‘It is better to buy a good base product than to make a mediocre version yourself.’

For Gill, the importance of a good dessert is often underestimated in the hospitality industry. ‘In a menu, this is the last course you eat. Even if you have a thirteen-course menu and the last twelve have all been top-notch: if that thirteenth course is not right, you could destroy everything you have built up so carefully throughout the evening. The dessert is the memory your guests will take home with them, so it has to be excellent.’ 

Gill says a perfect dessert includes several components. ‘It ought to have something creamy, something crispy, something airy, and something deliciously smooth. I prefer including ice cream, to create a combination of hot and cold. It’s OK to have contrasting textures and consistencies in a dessert. When it comes to flavour, not everything has to be sweet—I am happy to include something sour or even bitter, as long as it is well balanced in the end.’ Her personal favourite ingredient is caramel, in all its forms. ‘You can make so many different things with caramel, and they are always delicious. I don’t just mean salted caramel: caramelised puff pastry is another example.’

Gill makes all her ingredients herself. Nevertheless, she understands why chefs sometimes opt for convenience – in fact, she thinks this is wise. ‘If you don't have enough time or space to make your own products, buy a good basic product. It is important to learn to outsource things rather than always insisting that you have to do and make everything yourself. In the worst case, you could end up with a whole range of mediocre products. In that situation, buying a good basic product is definitely the best choice.’

Gill sometimes mentions Debic's basic products to her customers. ‘When a customer asks me to supply a classic crème brûlée, I advise them to buy Debic Crème Brûlée Bourbon. It’s a stable, high-quality product, which you can prepare to a high standard yourself with little knowledge and in a short time. It also has a much longer shelf life than a dessert you would buy from me, and that will be good for your margins too. Choose something from my range that helps you to get noticed, and use Debic's functional basic products for the classics. I think it’s a very good approach for chefs who are short of time or have limited staffing.’

Gill herself has been using Debic's cream and butter for many years. ‘I use Debic Cream 35%: it provides a very consistent base for my mousses and creams. To be able to use stable basic products like that in my cooking is an ideal situation. It allows me to experiment and be creative because I know exactly how to handle the product, for example, in terms of temperature or stand. If something does go wrong, I can be virtually certain it wasn’t because of the cream or butter.’

Sometimes a mousse doesn't seem to have the quality Gill is looking for. ‘Sometimes I produce as many as ten different mousses in one day and the next day again. If one of these doesn’t seem quite right, that tells me I need to take a bit more care. Perhaps I have been too focused on production and need to give some more attention to development. Quite often, I will take a step back and make the recipe again with greater care, coming back to the parameters that matter most. How long am I beating it for, how warm or cold is it? I think you should always keep a critical eye, not only on your products but on your preparation methods too.’