When posting an advert for a kitchen porter you may get hundreds of applications. You can’t go through them all; you need to have a system. I always go by the best-sounding name. This is how I came to invite Hernan David Geitzinger for an interview. I could not imagine what a guy with such a name would even look like. It turned out that he looked like a short, thin 12-year-old boy, though he was 26 at the time. The work is hard, I explained to him, plenty of running and heavy lifting; I don’t think it’s for you. But he asked to do a trial shift, so he got to do a trial shift, and after two hours he was offered a job. We named him HD for short, and he turned out to be not only a terrific kitchen porter but also a natural-born leader. He quickly moved from porter to prep, from prep to chef and is now one of the best chefs (and one of the best people) I know.

I stayed with the name system, and we found ourselves with Marcus Aurelius, an energetic Spaniard whom everyone liked at first—he was fast and clean, paid attention and improved, and was very charismatic. That lasted for about a week. Then he started coming late to work; things didn’t get done; the kitchen was not clean. I sat him down for a “do or die” talk. He improved for two days and then on the Friday he didn’t show up for work and didn’t call. We never saw him again. On Saturday, our busiest day of the week, we came to work to find the door had been broken and there was a big crack in the window. There was no mess, nothing else broken, but the laptop with all our accounts on it and a cashbox with the previous day’s takings had gone. That Saturday could have been complete chaos—without a computer, with all the bookings delayed—but everyone was really nice once we explained, and really supportive. By the end of the day we had a new door and a new computer, and though it took us weeks to recover all the data we had lost on the laptop, we got there eventually. We kept the crack in the window, though we could have had it mended for a song. It is a strange reminder every time we walk in, although I’m not sure what of—that everything can go wrong in a minute, or perhaps that things will always go wrong and then bounce back, or maybe simply that we need to back up our computer. I have stuck with the name system though. Our porters now are called Pierre Paolo Racis, Danielle Pistouz and—the best of all—Dawid Isajew (he isn’t).

Bulgar or cracked wheat has been a staple at the restaurant from the beginning. It is served as a side order for those who want to soak up the juice of a slow-cooked dish, and is almost always on our menu as a salad, either in the mezze selection or as a bed for chicken to rest upon. We prefer it to couscous as it has more texture and flavor but is just as easy to prepare. There are different grades available and, as with everything else, we don’t agree on which is best. We settled on a medium grind for the restaurant and for most of the recipes in this book, but we have tried them with a coarse grind too and they work well with only a slight adjustment when cooking the wheat (it needs a bit more water than the medium grind).

Basic bulgar wheat

For every ½ cup/75g of bulgar wheat you will need a pinch of salt, a splash of olive oil and ⅓ cup/75ml of boiling water (⅓ cup plus 1 tbsp/90ml for coarse grind). Place the bulgar wheat, oil and salt in a bowl and stir well till the grains are all coated in the oil. Pour over just-boiled water and quickly plastic wrap the bowl to seal in the steam. Leave for 5 minutes and then carefully uncover. Use a fork or a small whisk to fluff the bulgar wheat up and break the mass into individual grains (or rub it between your palms to break it up). Allow to cool uncovered and then it is ready to use. It will keep like this for 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge. ½ cup/75g of dried will make a generous 1 cup/150g of cooked bulgar wheat. This is the amount we use in most of the following recipes, each of which should be enough for 4–6 as part of a mezze selection. As these salads are all about freshness, at the restaurant we make a new batch for each service and only serve them that day. That said, whenever we have some left over, we eat it as staff lunch with tahini or yogurt the following day, and no one complains.

Tomato & pomegranate tabbouleh for high summer

This is best made when tomatoes are in high season and are sweet and full of flavor. Use coarse grind bulgar wheat for this, as the soft tomatoes need the added crunch.

⅔ cup/100g cooked coarse grind bulgar wheat (see method above)

⅔ cup/100g fresh pomegranate seeds

1 tomato, diced

1 large bunch of parsley (about 1–1½ cups), picked and chopped

3 sprigs of mint, picked and chopped

1 green chili, deseeded and chopped

2 inner stalks of celery, finely sliced

zest and juice of 1 lemon

Generous 1 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp sea salt

Mix everything together in a bowl and adjust the seasoning to taste. Eat straight away.

Apricot & pistachio tabbouleh with orange blossom

This one is autumnal in flavor, color and feel, but as it relies on store cupboard ingredients, we enjoy it all year round.

¾ cup/80g roasted pistachios, coarsely chopped

generous 1 cup/150g cooked bulgar wheat (see method here)

1 cup/120g dried apricots, cut into strips (we use scissors)

1 tbsp plus ¾ tsp orange blossom water

zest and juice of 1 orange

juice of 1 lemon

3–4 sprigs of parsley, picked and coarsely chopped

3–4 sprigs of mint, picked and coarsely chopped

Generous 1 tbsp olive oil, plus a little for drizzling

a pinch of salt to taste (only if you feel it is lacking)

Set aside ¼ cup/30g of the chopped pistachios—you will use them later to sprinkle on top. Place the rest of the pistachios and all the other ingredients apart from the salt in a bowl. Mix well and taste, adding the salt if you feel it needs it. This dish can be prepared a few hours in advance of eating, but is best kept out of the fridge in the meantime, as chilling would affect the flavor significantly and you would have to re-season before serving.

Transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle with the remaining pistachios just before serving, to keep them crunchy.