Interview
Time's Table with...Lorcan Spiteri of Caravel
By Joanna Sarah-Freedman
13 Dec 2024
6m
Every now and then a meal becomes more than just a meal. It could be innovative and exciting – the kind that shapes your cooking going forward. But there’s something equally magic about the dish your mum used to cook you growing up, or even the reliable weekly staple you knock together on repeat.
In this new series, Time’s Table, we chat to people about the food that has left an impact on a time in their life – be it their past, present or future. Trust us, you can learn a lot about someone through what’s on their plate.
Time's Table with... Lorcan Spiteri
Hidden in a Dutch barge down London's Regent's Canal you'll find Caravel, a gem of a neighbourhood restaurant from brothers Lorcan and Fin Spiteri.
Decked out with wooden floors and white tablecloths, the interiors are dimly lit and romantic, inspired by the Copacabana scene in Goodfellas. As for the food? It's in equal parts relaxed and glamorous – potato rösti topped with sour cream and caviar and sesame prawn toast with chilli jam remain enduring staples.
The brothers class their food as 'cuisine-less', focusing on quality produce and seasonality, and taking notes from chef Lorcan's former workplaces like Quo Vadis and Oldroyd, as well as their own family. Hailing from somewhat of a restaurant dynasty, their dad, Jon Spiteri, is a renowned restaurateur (responsible for the likes of St John's, Sessions Arts Club and French House) while their mum, Melanie Arnold founded Rochelle Canteen.
It shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone that these two know how to thrive in hospitality. Today, they not only run Caravel but also the adjoined Studio Kitchen, which sells more casual food like burgers. Then, there's Bruno's cocktail bar (moored behind the main restaurant), and Lorcan's newest venture as exec chef at Kensington pub, The Blue Stoops.
But what are the meals that have made Caravel's founding chef the cook he is today? To get to know him a little better, we asked him to share three special dishes – a nostalgic favourite, a present staple and another that has recently made an impact.
Past - Grandma's Ravioli
"I grew up around food. We went to Primary School in Soho, so we'd finish for the day and then go to the French House. We also spent a lot of time in St John... but it wasn't like we were having oysters and caviar. There's no pictures of me in an apron at five years old!
"To be honest, we weren't really interested at first. I've got memories of going for big meals with lots of people in Chinatown on a Sunday – Gerard's Corner – and getting Indian from the Bengal Lancer [in Kentish Town]. If I had to pick a nostalgic dish, though, it would probably be from my grandma. Her food was always just super comforting.
"She was part Tunisian, part Italian with a bit of French. Everything she cooked was so good. She would do lamb shanks with couscous, hot cross buns at Easter. She'd also make spinach and ricotta ravioli, from her Italian side.
"I can remember her rolling out pasta and she had little moulds, spooning all the filling in. I think we'd just have it with butter – so simple but so tasty, and there was always lots of it! That was a meal we had as long as I can remember, really.
"We do something similar here [at Caravel], not with the pasta but rolled out semolina. I don't know if it was directly inspired from there, but fresh pasta and braises are definitely a couple of staples that we've always got on the menu.
"I think they're really homely, and that probably does stem from eating those kind of things at my grandmas."
Present - BBQ lamb chops
"I'll be the first to admit that I don't cook a lot at home. I'm just not one of those chefs that goes home and then decides to make a full on three course meal.
"I've been in restaurants since I was, like, 18, so it has always felt like work. It didn't really start from a passion.
"I think the turning point was when I was at Quo Vadis as a runner. My dad was a manager and Fin was working on the floor, and I needed a job. It was like, 'okay, you can't be a runner forever, you've gotta go in the kitchen', but things just grew from there... enjoying it, being quite good at it.
"Since owning my own restaurant, even more of my creativity gets used up, constantly tweaking things and changing them with the seasons. Once you change one dish, you've suddenly got to change three or four. It's fun, but then at home I'm always like 'what the hell do I make?' I'm usually happy with some cheese on toast.
"Saying that, I've got this little Japanese barbecue and I did quite a lot of barbecuing over the summer. I'm talking a lamb chop and stuff like that – again, just keeping it super simple, maybe with a salad. I never wanna be spending too much time on it.
"Me and Fin used to live together in Crouch End, and lockdown was when we first got really into cooking lamb chops, getting really good quality meat and then just cooking it really nicely.
"It's still something I love to do. I did it the other day when I had people over. We don't have coal here [at Caravel], so it's quite nice to be able to cook something a bit different, and it definitely makes food taste better! It's the kind of food I like too – good ingredients cooked well."
Future - Roasted bone marrow from La Famille
"I was just in France, Perpignan, and we stumbled upon this restaurant called La Famille which we hadn't even heard of before.
"I was just walking down the street and it was there. The vibe is like what a lot of east London small plate restaurants are trying to be; it's just super cool. Some of the stuff they were doing there was amazing.
"We've got them coming to cook dinner here soon and I'm so excited... in fact, it'll probably have happened by the time this is out!
"One of the dishes was this bone marrow split lengthways and roasted, then they put steak tartare on top of it and then smoked eel. It was a showstopper, it was massive as well!
The bone marrow was all nice and gelatinous, it was the richest thing in the world but amazing. The steak tartare had a nice bit of vinegar and acid in there, too. It just worked!
"At first I had a preconception that they were trying to be too cool, but actually they just were. What made it special was that the service was great, and they were just so welcoming. It's run by two couples, so it's a family thing [like ours].
"The plating wasn't too fancy, either, just really nice ingredients, simply done. I've never really been into Michelin star plating and that kind of food, I've always been more drawn to that homely kind of style.
"They're also the same as us in the sense that it wasn't just a French restaurant...they just put whatever they wanted on the menu. When we set Caravel up, we never said 'we're going to be British', we just put on comforting dishes we liked and hoped it worked.
"They had a beach bar as well, and a casual burger place, so it was kind of funny how similar it was to the three places that we've got here. The meal was inspiring, for sure."
