My Life In Food: Safia Shakarchi
MARIELL LIND HANSEN
The restaurant from my childhood that will always stay with me is Café Rouge. There was one just down the road and it was my grandma’s favourite. She loved anything and everything French — hence why I love patisserie. I remember she, my mum, my aunt and I would go to together. They had this chicken baguette with fries and all of us ordered it every single time. It was very good. We then shared a tarte tatin for dessert.
The first thing I learned to cook was kleicha, which are traditional Iraqi cookies. Whenever I was at my grandma’s house, we would make them together. She taught me how to make the dough and how to shape and fill them. They’re usually filled with dates and cardamom, or crushed walnuts and sugar. Honestly, I can’t tell you how incredible it is to eat a walnut and sugar kleicha fresh from the oven.
The place I revisit most often is Pophams in Islington. You’ll usually find me here on a Sunday morning, with a latte and rosemary and sea salt twist.
There are so many people I admire in the industry – both restaurant chefs but also food and cookbook writers. Ravneet Gill, Flora Shedden, Melissa Hemsley, Ravinder Bhogal, Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich of Honey & Co are some of my favourites. Yotam Ottolenghi is also up there – I love his food and the role he’s played in making the Middle Eastern flavours I grew up with so popular here in the UK. My go-to cookbooks are Ottolenghi’s Simple and Jerusalem, and Georgina Hayden’s Taverna and Stirring Slowly. I know I can rely on them, and they’ll always be delicious.
I finally managed to get to Sessions Arts Club for my birthday last month. It was as special as I thought it would be. The space is incredible (don’t even get me started on the bathrooms), and Florence Knight’s cooking is wonderful – simple, unfussy, seasonal, delicious. The squid pasta was a highlight.
I’ve had a few memorable meals but one of the most defining was during a family holiday to Italy. I was about 15 and we were in Capri. I was such a fussy eater as a teenager; I never really used to eat fish or meat and hadn’t really tried either of them much. On this particular holiday, my brother was eating a huge plate of prawns and I was looking at him like, ‘How can you eat those?’ He shelled one and put it in my hands, and told me to try it. We were in this beautiful, sunny seaside restaurant, and I forced myself to do it. I genuinely think that was the best prawn I’ve ever had. Maybe because it was the first, but at that moment I vowed never to say I didn’t like anything before trying it. And that’s where my love of food began again. I owe my brother a lot for that.
When it comes to pubs, I love The Draper’s Arms in Islington. It was the first place I went post-lockdown in July 2020. When everything opened up again, I wandered down just to see if there happened to be space. There was in the garden – which is one of my favourite pub gardens in London.
I don’t go to many bars, but if I had to choose a favourite, I’d say Sager + Wilde. My friend Vicki (who runs Uncut Stems) used to organise a Lonely Hearts Christmas party – a freelancer Christmas drinks for those of us with no colleagues – and the year it was there was such a fun evening. Good wine, great company and ridiculous cheese toasties.
Sunday is my favourite day of the week. My ideal Sunday would be having a long lazy lie-in, grabbing a pastry and a coffee, going for a long walk, then ending up at a pub for a roast.
My best recommendation for a date is Ducksoup, no question. I think it may be my favourite restaurant ever. Everything about it – the food, the cosy, tiny wine bar vibe, the playlist (a lot of Bon Iver and Pink Floyd). The menu usually has a bit of Middle Eastern influence, so that’s another reason I love it.
I love a greengrocer and try to shop from them when I can. I have one down the road and it’s been there for around 30 years. Chatting to the owner is part of the reason I love going there. If I’m after Middle Eastern ingredients, there’s a Turkish supermarket about 10 minutes away and it’s got everything I need.
I cook with a lot of grains. I try to vary them, so if I’m making a curry or a stew, I’ll either serve it with pearl barley, giant couscous, freekeh, rice, whatever’s in the cupboard. I also put them in salads and traybakes a lot.
My favourite dining companion is my best friend Rosie. I don’t get to see her often as she lives abroad, but when I do, we sit there for hours on end and it’s still not enough time to catch up. We usually do long breakfasts or brunches.
I have two signature desserts. One is an apple crumble, which is the same recipe I was taught in food tech when I was 12, and the other is a pistachio and orange cake. My brother lives abroad and when he comes back he insists there’s one of those two waiting. Apple crumble is probably the one I rely on for dinner parties; it’s so easy to put together for a crowd, and anything swimming in custard will win almost anyone over.
I’d love to have Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds over for dinner. They just seem like the most fun couple – the kind you want to be friends with.
The secret to hosting a good dinner party is to choose dishes you know well. I remember back when I used to do supper clubs, I decided to make filo pastry from scratch for the first time. Making apple strudel for 40 people was extremely stressful!
My last birthday pre-Covid was a good one. The kitchen had been renovated and that was the first party we held in there. I didn’t really do any cooking. It was a cheese and wine night, so I basically turned the dining table into a huge cheese board. It was a bit mad – all different types of cheese, fresh honeycomb, grapes, chocolate, crackers, good sourdough. I think cheese and wine is such a low-maintenance and high-reward party idea.
My top recommendation for food on the go is a shawarma sandwich. Maroush just off Oxford Street stays open until 4am and when I was at university, it was a go-to after a night out.
The dish I always order if I see it on the menu is a pie – especially if it’s one to share, it’s a no-brainer. My favourite flavours are chicken and tarragon or mushroom and leek.
My drink of choice is a G&T. I was never really into them, but I’ve got my friend Olivia to thank for helping me see the light. We both did a year abroad at university in Madrid and that’s where it started. The Spaniards love a G&T, so it was hard to avoid.
My quick midweek meal of choice is dahl. I always make Melissa Hemsley’s recipe, with lots of quick pink pickled onions, fresh coriander and a dollop of yoghurt. If I’m feeling fancy, I’ll pop a fried egg on top.
My idea of a perfect Sunday lunch is really good roast beef with perfect roast potatoes (crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside), lots of buttery greens, maybe some carrots, a strong helping of cauliflower cheese and a lot of extra gravy. The Bull & Last in Highgate ticks all those boxes.
The best meal I’ve ever had was at Maos. We went for my boyfriend’s birthday a few years ago and it was the most incredible experience. I think it was an 18- or 20-course meal in this amazing, tucked-away loft kitchen/restaurant in Shoreditch, just off Redchurch Street. We started off with a few courses in the kitchen, watching the chefs put it together, then we wandered to the wine room and they brought us the next courses there. Finally, we settled in the dining room which had this long communal table. It was essentially a supper club with strangers. There was lobster aged in beef fat and we even ate wood ants. The dessert was the winner though – celeriac crumble with shaved truffle. It was such a decadent meal.
I think about my death row meal too much. It would probably have to be Christmas dinner. It’s genuinely my favourite meal of the year, and we’re quite traditional in the Shakarchi household. A turkey and all the trimmings. It’s basically a VIP Sunday roast. That said, I don’t know whether I’d pick Christmas dinner itself or the leftover turkey sandwiches the next day!
My food hell is lamb. I’m Iraqi and I don’t eat lamb – a whole cooked sheep (quozi) is basically the national dish and it’s my worst nightmare. I just can’t stand the taste of it for some reason. And I hate being fussy. I’ve tried lamb so many times and it always looks so good, but I just can’t stomach it.
I love Somerset House. Last year’s mushroom exhibition was fascinating, and it always put on great events. I saw Lebanese band Mashrou Leila there as part of its outdoor summer series in the courtyard a few years and it was such a good night. Bonus that it’s now got a WatchHouse for coffee in there, and Spring restaurant of course. It’s just such an incredible building inside and out. When I’m there I’ll often walk down the road to Middle Temple which I think is one of the most beautiful parts of London. It’s like you’re transported 100 years back around there. I recently went for a walk through it and just ended up sitting on a bench by the river for a while.
For weekend brunch, go to Juliet’s in Tooting. It’s hands down the best brunch in London… or anywhere for that matter. The smoked pumpkin omelette is incredible. Followed by the marshmallow chocolate cookie. If I were making brunch at home though, I’d do a shakshuka and slow-cook the tomato sauce if I had the time. Serve it with lots of grilled sourdough bread to mop it all up.
Another Pantry is a project I’ve been working on over the last year or so. I had the idea during the very first lockdown. It’s an online recipe platform celebrating contemporary food culture and recipes from across the UK. I hope it gets us all thinking about where our food is coming from, what we’re cooking, and the people and stories behind what we eat. We’re bringing together recipes from all over the food world — cookbooks, restaurants, newsletters, Instagram feeds, blogs and more. You’ll find food writers you know and love, but we’re also supporting emerging writers and creatives.
Visit AnotherPantry.co.uk & follow @AnotherPantry & @DearSafia
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