Restaurateur Jess Shadbolt On Favourite Meals, Eateries & More
The restaurant from my childhood that will always stay with me is the local Italian restaurant called L’Artista. It was owned by a man named Baptista and his wife Franca, who wore poppy-red lipstick and made the raviolis. They were stuffed with ricotta and a generous shaving of nutmeg and served in a pool of brown butter. Some years later, my mum had to spend an extended period of time in hospital, and every Thursday, we would collect a picnic from the restaurant and take it to her. We would perch on her bed and tear mozzarella and eat prosciutto wrapped around our fingers. We like to think that it was Baptista and Franca’s food that nourished her back to health.
The first dish I learnt to cook was flapjacks. I love nothing more than the taste of the oats warmed by the melted butter and the golden syrup. I’m not much of a baker these days, but I love to make these chewy flapjacks, and still use the same recipe I used when I was about eight years old.
I live in Fort Greene in Brooklyn. It is a leafy, small neighbourhood with a farmer’s market every Saturday morning in the park. Most weekends we make a trip to Roman’s – a delicious, seasonal, Italian-inspired canteen where the menu changes often but the team hasn’t really changed since I started eating there, so it feels like a home away from home.
If I had to pick a favourite chef, it’d be Keith Floyd every time. He was full of life, honest deliciousness, and had a spirit for cooking that was infectious.
We spend our summers in Aldeburgh in Suffolk. We were so thrilled when our friend opened his restaurant The Suffolk not long ago. It is an ode to Suffolk and all of its delicious produce and seafood. It’s the perfect spot for a sunny seafood lunch by the sea.
A long and languid lunch feels particularly celebratory to me. I recently turned 40 and hosted 40 of my friends and family for lunch at one of my favourite beachside restaurants in southern France. We sipped rosé while the bouillabaisse cooked over the live fire by the water’s edge, and picked at the fish and the saffron-stained potatoes for hours until our hands turned bright yellow. We finished with a slice of tarte tropezienne and, once the espressos had done their job, we swam back to the house. It was a perfect meal.
@RomansNYC; @King.NewYork
I have loved introducing my American friends in New York to the British tradition of a Sunday roast. Most Sundays, I find myself preparing lunch for them. I listen to Radio 4 as I peel and chop the vegetables and lay the table – it’s become something of a ritual for me. I love to host and find the quiet mornings before a Sunday lunch very meditative.
I tend not to eat after a shift. Having tasted food all evening, it’s the last thing I want before I go to sleep. I brush my teeth and flop into bed. If I haven’t been working, I’ll throw together a lazy salad niçoise using Ortiz tuna, eggs, cornichons – things I would typically have in the fridge.
Barely a day goes by without me visiting The Green Grape in Fort Greene. It’s the perfect market that has great, fresh produce, a robust butcher’s and a fish counter. They also sell Pump Street Bakery chocolate from Suffolk, which I love because it reminds me of home.
After lemons, olive oil and salt, my most used ingredient is bottarga. I shave it on almost everything.
@Jupiter.NewYork
My favourite dining companions are my niece Elodie and my nephews Leo and Gus. It’s always such a treat to spend time with them and catch up over food.
In the summers I always love to cook over coals. I’ve recently been given a Green Egg, and I’m enjoying throwing almost anything and everything onto the grill, especially if we have guests.
My dream dinner guest would be Mick Jagger – mostly for the post-lunch entertainment.
The success of a dinner party lies in the prep. Get it all done the day before, cook something that requires little attention (a one-pot wonder is always a good option) and don’t attempt the washing up until the next day – instead linger around the table with your guests.
The one dish I always order if I see it on the menu is linguine alle vongole. And my drink of choice is the King rosé. We only sell it in magnums so calls to be drunk with friends and family. In the winter, I love nothing more than coq au vin with mashed potatoes.
For the ultimate weekend brunch, I would get Tina, my exec chef at King, to make me one of her omelettes. She makes it with chèvre goat’s cheese and soft herbs, and it’s the best in the city.
My business partner and I recently went to Paris and made a pilgrimage to Arpège. I had never eaten such precise yet delicious food before. It was outstanding, inspiring and forever memorable – I can’t stop thinking about the delicate, embroidered walls in the dining room.
I have a few go-to cookbooks on my shelves. I love Honey from a Weed by Patience Gray, The River Cafe Cookbook by Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray, and I am constantly dipping into A Mediterranean Feast by Clifford Wright – it’s a ground-breaking piece of work that spans more than a thousand years of Mediterranean history and culinary expressions. It is such an impressive book.
My death-row dinner would be dippy eggs and buttered soldiers. And my food hell would be bananas. I’ve got a real thing about bananas.
Follow King at @KING.NEWYORK & Jupiter at @JUPITER.NEWYORK
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