A fine cookbook celebrates the cuisine of perhaps London's trendiest ethnic hotspots: the "Hoppers" restaurants of Cambridge graduate and uber-chef Karan Gokani. It's high time to get to know this cuisine that vibrates with flavors!
Sri Lankan cuisine is still little known in our country but is currently very much in vogue globally. The fact that the addictive delicacies made from seafood, fresh vegetables and, of course, a variety of complex spice blends are suddenly so popular is largely down to Karan Gokani. With his "Hoppers" restaurants in London, the Cambridge graduate has created dining spots that are as relaxed as they are exclusive, where the elite of good food, from Yotam Ottolenghi to US restaurant titan Danny Meyer, queue up for tables.
For Fay Maschler, probably the kingdom's most influential gourmet critic in the "Evening Standard", Gokani is quite simply "one of the very best chefs I have ever come across". For New York dining czar Danny Meyer ("Union Square Café", "Gramercy Tavern", "Eleven Madison Park" ...), his first lunch at Hoppers was "one of the greatest meals ever". The restaurants, all located in the central nightlife district between Soho, Marylebone and King's Cross, are, as it should be, very relaxed places - just with food that literally vibrates with freshness and spice.
It's no wonder that the cookbook, which was published in the autumn (and only in English for the time being), was a pretty big deal in the capital of cosmopolitan indulgence. The curries and sambals, the delicacies from the grill and the delicacies steamed together in banana leaves, the adventurously varied biryanis; all of this speaks a culinary language that automatically warms the heart (and stomach) of gourmands.
Gokani first studied law at Cambridge before deciding that good food was actually the more rewarding way to live. His cookbook is of course a collection of recipes, with extremely well-explained steps (see also the recipe for the fantastic paratha bread on p. 160). But it is at least as much a declaration of love to Sri Lanka, with fascinating reportage photos of the markets and street food stalls as well as of the everyday life of the fishermen, who pull unique seafood and lobsters out of the tropical sea. A lot of space is given to the basics, such as how to cook the right rice or the variety of lentils for dhal and how to prepare them correctly.
Special ingredients, where to get them and how best to replace them when in doubt also play a major role. Of course, after reading the book, you immediately want to go to one of the "Hoppers" restaurants and enjoy yourself. Since the cuisine of the subcontinent, like that of the offshore spice islands, leads a miserable shadowy existence in our latitudes, there is nothing left to do but to approach the secrets of Sri Lankan cuisine in a different way: look for recipes, find a good Asian store, go to the market and try to find the right spices, the necessary ingredients and with delight, in this deliciously strange universe of good taste, dive in!
Hoppers: The Cookbook.
Recipes, Memories and Inspiration from Sri Lankan Homes, Streets and Beyond.
Karan Gokani
Publisher Hardie Grant, 2022
320 pages
35,30 Euro
