CONTENTS
HOW TO USE THIS EBOOK
Select one of the chapters from the and you will be taken to a list of all the recipes covered in that chapter.
Alternatively, jump to the to browse recipes by ingredient.
Look out for linked text (which is in a different colour) throughout the ebook that you can select to help you navigate between related recipes.
INTRODUCTION
It was not a good time to open a caf. It was not the best spot for one either.
It was February 2013 and the place was a small, run-down unit on a residential street in Muswell Hill, north London. It would be fair to say we were not making it easy on ourselves, but there were not many options. It was affordable and manageable for a chef on his own. Besides, I just had this feeling
I am Christian Honor, the owner and chef of Chriskitch, a little eatery sandwiched between a secondary school and a few houses, on the site of a former chocolate factory.
These days, Chriskitch is always buzzing and, when the weather is good, there is often a lunchtime queue out front. There are now up to six members of staff at peak times, but little is still the operative word. There are about eighteen covers indoors and we are open only during the day. Coffee, teas and cakes are served all day; at lunchtime we add three salads, a few breads, one main and one soup. On weekends, we do brunch. I suppose you could call it a coffee shop-trattoria, because there is no menu. What you see on the table at the front is what you get, and this changes daily.
Small is big
Watching our popularity grow so fast has been such a great feeling, not least because it shows that this is the right place at the right time. After years of working in restaurant kitchens the world over Australia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East opening Chriskitch was my dream. It is the culmination of all my travels and all my experience: I have seen the world, worked in some amazing places and worked my way up to running a big kitchen. Now all I want is my own little place, close to home.
Maybe this is some sort of mid-life crisis in reverse, but after years in this business I no longer want to work while everyone else plays. Because that is the reality of life as a chef. It is essentially a dysfunctional profession; it is unsociable, it is physically demanding, it is long hours for low pay, it demands allegiance to the kitchen, which means neglect of your nearest and dearest. All too high a price to pay for my liking. But I remain a chef, by vocation and by passion, and therein lies the beauty of Chriskitch. It allows me to reconcile the desire I have to cook for a living and still be part of my own life. It is a restaurant on my terms, not on restaurant terms.
What I love is knowing that doing it my way means my family is in my kitchen. My wife Bibi pretty much runs the business side and she cooks as well. Her Polish heritage has been a big influence, and you will get a lot of Eastern European flavours in Chriskitch food. The kids, Kayah and Olena, are there most days after school, like so many of the other neighbourhood kids.
Freshly cooked, every day
Understanding how the place came to be is crucial to understanding my cooking. What I cook is real food, but Im not talking about some foodie cult of the authentic. I buy raw ingredients and I cook them. Nothing could be more basic than that. They do not go through multiple hands to get to the plate. Chriskitch is a small place and it is small-scale cooking.
My inspiration for menus comes from what I find, and I particularly like the underdog; misshapen veg and bruised fruit cost a bit less and they are still completely legitimate ingredients. I shop in pretty much the same places my customers shop in: the local supermarkets and greengrocers.
Nothing I prepare is technically complicated I do not have that luxury, either of time or of equipment. I started with one hotplate and one oven, and that is still pretty much the entire story. If I want to get any sleep I need to keep it simple, because the food must be cooked and ready by 10 a.m. every day and I do not want to get up much before 5 a.m.
The recipes for Chriskitch evolved out of a necessity to offer flavourful food within a limited kitchen, with minimal staffing (just me in the beginning). What this means is that what I do in the kitchen can be done by anyone.
Striking a balance
Regardless of space and time, to make good food a cook needs to understand the importance of balance for both the palate and the eye. I am always thinking about the five main taste sensations: sweet, salty, spicy, sour, bitter. At the same time, I consider texture crunchy, smooth, tender and then there is colour and presentation. The beauty of this approach is that if you get it all right, if all the tastes and textures and visual appeal come together, you just need to mound it on a platter and it will be fantastic. My own flourish is to juxtapose unexpected flavours. It is all well and good to keep things equally balanced, but I like to throw in a few surprises. And thats all there is to it.
What I am hoping to impart by sharing my recipes is an ability to create tasty, exciting, beautiful food. In a way, this is as much guidebook as a cookbook, because I do not necessarily think in terms of recipes; I think in terms of combinations. Mix up the flavours and textures and, at the same time, make it appeal to the eye. Be generous but, mostly, add a good pinch of the unanticipated. This is what I do, and this book will help you to do the same thing in your kitchen.
When Chriskitch started, it was not obvious that it would work. I knew what I wanted, but there was no master plan, my heart simply said this was the time and the place. I am a simple guy and Chriskitch is a simple idea: cook well and they will come. It is not the biggest caf in Muswell Hill, but it is the best. If you dont believe me, ask one of my customers.
Chris,
London, 2015
RAW SALADS
BLOOD ORANGE, FENNEL, DILL, FETA, ALMOND
There is only one way to get paper-thin slices of fennel and that is with a mandoline slicer most good kitchen shops and online suppliers offer this very simple tool that is perfect for home cooks, so there is no excuse not to have one. The skinniness does more than improve the look; with fennel it also enhances the taste. There is something superbly delicate about see-through shreds of fennel that is completely different from when its chopped.
SERVES 46
2 blood oranges
1 large fennel bulb, with fronds, thinly sliced with a mandoline
40g fresh dill, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon nigella seeds or whole dill seeds
60g feta cheese, crumbled
60g whole almonds, roasted
a good handful of mustard cress
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