For most business owners, a revolving door of top talent coming and going might be a sign that something’s not right. Not so at London restaurant Carousel, whose founders, Messrs Ollie, Ed and Will and Ms Anna Templeton, have designed their business model around exactly that concept. Their 50-cover restaurant in Marylebone is kept fresh with a series of two-week residencies, during which talented chefs from around the world are invited to work alongside the Templetons in the kitchen.

Over the course of five years (it celebrates its fifth birthday in August), about 150 chefs have passed through Carousel’s doors, sharing techniques, ingredients and ideas that have left a lasting impact. We asked chef Mr Ollie Templeton for some of the top tips he’s picked up so far.

You don’t always need fancy gadgets

“Cooking with Swedish chef Niklas Ekstedt was a real game-changer for us. He doesn’t use any gadgets or electricity – just fire, smoke and ash. His flatbreads are grilled over wood and are made with milk and honey to give them a touch of sweetness. They’re soft and fluffy, but strong enough to hold a proper fistful of charcoal-grilled meat and juices.”

Curing meats is easier than it sounds

“Magnus Reid, of Legs restaurant in Hackney, taught us a lot of things, such as how smoked eel can be even more bacony than bacon. Best of all, he showed us how easy it is to cure your own meats. It’s time consuming and takes patience, but it can be done with a really simple set-up. With the nature of our place, we often have cuts of meat left over, which we now use to make salamis and sausages.”

**Don’t be afraid to experiment with ingredients **

“Yuji Tani, head chef of House in Tokyo, weaves together French and Japanese ingredients and techniques to create something truly unique. His teriyaki foie gras rice ball demonstrated a new way of cooking sushi rice that involves toasting the rice, as you would with a risotto, with diced shallot, before cooking it in dashi, without stirring. At the last minute we sealed it in foie gras, folding it in to make the texture creamy and rich. It was finished with crunchy pickled cucumber from Kyoto.”

Simplicity is everything

“We loved working with Kieran McLaughlin from La Banchina in Copenhagen and his super-easy sorbet recipe had a big influence on us. He used rose vinegar, glucose and water. It was that simple, but the result, which we served with Bronte pistachio gelato, was the lightest, most refreshing sorbet we have ever tasted.”

Cook with a smile on your face

“We first met Mathieu Perez at his restaurant Percherons in Céret in the French Pyrenees. His food isn’t overly complicated, but it’s unfailingly delicious. Most important of all, he does what he does with a massive smile on his face. He’s the most French guy in history. You will never find him cooking without a glass of natural wine in his hand.”

Master your marinades

“Taku Sekine’s cooking at Dersou in Paris is hard to categorise, with both Asian and European influences, but whatever you call it, it’s unreal. He does this Vietnamese-style barbecue presa Ibérica dish with a Mexican-inspired mole manchamanteles marinade (literally “tablecloth stainer”) made with a mix of galangal, lemongrass, fish sauce, palm sugar and fermented red beans with chilli, which was packed with so much flavour I can still taste it now.”

Embrace the charcoal grill

“Our guest chef at the moment, Emme Prieto’s approach to Mexican food is next level. With Emme, it’s all about the grill. We ramp it up to char aubergines, peppers, chillies and corn. Once the flames subside, we toast the tortillas for the chocolate dessert, then cook the tomatillos for salsa. The whole menu uses the heat, flames and embers and each dish will utilise it in a different way. This way the grill is always being used and not wasted.”

Start out with the very best ingredients

“I've learnt so much from Carl Ishizaki, who is head chef at Sushi Sho in Stockholm. He’s cooked with us twice, but his sushi rice really stands out. It’s often the simplest things on paper that are the hardest to get right and when you do, it’s like you’re eating it for the first time. His sushi rice is like that. The starting blocks are the ingredients. He cooks it using the best vinegars from Japan and the results are great.”

Be sure to balance heat effectively

“Jeremy Chan, of Ikoyi in London, has got this way with balancing spices that makes for food that is both intense and delicate. His precise approach to the flavours of west Africa could be seen as quite sciencey and I remember riding my bike around London looking for particular spices to bring the menu together. His ability to create balances of heat and spice resulted in amazing flavours.”

**Learn from your elders **

“Danny Lee brought his mum Yesoon, aka Mama Lee, over from Washington DC where they run two beautiful Korean restaurants. Mama Lee is 70, yet still makes hand-pulled noodles, kimchi and mandu (dumplings) every morning. She sat with all of us and patiently taught us the skills that she’d perfected over her lifetime.”