Chasing Smoke: Cooking over Fire Around the Levant (Honey & Co)

SHORTLISTED in the INTERNATIONAL OR REGIONAL COOKBOOK category at the Guild of Food Writer Awards 2022

The award-winning Honeys are back and this time their focus is firmly on the grill. Join Sarit and Itamar on a journey of flavour and fire as they visit their favourite cities, collecting the best of culinary culture along the way.

Fire has always seasoned Sarit and Itamar’s food – both at home and in their own grill house, Honey & Smoke – and now you too will fall in love with this comforting, no-fuss, fare. Organised into five ingredient-led chapters (Fruit & Vegetables; Fish & Seafood; Birds; Lamb & Other Meats; and Bread & Unmissables), it couldn’t be easier to create a simple mouth-watering meal for two or a joyful feast for your friends and family. From grilled peaches with almond tahini and charred endive, figs with manouri cheese and pomegranate sauce, prawns in honey and fresh coriander, and smoked short ribs, the scent and flavour created by the meeting of heat, wood, flesh and plant will never fail to lend your food a special, magical quality.

You’ll also find five city features on Alexandria, Egypt; Amman, Jordan; Acre, Israel; Adana, Turkey; and Thessaloniki, Greece, all bursting with inspiration from the best fire-fuelled eateries each destination has to offer – from the greatest grill houses to the humblest roadside kebab joints, balcony culture and open fires on shores. Complete with culinary souvenirs including beautiful ingredient combinations, age-old tricks and techniques, curious kitchen tools, and clever ‘rainy day’ advice on how to recreate the dishes using a conventional oven or stovetop, heat the coals, come together and cook with the flavour of smoke.

Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich opened Honey & Co in 2012, launching their restaurant Honey & Smoke and deli Honey & Spice close behind. Cooking and baking since she was five, Sarit trained at Butler’s Wharf, at the Orrery under Chris Galvin, J Sheekey, The OXO Tower, Ottolenghi and Nopi. Itamar Srulovich was born and raised in Jerusalem. Cooking since the age of five and leaving a great mess in the kitchen ever since, Itamar trained on the job in various places in Tel-Aviv where he met Sarit. Honey & Co The Cookbook (2015) was named Cookbook of the Year by The Sunday Times (UK), Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Awards Cookery Book of the Year 2015, and The Guild of Food Writer’s (UK) Award Winner for Best First Book.