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Juno HalloranJ.

Juno Halloran
From above, in late sun: a hand sets down a long board of tomato and mozzarella toasts on a linen runner, beside a bowl of figs and a lit candle.

Tonight, for ten, in the walled garden

  1. Tomatoes on toast
  2. Potatoes from the fire
  3. Tagliatelle with little meatballs
  4. Grains and pomegranate
  5. A fig and cheese pie, by candle

Juno Halloran

Private chef & cookbook writer

I cook for tables of twelve or fewer, and write down what works.

Book a private dinner Read tonight’s menu

How I cook

I cook the week’s best A pea vine with one open pod on linen.peas, the ripest Ripe flat peaches in a slant of sun on a cloth.peaches, the last Blood orange wedges in a dark bowl.oranges of winter, for tables small enough to talk across.

I don’t have a restaurant and I don’t want one. I want the twelve people at your table, the kitchen you already have, and whatever the market had that morning. Most of what I make is simple. The work is in the timing: the potatoes go into the embers at four, the pasta is rolled before lunch, and nothing that should be eaten warm waits for a photograph.

I write everything down. Every dinner leaves a page in my notebook with what I cooked, what the weather did and what I’d change. The good pages become recipes; the best become the book. If you’ve eaten at one of my tables, there’s a fair chance you’re in it somewhere, unnamed, asking for more bread.

A dining room at night: two candles lit on an old oak table laid for six, white asparagus with ham on every plate, glasses of white wine poured.

Private dinners

Concept site: illustrative details, not a live booking service.

guests at one table
6–12
courses, served to share
5
weeks’ notice to plan and shop
3
yours, or a room you’ve hired
Home

How a dinner happens

  1. You write to me with a date, the number of guests and anything I should know about the table.
  2. I come to see your kitchen, then write you a menu around whatever is best that week.
  3. On the night I cook, serve and clear, and you sit down with everyone else.

The book

Late summer · serves 10

Potatoes from the fire

Start these when the fire has burned down to embers you can hold your hand over for three seconds. If you don’t have a fire, a hot oven does almost as well; nobody has ever complained.

You need

  • 1.5 kg small waxy potatoes, unpeeled
  • 500 g field or chestnut mushrooms, halved
  • 6 cloves garlic, bashed
  • A handful of thyme and bay
  • 5 tbsp olive oil
  • Flaky salt and black pepper

112

Then

  1. Boil the potatoes in well-salted water for 8 minutes, until a knife meets resistance halfway in. Drain and let them steam dry.
  2. Toss them with the mushrooms, garlic, herbs, oil and plenty of salt in a heavy pan or a tray you don’t love.
  3. Set it in the embers, or in the oven at 220°C, and leave it alone for 25 minutes. Shake it once. They’re done when the skins crack and the mushrooms have shrunk by half.
  4. Tip everything into a warm wooden bowl, scrape in the pan juices, and take it to the table yourself.

Aug: wind from the west, embers too hot. Moved the pan to the edge at 15 min. Better.

113

Swipe across the pages

Ninety recipes from five years of dinners, written the way I write them for myself: what to buy, what to do first, and what to do when it goes wrong.

Out
Next spring
Pages
240
Recipes
90

Concept site: a fictional book, not for sale anywhere.

Supper series

Four suppers a year

One long table, twelve seats, the best week of each season. Come alone or with someone; you’ll leave knowing the people either side of you.

  1. A pea vine with one open pod on linen.

    Spring

    Saturday 18 April Peas eaten raw from the pod, lamb, the first rhubarb

    6 seats left

    Ask for a seat Spring Saturday 18 April
  2. Ripe flat peaches in a slant of sun on a cloth.

    Summer

    Saturday 25 July Flat peaches, tomatoes, a whole fish over the fire

    2 seats left

    Ask for a seat Summer Saturday 25 July
  3. Wedges of orange squash on an old board.

    Autumn

    Saturday 24 October Squash roasted in its skin, mushrooms, a long braise

    11 seats left

    Ask for a seat Autumn Saturday 24 October
  4. Blood orange wedges in a dark bowl.

    Winter

    Saturday 23 January Blood oranges, a slow pot of beans, a very good cake

    9 seats left

    Ask for a seat Winter Saturday 23 January

Concept site: dates and seats are examples.

Write to me

Dear Juno,

I’d like to for guests, around , in .

Signed, ,

Or, if you’d rather juno@example.com 555-0142