Those of you that have been following The Modern Menu for a while might remember our visit to James Lowe at his perennially popular Lyle’s restaurant in Shoreditch. Last year, James opened a new project, Flor, an all-day bakery, wine bar and restaurant in Borough Market, and enlisted Pamela Yung – who owned and ran Michilien-stared Semilla in New York until 2017 – to head the kitchen. Here, we meet Pamela at Flor, to talk about her life, work and approach to cooking, plus get her recipe for mozzarella in carrozza, a fried cheese sandwich from southern Italy. Tuck in.

Pamela: “I don’t really have a romantic vision of food my childhood – it wasn’t like I learnt how to cook from my grandmother, or had family recipes passed down to me.

“I’m Chinese American – my mum grew up in Chinatown in New York, and my dad was born in China. They moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, before I was born, and that’s where I grew up.

“They both worked, so like most working parents, they tried to cook but it’s was just quick things. I did visit my grandparents in Chinatown, but more often than not we went out to eat because, at that time, there were great Cantonese restaurants there, which is where my family is from.

“I always really loved to eat though, and that’s true for everyone in my family. I would bake cookies and muffins when I was younger and, because my parents were at work, they’d pay us to do chores around the house and I would make five dollars cooking dinner.

“But I think my interest in food really started developing in college, when I went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. That’s when my awakening to different foods, produce and cuisines happened, and I suddenly realised there was so much interesting and delicious things to try.

“When I graduated I worked in a design firm and, as I was living by myself, I ended up cooking a lot at home. I would go to the library and take 15 cookbooks out and find inspiration from them – things like The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit and Nancy Silverton’s breads from the La Brea Bakery were really formative.

“One day I was reading an interview with a chef in New York who seemed really interesting, and he said he was opening a place and needed an apprentice. So, I wrote him a letter and he said, “Why don’t you come check us out?” And so I did and that was my first job, but it wasn’t an intentional thing and I didn’t go to culinary school. That was Will Goldfarb’s Desert Lab in Soho, my first cooking job.

“From there I worked in some great restaurants, did a few stints in Europe and then opened a restaurant in New York, Semilla. It was in 2017 that James Lowe invited me to come and cook at Lyle’s, and I spent a week here doing a pop-up.

“We kept in touch and he had this idea for a bakery that he was keen for me to get involved with. I said yes, as I was thinking about leaving New York anyway, and we opened Flor together in 2019.

“Our approach is to always be guided by the produce that’s available, and we work with a few small producers and growers. The menu is mostly guided by things I crave or an ingredient that’s sparked an idea, and I enjoy putting a spotlight on vegetables, grains, legumes and fermented things.

“I also like to talk to the team about an idea and let it evolve organically. I don’t think we have a specific style although the Mediterranean is a big starting point for a lot of things, because I really love Italy and I’ve spent a lot of time there, specifically Sicily. I don’t know if there’s a specific direction right now – I think it’s just doing things we’re interested in.

“This difference between London and New York is that there, people don’t really cook at home – the kitchens are smaller and the pace of life is more intense. People eat out four of five days a week, so the restaurants become people’s second homes and they get to know all the staff, come in regularly and treat their favourite places like home.

“In London it’s a bit different but what’s nice is there’s much more of a balance in terms of work and life. It’s not such a ‘work is everything’ mentality, which is great. I’ve found that I cook much more at home here, which is something I love to do.

“I like to cook things that take a long time. Not things you have to stand over the stove to make, but things that are comforting. I tend to cook things I crave from home that are hard to find in London too, like really good Vietnamese or Mexican.

“This year has been interesting in terms of home cooking. At the restaurant, I feel like I’m responding to what I feel people need right now or can relate to, or something that can feed them emotionally, in a way.

“I think because we haven’t been able to travel – which has been such a big part of my life for so long – suddenly I needed food to do that travelling. That can mean dabbling in cuisines that I would maybe not have put on a menu before, but I think it’s just because I miss it so much, that I’ll just put something inspired by something I had when I was travelling.

“I don’t think there’s a real prescribed way in which I’ve been cooking here, except for stuff that I think I might want to eat or that hopefully other people would want to eat. It’s not so cerebral necessarily, not that it can’t be or shouldn’t be, but just right now, I feel it isn’t really the time for that.

“I live in Borough, which is handy for work and great for food shopping, obviously. I always shop as I go, and never go to a supermarket. I’m a bit of a food hoarder too, and I’m obsessed by condiments and ingredients – I have a whole fridge dedicated to condiments and things I’ve picked up on my travels.

“In London I’ve been exploring Turkish, Asian and African grocery stores, and what’s exciting is that there are a whole load of things I don’t know about yet, and that’s pretty exciting to me. Compared to New York, where it’s mostly Korean, Chinese and Jewish, London has a completely different diaspora of ethnic groups, and there’s still so much for me to seek out and explore. It’s exciting.”

Pamela’s recipe for mozzarella in carrozza, or fried cheese sandwich

I’m guilty of having a soft spot for all things fritto, particularly while alternating with glugs of a light and lively natural wine. A snack food for the masses in much of Southern Italy, mozzarella in carrozza is simply made with leftovers from the previous days: dried slices of bread on the counter; yesterday’s mozzarella; the ever-present bowl of breadcrumbs that makes a cameo in nearly every dish in cucina povera, the food of Italy that speaks so dearly to me in its no-waste economy and its elevation of simple ingredients to the divine.

As a young cook in NYC, post-shift late-night appetites were more often than not satiated at the (now-defunct) Lower East Side institution ‘inoteca, delivering these kinds of indulgent snack foods meant to fill the bellies of both undernourished chefs/bartenders and the local scenester kids. My order would always include their version of this Southern-Italian classic. I’ve decided to revisit that memory with our own version at Flor, with the cheeky addition of an incredibly delicious ‘nduja brought to us by my friend, Giuseppe, straight from Calabria.

We use a housemade milk bread – a semi-enriched pullman-style loaf – and sandwich in buffalo mozzarella, a schmear of nduja, a drizzle of honey, and dried Sicilian oregano. The breading can be done with homemade breadcrumbs, if you have any, or panko breadcrumbs provide a great alternative. Ours is served with a simple basil sauce to complete the Italian flag trifecta (red, white, green).

Serves 2

4 slices of old bread
1 250g ball of high-quality buffalo mozzarella
Sea salt
‘Nduja (can be purchased at De Calabria, in Borough Market, or any good Italian grocer)
Honey
Dried Sicilian oregano
Plain flour
Fine breadcrumbs or panko breadcrumbs
3 eggs
Milk
Vegetable or sunflower oil

Slice your mozzarella into 1cm planks and carefully dab between sturdy paper towels to remove excess moisture.

Arrange two slices of bread face up and, using a butter knife, spread a thin layer of nduja onto each slice. Follow with a generous drizzle of honey and sprinkle of oregano. Trim your mozzarella to fit within 0.75cm of the bread’s perimeter and lay flat. Season with sea salt.

Carefully layer the second piece of bread on top of each slice. Use a pastry brush dipped into milk to moisten the perimeter of the top slice of bread – this will help with adhesion.

Using your palm, carefully and evenly apply pressure to try to create a “seal” around the mozzarella. Using a serrated knife, trim the crusts from the sandwich. Apply pressure once more to ensure a closed edge.

Prepare to bread the sandwiches. In three separate bowls, place the plain flour (seasoned with salt and pepper), eggs with a splash of milk (lightly whisked), and breadcrumbs of panko. Take your sandwich and coat completely (both sides and four edges) with the plain flour. Next, moisten entirely with the egg mixture – no dry spots should remain. Finally, coat it well in the breadcrumb mixture.

Fill a pot with a few inches of oil and heat to 180C. Drop the sandwich into the oil and fry until golden, flipping as needed. Best savoured hot, when the cheese pulls in the prized ‘al telefono’ fashion.

During the November lockdown, Flor is open as ASAP Pizza, offering New York-style sourdough pizzas made using exceptional produce and heritage British wheats. Pick up and delivery, Wednesday to Sunday.