Food Tribe – Details, episodes & analysis

Thanks for tuning in to the last episode of this season - we’re ending on a high! My guest today is the lovely, and incredibly talented co-founder and chef of the much-loved Japanese restaurant Koya.

Shuko Oda and her business partners John and Junya opened Koya in Soho back in 2010, specialising in Udon - the chewy moreish flour-based noodles which they handmake fresh every day and pair with an array of beautiful broths and toppings. Shuko is also renowned for her blackboard specials where she and the chefs at Koya really get creative and use the best of British ingredients to come up with dishes that wow! 

Koya opened a second restaurant in the city a few years ago, and what they’re doing is a recipe for success. Simple dishes, high-quality ingredients, thoughtful cooking, and exceptional flavours.

As we know, restaurants in London come and go, but Koya is still as loved, as popular, and as good today as it was 11 years ago. 

I’m so glad I got to sit down with Shuko and chat with her about how Koya came to be, the dishes that so many of us Londoners have come to love and crave, and what led her from Japan to London, and into the kitchen. 

Happy listening!

My guest today is a chef on a mission, championing Filipino cuisine in London. Budgie was born in the Philippines, grew up in Sydney, and moved to the UK 9 years ago, and that’s when he decided to change careers and become a chef. 

While working at other restaurants, he started Sarap as a supper club 4 years ago, as a way to connect to his heritage, to learn about Filipino food, and to champion this underrepresented cuisine in London. After winning the Brixton Kitchen competition, Budgie opened Sarap as a permanent restaurant in Brixton’s Market Row at the start of last year.

I absolutely love Budgie’s food - it takes you on a trip, it’s made from the heart, it’s lip-smacking good, and just really fun to eat.

Over lockdown, Sarap changed to Sarap Baon, offering a more casual menu that could be done to take away and have at home - things like Budgie’s signature pork Lechon and crispy fried chicken sinigang. But now that things are open, watch out for what Budgie does next…

I headed over to Sarap to chat to Budgie about his food, life as a chef, Filipino food culture and ingredients, and what led him to open Sarap.

Towpath Café is a rare and precious treasure of a place that is loved by so many. My own long-standing love affair with Towpath started pretty much the moment I moved to London in the summer of 2016 while strolling along Regent’s canal - I was totally sucked in by the magic, and the divine food, and I’ve been visiting this gem religiously ever since. 

They’ve been open for ten years and to mark the occasion, the owners, Lori De Mori and Laura Jackson have published their book Towpath - recipes and stories.

Another piece of good news out of this wild year - usually, each November these four Towpath bunker doors close, bidding us farewell for the winter. And then just when you’re in need of a summer lifeline, they roll up in March, signifying spring, new beginnings, and the promise of good things to come. And now for the first time ever, Towpath is going to be open for the winter - you can bundle up and go for breakfast and lunch and they’re now also doing reservations for dinner.

You can find out all about that, and order their beautiful book, on their website - https://www.towpathlondon.com/

Towpath is so much more than a place to go and eat. It’s a part of the reason London came to feel like home for me. And I know many others feel the same.

It was an honour to be able to sit down with Lori and Laura and talk about the book and the whole Towpath journey and how they’ve created this piece of magic on a tiny stretch of Regent’s canal.

I hope you enjoy!

*For more recipes and stories from Towpath, tune into Lori and Laura’s podcast here.

My guest today is none other than the brilliant chef and baking queen Pam Yung.

Pam moved to London from New York last summer to take up the head chef position at James Lowe’s wine bar and bakery, Flor in Borough Market. When the restaurant had to close during the first lockdown, Pam and her team started making some of the best damn pizzas Londoners have ever laid their chops on. They called it ASAP pizza and it’s become a hit. People cannot get enough, and for good reason - these are New York style sourdough pizzas made using exceptional produce and heritage British wheats, and some seriously creative, delicious topping combos.

I respect Pam’s whole approach to food and cooking - she’s extremely curious, meticulous about the produce she uses and how it’s grown, and takes pride in her relationships with farmers, growers and her diners. She cares so much about the craft of cooking and baking, and about doing it with integrity and an open mind.

I met Pam a few weeks ago to talk about her story and background, and how she found her way into the kitchen. Pam has a lot of stories under her belt so this is a wide-ranging conversation - we cover everything from pizza, to travel, to differences between NYC and London,  and Pam’s experience of being a child of immigrant parents and finding the courage to follow her heart and do what she loves.

I hope you enjoy this conversation with the wonderful Pam Yung.  

*Flor is re-opening this week, and ASAP Sundays will continue every Sunday from Flor – you can book your spot here.

E5 Bakehouse in Hackney is a place very close to my heart, so I am super excited to share this episode with you.

They may be a beloved neighbourhood spot but their impact goes way beyond Hackney – e5 is a seminal London bakery, whose foundations are built on sustainability, on using the best produce that’s grown in harmony with nature, and who see the community, relationships, and quality as absolutely key to building a successful food business.

The owner and founder is Mr Ben Mackinnon - a fascinating guy who started e5 around his 30th birthday, after a career change where he decided he wanted to try his hand at baking. That was 10 years ago and lucky for us he turned out to not be too shabby at it…

I met Ben at e5 a few weeks ago to chat about the e5 story and how it all came to be, the process behind making their sensational sourdough, and what it takes to run a sustainable café and bakery.

My guest today is the very talented and oh so humble co-owner and head chef of Dinings SW3, Masaki Sugisaki.

After selling his family's restaurants outside of Tokyo, Masaki moved to London to work at Nobu, and later formed part of the founding team at the original Dinings in Marylebone. The Japanese food culture and respect for produce governs his whole approach to cooking. He doesn’t compromise on quality, he cooks seasonally and uses the whole ingredient, and has direct relationships with his seafood suppliers (predominantly day boats in Cornwall), and it shows on the plate - fresh, thoughtful, and absolutely delicious.

I met Masaki after having lunch at Dinings a few weeks ago and we chat about his background and the change that came with moving from cooking Japanese food in Japan to the freedom of being a chef here, and how he’s experienced the evolution of Japanese cuisine in London. And of course, we talk about his restaurant and his whole philosophy on cooking…

I hope you enjoy! 

Abby is the co-creator of the Farmerama podcast which heroes farmers and producers behind regenerative farming and highlights stories that bring us closer to the source of our food. They’ve recently released their new 6-part series titled Who Feeds Us?

Abby has a fascinating story – she studied Physics at Oxford, then went on to do an art and design course, and later began working at her family’s farm in Chile where she discovered her love of farming and soil. And she now uses all her skills across technology, design, physics and farming. She’s devoted to creating a better food system and raising awareness about the importance of healthy soil and regenerative farming, and the fact that this is something that affects us all.  

We chat about the brilliant new season of Farmerama, Abby’s background, her love of farming and soil and why it’s essentially the context to all our lives, and we also get onto some pretty niche topics like feminine land ethic, and One Health…

I hope you enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with the wonderful Abby Rose.

Farmerama podcast

Abby’s family farm – Vidacycle

Leah Penniman

Today’s guest is the gorgeous, stylish, and lovely Ravinder Bhogal.

Cooking always played a big part in her life, but it wasn’t until a twist of fate 13 years which led to her winning a national TV competition that she found herself suddenly entering the world of food - and she’s since gone on to have this incredible career as a chef, food writer and journalist, and restaurateur. Ravinder opened her restaurant Jikoni in Marylebone 4 years ago, and she’s now just published her second book; Jikoni - proudly inauthentic recipes from an immigrant kitchen.

Ravinder’s unique mix of experiences, cuisines, cultures, and flavours that she grew up with has informed her approach to food which you won’t find anywhere else. Food without borders, that’ll leave you talking about the dishes long after the meal… 

I headed over to Jikoni a couple of weeks ago to meet Ravinder - we chat about her wild career ride so far, the ups and downs of owning a restaurant, her background and how that inspires her food, and of course her new book. 

Chef Douglas McMaster is the man behind the world’s first zero-waste restaurant, Silo.

He believes a better future is possible, one in which we can mend our broken system and eradicate food waste. His restaurant, Silo is a living, breathing, working example of Doug’s vision; a sustainable food system for the future with zero waste as it’s point of difference - one in which we eat whole foods, upcycle ‘waste’ into something delicious and desirable, where there exists an eco-system of chefs, farmers, producers, makers who are growing and creating and going about their craft in ethical ways that respect nature - that’ll make you rethink what luxurious food and dining should be.

This conversation with Doug goes into a lot more than just the food or the restaurant - I wanted to get and share some insight into this rather brilliant, creative, innovative man’s mind. I hope you enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with Mr. Douglas McMaster...

Creating a chocolate company was the furthest thing from Raphael Dapaah's mind - he went into a career in politics, and despite cocoa being a huge part of his heritage, it wasn’t until reading a shocking fact on the industry in 2016 that led him to taking a trip back to Ghana to begin building his own ethical, sustainable craft chocolate brand.

His two siblings Kwaku and Afia soon joined the company and in 2018 Dapaah Chocolates was born with a mission to uplift local cocoa-growing communities in Ghana, create new jobs, and pay farmers better, fairer wages.

I’d heard about Dapaah because they won a Young British Foodie award last year, then I tasted their chocolate (which totally lived up to the hype) and I knew I had to get Raphael on the pod. The Dapaah story is an incredible example of a small food brand going against the mass-market status quo and standing for big, positive change. 

I caught up with Raphael a couple of weeks ago to hear their story -  we chat about why he wanted to start the company, how he learnt to make chocolate, what makes their bars so unique,  and his long term dreams for the brand.