'Eating 30 plants a week can be achievable and delicious' says Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

“I managed to get out on the boat and caught some mackerel yesterday so we had fresh mackerel for supper, and my wife and daughter will be eating that (again) for the family supper,” he says. “I'll be down at River Cottage, talking to our guests and tucking into something a little more elaborate, but still… a celebration of the good produce of the season.”

Better than the fish I’m planning, I say, which will be accompanied by two slices of white bread and tomato ketchup – but of course he has a solution. “Next time you make a fish finger sandwich instead of the ketchup, put some kimchi in it,” he says. “That tanginess with the fish fingers is absolutely brilliant.”

It’ll “give the gut a boost as well”, he says. It’s that balance between a reverence for amazing ingredients – the kimchi, that is - good health and reliably communicating how we can bring those into our own homes that means the cook has been a solid presence on household bookshelves and television screens since his first series, Escape to River Cottage, in 1999.

Early next month, however, he will be in Leeds for something quite different at Kino, the restaurant at Opera North.

Over the summer, it has been presenting a series of ‘In Conversation and Dinner’ events with leading chefs and food writers, discussing their culinary inspirations while offering a menu co-created with the chefs at Kino.

At the Howard Assembly Room in New Briggate, Fearnley-Whittingstall will discuss his career in food with fellow chef and restaurateur Jason Shaw as diners are served dishes cooked by Kino head chef Josh Whitehead and his team.

After previous guests included Leeds-born Marco Pierre White, Nigel Slater, Bee Wilson and Angela Clutton, Fearnley-Whittingstall will host the final dinner in the series on Wednesday, September 4.

“I've really enjoyed meeting Josh,” says London-born Fearnley-Whittingstall. “We've had a couple of Zoom calls now, chatting about the menu and frankly just chatting about food and reminiscing.

"He seems to be very genuinely a River Cottage fan. He's a lot younger than I am so he was a youngster when he was watching it back in the day and he's been reminding me of things we did, the shows that I’d pretty much forgotten about.

"So part of the fun of this has been building a menu from a combination of things - our shared memories of River Cottage, things that he remembers from the show, things we did with squirrels and fish and the fun we had making cheese and all that kind of thing – and then talking about what's going to be in season at the time like, especially in your neck of the woods, there should be some fantastic damsons around by early September or certainly some plums.”

He doesn’t want to give too much away except to say that, as per his latest book - How to Eat 30 Plants a Week - it will “celebrate the seasonal availability of terrific plant-based ingredients”.

It’s less about dispensing with meat and fish he says, and more about bringing plants to the fore.

“That's great for our health, that's great for the planet, but it's actually great for making really good menus,” he says, referencing the “rut” chefs can get in when working with animal produce.

“Particularly once you get into a restaurant kitchen, they're very tyrannical ingredients. Chefs really obsess over them – got to get them exactly pink in the middle if it's a piece of beef or venison or whatever, or must get the crackling absolutely spot on, or season it with a little herb crust or make sure that fish skin is crispy from flashing it under, whatever it might be – and then inevitably, the plant element becomes an afterthought. So we're thinking about things differently.”

As well as the River Cottage TV series and books, the chef – a vice-president of the conservation charity Fauna and Flora International and patron of Switchback, a charity helping young offenders find opportunities in the catering industry – has taken part in campaigns such as Hugh’s Fish Fight, Hugh’s War on Waste, Britain’s Fat Fight tackling the national obesity crisis, and War on Plastic with Hugh and Anita, alongside Bradford-born Anita Rani.

When it comes to getting 30 pants a week in, Fearnley-Whittingstall, who turns 60 in January next year, says it’s not about cramming fruit and veg.

“I do lightly insist on the word plants rather than veg, just to remind people that it isn't just about fresh fruit and vegetables. Really fantastic store cupboard ingredients come into play here,” he says, especially pulses, nuts, seeds and spices.

Put three or four whole seed spices into a dish, some grains or tinned lentils, and there’s a handful of plants you can tick off the list, for example.

“It's not about going shopping for obscure, expensive ingredients. It's about, first and foremost, reminding yourself of all the plants that you do like and that are familiar, but that maybe you haven't thought for a while because we all get stuck in a bit of a rut in the way that we cook and we have our go-to dishes and then we forget that, actually, lovely green beans are in season and we really like them and why haven't we bought any?”

The 30 plants idea is not a Fearnley-Wittingstall original but has been championed previously by the likes of epidemiologist Tim Spector, who wrote an introduction to his book, and a concept which “super respected nutritionists” have backed.

“My job is to make it fun, accessible, achievable and delicious,” says the chef. “The science is their department, and I've got a pretty good understanding of it at a level that I can communicate very clearly to my readers and followers, but it really is essentially about nurturing your gut microbiome because it really thrives on a diversity of plants.”

Weather-wise, it has not been our most vintage summer of sunshine – how has that affected produce?

“The winter and early spring were very difficult. Farmers have had a very difficult (season), horticulture is particularly a very difficult season. I can't speak for the more scaled-up horticulture at the moment because I think it still slightly hangs in the balance. Our veg garden is going absolute gangbusters at the moment. We've had quite a lot of rain but in reasonable combination with a bit of sunshine. That's pretty good weather for growing vegetables.”

However, the difference between a veg garden in late July and the early September is “quite substantial,” he says, adding: “That's why Josh and I have been anticipating things like maybe some early squashes or courgettes and late summer berries like raspberries and blackberries, and maybe the plums and damsons that we mentioned, and some of the late summer, early autumn mushrooms and things like that.

"We're thinking about what's going to be in the veg garden, what's going to be in the hedgerow, what's going to be in the woods and bring it all together.”

Tickets for Food Experiences with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are available from kinoleeds.co.uk