What if I could make breakfast into a dessert? It might seem like an unlikely question. (Though, in truth, that's my favourite kind, as they're the ones that take me on the most interesting journeys.) And like an unlikely source of inspiration. But that's where this dish starts.

Back in the 1990s at The Fat Duck I was cooking parsnips for a purée to accompany sweetbreads, and when I tasted the milk they'd been poached in, it was a deeply nostalgic experience. It had a flavour that took me straight back to childhood and the milk at the bottom of the cereal bowl. So I began developing a parsnip cereal as part of a breakfast-as-dessert dish.

Ingredients

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 250C.

2. Spread the rice out on a large baking tray and toast in the oven for eight to 15 minutes until golden, stirring every five minutes and rotating the tray to ensure even toasting.

3. Combine the Rice Krispies and rice milk in a large bowl and set aside to infuse for five to six minutes, gently stirring the mixture every now and then to ensure maximum infusion.

4. Strain the mixture into a clean bowl; the infused milk yield should be approximately 900g.

5. Add the toasted basmati rice to the infused milk. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight, but no longer than 12 hours.

6. Strain into a pan; the yield should be approximately 700g. Bring to a light simmer, adding the coconut oil, inulin and rice syrup.

7. Use a hand blender to blitz well, ensuring the coconut oil is emulsified into the warm milk and the inulin has completely dissolved. Leave to cool in the fridge for two to three hours.

8. Once chilled, add the creme fraiche and blitz a second time, then pour into your ice-cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions.

9. After churning, remove the mixture and blitz with a hand blender for 10 seconds, then return to the machine to churn for another 10 minutes.

Makes about 1.1kg.

I've always been fascinated by how our experience of food and flavour is influenced by our expectations, by what perspective we choose to take, and I've constantly been creating dishes that reflect that fascination. Looking back, I realise I always had what I now think of as a quantum perspective on gastronomy. I just didn't know to call it that. These pastilles have their origin in my search, about 20 years ago, for suitable veg for savoury pate de fruits. I settled on beetroot but struggled with setting it to the texture I wanted, so I kept increasing the acidity until a funny thing happened. Beetroot became blackcurrant. Or so it seemed. It was so uncanny I began serving it at the restaurant as a red pastille.

That's the quantum perspective right there. Is the pastille beetroot or blackcurrant? We taste things all the time and let our mouth and nose judge what we are putting in our mouths. It's a question of perspective.

Ingredients

Method

1. Pour 500g of your vegetable juice into a pan and add the glucose syrup over a high heat. While you are waiting for it to come to a boil, combine the remaining 10g vegetable juice with the tartaric acid in a small bowl. In a separate small bowl, mix together the caster sugar and pectin.

2. When the mixture is boiling, scatter the sugar/pectin mix into the pan and keep an eye on the temperature you are aiming for, which is 108C. This can take approximately 30 minutes. If you have a refractometer, aim for 69°Bx.

3. Once at temperature, stir in the tartaric acid mixture and remove from the heat.

4. Carefully pour the mix into pastille moulds and leave to set at room temperature for at least 12 hours.

5. Once set, carefully remove the pastilles and roll them in granulated sugar until coated on all sides.

6. It's very important to use yellow pectin (also called pectine jaune) to make these pastilles, not regular pectin powder. Alternatively, you could use 180g jam sugar (with added pectin) instead of the caster sugar and pectin mixture.

Notes: You can use any vegetable, but beetroot, butternut squash and Romano peppers work well because they flip convincingly to blackcurrant, apricot and rhubarb respectively. You'll probably need to juice about 1.2kg fresh, peeled vegetables to yield 510g juice.

Makes a batch.

There's a lot of snobbery surrounding fresh peas vs frozen. My question would be: which is fresher - a pod that's perhaps taken several days to reach the market place, or a pea that's been frozen almost as soon as it's been picked? Here petits pois are the star of the show, not just because of their flavour. Those plump green spheres are a perfect example of what I call "flavour encapsulation" - bursting beneath the teeth to give little spurts of sweetness. A contrast that adds interest to the sandwich and textural pleasure.

Ingredients

Method

1. Put the peas into a bowl and stir through the crème fraiche to bind them. Finely chop the mint and stir into the mixture. Season generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

2. To assemble, butter the slices of bread. Spread two bread slices with the pea mixture and top with the shredded ham hock.

3. Sandwich together with the other buttered bread slices.

Makes 2.

Scientists have established that there's a whole universe inside us, populated by a hundred trillion microbes that have a significant influence not just on our digestion but on our physical and even mental health. The science of the microbiome is in its infancy so we don't yet know the whole story, but it seems to me we've got little to lose by exploring what foods might benefit the gut and its microbial residents.

So, this soup is structured around beetroot, barley and kefir, all of which appear to have beneficial effects on our digestive health. There's lots of beetroot in the recipe because it's got plenty of fibre, it's an anti-inflammatory and it contains lots of glutamine, an amino acid that's good for gut maintenance.

Ingredients

Method

1. For the pickled beetroot, bring the wine vinegar to the boil in a small pan and add the beetroot. Immediately take the pan off the heat and leave the beetroot to cool and pickle for two hours. Drain before using: you need 80g for the soup.

2. To make the beetroot stock, heat the oil in a large pan and add the onions and garlic. Cook over a medium heat until softened. Add the beetroot and continue to cook until the mixture starts to caramelise. Pour in the water (or stock) and simmer for 45 minutes. Strain the stock and adjust the seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper. You need 750g for the barley; 250g to finish the soup.

3. For the beetroot barley, heat the oil in a large pan over a medium heat, then add the shallots and cook gently until softened. Add the pearl barley, increase the heat and let it toast a little. Pour in the beetroot stock, add the grated beetroot and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 25-30 minutes until the barley is tender; you need about 400g. Adjust the seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

4. For the pan-roasted vegetables, heat the oil in a pan over a medium-high heat. Add the diced vegetables and cook until evenly coloured on all sides. Transfer to a tray lined with kitchen paper to drain and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

5. To make the kefir horseradish, combine the kefir, creamed horseradish and wine vinegar in a bowl and season with salt to taste. Just before serving, finely chop the dill (you need about 1 tsp) and stir through the mixture.

6. To finish the soup, warm the beetroot barley in a large pan over a medium heat. Finely chop the dill (you need 1 tbsp) and stir through. In a separate pan, bring the beetroot stock to a simmer and add the roasted vegetables, the 80g pickled beetroot and the grated beetroot. Simmer for two minutes, then strain through a sieve, saving the roasted vegetables and beetroot.

7. To serve, spoon the beetroot barley into the centre of two warmed bowls and pour on the stock. Divide the roasted vegetables and beetroot between the bowls, spoon the kefir horseradish into the centre and garnish with sprigs of dill.

Notes:

If you are also making the pan-roasted vegetables at this point, add all their peelings and trimmings into the stock at the same time as the water. Less waste, extra flavour.

Toasting a grain adds an extra flavour dimension, introducing complex Maillard flavours. (Think coffee, chocolate and bread crust: these are all the result of Maillard reactions.) I like to toast risotto rice in the same way, just to add a layer of flavour complexity.

The barley-beetroot mix will seem more wet than a risotto. Don't fret the wetness.

Serves 2.