I never thought I had a sweet tooth — until I became a firefighter

Welcome back to What’s Cooking, Metro’s food series where we find out exactly what’s going on behind the scenes in the nation’s kitchens.

This week, we’re shaking things up, as we’re not in someone’s home, we’re at Dockhead Fire Station in Bermondsey to meet Ben Wiles.

Ben, 37, is a former chef, who switched gears after the pandemic and now works as a firefighter in London, putting out blazes, rescuing cats from trees and cooking two meals a day for his colleagues. 

The dad-of-one has been working at the station for a year and says food has been his ‘medicine’ for some of the more traumatic aspects of the job.

‘I’ve seen some eye-opening things,’ he says. 

If you’ve ever wondered what sneaky snacks firefighters keep stashed away in fire engines or what a typical day on the job looks like, you’re going to want to keep on reading, as we’ve got the answers.

Ben has been working at the station for a year (Picture: Courtney Pochin)

Aside from putting out fires and rescuing cats, what do you do all day?

We turn up each morning and do a roll call, which is essentially reporting for duty. We’ll work out what we’re doing for the day, test the equipment, test the truck and our breathing apparatus, carry out any maintenance and then get out in the yard to do some drills. 

This will take us to breakfast, so I’ll pop upstairs and prep something for us all to eat, assuming we don’t have an incident to go to. 

We’ll spend half an hour chatting, laughing, eating and having a cup of tea, which is a real highlight of the day, then off we go.

We could be training, going to the gym, getting out into the community, doing fire safety checks with businesses or responding to incidents. On a quiet day there might be two or three incidents, but sometimes there’s as many as 15. 

A look inside the station kitchen (Picture: Courtney Pochin)

Do you have any sneaky snacks stashed away in the fire engine?

There are definitely some biscuits snuck away inside of the truck. 

It’s impossible to avoid cakes and biscuits at the station, they’re everywhere. People are always baking things and bringing them in. Even the healthiest people here, you’ll catch them eating cake.  

I didn’t think I had a sweet tooth before starting this job,but it turns out I do. I just have the self-control not to buy all of the things. 

Is there anything you crave after a tough day at work, or does the job ever put you off food?

The only time I ever get put off food is if we’ve been under severe heat stress, which is the equivalent to getting sunburn and not wanting food for a while.

But in terms of what I see on the job, I think food is my medicine for that. 

When we’re putting out a fire we can get seriously dehydrated – the gear keeps the heat out, but it also keeps the heat in, so you get warmer and warmer. When I go home, I’ll be craving something salty, so I’m all over a cacio e pepe. I always have the ingredients part-cooked and ready to go.

The 37-year-old often craves cacio e pepe after a long day at work (Picture: Scott Suchman; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky/Both for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

What’s your ultimate guilty pleasure food?

Ever since university I’ve loved frozen IKEA meatballs with Bisto gravy. That’s my guilty pleasure, and I’ve extended it now to my little boy. Don’t knock it.

Name one store cupboard product you can’t live without.

Anchovies. Those are always in my cupboard so I can make a quick pasta sauce. I just mix them with capers, maybe a little bit of stock and some Parmesan butter. 

I also always have gherkins in the cupboard to have with a sandwich. I love a cheese toastie with mustard, pickles and some onion. They’re also really good with any kind of meat, or just eaten straight out of the jar as is. Some people might keep them in the fridge, and if I were in a restaurant it’d be the fridge, but I don’t have space for that. 

Ben always keeps gherkins in his cupboard (Picture: Courtney Pochin)

And something that always has to be in your fridge?

Parmesan has to be in the fridge. Can’t get my late-night cacio e pepe without it, can I? 

What about the freezer, what do you have to keep in there at all times?

The IKEA meatballs, of course, but also ice lollies. 

I have an ice lolly every day and my boy loves them too. We always have Del Monte Orange Juice ones in the freezer, and some raspberry ones from Aldi which are unbelievable. 

The station freezer is also full of lollies and ice creams – they’re a great way to cool off in our line of work.

There’s always a stash of ice lollies in the freezer (Picture: Courtney Pochin)

Is there an item you’re always willing to splurge on at the supermarket?

Salt. You’ve got to have good salt. 

It’s not very expensive, but I always buy either Maldon or Cornish Sea Salt. You can really taste the difference, it’s significant.

Alternatively, which kitchen staple isn’t worth splashing the cash on?

There are a lot of things that I don’t splurge on that I probably should, but the one that’ll hurt a lot of people’s feelings is olive oil.

I buy cold pressed rapeseed oil at a third of the price, mainly because supermarket olive oil is incredibly expensive and never that delicious. I’d rather wait for friends and family to go on holiday in Europe and come home with a pretty bottle of good stuff. 

Ben cooks breakfast and dinner at the station (Picture: Courtney Pochin)

Do you have any top cooking tips to share from your chef days?

Clean your fridge. 

Taking a minute to keep your fridge clean will help food last so much longer. The way you store things, and the habitat you store them in matters. Any moisture when you have a leaking fridge, or anything like that, will cause your food to spoil very quickly. 

It’s maybe a bit boring, but when I discovered how much longer food could actually last, it blew my mind. You can cook so much more and it’ll save you money too. 

Meatballs and marinara sauce for dinner (Picture: Courtney Pochin)

Finally… what’s been cooking at the station lately? 

I’m usually cooking for between eight and 11 people and I make breakfast and dinner. We all chip in about £45 each a month and I budget that, plan the meals and order all the food for delivery.  

We work a shift pattern of two days and two nights, so I try to do something seasonal and healthy one day, and then let everyone indulge themselves on the other.

For breakfast I’ll make something like porridge, or maybe a full English.

Recently we’ve had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, which is a favourite. Everyone also loves Sloppy Joes and Taco Tuesday. For that I’ll make pork carnitas, various salsas… the full works.

I still like to go back to my restaurant roots with a bit of flamboyance and get a bit creative – it makes me feel good. 

If we’re on call outs, there isn’t always time for cooking, so I basically try to make meals with slow-cooked meat or mince so I can minimise the spoilage if we have to drop everything and go. We don’t want anything going to waste. 

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