Felicity Spector's Delicious Things

Here's the first in what I plan to be a regular feature of other people's favourite and most delicious things that might become your next delicious thing. I hope you enjoy!

Jan 10, 2024

Hello and thanks for joining me here in 2024!

My third year of writing here! (Helps to have started in November 2022. 😄)

Readers who haven’t lost their sense of time - like I feel like I have 🤪 - might realise it’s been two weeks since I last wrote. 🫣 I was at my mum’s in Far East Gippsland in Australia last week and there is no WiFi and the 4G reception was so poor that I could barely get online and would get kicked off within minutes.

I stared at the stars and trees and sea instead. 🤩 That is, in-between parenting and catching up with friends. Being there reminded me of the long summer holidays that stretched far too long as a kid (how nice it sounds now!).

Going with a 4.5 year old meant I didn’t actually spend much time daydreaming or reading, but it was still wonderful and recharging.

When I first arrived in London, almost 20 years ago 😳 (how?), my goal was to be able to spend a few months of the year in Australia. It’s part of why I wanted to start and build a business where I didn’t have to be present all the time.

Turns out it’s not so practical to go for several months of the year, especially once you have a child who’s started school, but I feel so lucky that a version of my dream has come true and I’m escaping the British winter for a whole month (sorry 😬, please stay around!).

As I write this I’ve taken a bite into a plum I brought back to Melbourne from the orchard that was on the property when my parents bought it in 1989 (or thereabouts) and winced at its unique bitterness that I had forgotten, but hasn’t changed since I used to eat them as a kid. They weren’t all bitter but, unless they were fully ripe, they were. Why so bitter??? I’ve never tasted anything like it in a commercial plum. It’s like a Russian roulette of fruit. And here I was trying to balance all the pastries with some fruit. That’ll teach me.

To make up for last week’s absence, I’m sending two emails this week.

This one is the first of what I plan to do more of: feature the recommendations of someone I respect in the food world.

I hope enlisting the knowledge of others I trust will provide more value to you. 💛

The second email is for paid subscribers only and is the list of 15 things I was most impressed by at the Plant Based World Expo last November. I feel like this one will mostly be interesting primarily to people who work in the industry, so you won’t feel too bad if you’re not subscribed, but, just in case:

I’ve had quite a few delicious things so far in Australia and I will get to telling you about them eventually (in the meantime, you can click here for the list of 50 places I went in Melbourne in January 2023 and also find there the links to the four posts I published on Substack with more detail), but for now I will leave you with

Felicity Spector

‘s Delicious Things:

Who is Felicity Spector?

My first guest is not a chef or a baker or even anyone who has any formal training in food, but the writer of Channel 4 news for over 30 years now. Yes, most of what the presenters say are words Felicity has crafted. Apparently Jon Snow used to prefer to write for himself. Are we surprised?

SIDE NOTE: I once went to watch the news being broadcast live before dinner with Felicity, and got quite tongue tied when I turned up early, as planned, and Jon was still at his desk right next to Felicity and greeted me with “you must be the chocolate girl!”. He may have said woman or person, I can’t recall. I do remember not responding eloquently as I hadn’t imagined I’d cross paths with this national treasure. By Felicity’s account if working alongside him for several decades, he’s as lovely and intelligent as he came across on television, alongside taking no prisoners in his reporting, of course.

In the 11 or so years I’ve known Felicity, we tend to agree in our opinions on desserts and cakes and she is one of the first people I turn to for recommendations - even if she doesn’t like chilli, sour tastes or Asian food and I have at least seven different opened hot sauces/jars of chilli in my house, will put lemon or vinegar on (almost) anything and cannot decide which Asian country has my dream cuisine. 😆

I felt like you’d be in good (or at least similar!) hands with her recommendations.

Feliicity in the mobile bakery that she has helped to fundraise for and writes about in her Substack, Flour Power.

Felicity and I first met in person in Chocolate Week of 2011 or 2012 when, after chatting many times on Twitter, she invited me to join her as her plus one for Bistrot Galvin’s special chocolate dessert. At this point Felicity was already moonlighting in food writing for Hot Dinners and other publications and I’d been running Chocolate Ecstasy Tours for six or so years and doing some restaurant reviews for various online publications, too, and once for the Daily Mail (not sure whether that’s a point of pride or not…).

I remember being amazed at the stories she had - living in Russia and working on the news in the 1990s, meeting Bill Clinton, her mum’s work as a Councillor in Birmingham - and then there was the shared love and fussiness over desserts.

Here’s Felicity in her own words:

How do you think you came to love food so much that you’re now known for writing about /reporting on it?

I have always enjoyed food and especially desserts but I rarely got to go out much, until I realised what a great way it was to meet new friends, through supper clubs and popups when they first started about 12 years ago. I used to lug around a giant ipad to restaurants to take (terrible) photos on, which wasn't even connected to 3G, so I had to wait until I was home to upload anything to Twitter.

Now all the friends I have are people I met first through social media - who knew Instagram would be so brilliant at linking people in real life too! Through groups like Band of Bakers I got more confident about baking at home, and I am so grateful to everyone I have met in the food community for always being there - and for their inclusivity and generosity.

What food memories from growing up have shaped you or stuck with you?

My mum did all the cooking until I was about 5 when she was elected to Birmingham city council and had all sorts of evening meetings. She was a very good cook but my dad had to take over - not common in the early 1970s - and he really had no idea how to cook. We had a lot of stuff flung together in the pressure cooker - or various leftover bits mixed with macaroni and some grated cheese. He loved puddings, but his crumble had 8oz flour and about 1 oz margarine which came out mostly like singed flour. But with custard - no complaints.

We had a caravan for holidays and on the way to the caravan park in Worcestershire we would stop at a cake shop for lunch - mum was keen on apple strudel or a rum baba, while dad would go for a cream slice and I inevitably chose a rum truffle - a large cake-pop type thing with no actual rum, covered in chocolate hundreds and thousands.

I used to come home from school before anyone else was back, and I would have a biscuit from the tin or half a Mars Bar or something - never the whole bar!

We had dinner early, before 6 - but dad would always have a cheese sandwich at about 9pm which was a slice of bread spread at random with margarine, folded around a big chunk of cheese, and I always wanted to redo it far more neatly so that there were no empty dry bits of bread. He loved any sandwich and ‘limited edition’ chocolate bars which I would always buy him as he never bought anything for himself. He lived to 93 so it clearly didn’t do him any harm. I’ve definitely inherited his love of puddings and custard, and sometimes I buy a limited edition bar and think how much he would have enjoyed it.

Felicity with her parents and one of her brothers as her mum received her MBE

What’s the most delicious thing (or things!) you ate recently that you’re still dreaming about?

The pumpkin spice focaccia from Chatsworth Bakehouse which I made into a giant sandwich, and the thick slice of fresh sourdough with labneh and blackcurrant tonka jam at Sofi in Berlin.

Most memorable meal of 2023

That would have to be the 'Forest Dinner' by the Ukrainian chef Igor Mezencev, in a forest about 2 hours from Kyiv this July.

Despite the war, Igor and his team are determined to celebrate Ukrainian produce and the bounty of its land, so part of the dinner was a foraging lesson to find herbs and fruits for the meal, and a masterclass in preparing and pickling sunflower buds, rather like artichokes.

They cooked an incredible four course meal over a fire pit, in a clearing in the forest - you could hear explosions sometimes a short distance away which were de-mining teams at work - and at one point there was a thunderstorm just to add to the atmosphere.

We sat around a long table under the trees eating grilled buttered cherries and peppers with smashed aubergine, a sort of Wellington cooked in the embers, fried croquettes made from banosh - a Ukrainian polenta - and roast peaches and plums with rose petal jam and cream flavoured with one of the wild herbs, a little like vanilla. Absolutely unforgettable.

Photos on Felicity’s Instagram here.

Which restaurant, bakery or other food place are you most excited about?

I can’t wait for Quince (in Islington) to open!

[ED NOTE: Quince are hiring, in case you’re looking - see the link for their ad.]

And I am excited to go to Spelta in Kyiv in a few weeks too.

Do you have a top 3 bakeries / food stores / chocolate shops / restaurants in London?

Pophams

(in Islington, Hackney and near Victoria Park)

Cafe Cecilia

(near Cambridge Heath / Broadway Market)

Jolene

(four locations all in East or North London)

Café Deco

in Bloomsbury

Honey & Co - especially the Honey & Co Daily in Bloomsbury which I can just reach to collect lunch during my break at work.

Rochelle Canteen - which is in the building where my late dad was at school in 1926,

near Old Spitalfields / Liverpool Street Station.

What’s the recipe you make most often (or would if you could)?

I make Natasha Pickowicz’s jammy coffee cake (which has no jam or coffee in it!) almost every week. Such a great cake! Takes almost any fruit!

[ED NOTE: I found this recipe for the cake online, I’ve also had a slice from Felicity before, it is great.]

What sweet treat (or treats) do you buy for yourself most frequently?

Favourite chocolate: Harrods peanut butter bar. It’s insane, worth saving up for.

At the moment I’m buying mince pies everywhere too! My favourite this year [2023] was as ever the one from Cafe Deco, nicely full and the pastry was so perfectly short! But I wish I’d managed to get a 40 Maltby one, and Maya’s! There’s never enough time!.

What’s your favourite thing to eat outside of your home city?

Baked cheesecake. I’ll have it anywhere.

My favourites are The NY baked cheesecake at The Good Egg (Stoke Newington, Camden and Margate). The basque cheesecake at Gaia cafe in Odesa. And the pumpkin cheesecake at Jolene.

The Basque Cheesecake at Gaia Café in Odesa, Ukraine — The Basque Cheesecake at Gaia Café in Odesa

And when I’m in Ukraine, also syrniky for breakfast.

What are Syrniky?
In Russian or Belurussian it’s syrniki. As well as Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, they’re also common to Latvia, Lithuania and Serbia. Syr is an old Slavic word for young or traditional/local cheese.
They are curd cheese pancakes made with a traditional soft, almost ricotta/cottage cheese-like fresh cheese called Tvorog, which can be substituted - if necessary - for Quark or drained cottage or ricotta cheese. It’s mixed with eggs, flour and sugar and sometimes vanilla extract.
Spoonfuls of the batter are dipped in loose flour and then shallow fried in oil or butter. They maintain a creamy texture inside.
You’ll typically find them for breakfast or dessert and usually served with a whole fruit preserve known as varenye, jam, melted butter and/or sour cream.

Thanks Felicity!

I hope you all enjoyed these!

Over to you in the comments, dear reader:

What sweet treat do you buy most often?
Any other questions you’d like to ask Felicity?
Any other questions I should include for future guests?
Who else would you like to see answer these questions?
Did you do anything for NYE?

As always, only answer the ones you would like to - that’s why they’re numbered, not so you complete them in any particular order!

I’ll go first. I hope to see (chat with) you in the comments!