Latest news with #ThomasStraker
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Forget Lurpak – Gen Z has gone wild for a new kind of bougie butter
Boomer: Why is the blender out at 9am? Gen Z: I need exactly three hours to prepare my homemade butter. The Lurpak is in the fridge. This isn't just any butter… It's M&S butter? It's wunderkind chef Thomas Straker's bone marrow and burnt chilli butter recipe, which has racked up 19 million TikTok views. Sounds like what you'd get if Satan opened a deli. TikTok's crazy for it. 'I audibly moaned watching this,' one user wrote. Another called bone marrow butter their 'Roman Empire'. I'm not convinced the Roman Empire was founded on spreading spruced-up beef fat on toast. If you're not feeling the bone thing, give TikToker Mary Amzekria's saffron and cinnamon honey butter a go. Her recipe has 157,000 likes. What about my cholesterol? My doctor will go mad. I'll leave the honey-infused fats to your unsullied arteries. Judge away, but searches for flavoured butter on are up 444 per cent this year. Like that fancy salted one they serve at Côte brasserie? See, I'm au fait with foodie trends. Not quite. Waitrose's three most popular butter recipes are nduja, stilton and cowboy. Does that last one come with a Stetson hat and leather chaps? It's a mix of butter, garlic, mustard, lemon, chives, parsley, paprika, chilli and horseradish. Not churning up my appetite. It has buttered up writers at the Financial Times, who have described haute butters as 'disgustingly moreish' and the 'elite category of condiment'. Heresy! In my opinion, the only 'elite' condiment is Flora melting into a Warburtons crumpet. Eww! Flora is margarine. It's full of ultra-processed ingredients – worse still it's not even salted! What about all those adverts in the 1970s and 80s about it being low calorie and better for your heart? Total con! Appaz, margarine has nearly as high a plastic content as the tub it comes in. So it's a choice between piling on the pounds or ingesting so much plastic I'm essentially half Tupperware? Don't you listen to Dr Tim Spector's Zoe podcast? The fats in butter are apparently good for your gut microbiome, so they could actually help you to lose weight. And what's Dr Tim's standpoint on you infusing your butter with the contents of Tesco's sweet treat aisle? He wouldn't be best pleased. But if you insist on plain butter, at least make it Les Prés Salés. With a name that posh I'm betting a tub costs about the same as my first car. It comes as a fancily wrapped block, obviously. And it's only £5 for 250g, which is great value for what one TikTok taster described as 'the best butter in the world' and 'so good, it makes me emotional'. For a fiver, I'd want it to spread itself and sing me a tune while doing it. Five pounds is nothing. Manchester brand Pollen's £10 Croissant Butter with white chocolate is so popular, it even has a hundred-strong waiting list. A butter selling out faster than Oasis tickets. Whatever next? The real spenny stuff is served at restaurants. Diners pay £199 for the tasting menu at London's Michelin-starred Frog, the main event being chicken-skin butter and bread. I'd suggest you dunk a slice of Hovis in the remnants of the roasting tin. That's free. Then there's Plates, the first vegan Michelin joint, famous for its bright green whipped spirulina butter. That looks like someone's mixed butter with their neighbour's lawn trimmings. It really pops on your Instagram story. I should've known it would have something to do with 'collating your Instagram aesthetic'. Anyway, let me try this bone marrow concoction you've made. What do you think: butterly delicious? I Can't Believe It's Not Better.
Times
19-05-2025
- General
- Times
The Heston protégé swapping the chemistry kit for simple salad
Having worked for Heston Blumenthal, the master of the complicated recipe, it is perhaps understandable that Thomas Straker wanted to keep it simple with his first cookbook. While Blumenthal's Fat Duck Cookbook contains recipes for sardines on toast sorbet, salmon poached with liquorice and dishes requiring ice baths and dehydrators, Straker, 35, has one for a green salad. In Food You Want To Eat, he has gone back to basics. 'Wash and dry the lettuce leaves well,' the recipe explains. 'Keep the leaves mostly intact, but rip some of the bigger ones.' There is also, perhaps more helpfully, a recipe for the dressing — apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, extra virgin olive oil, garlic cloves (finely grated), honey, salt and pepper: 'Pour the dressing
Times
18-05-2025
- General
- Times
The Heston protégé swapping snail porridge for simple salad
Having worked for Heston Blumenthal, the master of the complicated recipe, it is perhaps understandable that Thomas Straker wanted to keep it simple with his first cookbook. While Blumenthal's Fat Duck Cookbook contains recipes for sardines on toast sorbet, salmon poached with liquorice and dishes requiring ice baths and dehydrators, Straker, 35, has one for a green salad. In Food You Want To Eat, he has gone back to basics. 'Wash and dry the lettuce leaves well,' the recipe explains. 'Keep the leaves mostly intact, but rip some of the bigger ones.' There is also, perhaps more helpfully, a recipe for the dressing — apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, extra virgin olive oil, garlic cloves (finely grated), honey, salt and pepper: 'Pour the dressing
The Age
13-05-2025
- General
- The Age
Two beloved dishes, one versatile side: That's dinner sorted
In a dinner showdown between meatballs in tomato sauce and chicken schnitzels with slaw, we call a tie. Add greens, and everyone's a winner. The thing you notice first about Thomas Straker's recipes is their simplicity. Both at home, cooking for his young family, and at his London restaurant Straker's, he advocates turning unassuming ingredients into something amazing by doing as little as possible to mess them up. 'More often than not, the simplest way is also the best way, at least when it comes to food,' Straker writes in the introduction to his aptly titled debut cookbook, Food You Want to Eat. 'The best dishes are those where you do as little as possible to the ingredients you're serving and let them sing.' Here are three guaranteed crowd-pleasers, which use readily available ingredients to stunning effect. Meatballs Meatballs come in many different forms: fried ones, poached ones, small ones, big ones, juicy ones … and then the best ones are my ones. These are big, they are juicy and they are covered in a fresh tomato sauce with basil pesto and mountains of parmesan. INGREDIENTS 1 onion, roughly chopped 3 garlic cloves, peeled leaves from a 30g bunch of parsley 75g dried breadcrumbs 1 egg, lightly beaten 100ml whole milk 300g minced veal 300g minced pork 300g minced beef fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper For the tomato sauce 80ml extra virgin olive oil 8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 2 x 400g cans of good-quality tomatoes 1 basil sprig 2 tsp sugar To serve 4 slices of sourdough bread 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil ½ quantity basil pesto 20g parmesan cheese, finely grated METHOD Start by preparing the meatballs. In a food processor, chop the onion, garlic cloves and parsley leaves very finely with 1 teaspoon of fine salt. Once chopped, add the breadcrumbs, egg and milk and blend until it forms a paste; this will bind with the meat, holding the moisture and keeping the meatballs light. Transfer the paste to a large mixing bowl, then add all the meat, along with 50 grinds of black pepper. Mix well with your hands until very well combined. Divide into 12 large balls weighing about 100g each and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Chill in the fridge until ready to use. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Put the olive oil in a medium-sized pan and add the garlic slices. Set over a medium heat and cook gently for 1-2 minutes until the garlic is translucent, being careful not to burn it. At this point, add the tomatoes, basil sprig and sugar and simmer for 30 minutes. To cook the meatballs, transfer the tomato sauce to a large, wide-based pan with a lid and place the meatballs in to poach. Cover with a lid and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through. At this point, set a griddle pan over a medium-high heat and brush the bread with the olive oil on both sides. Cook until nicely charred on both sides. To serve, place 3 meatballs per person into warmed bowls and spoon over plenty of the tomato sauce. Add a dollop of pesto over the top, then grate over some parmesan. Serve with the grilled bread, to soak up the extra sauce. Serves 4 Basil pesto This world-famous Italian condiment has been around since the 16th century and it's easy to see why it has stood the test of time. Who doesn't love pesto pasta? Pesto can also use a variety of herbs and cheeses, so you could replace the basil with spinach, or the pine nuts with walnuts. I don't use the herb stalks here, because I find using the leaves alone makes for a brighter green pesto. INGREDIENTS leaves from a 200g bunch of basil 80g pine nuts, untoasted 1 garlic clove, finely grated 200ml extra virgin olive oil, plus more to seal 60g parmesan cheese, finely grated sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper METHOD Put the basil leaves in a food processor with the pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and a good pinch of salt. Blend until combined and you have reached your desired consistency; I like to keep mine slightly coarse in texture. Add the grated parmesan and pulse-blend briefly a couple more times, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Put the pesto in a sterilised jar, pouring a little extra olive oil over the top to make a seal that will preserve it for longer. Store in the fridge until ready to use; if covered with oil, it should keep for up to 1 week. Makes about 500g Tip: To sterilise a jar, preheat the oven to 100C fan-forced (120C conventional) while you clean a jar and lid with hot soapy water. Place both the jar and lid on a baking sheet and put them into the oven for 10 minutes. Leave to cool before potting cold mixtures, or use hot if potting hot mixtures. Chicken schnitzel, burnt salsa, fennel slaw There is something quite special about a smashed chicken breast covered in breadcrumbs and fried in oil. This dish is crunchy, juicy and slathered in a sharp, spicy tomato salsa with a refreshing fennel slaw. It was the first recipe video I made during lockdown and it was something I always knew people would connect with. INGREDIENTS 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts 100g plain flour 2 eggs, lightly beaten 200g panko crumbs, or a mix of fresh breadcrumbs and panko vegetable oil sea salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper 1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve For the salsa 300g cherry tomatoes 1 onion, roughly chopped 5 garlic cloves, peeled and bashed with the side of a knife blade 1 long red chilli leaves from 30g bunch of coriander, finely chopped 80ml olive oil 60ml white wine vinegar For the slaw 2 fennel bulbs, thinly sliced 3 tbsp mayonnaise juice of 2 lemons METHOD Start by preparing the chicken schnitzel. Use a sharp knife to cut each breast horizontally nearly in half, leaving a piece attached so it remains in a single piece, then open it out to butterfly the breasts. Place the first between sheets of clingfilm or baking paper. Gently bash them out one by one with a rolling pin to an even thickness of ½–1cm. Put the flour, eggs and crumbs into 3 separate shallow bowls and season the flour well. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper ready for the breaded schnitzels to rest on later. First, dip an escalope into the seasoned flour, shaking off any excess, before passing it through the eggs. Finally, press into the crumbs, applying a little pressure to ensure the whole escalope is coated. Try to keep 1 hand dry at all times by alternating between the wet and dry bowls. Put on to a lined baking tray until ready to cook, then repeat to coat all the schnitzels. If preparing them in advance, be sure to keep the escalopes separate; you can stack them on a plate if each is separated by a sheet of baking paper. Next, make the salsa. Place a cast-iron or heavy-based pan over a high heat. Once hot, add the whole cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic and chilli and cook for 3–4 minutes until everything is well-charred all over. Remove from the pan and allow to cool, then finely chop. Put in a bowl with the coriander, olive oil, vinegar and salt to taste. Set aside at room temperature. To make the slaw, mix the fennel, mayonnaise, lemon juice and a generous pinch of salt in a bowl. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt as needed. Serves 4 Spinach with lemon and parmesan Simplicity at its finest. You never knew spinach could be so good. INGREDIENTS 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 2-3 garlic cloves, finely grated 400g bunch of spinach, larger leaves if possible 1 lemon 50g parmesan cheese, finely grated sea salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper METHOD Set a frying pan over a medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the garlic and cook gently for about 30 seconds until softened. Add your spinach to the pan; don't worry if it is still a bit wet from washing, the water will help to steam it. Add a pinch of salt and increase the heat, because you want to cook the spinach quickly to retain its freshness. Cook for 1-2 minutes until wilted, then check the seasoning and add more salt if necessary. Serve immediately, drizzled with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a generous squeeze of lemon juice, the grated parmesan and some cracked black pepper. Serves 4 as a side dish This is an edited extract from Food You Want to Eat by Thomas Straker. Published by Bloomsbury Publishing. Photography by Issy Croker. RRP $49.99
Sydney Morning Herald
13-05-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
Two beloved dishes, one versatile side: That's dinner sorted
In a dinner showdown between meatballs in tomato sauce and chicken schnitzels with slaw, we call a tie. Add greens, and everyone's a winner. The thing you notice first about Thomas Straker's recipes is their simplicity. Both at home, cooking for his young family, and at his London restaurant Straker's, he advocates turning unassuming ingredients into something amazing by doing as little as possible to mess them up. 'More often than not, the simplest way is also the best way, at least when it comes to food,' Straker writes in the introduction to his aptly titled debut cookbook, Food You Want to Eat. 'The best dishes are those where you do as little as possible to the ingredients you're serving and let them sing.' Here are three guaranteed crowd-pleasers, which use readily available ingredients to stunning effect. Meatballs Meatballs come in many different forms: fried ones, poached ones, small ones, big ones, juicy ones … and then the best ones are my ones. These are big, they are juicy and they are covered in a fresh tomato sauce with basil pesto and mountains of parmesan. INGREDIENTS 1 onion, roughly chopped 3 garlic cloves, peeled leaves from a 30g bunch of parsley 75g dried breadcrumbs 1 egg, lightly beaten 100ml whole milk 300g minced veal 300g minced pork 300g minced beef fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper For the tomato sauce 80ml extra virgin olive oil 8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 2 x 400g cans of good-quality tomatoes 1 basil sprig 2 tsp sugar To serve 4 slices of sourdough bread 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil ½ quantity basil pesto 20g parmesan cheese, finely grated METHOD Start by preparing the meatballs. In a food processor, chop the onion, garlic cloves and parsley leaves very finely with 1 teaspoon of fine salt. Once chopped, add the breadcrumbs, egg and milk and blend until it forms a paste; this will bind with the meat, holding the moisture and keeping the meatballs light. Transfer the paste to a large mixing bowl, then add all the meat, along with 50 grinds of black pepper. Mix well with your hands until very well combined. Divide into 12 large balls weighing about 100g each and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Chill in the fridge until ready to use. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Put the olive oil in a medium-sized pan and add the garlic slices. Set over a medium heat and cook gently for 1-2 minutes until the garlic is translucent, being careful not to burn it. At this point, add the tomatoes, basil sprig and sugar and simmer for 30 minutes. To cook the meatballs, transfer the tomato sauce to a large, wide-based pan with a lid and place the meatballs in to poach. Cover with a lid and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through. At this point, set a griddle pan over a medium-high heat and brush the bread with the olive oil on both sides. Cook until nicely charred on both sides. To serve, place 3 meatballs per person into warmed bowls and spoon over plenty of the tomato sauce. Add a dollop of pesto over the top, then grate over some parmesan. Serve with the grilled bread, to soak up the extra sauce. Serves 4 Basil pesto This world-famous Italian condiment has been around since the 16th century and it's easy to see why it has stood the test of time. Who doesn't love pesto pasta? Pesto can also use a variety of herbs and cheeses, so you could replace the basil with spinach, or the pine nuts with walnuts. I don't use the herb stalks here, because I find using the leaves alone makes for a brighter green pesto. INGREDIENTS leaves from a 200g bunch of basil 80g pine nuts, untoasted 1 garlic clove, finely grated 200ml extra virgin olive oil, plus more to seal 60g parmesan cheese, finely grated sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper METHOD Put the basil leaves in a food processor with the pine nuts, garlic, olive oil and a good pinch of salt. Blend until combined and you have reached your desired consistency; I like to keep mine slightly coarse in texture. Add the grated parmesan and pulse-blend briefly a couple more times, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Put the pesto in a sterilised jar, pouring a little extra olive oil over the top to make a seal that will preserve it for longer. Store in the fridge until ready to use; if covered with oil, it should keep for up to 1 week. Makes about 500g Tip: To sterilise a jar, preheat the oven to 100C fan-forced (120C conventional) while you clean a jar and lid with hot soapy water. Place both the jar and lid on a baking sheet and put them into the oven for 10 minutes. Leave to cool before potting cold mixtures, or use hot if potting hot mixtures. Chicken schnitzel, burnt salsa, fennel slaw There is something quite special about a smashed chicken breast covered in breadcrumbs and fried in oil. This dish is crunchy, juicy and slathered in a sharp, spicy tomato salsa with a refreshing fennel slaw. It was the first recipe video I made during lockdown and it was something I always knew people would connect with. INGREDIENTS 4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts 100g plain flour 2 eggs, lightly beaten 200g panko crumbs, or a mix of fresh breadcrumbs and panko vegetable oil sea salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper 1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve For the salsa 300g cherry tomatoes 1 onion, roughly chopped 5 garlic cloves, peeled and bashed with the side of a knife blade 1 long red chilli leaves from 30g bunch of coriander, finely chopped 80ml olive oil 60ml white wine vinegar For the slaw 2 fennel bulbs, thinly sliced 3 tbsp mayonnaise juice of 2 lemons METHOD Start by preparing the chicken schnitzel. Use a sharp knife to cut each breast horizontally nearly in half, leaving a piece attached so it remains in a single piece, then open it out to butterfly the breasts. Place the first between sheets of clingfilm or baking paper. Gently bash them out one by one with a rolling pin to an even thickness of ½–1cm. Put the flour, eggs and crumbs into 3 separate shallow bowls and season the flour well. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper ready for the breaded schnitzels to rest on later. First, dip an escalope into the seasoned flour, shaking off any excess, before passing it through the eggs. Finally, press into the crumbs, applying a little pressure to ensure the whole escalope is coated. Try to keep 1 hand dry at all times by alternating between the wet and dry bowls. Put on to a lined baking tray until ready to cook, then repeat to coat all the schnitzels. If preparing them in advance, be sure to keep the escalopes separate; you can stack them on a plate if each is separated by a sheet of baking paper. Next, make the salsa. Place a cast-iron or heavy-based pan over a high heat. Once hot, add the whole cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic and chilli and cook for 3–4 minutes until everything is well-charred all over. Remove from the pan and allow to cool, then finely chop. Put in a bowl with the coriander, olive oil, vinegar and salt to taste. Set aside at room temperature. To make the slaw, mix the fennel, mayonnaise, lemon juice and a generous pinch of salt in a bowl. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt as needed. Serves 4 Spinach with lemon and parmesan Simplicity at its finest. You never knew spinach could be so good. INGREDIENTS 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 2-3 garlic cloves, finely grated 400g bunch of spinach, larger leaves if possible 1 lemon 50g parmesan cheese, finely grated sea salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper METHOD Set a frying pan over a medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the garlic and cook gently for about 30 seconds until softened. Add your spinach to the pan; don't worry if it is still a bit wet from washing, the water will help to steam it. Add a pinch of salt and increase the heat, because you want to cook the spinach quickly to retain its freshness. Cook for 1-2 minutes until wilted, then check the seasoning and add more salt if necessary. Serve immediately, drizzled with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a generous squeeze of lemon juice, the grated parmesan and some cracked black pepper. Serves 4 as a side dish This is an edited extract from Food You Want to Eat by Thomas Straker. Published by Bloomsbury Publishing. Photography by Issy Croker. RRP $49.99
