BLUEBERRY, HAZELNUT & RICOTTA CAKE
Recipes are nomads: they travel from one person to the next and, like Chinese whispers, they change a bit each time they pass. We don’t know where this recipe started...
When you walk by Honey & Co.’s restaurant in Fitzrovia, the front window display is a parade of pastry that slows the walk of passers-by to a crawl, as their gaze is drawn to the cakes, loaves, and cookies. These are the creations of husband-and-wife team Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich.
Itamar Srulovich was most recently head chef at Ottolenghi, while Sarit Packer was both head of pastry at Ottolenghi and executive chef at Nopi. They first met ten years ago in a restaurant kitchen in Israel.
Honey & Co: The Baking Book is not just for dessert, this is baking for all hours. Sticky buns full of cherries and pistachios in the morning; a loaf of rich dough rolled with chocolate, hazelnuts and cinnamon that has been proving since dawn and comes out of the oven fresh for elevenses. Lunch is a crisp, crumbly shell of pastry filled with spiced lamb or burnt aubergine, and at teatime there are cheesecakes and fruit cakes, small cakes and massive cookies. After dinner there might be poached peaches with roses or something more traditional, sweet and salty Knafe drenched in orange blossom syrup.
PRAISE FOR HONEY & CO: FOOD FROM THE MIDDLE EAST
The Sunday Times Food Book of the Year 2014
Fortnum & Mason Cookery Book of the Year 2015
Guild of Food Writers Jeremy Round Award for Best First Book 2015
‘The friendly yet knowledgeable vibe of the restaurant glows from the pages… This is a book to treasure.’ INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
‘The recipes are as reliable, imaginative and savoury as you’d hope from Ottolenghi alumni, but the other big draw is the narrative… as good a read as it is a meal primer. Read it from cover to cover, but see if you aren’t immediately tempted into the kitchen by page one.’ GUARDIAN
‘There is a cheering warmth here, from the quinces on the cover to the self-deprecating stories about running a small business. Above all, I commend this book because my kitchen has never smelt as good when cooking from it.’ FOOD BOOK OF THE YEAR, SUNDAY TIMES
‘If you love Honey & Co., this book is a must-read.’ TIME OUT
‘There are recipes to suit all abilities, written in an accessible style with mouth-watering photographs.’ SQUARE MEAL
‘It’s the kind of stuff you’d love to dish up to your pals and bask in the resulting praise… It’s food you would always be happy to eat.’ GUARDIAN
‘A truly delicious book.’ JAY RAYNER
‘I’m off to Honey & Co. on Warren Street for what I’m going to dreamily describe as Middle Eastern soul food, largely as I can’t think of a better way to explain the restorative value of letting husband-and-wife team Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer beckon you in and feed you … it feels exactly like wandering into a little family-run room, after a snoozy day sunbathing on holiday, and quickly cottoning on that you’ve found a winner.’ Grace Dent, EVENING STANDARD
‘The ingredient that is in every mouthful, that isn’t on the menu, is the huge dollop of home- made love… This food comes from a husband and wife making their own small business from a tiny kitchen and small dining room, and everything in it is infused with a warm hug of hospitality.’ AA Gill, THE SUNDAY TIMES
