Have you ever stared into your fridge while ravenously hungry and found nothing there except a scrap of mouldy cheese and a wilted spinach leaf? Our busy lives can make it extremely hard to find time to fit in a food shop and make sure our cupboards are stocked up.

If this is a situation you find yourself faced with more often than you’d like, we’ve enlisted the help of a chef to explain how to make a meal from store cupboard essentials and what you really need on your shopping list to make sure a decent dinner is on hand at all times.

Chef Chris Leach is someone who knows a thing or two about using food to its full potential. His restaurant, Manteca, which he co-founded with Smokestak’s David Carter, is an Italian-inspired joint specialising in hand-rolled pasta and fire-cooked cuts of meat.

The restaurant’s nose-to-tail philosophy means that the dishes use every inch of the animal. Ducks, for example, are bought whole, with the legs and gizzards used to flavour ragu and extra skin used as an alternative to butter in other dishes.

With this resourcefulness in mind, we asked Chris how to make a delicious meal even when it feels like you have nothing in the fridge.

How to make delicious meals with basic store cupboard essentials, according to a top chef