Chefs at home - what London's chefs are cooking for themselves during lockdown (29 May)

Catherine Hanly 29 May 2020

Looking for inspiration during lockdown? With chefs at home rather than in their restaurant kitchens, many of them are showing just what's possible to knock up in your own home. We've picked five of the best examples we've spotted on Instagram from the past week.

Alex Szrok - head pastry chef St John Smithfield

Sadly, there's no recipe attached for Alex's freaking amazing looking lemon meringue pie, but it's a feast for the eyes anyway!

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Lemon Meringue Pie
A post shared by Alex Szrok (@szroksauce) on May 26, 2020 at 1:03am PDT

Anaïs van Manen - Rice Error, BAO, Xu

Fancy giving a new type of noodle a try? Then Anais's recipe for Shanxi buckwheat noodles definitely sounds worth a go - as long as you've got a potato ricer to hand.

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The first attempt of homemade Hele mian / 饸饹麹; which is Shanxi's buckwheat noodles made by pressing dough through a potato ricer (for limited kitchens like mine). You basically are extruding it out like you would for rice noodles. With the hot weather, it's the perfect cooling, not too heavy kind of noodle you want to eat right now. Why get a potato ricer? Because you'll use it for making your gnocchi, rice noodles blablabla. I use it twice a year, but still, when you are craving for noodles and too lazy but still want to stay fancy. The noodles are basically 500g Buckwheat Flour, 280g warm water, salt. You want to bring it together slowly with your chopsticks, and form a bowl. While your hands are wet, put that bowl into your potato ricer and press it out into hot water. Let it cook for roughly 1-2 minutes, strain the noodles into a bowl of cold water. Eat it with a massive amount of Chili Oil, any veg, soy sauce, and vinegar. Molto Bene. * * * * * * * #buckwheat #buckwheatnoodles #noodles #mian #recipe #shanxifood
A post shared by Anaïs van Manen (@anais.vanmanen) on May 25, 2020 at 12:58pm PDT

Chris Leach - Manteca

Making the most of the early summer bounty, chef Chris Leach may not be able to serve this up at Manteca at the moment, but creativity doesn't stop just because a restaurant is closed. The recipe for this plate of asparagus, dill mint, preserved lemon and cured egg yolk can be found here.

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Asparagus, dill, mint, preserved lemon and cured egg yolk. This would have been on the @manteca_london menu right now. The recipe is up on @sorndining today photo @antonrodriguez | plate @lorahuwsceramics
A post shared by Chris Leach (@thisisleachy) on May 28, 2020 at 2:58am PDT

Nicholas Balfe - Levan, Salon and Larry's

Paying homage to his favourite restaurant Bright, chef and restaurant owner Nicholas ordered a huge pork chop from suppliers Swaledale Foods and salad from Keats Farm - all available from the deli at Bright restaurant - and made this at home.

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What to do when your favourite restaurant isn’t open? Just recreate their food at home! 🤷‍♂️ A ridiculously tasty - and massive - pork chop from @swaledalefoods, fat rendered til crisp served with blood orange kosho mustard and the cooking juices deglazed with sherry vinegar; asparagus & home grown kale sautéed with garlic & ginger then topped with Will’s togarashi spice; Keats Farm salad leaves dressed in sesame & blood orange kosho vinaigrette. It was kinda like being @bright_restaurant, but we were at home... Thanks for the incredible produce @philbracey, @williamgleave and the crew - keep up the good work x #cookingathome #chefsonlockdown #restaurantinspo #brightrestaurant
A post shared by Nicholas (@nicholasbalfe) on May 23, 2020 at 1:32am PDT

Maria Elia

Maria partnered up with fellow chef, MasterChef winner Irina Tzortzoglou for a cookalong this week, which is where the two of them made this heavenly sounding fig leaf mahalepi and kataifi wrapped stuffed figs.

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My fig leaf mahalepi & kataifi wrapped stuffed figs from last nights insta live cook along with the lovely @irinitzortzoglou I’ve so enjoyed our Tuesday sessions cooking together & cant wait until we can cook in person for you all! Head over to Irini’s insta for her delicious Strawberry recipe from last night. Here’s mine which is continued in the comments below, so hope you enjoy & the as is fir watching, I’ll be posting the video soon! x Fig Leaf Mahalepi w Kataifi Wrapped Stuffed Figs 375ml full fat whole milk 150ml condensed milk 4 tbsp cornflour 2 fig leaves Make a paste with the cornflour and about 2 tbsp of the fresh milk. Gently infuse the remaining milk and condensed milk in a small pan over a low heat. Leave to cool then remove the leaves and discard. Add the cornflour paste and whisk to combine. Bring to boil over a medium heat, stirring continuously until the mixture begins to thicken. Lower the heat and continue to cook for another 3 minutes until the it has the consistency of a thick custard. Pour into a tray to set (I used a small takeaway container lined with cling film, but silicone cake trays would also work well. Cover the surface with cling film, cool then refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Fig Leaf Syrup: 100g Greek honey (I used @odysea_ltd raw Spring blossom honey) 120g sugar 220ml water 1 to 2 Fig Leaves (to taste) Heat the honey, sugar and water in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring to dissolve, bring almost to the boil, add the fig leaf and simmer until reduced to a syrup, set aside to cool. If you’d like a stronger fig flavour add another leaf and leave to infuse whilst cooling.
A post shared by Maria Elia (@mariaelia9) on May 27, 2020 at 4:21am PDT