On non-kosher restaurants, there’s mixed news for fans of Josh Katz’s huge Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavours. On the upside, 2025 marks ten years since the 40-something chef opened his first restaurant Berber & Q.
The east London grill house was the first restaurant he’d owned, having spent time working for Ottolenghi before heading up the kitchen at The Roundhouse and in 2013 consulting on and leading the kitchen (with Eran Tibi) at JW3’s original restaurant, Zest.
Since then, he has added Queen’s Park venue, Carmel and Exmouth Market’s Shawarma Bar to his roster.
To mark the tenth birthday of Berber & Q — which is housed in a former a taxi repair workshop — Katz has announced that he will be collaborating with six guest chefs on Sunday lunch menus, all cooked over his trademark open coals. The lunches will be served on the last Sunday of each month — although more chefs are promised so possibly on more dates. More info here.
At each one, the visitor will create a three-course sharing feast that starts with a mezze selection then their own spin on a Sunday roast plus decadent dessert platter. (Prices start from £45.)
First up — on 30th March — will be is Jake Norman. Norman cooked with Katz earlier in his career and has graduated to become a member of Ottolenghi’s Test Kitchen team. (This band of talented chefs develop recipes for the Israel uber chef’s books, newspaper articles and the restaurants.) More info on Jake’s Sunday lunch collab here.
Bubala's back: Marc Summers' third baby lands in April[Missing Credit]
Another highlight for me on the list of chefs is Marc Summers — who’s in the diary for the end of August. He has also featured in my inbox recently with news of his own.
The chef/restaurateur is currently flat out prepping for the arrival of his third Bubala — the utterly brilliant vegetarian and vegan restaurants that he founded back in 2019. The first cosy kitchen on Commercial Street — which managed to survive and thrive during the pandemic — was joined by a second baby in 2022 when the Soho Bubala was born. The newest member of the group is due to open in April in Kings Cross. I can’t wait as I’m a huge fan of their entire menu.
Getting to Katz’s less positive news — earlier this year he announced the closure of his second Carmel branded restaurant — Carmel Fitzrovia. He revealed it on Instagram, saying it had been: “A tough and painful start to the year and a difficult week for us, as, with deep regret, we announce the closure of Carmel Fitzrovia. We gave it our everything, but, sometimes in life, things just don’t work out as one might hope or plan.”
It was a shame but most likely a sign of the times as the venue was fabulous and his food delicious.
In the book world, I was delighted to see that two of the three nominees for Jane Grigson Trust awards for their first books are Jewish.
Instagram food influencer Felicity Spector, indulges her passion for eating on her days off from working as a senior producer at Channel Four News. The Cambridge and Harvard graduate has written a book about her other passion — Ukraine. She feels connected as her late father’s parents emigrated in Dnipro the early 1900’s.
When war broke out, she wanted to help and took action raising funds for charity Bake for Ukraine before going on to help crowdfund a bread baking truck. The intention was to send the vehicle — equipped with a proper oven — into areas where bombing had destroyed bakeries to supply locals with fresh bread. You can read the full story here. Her book — Bread and War will be published later this spring.
We’ll have to wait rather longer before we can read the work of another budding food writer, Aaron Vallance. Vallance also has a day job that’s not food related. The child and adolescent consultant psychiatrist spends his time off eating and writing about food. He has been commissioned to write Friday Night Chicken — which he says is “a coming-of-age food memoir set in North Manchester’s tight-knit Jewish community, told through the eyes of my food-loving, football-obsessed childhood self.” Expect chopped herring and chicken soup, challah and bagels. He describes it as “both an intimate portrait of family life, where food is connection and devotion, and a wider lens to explore themes of immigration and identity, community and ritual.”
It’s due to be published in 2027 and will be filled with illustrations by his Uncle Harry — expect much kvelling from the Vallance family.
Good luck to all three nominees.
And finally, it’s been great to see hamantaschen crossing over onto a few mainstream bakery menus. At Gail’s, the Purim pastries were on offer filled with either poppyseed or almond. Honey & Co were selling theirs filled with poppyseed and drizzled with white chocolate. Hoping to them on even more counters next year.
More than a mouthful: the Tony Page chicken schnitzel sandwich is on the way Photo: VP[Missing Credit]