionally slip them in just for fun! Most of the time I cook what I want, tell them to try it and smile as they go, 'Hmm, that tastes really nice actually!'"

That said, Holly tasted more than she anticipated when Phil had an ‘equipment malfunction’ with his new whisk.

"I was whisking some cream and pushed the button to a faster speed and the whole mixture flew out and landed all over Holly," he remembers. "She was dripping with cream, live on air, and to add insult to injury there wasn’t a drop on me or Phillip!"

Phil is, of course, happily married to Fern Britton, who hosted This Morning until July last year.

"It was weird not seeing Fern on set at first, but change is a good thing and it’s business as usual for me," says Phil, also a regular on Ready Steady Cook. "I used to do TV slots when Richard and Judy were on in the morning so I’m used to comings and goings."

So who’s in the kitchen most at their Buckinghamshire home, where they live with Fern’s children, Jack, Harry and Grace, and their daughter, Winnie?

"I’m always cooking but occasionally my dear wife will rustle something up," he grins. "I’m the best cook – that goes without saying – not that I’d ever dare complain about anything Fern made!"

The family eats, he says, very simple meals.

"Food hell to me is stuffy, quiet restaurants, full of pretentious food and little bits of this and that. I like simple classics, such as a good roast or crumble. And if I’m feeling naughty, the occasional KFC."

He recommends this strawberry and almond trifle (see recipe) for impressing people at short notice.

"This is a really quick British pudding made with my secret ingredient: condensed milk," he says. "Some chefs think it’s below them, but I use it all the time. In my first job in a little seaside hotel in 1978, there was a 74-year-old pastry chef who used it – and my mum and grandmother did, so it must be good!"

FOOD TVRecipe

Full Recipe: Phil's strawberry and almond trifle