Cass Titcombe, a chef who worked at Daphne’s, The Collection and Pasha, designer Dominic Lake and music promoter Patrick Clayton-Malone opened their first Canteen in Spitalfields in 2005 – there are three more now, one in Baker Street, one at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank and one at Canary Wharf – to provide, in their words, “honest food, nationally sourced, skilfully prepared and reasonably priced.” Their meat is free of additives, sourced directly from producers practising proper animal husbandry and their fish is delivered fresh from day boats on the south coast. “Pizza, pasta and noodle chains were ubiquitous, but it seemed to us that the food on offer was generally pretty poor. We thought we could take on the chains and offer an alternative of much higher quality.”
This cookbook showcases their menu, which is a contemporary take on traditional British favourites. So for breakfast there’s porridge, eggs Florentine and Welsh rarebit; and for starters, roast tomato and goat’s cheese tart, devilled kidneys on toast and leek and potato soup. Main dishes include slow roast pork belly with apples; gammon with potatoes and parsley sauce; steak and kidney pie; beef stew with dumplings; Lancashire hotpot; and fish cakes with mushy peas while puds include steamed syrup pudding; treacle tart with clotted cream; rice pudding with jam; and apple crumble with custard.
