Food You Want to Eat book review: Bad boy chef Thomas Straker turns over a delicious new leaf
These are recipes that can be easily followed, without special equipment or know-how. Cheffy showing off does not intrude on the instructions. In this way, the cookbook it reminds me of most is Simon Hopkinson's Roast Chicken and Other Stories. The difference is that Hoppy's book is artfully written, whereas Straker's is, in places, rather trite and clichéd ('a hug in a bowl', 'you can't go wrong with…'). But it's an instruction manual, not a novel. Besides, in essence, Straker's book offers the same thing: it is a collection that might never let you down, full of food that could fill both weeknights and weekends, be for dates or holidays with friends or parties in the garden. It is the best I have come across in a long while. Mine will end up dog-eared. No hard feelings then, butter boy.
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Evening Standard
31-05-2025
- Evening Standard
Food You Want to Eat book review: Bad boy chef Thomas Straker turns over a delicious new leaf
These are recipes that can be easily followed, without special equipment or know-how. Cheffy showing off does not intrude on the instructions. In this way, the cookbook it reminds me of most is Simon Hopkinson's Roast Chicken and Other Stories. The difference is that Hoppy's book is artfully written, whereas Straker's is, in places, rather trite and clichéd ('a hug in a bowl', 'you can't go wrong with…'). But it's an instruction manual, not a novel. Besides, in essence, Straker's book offers the same thing: it is a collection that might never let you down, full of food that could fill both weeknights and weekends, be for dates or holidays with friends or parties in the garden. It is the best I have come across in a long while. Mine will end up dog-eared. No hard feelings then, butter boy.
Time Out
21-04-2025
- Time Out
This viral British chef is opening his first NYC restaurant in SoHo
Butter-loving, TikTok-famous British chef Thomas Straker is officially crossing the pond. The viral sensation behind Notting Hill hotspot Straker's has signed a lease in Soho, taking over the long-vacant space that once housed Keith McNally's beloved Lucky Strike (RIP, 59 Grand Street). That is all to say: if you've ever drooled over one of Straker's chicken liver parfaits or flatbreads via Instagram, you may soon be able to taste the hype IRL. Straker first confirmed the news via Instagram story, calling the spot his 'new home in NYC' and revealing plans to bring his signature energy—bumping playlists and that no-skimp-on-the-fat cooking style—to Lower Manhattan. View this post on Instagram A post shared by THOMAS STRAKER (@thomas_straker) 'We're cooking over charcoal, we've got a big pizza oven and we'll do our signature flatbreads,' Straker said to Time Out. While the exact name of the restaurant hasn't been confirmed yet, it's clear the ethos will mirror that of the culinary guru's London flagship: seasonal ingredients, flavor-forward plates and a dash of rockstar swagger. 'We'll have to do an incredible amount of sourcing out in the States, finding the best ingredients we can possibly buy,' Straker said, noting his farm-raised roots in the U.K. View this post on Instagram A post shared by THOMAS STRAKER (@thomas_straker) Although exciting, the news isn't exactly surprising: the chef, whose pandemic-era butter videos launched him into Internet stardom (including over two million followers on both TikTok and Instagram), held a sold-out East Village pop-up in October, teasing a full-blown Stateside expansion. 'New Yorkers are super discerning,' he said. 'They eat out constantly. So the pressure's on, but the pressure's on anywhere.' Straker's takeover of the former Lucky Strike comes with a healthy dose of nostalgia. 'I've heard so many stories about people spending hours at Lucky Strike,' he said. 'We aim to do it justice and do ourselves justice by creating a space that really works.'
The Guardian
12-10-2024
- The Guardian
Salem's Lot review – anaemic adaptation of Stephen King's 70s vampire novel
It's an ingenious, shapeshifting entity, the vampire movie; a genre that lends itself to layers of symbolism and subtext. From The Twilight Saga's syrupy themes of adolescent romantic yearning to the bruising loneliness of a bullied child in Let the Right One In and the revisionist political history and absurdity of El Conde – featuring an undead incarnation of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet – the vampire film is rarely just about vampires. Which is why Gary Dauberman's film adaptation of Salem's Lot, based on the 1975 Stephen King novel that spawned two TV miniseries and pop cultural references galore, feels almost radical in its total lack of ambition, scope and depth. It's an old-school tale of an epidemic of the undead in a small town in rural Maine. And that's it. No underlying meaning, no knotty themes to unpick. For audiences who have come to expect a little more intellectual bite from their vampire flicks, this is pallid, bloodless stuff. Two new arrivals set the sleepy town of Salem's Lot astir. Author Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), linked to the community by a childhood tragedy, has returned to research his next project. And antique shop proprietor RT Straker (Pilou Asbaek) is a recent immigrant to the US (from a previous century, judging by his cravats and florid acting style). Straker has a smile that could strip furniture polish and an accent that sounds as though it was disinterred from a mitteleuropean plague pit. But when kids start vanishing, it's Mears who bears the brunt of local hostility – his relationship with town sweetheart Susan (Makenzie Leigh) might be a factor. The 70s backdrop is a little too neat and antiseptic to be fully convincing, but the main issue is a clumsy screenplay that laboriously overexplains while also playing out as if vital plot points have been lost along the way. The vampire genre is, like its toothy protagonists, notoriously difficult to kill outright, but this flat and uninspired film could be a nail in its coffin. In UK and Irish cinemas
