Student and Lemon Tree Catering owner Jess McMurray provides her recipe for Pulled Pork

My name is Jess McMurray. I am studying for a Level 3 Professional Chef’s Diploma at City of Oxford College. I also run my own catering service, called Lemon Tree Catering, which provides personalised catering in clients’ own homes – from restaurant-quality food for a dinner party to canapés for larger parties and functions. I originally studied law at Oxford and then travelled around Europe working as a freelance writer. I have always loved food, and cooking was a high level hobby. I decided to pursue it professionally at 27 and enrolled on the course at the college.

I started at the college in September, and work in the college’s Waterside Restaurant as part of my studies. I started Lemon Tree Catering a couple of months later and I am already very busy.

My cooking style is diverse – it draws from a range of influences but I love the strong flavours of Mexican and South East Asian food. I am also a big fan of the emerging American diner style, where the food has a rich heritage and good quality ingredients.

For parties my signature dish would be my pulled pork and coleslaw slides. For higher end catering it would be my black pudding and egg yolk ravioli.

My favourite places to eat and drink around Oxfordshire are The Waterside Restaurant at the college – I like bringing my friends here for lunch and showing them what we do. I also love Atomic Burger on Cowley Road for its personal service, eclectic atmosphere and good quality burgers.

The strangest thing I have ever eaten was when I was in China. I ate scorpion and lambs testicles. I like to challenge myself and see if I can overcome the cringe factor.

My favourite kind of cuisine is Mexican.

At the moment I am inspired by Monica Galleti (sous chef at Le Gavroche and MasterChef judge). It is unusual to see women rise to the top in the industry and she is strong but also personable and obviously very talented.

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Pulled pork

Pulled pork is fantastically versatile; throw it on salads, in wraps, on baked potatoes.
At Lemon Tree Catering our favourite is to fill sliders (mini burgers) with it and top them with coleslaw – perfect buffet food!
Don't miss the liquid smoke. It's a specialist item that you'll probably have to buy online, but it's so worth it – it brings a smoky depth that would normally take hours and a lot of specialist equipment to re-create.
A drop or two in your chilli also tastes fantastic!

Ingredients:
* One pork shoulder joint
* Chicken stock
* 1 cup of tomato sauce
* 1 small tin of tomato puree
* Good glug of chiptole tabasco
* Good glug of liquid smoke (I like hickory flavour)
* 1 tbsp honey
* 1 dash of white wine vinegar
* 2 cloves of garlic
* Dash of lemon juice
* 1 tsp mustard
* 1 tsp paprika

Combine all of the ingredients in an ovenproof dish with lid.
Place in your pork joint (remember to remove the tough rind of your pork shoulder but keep the fat on), and top up with chicken stock until the joint is covered. Place in the oven on 160C for five hours. When the meat is at the stage where it simply pulls apart in your fingers, remove and shred (remove any large lumps of fat that haven’t melted).
Place the remaining cooking liquid in a pan and boil vigorously until reduced to a thick sauce.
Stir this through your shredded pork and serve.