One of chef Josh Katz’s passions is cooking over fire. The menus at his four restaurants — Berber & Q, Shawarma Bar and (two branches of) Carmel — are filled with flame-grilled favourites. And all of them — from Instagram-trending huge, puffy flatbreads to smoky aubergines, whole grilled fish and lamb kofte kebabs — bear his trademark Eastern Mediterranean-inspired flavours.
But the 44-year-old father of one, who grew up in Hampstead Garden Suburb, admits that, with the restaurants to run, he doesn’t get to don his apron on a daily basis. “I’m more involved in menu development and strategy. All the sites have a head chef — it wouldn’t be fair if I was breathing down their necks in the kitchen.”
Which is why he was delighted to return for a second year to head up one of Home Farm’s series of outdoor banquets where he and fellow chef, Ben Quinn of Cornish specialist outdoor catering company Wood Fired Canteen will be cooking up an al fresco banquet over fire.
The Elstree venue is almost his home turf. “I’m a north London boy, so apart from College Farm in Finchley, this is the closest farm to home”.
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During the summer and early autumn, Home Farm hosts a season of festival style events which include outdoor concerts which includes the Wood Fired Canteen dinners where a different visiting chef and Quinn serve guests a set menu (meat or vegetarian – non kosher) at long tables under the stars.
“There is provision for cover [in huge tipi tents with open sides giving a view over the fields] if it rains, but last year the weather was amazing, it was perfect.”
And the beauty for guests based in Hertfordshire and north west London (and for Katz) is getting a festival experiece before being able to come home and sleep in their own beds.
On Katz’s menu are many of his Middle Eastern-inspired recipes — starter mezze includes charred tomato and whipped feta haydari flatbread, hot honey and smoked almonds [haydari is a Turkish yoghurt dip]; beetroot borani with dill and butter leaf [borani is a Persian dip]; main course is either a slow cooked lamb with rose harissa or whole smoked cauliflower with rose harissa, pink onions, dukkah and Baharat seasoning with range of fresh-flavoured, colourful salads and a dessert of Greek yoghurt pavlova with caramelised plums and candied hazelnuts.
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If it’s giving Ottolenghi vibes, that might be because Katz spent time in the Israeli chef’s restaurants in the very early days of the fast-growing mini-empire, before moving to a head chef role at Made in Camden in the Round House. He and Eran Tibi (who went on to found Kapara and Balabaya) moved from there to create Zest JW3 what was (in my view) almost certainly one of the best kosher restaurants in London.
From there, in 2015, Katz and business partner Mattia Bianchi (who he met at Made in Camden) plus Katz’s brother Paul founded the first of their restaurants, Berber & Q. “I think I’d have hoped to have more restaurants by now but during the last ten years we’ve seen a world pandemic, cost of living crisis and the war in Ukraine. We’ve got our hands full at the moment with the recent opening of Carmel Fitzrovia in central London.”
Menu inspiration comes from travel to places like Morocco, Israel, Turkey and Greece . “I try to get to at least one or more once a year and I also get ideas from the international restaurant market via social media. Our menus are also influenced by the others who work for us, some of whom have been doing it as long as — or longer than me in some cases.”
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You might expect his Rosh Hashanah celebrations next month to include a few Sephardi touches, but he tells me it will be a strictly Ashkenazi affair.
He and his family will sit down to mum, Evelyn’s sweet and sour-flavoured brisket [a recipe he loved so much it was on the menu at award-winning Made in Camden]; tzimmes; potato kugel, carrots and prunes. There will also be chicken soup and chopped liver.
“We all bring food but the menu is a traditional ritual that my parents established — a bit like how people eat the same meal every year for Christmas.”
Josh Katz will be cooking at Home Farm on September 26.
JC readers can claim a discount of 15% by using the code JCHF24.
Tickets (£88 per head inc booking fee and before discount) available here.
