Anton Mosimann: Master chef turns 60

The napkins have been pressed; the cutlery polished. In a ballroom off Park Lane, staff are dusting fine bone china, and performing other luxury hotel alternatives to putting up the bunting. The Dorchester is preparing to honour its greatest living son.

Anton Mosimann, OBE, boasts a place in history as the man who created the modern hotel kitchen. Arguably, the world's first celebrity chef, he also invented a school of cooking that is now standard restaurant fare, and became one of the first top restaurateurs to share his secrets with the masses via television.

Today, he's 60, and some of the world's top foodies have come to London to celebrate with an old-fashioned banquet. Three hundred guests will tuck into an eight-course meal, drink double magnums of vintage plonk, and smoke the finest Havana cigars.

You may not have eaten his food, stepped into his discreet Belgravian club, or seen his face adorning a new range of kitchenware. But without Mosimann we would not be living in the era of Jamie, Heston and Gordon.

"Anton can be celebrated as the first of the modern generation of super-chefs," says the food critic Egon Ronay. "He was the first to not just appear on TV, but also be talked about by the public, and written about all the time. He stands head and shoulders above the rest; no question. Many of the top chefs that followed owe him for creating the atmosphere in which they could thrive."

Mosimann now commands a sprawling culinary empire from the comfortable surrounds of an exclusive Belgravia dining club, where members range from Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Collins to Claudia Schiffer and Paul McCartney. His catering company cooks for royals, prime ministers, and world leaders. His cookery school teaches captains of industry how to whip up a souflée.

He's also a father figure to a host of top chefs, who will be there tonight in their droves; 80 of them, from the world's finest restaurants. They've flown in from China, Egypt, Canada and Australia; from Germany, France and Mosimann's native Switzerland. All are former employees, who learnt their trade in his famous kitchens.

At one table will sit Mark Hix; at another, Anton Edelman. Elsewhere you'll find protégés as varied as Paul Gayler, head honch at the Lanesborough, to David Nicholls, from the Mandarin Oriental. Chefs from clubland (White's, The Garrick) will compete with those from hotels in New York, St Moritz, and Dubai to sing his praises.

"Anton changed the way we cooked in Britain," says Edelman. "He changed the restaurant world for the lighter, for the better, and he bought new cooking methods in from the Continent, making them healthier, more palatable, cleaner. In this country a lot of things we take for granted now was a result of what he initiated."

In a career that took off with a 13-year reign at the Dorchester, Mosimann also helped to end the era of British hotel dining defined by greying meat and silver tureens. "In the 1970s when Anton started, hotels were at rock bottom," says David Nicholls, who worked under him for six years. "The food and standard of service really couldn't have got much worse. And the transformation he effected was just enormous." And that is why 300 of the world's finest tastebuds are going to be severely tickled later on tonight.

The first time you meet Anton Mosimann, you feel confused; under-whelmed, even. Top chefs should be larger than life, with short tempers, and foul mouths. We expect them to be fiery and intimidating, knocking up meals in a whirlwind of sweat and tears.

He is none of these. I am welcomed to his club with laid-back charm, and a friendly smile. We tour the impeccably upholstered former church, near Hyde Park Corner, and an army of staff are greeted by name and calmly directed about their business. The boss - in his "trademark" bow tie - reminds one of Manuel, the insufferably nice waiter from Fawlty Towers.

It is 11am, and Mosimann's is preparing for lunch with an air of serenity, and downright efficiency. The restaurant has been fully booked by members, and several private function rooms are also about to fill up. Yet all is calm. It is not unlike being inside a well-oiled Swiss cuckoo clock.

Understatement is also at the heart of the Mosimann approach to food. He's lean and fit, and likes to eat healthily. He believes that good food should be allowed to shine, without being doused in alcohol, or heavy sauces, and laden with calories. "I always use this example," he says.

"If you have a fresh scallop, you can just wash it, slice it, and eat it raw. The sweetness, the tenderness, the taste is just unbelievable. Just so nice. But how often have you eaten scallops in a sauce full of cream, butter, and alcohol, with the scallops most probably overcooked?

"To that, I ask 'why?' It destroys them. I steam my scallops for 15 seconds. I put in a bit of lemon juice, a bit of black bean, few herbs. Wow! That's food for me. The way it should taste."

Nowadays Mosimann's philosophy is widely shared. It is how people eat, both at home and in restaurants. Twenty years ago it was revolutionary. He introduced it after touring the Far East in the 1970s, importing techniques such as steaming.

"I worked in a hotel in St Moritz," he recalls. "We reduced cream every day, 10 to one. That's 10 gallons of cream, down to one gallon. We mixed it with butter to make sauces. Unbelievable! So 20 years ago, I said no cream no butter, no fat. People thought I was crazy!"

The result was Cuisine Naturelle, a modern brand of cooking, big on healthy ingredients, natural flavours and freshness. When imported to London in the dark days of the 1980s, it was nothing short of revolutionary.

"The first banquet I experienced at the Dorchester, the meat was roasted, a saddle of lamb, in the oven at five in the morning. It was carved, put back on the carcasses, and covered in medium foil. The meat was served at eight o'clock that night. It was very unhappy looking meat, but everywhere, not only at the Dorchester, they cooked like this."

So he introduced plate service and fresh food. Staff were taught to cook sauces to order, and serve dishes when they were at their peak, rather than removing tired food from under silver tureens. And as a result, anyone who has eaten in a British hotel restaurant since then owes him a very big debt.

Mosimann always wanted to be a chef. His parents ran a family restaurant outside Berne. As the only child, he was expected to toil in the kitchen when the school day was over. His earliest memory is cooking a cheese fondue for schoolfriends, at the tender age of seven.

As a teenager, he served an apprenticeship at a nearby restaurant, and was educated at the local catering college. His twenties were spent toiling in the kitchens of top hotels in Rome, Montreal, Japan and Belgium, broadening his culinary education, and bringing exotic techniques into his professional repertoire. He became the youngest chef ever to be awarded the prestigious chef de cuisine diplôme.

Heston Blumenthal, who has credited Mosimann with inspiring his childhood interest in fine dining, says that this varied education in alternative, or international cuisine, was behind Mosimann's later success in tinkering with traditional restaurant staples.

"Anton has the ability to respect what's current, but also to look to the future, often by reworking a traditional dish," he says. "I remember him serving bread and butter puddings. Seeing a Swiss man making bread and butter pudding fashionable was a big thing for me. He managed to make it complex and refined, and to put real emotion and passion into the sort of dish you'd previously thought was only OK in a pub."

At 28, Mosimann was headhunted to take over from Eugene Kaufeler, who had run the Dorchester's kitchen since just after the war. He stayed there for 13 years, making it the first hotel restaurant outside France to achieve two Michelin stars.

"It was a fantastic time. We had 132 staff, and 650 people on the waiting list to work there," he says. I could have the pick of the people I wanted to work with. But then I became 40, and said what next? Do I stay another 25 years here, or look around for something else?"

So Mosimann bought a former church on West Halkin Street in 1989. He did it up, and launched a members' dining club that rapidly became one of London's top gastronomic destinations. It has remained a magnet for foodies and celebrities ever since.

His membership policy is one of "exclusivity". Roughly 2,000 well-heeled Londoners pay £500 a year for the privilege of being allowed to cross the threshold (though "civilians" can use the private dining rooms). To become a member, you either know a serving member, or (even better) become one of the several hundred celebrity acquaintances with whom Mosimann is pictured on the club's walls.

At the heart of Mosimann's success is his calmness and attention to detail. The club is lavishly decorated, but in the knowing sort of way that wealthy people particularly like. To that extent, it is a peculiarly Swiss institution. Like a Geneva bank.

Outside the kitchen, there's been an occasional TV career, kick-started by a documentary, Anton Goes to Sheffield in which he showed a working-class family how to make a full Sunday roast for under a tenner.

Mosimann has also launched a cookery school, which doubles up as a home for his collection of 6,000 cookery books and the base for a successful outside catering company, which organised (among other things) Prince Philip's 70th birthday party, and Prince Charles's 50th, and a variety of political dinners.

"When I was at the Dorchester, Mrs Thatcher called for me one day. She said she had the President of France, it was Mitterrand, coming and could I come and cook for her? Since then, I've been in and out of Number 10 many, many times. We usually create a nice menu, British-based, and keep it very light. It's my kind of cuisine."

"Because those people have to have lunch and dinner every day, they want light food. Ten days ago, I cooked a dinner for Tony Blair. It's always a great pleasure to meet him. He likes his food. He likes most things. One day a fish dish, another a meat dish. As long as it's cooked lightly he loves it."

In common with our Prime Minister, Mosimann is preparing to hand over the reins. He's a self-confessed workaholic, spending six days a week at his club and living next door with wife, Kathrin, but is preparing to transfer some responsibilities for the business to thirtysomething sons Mark and Philipp, who will join the family firm later this year.

To celebrate his birthday, he's leaving them in charge for an unprecedented six weeks ("the longest I've ever spent away from the business"), to drive a Triumph TR4 from Beijing to Paris in a classic car rally (his other great love is vintage motors) in the summer.

Several questions remain, though. Is his club's ethos, of members-only exclusivity, not mildly snobbish? "It's about good food and enjoying yourself among friends, that's not snobbery," he replies. "We have a nice mix of people. It feels like home. We know their favourite tables, their favourite wines. It's like cooking for friends."

Why has he never expanded his restaurant empire in the manner of a Gordon Ramsay, or a Jamie Oliver? "I've been very happy having just one restaurant. In meantime, I've been travelling. I've worked in 75 different cities around the world. Having one place here allows me to travel. I've cooked in Washington DC for three presidents. I went to Davos to cook at World Economic Forum with Kofi Annan and Bill Clinton. I couldn't do that with a chain."

And does his Swiss attention to detail occasionally spill over, in the words of one critic (speaking anonymously) into a "slight anal retentiveness, fussiness and pretentiousness"? He replies by describing his style in the kitchen.

"No shouting. No screaming. No swearing. It's not necessary. Do your homework, get organised, and get on with it. I don't lose my temper. I'm lucky, I suppose, to be good natured. Very often, if you shout, you show a weakness, because you haven't done your homework. I never criticise other chefs. They have their own styles. I have my own. And my style is my natural style."

Mosimann keeps a firm grip on developments in gastronomy, continuing to travel widely (last year he went on a six-nation tour of Asia) and import foreign cooking ideas to his cuisine.

He applauds the often sneered-at notion of modern celebrity chefs, noting that, for example: "Jamie Oliver has done a good job, and because of his character and his name and reputation, he's done a good thing with his Fifteen Foundation, and the school dinners campaign. I also employ unemployed people, through the Prince's Trust. It gives me great satisfaction."

And in keeping with his bonhomious character (could a man who owns 365 bow ties, "one for every day of the year", ever not be jolly?) he is happy to see his Cuisine Naturelle eclipsed by the recent development of the culinary trend of the future: molecular gastronomy.

"It's a good thing. Chemistry is important in the mix of ingredients. Take a souflée. If you take certain ingredients together to make a sweet dessert, put it in oven, the souflée rises. Why? 99 percent of people never talk about it. Never think about it. You have to explain the ifs and buts. Then cooking becomes much easier. You understand much more about it."

As we say our goodbyes, Mosimann takes me to his study, and pulls out a 400-year-old cook book. It's leather bound, and handwritten in faded ink. Inside, he's bookmarked a recipe for chocolate sorbet. "Chocolate sorbet, can you imagine? Four hundred years ago, they were making chocolate sorbet. Today, we will make that, and people will think wow! This is modern food."

In the year 2407, who'd bet against a top chef leafing through one of Mosimann's hardbacks, and thinking exactly the same thing?

Highlight's from tonight's menu

Tonight, to celebrate his 60th birthday, Anton Mosimann is inviting chefs he has worked with to London's Dorchester hotel for a gastronomic tour of the dishes he has created and enjoyed most over his career. Here are the highlights.

Scottish smoked salmon with smoked trout mousse - The Dorchester, 1975. Created by Mosimann for Eugene Kaufeler, his predecessor at the hotel, when Mosimann arrived.

Selection of sushi - from the Tokyo Expo, 1970. Mosimann was head chef for the Swiss Pavilion (It was during this trip that he met his wife, Kathrin).

Spicy beef with lemongrass - Oriental Bangkok, 1990. Mosimann was invited to cook for a week.

Roast honey-glazed chicken - Napa Valley, 1986. Mosimann was invited there by the renowned wine producer Robert Mondavi.

Smoked beef - Montreal, 1966-69. A dish from Albert Schnell, the chef who has most influenced Mosimann.

Father's wurst und käse - in honour of his father.

His parents were restaurateurs in Switzerland).

Bread and butter pudding - Sheffield 1985. Mosimann's TV break came when he was asked to cook for the BBC's Food & Drink programme. His challenge: to cook, for a truck driver and his family, a traditional Sunday lunch for under a tenner - including wine. In the following week, 64,000 requests were received for the recipes.

Apple and blackberry crumble - The Belfry, 1988. Anton acquired the Belfry in 1988, the year in which he left The Dorchester to set up his own dining club in Belgravia.

Birthday carrot cake - his mother's special recipe.

Cooking the Mosimann way

SQUID WITH GINGER-GARLIC SAUCE

Serves 4 as a starter

1kg squid, cleaned and outer skin removed

1 lime, cut into wedges, to serve

For the ginger-garlic sauce

4 garlic cloves, peeled

2 tbsp grated fresh ginger

1 bird's-eye chilli, seeded and finely chopped

2 tbsp fish sauce, or more to taste

Juice of 1 lime

To garnish

Fresh basil and coriander leaves

Spring onions, cut on the diagonal

Fine julienne of red pepper

Place the garlic, ginger and chilli in a mortar and pound with the pestle to a fine paste. Add the fish sauce, lime juice and two tablespoons of water. Mix together. Set aside.

Slit the squid bodies to open them flat, then score in a criss-cross pattern; leave tentacles whole. Bring a large pot of water to the boil and throw in the squid. Cook for four minutes or until tender. Drain well, then toss with the ginger-garlic sauce.

Serve hot, with garnish and lime wedges to squeeze over.

STUFFED TOMATOES WITH SPINACH

These tomatoes can also be served, without the sauce, as a vegetable accompaniment.

Serves 4

4 medium ripe tomatoes, stalks removed

200g fresh spinach, stalks removed

1 heaped tbsp finely chopped shallots

50g cottage cheese

Freshly grated nutmeg

4 sprigs of fresh chervil

For the yellow pepper sauce

1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped

1 small garlic clove, peeled, chopped

2 medium yellow peppers, seeded and cut into large pieces

A few sprigs of fresh thyme

400ml vegetable stock

Pinch of caster sugar

Salt and freshly ground pepper

To make the yellow pepper sauce, soften the shallot and garlic in a non-stick pan over a gentle heat without browning. Add the peppers, thyme and stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until peppers are tender. Allow to cool slightly, then blend to a purée and season to taste with sugar, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4. Cut a lid from the stalk end of each tomato. Scoop out the pulp and seeds using a teaspoon, then season the insides of the tomatoes with salt. Leave to drain upside down on kitchen paper.

Blanch spinach leaves in boiling water until just wilted. Drain well and roughly chop. Sauté the shallots in a non-stick pan, stirring, until soft and translucent but not browned. Add spinach and sauté for a further two minutes. Remove from heat and mix in cottage cheese. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Carefully fill tomatoes with spinach mixture. Place side by side in a baking dish, cover with foil and bake for four to five minutes or until the tomatoes are slightly softened and the filling is piping hot.

Gently reheat the sauce. Serve each tomato on a pool of sauce, garnished with chervil.

PUMPKIN GNOCCHI WITH PARMESAN

Serves 4

1kg pumpkin or butternut squash

2 tbsp olive oil

200g plain flour

2 egg yolks

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Shavings of Parmesan cheese

Fresh sage leaves or thyme sprigs

For the sauce

100ml olive oil

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

Preheat oven to 200C/Gas 6.

Line a roasting tin with foil. Quarter pumpkin and remove seeds and fibres. Arrange quarters skin-side down in tin and add 1cm depth of water. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft. When the pumpkin is cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh off the skin and push it through a fine sieve to make a purée.

Place purée in a pan and cook down until dry. Remove from heat and add oil, flour and egg yolks, stirring rapidly to mix into a soft dough. Season. Turn out on to a floured surface and shape into 3cm thick logs. Cut the logs across into 2-3cm pieces. Gently roll each piece on the back of the tines of a floured fork to make the traditional gnocchi shape.

To make sauce, combine oil and thyme in a large frying pan and heat gently. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Throw the gnocchi into the water. When they come to the surface remove them with a slotted spoon and add to the sauce. Toss gently to coat.

Spoon on to warm plates and scatter over Parmesan and sage or thyme. Serve immediately.

SPINACH SALAD WITH STILTON SAUCE

Fresh raw spinach is delicious in this salad, but tender lettuce, chicory or radicchio leaves can be used instead.

Serves 4

1 red pepper

3 slices of white bread, crusts removed

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

250g tender spinach leaves, thick stalks removed

15g fresh parsley, chopped

8 fresh basil leaves, shredded

For the Stilton sauce

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

200g low-fat natural yogurt

40g Stilton cheese

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 220C/Gas 7. Roast pepper, turning occasionally, until dark spots appear on skin. Remove from oven, cover with a damp cloth and leave to cool for three to four minutes, then remove the skin. Cut the pepper in half, take out the core and seeds and cut the flesh into fine strips.

Reduce oven temperature to 200C/Gas 6. Cut the bread into small cubes and spread on a baking tray. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden. Add the crushed garlic and mix well to flavour all the cubes. Set aside.

To make the sauce, mix the lemon juice, mustard and yogurt together. Crumble the Stilton and mix in gently. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Put the spinach leaves and pepper strips in a bowl. Pour the sauce over them and toss well. Sprinkle with the parsley, basil and garlic croutons. Serve immediately, otherwise the tender spinach will quickly fall apart.

FILLET OF PORK WITH CHINESE LEAVES

Ginger and coriander, both very aromatic and believed to aid digestion, are good flavourings in this stir-fried dish.

Serves 4

450g pork fillet (tenderloin), well trimmed of fat

Freshly ground pepper

1 small onion, peeled and chopped

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

¹/₂ small cauliflower, cut into florets

2 large carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips

¹/₂ bunch spring onions, trimmed and cut into 2.5cm lengths

¹/₂ head of Chinese leaves, cut into 2.5cm long strips

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

4 tbsp chicken stock

1 tbsp soy sauce

Fresh coriander leaves to garnish

Cut the pork fillet into thin strips. Season with pepper, then sauté in a non-stick pan for two minutes on each side to brown. Remove from the pan.

Sauté the onion, garlic, cauliflower and carrots for three minutes. Add spring onions, Chinese leaves, ginger and stock to the pan. Cover and simmer gently for two to three minutes.

Return pork to pan and season to taste with soy sauce and pepper. Serve immediately, garnished with coriander leaves.

WILD MUSHROOM GOULASH

Serves 4

1 large garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped

2 shallots, peeled, finely chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

500g assorted wild mushrooms

200g tomato concassée (below)

2 tbsp roughly chopped celery or flat-leaf parsley leaves

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Paprika

Soften the garlic and shallots in the oil in a frying pan for two minutes. Stir in the mushrooms, adding the firmer varieties first, and sauté over a high heat until the mushrooms start to go soft.

Add the tomato concassée and celery or parsley leaves and season to taste with salt, pepper and paprika. Heat through and serve immediately.

TOMATO CONCASSEE

1 heaped tbsp finely chopped shallot

1 garlic clove, unpeeled

1kg ripe tomatoes, skinned, seeded and diced

A few sprigs of fresh oregano and thyme

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Soften shallot with garlic in a large non-stick pan without colouring. Add the tomatoes and herbs and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook gently for about 15 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft and all the excess liquid has evaporated.

Remove the garlic clove and herbs and adjust the seasoning.

MONKFISH TERIYAKI WITH MOOLI NOODLES AND LEEKS (BELOW)

Monkfish - like skate - is ideal for those people who are frightened of bones. In the monkfish steaks here, which are cut across the tail, there is only one central bone, the rest being "meat".

Serves 4

1 mooli (daikon), peeled

8 monkfish steaks with bone, about 125g each, membrane removed

Salt and freshly ground pepper

150ml mirin

100ml sake

75ml dark soy sauce

Olive oil

9 baby leeks, trimmed and cut into 5cm lengths

Using a mandolin, finely slice the mooli lengthways. Stack a few slices at a time and cut finely into noodle-like strips with a large knife. Soak in iced water for about 30 minutes, then drain.

Lightly season the fish steaks then allow to stand for 15 minutes to firm up slightly.

Mix mirin, sake and soy in a shallow dish. Add the steaks and leave to marinate for an hour. Pat dry just before cooking.

Preheat grill to moderately high. Grill the steaks for two to three minutes, reducing the heat after the first minute or so. When the first side is golden brown, turn the steaks over and coat well with half of the marinade. Finish cooking the second side (about another two to three minutes), occasionally brushing on more marinade.

While fish is cooking, brush the leeks with oil, and grill or pan-fry until golden.

Serve the monkfish steaks garnished with the well-drained cold mooli "noodles" and the warm baby leeks.

BRAISED PUMPKIN WITH LENTILS

Serves 4

120g Puy lentils, rinsed

750g pumpkin

4 shallots, peeled and cut into rings

1 large garlic clove, peeled, sliced

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Pinch of sugar

400g can plum tomatoes

Sprigs of fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

Vegetable stock

1 tbsp shredded fresh flat-leaf parsley

Put the lentils in a pan, cover with water and bring to boil. Cook for 30 to 35 minutes or until tender. Drain. While cooking, peel the pumpkin and remove the central seeds and fibres. Cut the flesh into small neat wedges.

Soften the shallots and garlic in the vegetable oil for two to three minutes, then stir in the pumpkin. Season with salt and pepper and add the sugar.

Mix in lentils. Add tomatoes with their juice, the thyme and bay leaf. Cook together for about 20 minutes or until pumpkin is tender, adding some stock if necessary. The mixture should be quite moist but not runny. Serve sprinkled with the parsley.

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

Serves 4

30g butter, softened

3 small rolls, such as brioche

10g sultanas, soaked to plump up, then drained

250ml milk

250ml double cream

Pinch of salt

1 vanilla pod

3 eggs

125g caster sugar

20g apricot jam

Icing sugar to dust

Preheat oven to 160C/Gas 3. Lightly butter an ovenproof dish. Slice the rolls and spread with remaining butter, then lay the slices in the dish. Scatter over the sultanas. Bring milk, cream, salt and vanilla pod to a gentle boil. Whisk eggs and sugar together in a bowl until pale in colour. Gradually add milk and cream mixture to eggs while whisking. Strain into a jug, then pour over the buttered bread in the ovenproof dish.

Place a piece of card in a bain marie or roasting tin and set the dish on the card. Pour enough hot water into the bain marie to come halfway up the sides of the dish. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. When pudding is ready, it should be set but still wobble slightly in the middle. Remove from oven and allow to cool a little.

Gently heat apricot jam to melt it. Thin with a little water if necessary so the jam is spreadable. Lightly brush a thin coat of this apricot glaze over the top of the pudding. Spoon on to serving plates, dust with icing sugar and serve slightly warm.

PAVLOVA

Serves 4

4 egg whites

¹/₂ tsp salt

225g caster sugar

2 tsp cornflour

2 tsp white vinegar

150ml double cream, whipped, or thick Greek yogurt

Seasonal fruit (such as pineapple, passion fruit, pomegranate, strawberries, mango, raspberries)

Finely crushed pistachio nuts or icing sugar

Preheat oven to 150C/Gas 2. Line a baking sheet with lightly oiled parchment.

Beat egg whites in a bowl until foamy. Add salt and continue to beat until whites form peaks. Beat in sugar, a little at a time, until the pavlova mixture is glossy and all the sugar has been incorporated. Blend the cornflour and vinegar together, then fold into the pavlova mixture.

Spoon mixture into four small, neat mounds on the oiled baking parchment. Use a dampened spoon to press a slight hollow into the top of each. Place in preheated oven and immediately reduce temperature to 120C/Gas 1/2. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Leave to cool in the oven.

To serve, place a little whipped cream or Greek yogurt in each meringue nest, then arrange the prepared fruits on top. Sprinkle with pistachios or icing sugar and serve immediately.

POACHED APRICOTS

Serves 4

8 or more large apricots

4 sprigs of fresh mint

Icing sugar

For the syrup

100g sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 vanilla pod, grated

2 cardamom pods, slightly crushed

6 coriander seeds, slightly crushed

¹/₄ tsp ground ginger

Juice of 1 lemon

Combine all the syrup ingredients with 600ml water in a large pan and bring to boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add apricots and cover with greaseproof paper. Poach for 10 to 12 minutes. Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to remove the apricots. Set aside. Boil syrup to reduce by half, then leave to cool.

Serve the apricots in deep glass bowls with syrup poured over. Decorate with mint and icing sugar.

This is an edited extract from 'Mosimann's Fresh', published by HarperCollins. The book is available from Independent Books Direct (08700 798 897; www.independentbooksdirect.co.uk), price £25, inc p&p. Please allow 14-21 days for delivery

Interesting? Click here to explore further