A fresh take on seasonal favourites adds Middle Eastern spice and cleverly accommodates leftover hot cross buns for afters

The daffodils are out, parading their annual magnificence, and I can’t help but be enchanted by the beauty of spring. While I’m not religious, I also can’t help but revel in the festivities of Easter. Eggs, lamb and hot cross buns are all traditional, but these fuss-free recipes give them a new lease of life. Buy in some flatbreads and pickles to serve alongside the meat, so you aren’t stuck in the kitchen for the whole day. After all, there are more important things to do – such as hunting for chocolate eggs!

A wide spread of lots of different dishes is my usual go-to, but at Easter I’m more than happy to let one (semi-)traditional main steal the show

Easter is perhaps the only traditional meal for which I’m happy to let one dish dominate. Normally, I’m all about the spread: a table full of food where all sorts – meat and veg, salad and fish – sit side by side as equals. There is something about a shoulder of lamb, though, packed full of flavour and cooked slowly until it’s more or less falling apart, that’s so symbolically tied up with both the season and the occasion that it turns me into a meat-and-two-veg sort of cook. Well, maybe a few more than two, but still, there’s a lot of space on the table reserved for the centrepiece.

The chef explains why cooks are like musicians and presents a special Easter menu with a lamb centrepiece and an indulgent dessert

The watery reaches of Buckinghamshire, beloved of bankers and 1980s celebrities, have been subject to so much flooding in recent winters that posh new houses are built to float. Though the future of this countryside is uncertain, the desire for pubs in a town like Marlow remains and Tom Kerridge owns three on the high street: the Hand & Flowers (two Michelin stars, Cornish “tin mine” tart on the menu); the Coach (one Michelin star, turbot scotch egg); and the Butcher’s Tap and Grill, with a sister pub in London’s Chelsea, which is “basically lumps of meat”, as Kerridge puts it. The Butcher has a real butcher’s in the bar area complete with tangy aromas. Men in woollen coats pop in to buy grass-fed bavette steaks and Blur’s The End plays over the sound system. Kerridge is striding down Marlow High Street on a mobile phone, deep in business – then he swings in.

His sweatshirt is covered in mock heavy-metal insignia, running up and down the sleeves like tattoos: a snake on a crucifix, a skeleton-like Iron Maiden’s Eddie. In another life the nation’s most down-to-earth chef would have been in a band. He and his wife, the sculptor Beth Cullen, lived in Camden at the height of the Britpop era: their eight-year-old son Acey (Anglo Saxon for first born) was originally going to be called Jarvis until they realised it didn’t sound great in Cullen’s Stoke-on-Trent accent. Before Britpop, he was a West Country raver. At school he hung out with the bad boys but kept his nose clean: “I was attracted by the naughty boy but I wasn’t a troublemaker. I like hanging around chaos.” Mainstream education didn’t agree with him, and when he won Celebrity Mastermind in 2015 with his specialist subject Oasis, it was the most revision he’d done in his life.

A trio packed with flavour: chicken and cardamom meatballs in yoghurt sauce, a brioche bun stuffed with spicy, sour keema, and mini rice-paper wraps stuffed with a laab-like pork filling

Mince has a reputation for being cheap, uninspiring and bland, but there’s so much more to it than just spag bol and burgers. If you buy the best quality you can afford, and season it imaginatively, mince is versatile, quick to cook and nourishing. From ragu to laab, every culture has a favourite mince dish; these dishes use ground chicken, lamb and pork, and are boldly seasoned with Asian spices and condiments to warm you up on chilly nights.

Kufteh, or Iranian meatballs, in an Italian-American red sauce, and a California-style autumn fruit crumble

While I always loved food, it took many experiences to discover my own cooking and incorporate my Californian Iranian upbringing. I crave simple, delicious food, rather than anything overly complicated; I use what some may think is a ridiculous amount of herbs, have more vinegars than oils and prefer fruit-based desserts over chocolate. I want you to love these recipes, but what I really hope is that you take the nuggets of info and techniques, and integrate them into your own cooking routine.

Spicy lamb meatballs tucked into a jacket of fig, and a Levantine salad of chicken and grape with juice-soaked pitta

There’s a giant fig tree in our neighbour’s front garden, which we watch closely every year, waiting for the arrival of the fruit and our favourite season. Celebration is called for, and these spicy, lamb-stuffed figs are the best way to kick things off. We’re all for stretching a meal to feed the many, and a grape and chicken fattoush does just that. By adding crisp pitta at the last minute to soak up all the juices, you turn a simple salad into a summer showstopper.