Su Scott’s intimate book shares the food and experience of a Korean mother living in Britain, and the relationship between her, her daughter and the food they eat. It’s engagingly written, and there’s much here about the importance of food and identity. The book is beautifully designed and photographed, and the recipes are a delight. Expect everything from innovative ferments (white cabbage and apple kimchi) to bold mains such as grilled clams with sweet doenjang (fermented soybean paste) vinaigrette. Imad’s Syrian Kitchen is divided into chapters which are interspersed with further details about Imad’s journey to the UK as well as information about Syrian cuisine. Amidst the recipes are essays about his love of Damascus, his love for his wife and daughters, and a moving piece about his beloved mother who died shortly after he left Damascus. After enduring a three-month journey to the UK, leaving his wife, three daughters and a restaurant in Damascus, he found cooking for 400 people provided a taste of home and a reminder of who he was. Imad Al Arnab said: ‘This book is a love letter from my lost city, Damascus, to the world – it’s a message of hope, that good can come from even the darkest of times, and a reminder that food can always bring us together. I’m so excited to share the delicious Syrian cuisine of my homeland, and celebrate the restaurant in my adoptive city London, and everyone who comes to find us here.’

Alarnab says the issue is that some people view refugees as if they come from “a different planet.” I didn’t know that… Damascus is one of the world’s oldest cities, with parts thought to have been inhabited for 10,000 years. Photographs by Andy Sewell.And Jeremy King, co-founder of the Wolseley, Delaunay and Zedel among others, has announced a new venture. King, who was forced out of the company last year, will open The Park in a newly developed ground floor space at the corner of London’s Bayswater Road and Queensway next spring. He says it will be a modern version of the grand café and brasserie for which he is renowned. His ultimate dream was to open a restaurant in central London, but even as his culinary reputation grew, Alarnab didn’t know if this was an achievable goal in the face of high London rents. Alarnab says while his rent is more affordable due to Covid’s impact on the London restaurant scene, he knew opening in 2021 was going to be a tough feat.

Unfortunately, since Mez made the 9-month journey, things have only got harder, and Josi has spent the last four years on this journey. Most of that time he has been trapped in Libya, trying to cross the Mediterranean sea to make it to the safety of Europe. He has attempted the sea crossing four times, been captured by the Libyan coastguard four times, thrown into Libyan smuggler prison and suffered the unimaginable horrors that come with that. Beatings, torture, modern day slavery, starvation and more. I didn’t know that… Honeybees’ fuzzy body hair has the correct electric charge to attract pollen grains. Photography: Kim LightbodyI didn’t know that… Cornish sea salt contains over 60 naturally occurring minerals. Photograph by Paul Gregory

try to play with traditional recipes where it’s good enough like it is – and you don’t really have to add too much to it, to make it,” he says. This is an episode and a story that I’ve been wanting to share for nearly two years... and I am so happy to finally be able to do so! In today’s episode I speak to the wonderful Imad Al Arnab of Imad’s Syrian Kitchen. Imad has such an amazing story. He was a successful restaurateur in his home city of Damascus, Syria where he owned multiple restaurants, several juice bars and coffee shops. After they were all bombed and it became apparent he had to leave, he made the dangerous journey to the UK, where at first he worked in a car wash and as a car salesman. It didn’t take long for him to go on to open his very successful restaurant in Central London - Imad’s Syrian Kitchen.. He’s now written a recipe book also called Imad’s Syrian Kitchen - a love letter from Damascus to London, and is in the process of opening an even bigger restaurant still in Kingly Court off Carnaby Street. While Alarnab enjoys creativity and collaboration, he also knows when a dish shouldn’t be tampered with. Take his falafel – for those in the know, it’s the gold standard, and Alarnab says the key is in its simplicity. In some respects, the recipes in Imad Alarnab’s debut cookbook, named after his recently relocated Kingly Court restaurant in London’s Soho​​, are secondary to the author’s story of journeying as a refugee from his hometown of Damascus in Syria to London in 2015. “Being a refugee is exhausting,” he writes, emotionally, at one point. “It’s emotional. It’s depressing. It involves so much waiting, unable to do anything, completely at the mercy of a constantly changing series of people who mostly don’t seem to care.”Raised in Mumbai and now living in the UK, Maunika Gowardhan uses her second book to share tandoori recipes from her life and travels in India, which she’s cleverly adapted to suit conventional ovens. The recipes are bright and enticing, and beautifully balanced across the whole: I made three that took my eye, and each was exceptional. Insightful tweaks and tips – such as the value of the ‘double marinade technique’ – lift everything, and make a better, more knowledgeable, cook of you. This is such a helpful book: the detail and organisation build a sense of understanding, working in confidence-building steps from what you know and like to a broader world of flavour and pleasure. It’s written in a bright, friendly tone, and I loved the mix of personal, historic and culinary. In the run up to interviewing Imad I read loads of articles about his story. In some he spoke about the 65 days he spent living in Calais, holding on to the underside of lorries trying to get to the UK. But most importantly I remember him talking about how cooking was always a part of his journey. How a British Pakistani volunteer had given him a small stove and gas canisters so he could cook for himself and 14 friends. How he didn’t want to carry a knife and appear dangerous so he broke the vegetables up with his hands, and how a local Calais resident had been annoyed with them fishing close by, until one day Imad offered him some of the dish he had made with the fish, and from then on, he allowed Imad and his friends to charge their phones at his house.