For many of London’s top chefs and restaurateurs, Mother’s Day is a time to reflect on how their mothers influenced their careers. One restaurateur was inspired by his mum’s ability to adapt as the wife of an army officer—her cooking reflected the ingredients available during the family’s travels and the dishes made by other army wives. One London chef’s produce-driven restaurant draws inspiration from the skills her mother taught her to pick out top-notch ingredients.
Read on for more about how these chefs and restaurateurs were inspired by their mothers.
Anna Haugh, head chef and owner of Myrtle Restaurant
Listening to Anna Haugh talk about her mother Wendy Haugh’s jam makes you wonder why you ever buy store-bought ones. Haugh recalls her “mammy” making “the most gorgeous jam in the world” and showing her how to grow fruit in the back garden. “All of the techniques you’re taught as a professional chef,” says Haugh, “my mother taught us right from the beginning”.
That included not wasting chicken bones and how to spot quality produce at the market. That influence is all over the menu at Anna Haugh’s Chelsea restaurant, Myrtle. Haugh even sources the same Irish flour her mother favoured for the restaurant’s brown bread.
The oat-crusted roasted hake fillet is inspired by the budget-friendly porridge-coated mackerel fillets Wendy made for her throughout her childhood. Now, Haugh prides herself on being a working mother within the hospitality industry.
Learn more about Myrtle Restaurant
Isabel Almeida Da Silva, co-founder of Volta Do Mar
Isabel Almeida Da Silva was nine years old when her mother, Teresa Barros, told her it was time to get cooking. Though her mother and grandmother largely cooked Angolan food at home, they weren’t sticklers for tradition. “These two wonderful women not only gave me a very good education but they gave me an understanding of food from all around the world,” Da Silva says.
That spirit has come to define the continent-hopping feasting menu at Da Silva’s buzzy Covent Garden restaurant that specialises in food from Portuguese-speaking countries, Volta Do Mar. Among the dishes on that list is a Da Silva matriarch favourite: prawn moqueca, a creamy stew that champions many of the Angolan ingredients Teresa used throughout Da Silva’s childhood.
Claudia McKenzie, manager and owner of Park’s Edge Bar and Kitchen
Claudia ‘Cece’ McKenzie never set out to open a restaurant, but a Sunday afternoon spent eating slow-roasted lemon and honey chicken roast at Park’s Edge, will make you glad McKenzie did. Her mother, Iverlin Kennedy-Mckenzie is a home cook who harvested her own honey. By the age of 12, McKenzie had been trained to make a full Sunday roast, the inspiration behind the chicken dish now on the menu at her restaurant. The mac ‘n cheese at this Herne Hill charmer is a replica of Iverlin’s recipe, but her influence on Park’s Edge extends far beyond spices. Watching her mother break glass ceilings in her role as the director of Jamaica’s top-rated nursing home, McKenzie says “taught [me] to be resilient, to acknowledge the knock-backs, and to go round or over the obstacles to success.”
Learn more about Park’s Edge Bar and Kitchen
Roop Partap Choudhary, owner of Colonel Saab
Roop Partap Choudhary’s West End restaurant may be named after his father, but everything from the colourful plates that line Colonel Saab’s walls to the slow-cooked chicken curry are a testament to his mother. The wife of an army officer, Binny Choudhary travelled across India perfecting recipes from fellow army wives as she went. Partap Choudhary recalls visitors studying Binny preparing a tender lamb curry, a Sunday favourite at the Choudhary residence. That curry is now one of the most popular items at Colonel Saab. Like his mother, he also travelled around India before opening his restaurant. “I found a way of honouring her legacy,” he says.
Credit: Roop Partap Choudhary
Heidi Lauth Beasley is a restaurant writer and debut novelist living in Tottenham, London. She wrote hundreds of dining guides and Dear Heidi: A Restaurant Advice Column as a Staff Writer for The Infatuation. She has also written for The Sunday Times Style. Her specialist subjects include restaurant accessibility, creative crumpet toppings, and cosy wine bars.
