We head to the home of Appraisals Specialist Lauren Johns and her partner Julian Porter, who owns and runs neighbourhood café Juliets in Tooting, south London, for a chat about eating well, the secret to hosting and what home cooking means to them. Lauren hung up her apron for a job at The Modern House earlier this year, while Julian has been cooking away over lockdown, starting a new delivery service and, more recently, opening the doors again. Read on to hear why food matters to them; the role of design in a good meal and to get their recipes for courgette bread and whipped ricotta.

Lauren and Julian, why is food important to you?

Julian: “My earliest memories are snapshots of food bringing a sense of occasion and togetherness to our lives: beachside picnics of stuffed vine leaves and mulberries, working bee – a colloquial term in Australia for volunteering to build projects in the community – lunches of sandwich towers and cheap tinned pineapple juice.”

Lauren: “So many of the relationships I’ve forged, be it with people or produce, are a direct result of running cafés. I feel that when you cook there is a vulnerability to it that opens you up to new experiences, tastes, and connects you with people.

“So many of my favourite memories at Juliets have been staff family meals, visiting suppliers abroad and birthday breakfasts that are always paired with something delicious Julian concocted to mark the moment. We’ve even hosted two staff weddings! The importance of food has meant we have created our own community in Juliets orbit. And so food, for me, is the antidote to isolation.”

What’s the story behind Juliets?

Lauren: “Julian and I met while studying acting up in Woodstock, Oxford, and subsequently opened our first café, Milk, back in 2012. Having been so young at the time it was a big shock for us that it took off in the way that it did. And although it was a great experience, after eight years, we felt we had matured and that it was the right time to move on and focus on something new.

“For us, Juliets was a big evolution and has given us the freedom to pursue new ideas and be creative again. It’s smaller than the last one, so it means we have a really tight-knit team that feels like a family. In the past, we had opportunities to expand but we’ve always been wary of aggressive growth. We’ve learnt what makes us happy is the attention to detail that Juliets affords us in a neighbourhood setting.

“Similarly, Juliets fuelled our inclinations to reconnect with the provenance of our products, whether it’s a trip to Cacklebean with the team, or visiting the coffee farms in Rwanda. Juliets has made way for the kind of self-confident, simple and unassuming food Julian felt compelled to cook. It’s a happy place for us.”

How would you describe your style of cooking, at home and in the restaurant?

Julian: “Generous, enthusiastic comfort food made from seasonal, local produce. Juliets was born out of home cooking – we just cook what we want to eat.”

What/who are your culinary inspirations?

Julian: “I get super geeky about produce, so where I am in the world dictates what I want to eat and what I want to cook. Where I’m from in Australia the veg from the market is impossibly vibrant, so it becomes about simply presenting it in a way that highlights what’s already there.

“When I’m in Europe I get really excited by traditional provincial food and how generations of experience and repetition have forged recipes of the most basic origins into infinitely more than the sum of their parts.”

Design and aesthetic considerations are obviously not neglected, at home and at Juliets – what do you think a well-designed environment can add to a meal?

Lauren: “The café environment is intended to act as a backdrop to good food, good wine and good service. When placed thoughtfully together, these things work in unison to facilitate an atmosphere of abandonment and joy.

“We tried to inject something of what excites or moves us into the design and food at Juliets. Australia has always been a place of escape and when the site came up, quite coincidentally, we were fresh back from a trip to Tasmania, so the ochres and greens of that landscape were in our minds. We even included dried wattle flowers in the design, inspired by Julian’s Byron Bay hinterland home. We wanted to imbue the space with the serenity and expansiveness we associate with that landscape.

“At home the same principles apply. My flat was built in the 1960s and when I bought it I was really taken with the amount of personality it had – it felt like a fun place for socialising. This part of London is so green, and I feel like I escape when I sit out on the balcony.

“Our home is multi-functional in that it feels private but has an openness that means we can host and cook for friends. I am very proud of my herb garden and, being a city girl, my work in food has increased my appreciation of and highlighted to me the importance of access to nature.”

Lauren, how come you joined The Modern House team?

Lauren: “The smaller size of Juliets simply gave me much more flexibility to explore new avenues. I liked that the team at The Modern House had their own passion projects outside work, be it writing, dressmaking or art alongside their interest in architecture and design. Designing spaces, whether as a consultant or my own cafes, has been thrilling and fostered my interest in interiors.

“I think great companies have a distinctive unapologetic energy, an energy that draws people in and perhaps redefines something as intrinsic to our lives as the food we eat, or, in the case of The Modern House, the space we live in. I have quite a contrary and impulsive personality so anything that I feel goes against the grain always appeals to me!

“At the beginning of the year I naively thought Juliets had settled into her skin, until lockdown meant starting an all new ‘Juliets Always Delivers’ service! I’m still bouncing ideas off Julian in these times of crisis, though, and I’m also still planning a few one-off evening events at Juliets that I had arranged prior to lockdown that my heart is bursting for!”

You’re having people over for dinner, what do you make on these occasions:

A mid-week catchup?

Julian: “Something simple and nourishing. I tend to mostly focus on vegetables in the week, so a simple tart of broad beans and peas, or a soup of summer squash loaded with fresh basil, mint and olive oil… always olive oil.”

A Friday night?

Lauren: “Bubbles, bubble, bubbles.”

Saturday-night dinner with friends?

Julian: “Grilled fish for sure. A whole fish grilled over coals, crushed and crisped jersey royal potatoes and a tartare sauce laced with tarragon or sweet cicely.”

Sunday lunch?

Julian: “Something I can really enjoy the ritual of preparing, like a shoulder of lamb roasted with lavender, thyme and garlic or a braise of beef with marrow bones and dumplings.”

30What do you think are the important things to get right when it comes to home cooking?

Julian: “I think good home cooking is about the confidence to do very little and not over complicate the steps. Buy good produce that is in season; prepare it simply in a way that makes you hungry thinking about it; have everything at a stage of readiness that enables you to spend time with your guests and never let your glass dwindle whilst preparations are underway.”

And, lastly, any foraging tips?

Julian: “I love foraging – it’s meditative and energising at the same time. I think there is something very natural in the ritual of picking and preparing your own food. We forage a lot for the café: cherries for our Kombucha, wild garlic, three-cornered leek, jack o’ the hedge, sweet cicely, wild peas, and alexanders all grow wild across London. You just have to look out for them!”

Lauren and Julian’s recipe for courgette bread and whipped ricotta

Courgette bread

125g caster sugar
105g muscovado sugar
2 free-range eggs
130g vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
225g plain flour
2g ground nutmeg
5g mixed spice
4g baking powder
4g baking soda
4g salt
195g grated courgette (squeezed and drained of liquid)
75g walnuts (chopped into roughly 0.5cm pieces)

Beat together eggs, oil, vanilla and sugars in a stand mixer until fluffy.

Add flour, spices and baking powder and soda. Stir until just combined.

Add courgettes and walnuts and stir until just combined.

Pour mixture into a greased and lined loaf tin.

Bake in a preheated oven at 160C for 40-60 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

Whipped ricotta

400g ricotta
A pinch of grated nutmeg, to taste
A pinch of salt, to taste
Zest of two lemons

Beat all the ingredients together until fluffy and well combined.

Eat sliced into thick slabs and grilled with a little butter, or equally satisfying is cut from the loaf and taken with coffee. At the café we serve it grilled with whipped ricotta, a spiced squash seed praline and some beautiful local honey.