Each month we ask a chef to choose five ingredients they'd want if they were stranded on a remote island, and what they'd cook with them. Luckily the island has a wonderful herb garden and its own olive grove. The rest is up to them...

On the island

I like the best linen sheets and I like goosedown pillows and cashmere bed socks, so it would be a struggle to do without some of my creature comforts. I usually travel with my own pillows because I never trust hotels and I think that being plonked on an island would be a tremendous culture shock, but after a time I'd probably learn to love it. I suppose a spring for some fresh water would be rather necessary; I don't think I'd be very good at evaporating seawater.

Hopefully there would be lots of greenery and a few rocks to hide from the wind behind. A bit of sand might be nice and a warm climate.

I wouldn't have time to sit and think about the meaning of life, I'd be far too busy surviving. I would soon learn to be extremely good at the practical side of it. I would build my house. It would probably fall down in a week or two but I'd rebuild it having learnt from my mistakes. However, I would miss my two-year-old son, my husband and my family. I'm also very used to having lots of people around me day in day out, so having no one to interact with would be quite unsettling.

To make my desert island dish I would make a basket and then do my best to catch the crab. My favourite last meal would be crab salad followed by roast chicken. I love the flavours and the fact that you can get a wonderfully chilled crab salad that would taste smackingly fresh of the sea and something nice and comforting like a real properly reared organic roast chicken. I hope they run wild on the island, because I used up my five ingredients in the salad.

Luxury item

A good chopping knife, then I could make my lovely salad.

Drink

Limoncello - a wonderful lemon liqueur made on the Amalfi coast. It's very chilled, extremely alcoholic and one would just need a little sip every evening to send you to sleep.

Desert island dish

Crab avocado, pink grapefruit and land cress salad with dill
(with the five ingredients: crab, avocado, land cress, pink grapefruit, lemon)

This is a salad that I serve in my restaurant. Pink grapefruit, being acidic, goes perfectly with crab which tends to be quite rich. The avocado tends to be quite creamy in texture, and the combination of the pink grapefruit and the avocado with the crab would be an automatic combination as the perfect salad. Fresh, unadulterated, chilled, lightly seasoned, fabulous crab is one of my most favourite foods. There is no point in making this recipe unless your fishmonger can guarantee a crab of absolute freshness. Land cress is a leaf similar in shape to watercress, but it tastes very much more peppery and powerful. We use it in the restaurant whenever we can get it - it's very rare. There are a few private growers that we use who are growing it organically, or as close to organic as they can, and we buy from them, certainly in the spring and the summer months.

For the dressing:
1 egg
150ml olive oil
salt and pepper
juice of 1 lemon
75g crown crab meat, sliced

To make the dressing whisk the egg until frothy and very gradually add the olive oil until an emulsion is formed. It should have the consistency of double cream. Season with salt and pepper, add the lemon juice and stir in the brown crab meat. Cover and keep refrigerated.

For the salad:
2 large pink grapefruit
2 avocado
juice of 2 lemons
300g white crab meat
1 tbsp chopped chervil
1 tbsp chopped dill
1 tbsp chopped chives
150g land cress or other small salad leaves

Peel and segment the grapefruit. Cut the avocados into halves and brush with a little of the lemon juice. Keep both refrigerated.

Check through the white crab meat and remove any stray pieces of shell. Place in a bowl with the herbs, remaining lemon juices, salt and pepper. Mix gently together, cover and leave in the refrigerator.

To serve, place the salad leaves in a bowl, drizzle with a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss gently. Cut each avocado in half lengthways and into slices. Scatter the crab and cucumber over and arrange with avocado slices and grapefruit segments neatly. Pour a little crab dressing on and around the salad and serve.

Sally Clarke is the chef-proprietor of Clarke's Restaurant and bakery