Eschewing the usual method of mixing juices from aroast with a dose of wine, the 84-year-old disclosed his unorthodox recipe includes stock cubes of four different flavours – lamb, chicken, beef and vegetable – added to boiling water.
The veteran singer said he then adds the mixture to two chopped fried onions, along with an undisclosed amount of teriyaki, soy and Worcestershire sauce.
Richard described his gravy as “probably the greatest in the world” and said he invented it by combining flavours he likes.
He told Woman’s Weekly: “I’m still waiting for some company to offer me a deal.
“Paul Newman has his name on all sorts of mayonnaise and salad dressings, and he did it for charity. I’m available, can you imagine? ‘Cliff Richard’s gravy’ – probably the greatest gravy in the world.”
Sir Cliff Richard joked he was waiting for a company to offer him a deal for his recipe. Photo / Getty Images
However, the recipe has left several professional chefs flummoxed, with one describing it as “absolutely vile”.
Tom Brown, a Michelin-starred chef and owner of the Pearly Queen oyster bar in east London, questioned the need for so many stock cubes.
He said: “I am not really sure what the correlation between teriyaki sauce is and gravy. I am not taking any cooking tips off Cliff Richard anytime soon. It sounds absolutely vile.”
Matthew Ryle, a semifinalist on MasterChef Professionals in 2018 and executive chef at Maison Francois in Soho, said Richard’s concoction “sounds like it’s going to be very salty”.
He added: “I feel like it needs something to thicken it a bit too. I can imagine it tastes all right, umami hit from the last three additions and well-seasoned.
“Certainly wouldn’t be pouring that over my roast dinner though.”
‘Stock cubes aren’t going to cut it’
Ryle said the key to a good sauce is in the stocks, so “starting from scratch and making a nice gelatinous chicken stock is definitely the way to go”.
He added: “Cubes aren’t going to cut it.”
The chef said a proper gravy should involve roasting a mix of celery, carrot, onion and leeks alongside the joint of meat before pouring white, or red, wine over the roasting tray, depending on the meat, to help deglaze the crust of caramelised sediment at the bottom.
A traditional gravy should combine juices from a meat and vegetable roast with a splash of wine. Photo / Tam West
A good quality stock, either shop-bought or homemade, containing the appropriate gelatin to help produce an unctuous gravy, should be added to the wine and then reduced to help thicken the sauce.
Glynn Purnell, whose titular restaurant in Birmingham retained a Michelin star for 15 years until its closure last month, said: “I think pop stars should stick to singing songs and chefs should stick to cooking and not try and be rock stars.”
He added that either cornflour or regular plain flour can be added to a sauce to help produce the desired consistency, with a small knob of butter whisked in at the end to give the gravy richness.
‘Fantastic little hack’
However, one chef spoke up in Richard’s defence and said a stock cube does work as a “fantastic little hack” for making gravy – and added he was not against adding soy sauce either.
Elliott Grover, executive chef at 45 Park Lane, a five-star hotel in Mayfair, said: “Cliff is a good friend of the hotel. Personally, I’d definitely give it a try, but I’d leave out the teriyaki sauce.
“A lot of people like to add soy sauce, and I’m not against it, but at home, I always prefer using the trimmings to make the gravy.”
