“It’s like Christmas day for chefs and foodies when the first bunches of asparagus arrive in the kitchen. One of the things I love about British asparagus is it’s seasonal, fresh and tastes fantastic. As a country we don't export any of it, we keep it all for ourselves - that shows how good it really is! For the few months that asparagus is available it never leaves my menu, and why should it?”
Marcus Bean

“We should take full advantage of the brief British asparagus because it is utterly delicious. Because you want to eat as much of it as possible in a relatively short period of time, it encourages the seasonal cook to enjoy it in as many different ways as possible. I positively yearn for the first spears to charge up through to the soil. Eating British Asparagus is a no brainer because it is so delicious a different thing altogether from the dismal and bland out of season imports. What could make more sense in eating our asparagus from our ground in our air. Its annual arrival is a treat.”
Valentine Warner

“British asparagus really is one of the stand-out ingredients I look forward to every year. I am completely honoured to have been asked to promote this amazing vegetable. In the past it  had been seen as a somewhat elitist ingredient but for me this couldn't be further from the truth. It’s a fantastic addition to any family meal, not just as a side dish but as the star ingredient and buying in season always means you will be buying at a great price! ”
Dean Edwards

“I’ve been eating my own home-grown asparagus for two years now, and I love having it in the garden. It’s been kind of painful in some respects, though, because to grow it successfully you need to have patience – something I don’t really have!  It all becomes worth it when the spears pop their heads up through the soil. You can steam the spears, boil them or quickly stew them in pasta sauces to exaggerate all their juiciness and sweetness, or you can dry-grill or roast them to bring out their unusual nutty flavour, which you might not have tasted before.”
Jamie Oliver, Jamie At Home

“Thank God for the asparagus bed, where those glorious, green spears thrust upwards sometimes inches in a day. I have to say, I can't get enough of them. I look forward to asparagus like my kids look forward to Christmas, and I feel cheated if the season passes me by without at least a dozen good servings of the stuff. And by "servings" I mean greedy fistfuls, not a few elegant spears arranged over an enormous white plate.”
Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall, River Cottage

“The other week a supplier brought me my first asparagus of the season. That evening I raced home with only one thought — asparagus and beurre noir. My boyfriend couldn’t understand how a vegetable could cause such elation, but the season lasts only six weeks so you must make the most of it. A simple beurre noir — slightly burnt butter flavoured with sea salt, pepper and vinegar, liberally poured over the spears with a few slices of fresh bread to mop up the mess — is my favourite companion for asparagus. But so long as the shoots are not overcooked and still have a little bite, I love them almost any other way — with hollandaise, or in salads with crisp lettuce, shallots and capers, or with avocado and bacon, or in a quiche or frittata, or wrapped in cured ham, drizzled with olive oil and grilled.”
Thomasina Miers, Wahaca Restaurants, London

“The British asparagus season is upon us and, until the end of June, it’s practically a patriotic duty to indulge in this most delicious of vegetables. Rich in vitamins, folic acid, iron and potassium, there’s little wonder it’s known as the ‘miracle vegetable’.
Jo Pratt, TV cook and food writer

“The arrival of asparagus marks a change in the year for me. Those first bunches turn up on the trestle tables at the market when my own vegetable patch is flush with green shoots and hope. Yes, it's a luxury, but the home-grown stuff will only be with us till the third week of June or so, and I am happy to do without other luxuries just to get my twice-a-week fill. A treat indeed.”
Nigel Slater, food writer

“One of those great British ingredients worth waiting for is English asparagus. This is the time of year when things start to get exciting in terms of seasonal produce, such as the first of the UK's asparagus which growers are bringing on early in order to fight off competition from the cut-price imports. These early-season treats are a certain sign that spring is with us and that our predicted warm summer is not so far away. I often feel there’s a race on among producers as to who can get out the first of the season’s asparagus. I don’t blame the British asparagus-growers for wanting to extend their season, because it’s a great but underrated luxurious vegetable that gets downgraded by the cheap imports.”
Mark Hix, Hix Restaurants, London

“May sees erotic asparagus charging up through the soil. Melted butter great! Vinaigrette, fine! But hollandaise – oh God, what a combination! There is no better luxury to bring to the mouth on the end of a quivering green spear. Don’t get me wrong, I do adore asparagus, I’m bad-mannered and greedy for it, but sometimes it’s just a vehicle for hollandaise.”
Valentine Warner, What To Eat Now

“You can often find me striding between well-kept rows of asparagus spears, with trusty sharp knife and basket. I am like a child indulging in a new craze over again and again. I see choosing and picking my own asparagus as not just a joy, but the choicest luxury, and like to pick the biggest, fattest spears.”
Simon Hopkinson, The Vegetarian Option

“Asparagus are really something special among vegetables. Partly, of course, this is due to their taste, but it comes almost as much from their immaculate sense of timing. The first asparagus of the year (exclude imports for the moment) is a keenly anticipated pleasure, a harbinger of warmth, of light, of summer, of an easier life for a few months at least. Yes, even today, in this modern world of high-flying internationally jet-setting vegetables, the opening of the asparagus season is cause for a humble domestic celebration.”
Sophie Grigson, The Vegetable Bible 

“Asparagus is always greeted with great acclaim when it arrives in May/June. I think English asparagus is the best in the world.”
Brian Turner, Great British Grub

“We hit Worcestershire at the end of April, slap bang in the middle of asparagus season. It’s a major crop here – Vale of Evesham asparagus has been though the best in the world for years – so it was asparagus madness all over the county. The best time to eat asparagus, as with most fruit and veg, is when it’s growing. So many of the producers we visited around the country extolled the virtues of seasonal eating and the asparagus growers were no exception. Out of season produce, flown in from miles away, just isn’t the same thing at all. We went out picking the little beauties and rode in an asparagus buggy – asparagus is the only crop you can pick sitting down! It was really good fun and we picked purple asparagus as well as green.”
Si King and Dave Myers, The Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain

“I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t relish asparagus. Freshly picked is the caviar of the plant world, with a powerful and unique taste. I don’t think it makes much difference [how you cook it]. If you’ve got very fresh asparagus, it’s magnificent however you cook it. If you live in an asparagus area, such as Evesham or Norfolk, you can get hold of just-picked bundles from beside the road. If you don’t, and if you have space, this is one of the most life-enhancing plants to grow. It may only crop for six to eight weeks, but over that time you will have several truly delicious meals a week.”
Sarah Raven, Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook

“I read somewhere that asparagus and liquorice have a compound in common -  asparagine. What had first caught my imagination about the combination was its sheer unlikeliness, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that it could work. Liquorice is sweet – up to fifty times sweeter than table sugar – while asparagus has a bitterness. Maybe the two would make for a bittersweet experience… It tasted great. It was one of those odd couples in which the differences in personality seemed to mesh like teeth in a cog. Lemmon & Matthau. Eric & Ernie. Liquorice & Asparagus.”
Heston Blumethal, The Fat Duck Cookbook