After a lockdown-caused hiatus of our series exploring the home cooking inspirations of our favourite chefs and restaurants, we’re back with a visit to a place whose seasonal opening has, over the last decade, signalled the arrival of more optimistic times ahead for its many devotees: Laura Jackson and Lori de Mori’s Towpath on the De Beauvoir stretch of the Regent’s Canal.

Between March and November every year, Laura and Lori open the shutters to the Towpath’s four south-facing industrial units, lay out some tables a stone’s throw from the water and wait to see who turns up – literally, as there’s no booking system or phone number. But as sure as the seasons change, turn up they do, both for Laura’s seasonal, delicious cooking and Lori’s effortless charm.

Here, as Laura shares a recipe for asparagus with ajo blanco from their new book, the two sit down to explore how their love of eating and sharing food has borne a desire for a social, convivial restaurant, where people leave feeling fed and where community matters.

Laura: “I have very vivid memories of eating as a kid. My mum wasn’t an adventurous cook at all, but she had her staple things, especially Jewish classics. I have really fond memories of us sitting down as a family to eat meals together. We all loved eating, but I suppose it was more the ritual of it, the sharing, than anything else.

“But occasionally there would be something special. I remember she would make whole globe artichokes. It would only happen a couple of times a year, and I remember being so excited because we got to dip this strange thing into the dressing.”

Lori: “When my mum cooked artichokes, because we also loved them, my younger brother famously said, ‘I will not eat that green rock.’ I had much the same experience as Laura growing up, just in the US. I’m the eldest of four, and mum had this rotating series of tried-and-true recipes that she could get all six of us to eat – spaghetti and meatballs, chop suey and so on.

“We always sat around the table together, and mealtimes were very lively. My dad would ask us all questions like, ‘How many miles from the earth is the moon?’, and we’d all have to guess. The boys drank huge glasses of milk, there was a lot of uncontrollable laughter and we would choke on our food and spew it all over the table. It was raucous, basically.”

Lori: “My big food conversion, practically a religious conversion, was when I went to Italy at 18. It was the first time I’d ever left the US, and where I fell in love with the father of my children. His family owned restaurants so it was all food, wine, olive oil; I was so into the whole thing.

“I love to eat and what I love about Italy is the very obvious focus on seasonal, local food. It’s what we all should be eating because it tastes better, it just does. The British asparagus we’re eating today is totally different from the asparagus you would buy in December, shipped from Peru. And that’s not Peru’s fault, it’s just the fact you should be in Peru eating them, not here. You should be eating cabbages in December here!

“I was also fascinated by Italian hospitality. People have tiny home kitchens and they don’t have all the gadgets, but that will never stop anyone from saying ‘No, no, come, stay. There’s plenty of food.’ And it might just be spaghetti aglio e olio, made from store-cupboard ingredients found in everyone’s house, but at that level of real, genuine hospitality, it’s not about, ‘Ta-da, come sit at my table and be wowed’. It’s much more joyful and fun than that.”

Laura: “At university, my friends took the piss out of me because I always wanted to go and get food, whereas they just wanted to go to the pub. I studied physiology and was about to do a medicine post-grad but ended up doing a cooking course at Leiths for six months because I loved it so much. And then I just starting cooking, first at Melrose & Morgan, then at Rochelle Canteen.”

Laura: “Lori and I met while I was working at the Auberge de Chassignolles in France. I went there first on holiday, loved it, and wrote to Harry Lester and Ali Johnson, the owners, and asked if I could come and cook during the next season.”

Lori: “At that time I was living in the building on the other side of the canal to Towpath, in an apartment that The Modern House eventually sold. Three of these kiosks came up for sale and I thought they could be interesting. Then I met Laura, whose food was amazing, and I asked her if she’d be interested in becoming partners. She said, ‘I don’t even know you or what you’re trying to do!’

“And it’s true, we didn’t have the kiosk where the kitchen is now, so we didn’t really know what it could be. In the first year, Laura had to make everything over the bridge in our kitchen at home, but we committed to making almost everything from scratch ourselves. We made yoghurt, pickles, jams, simple olive oil cake and so on, and we brought over coffee from our favourite roastery in Italy.

“I think people were curious and became charmed in that first year. Because there was literally nothing here, so it must’ve been quite exciting for people, I suppose, to cycle by and see this. It’s hard to imagine that this area was pretty desolate 12 years ago.”

Laura: “I probably would have left if we didn’t manage to get the kitchen, which we did in year two. That’s when things started getting really interesting for me, because I was suddenly connected to our guests, and had more scope to expand the menu.

“Ultimately the food I put out is food that I want to eat. Which sounds awful but it means that I put everything into it. And I don’t want to cook really fancy food, I just want to cook homely, nourishing, natural food, so that is what gets cooked here.

“I think I’m naturally a feeder and I want people to feel nourished when they eat here, rather than to be awed at the craftsmanship. There are places that you might go to for a special occasion, but this is a place I want people to come back to time and time again, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and for it to have a sense of community. I think if I’m striving for that, the food will taste even better because it’s coming from something I really believe in.”

Lori: “And you can taste it. You can taste food that is properly executed but soulless, and then food that someone’s put their heart into. You just can.”

Laura: “This past year has been interesting. It was lovely to cook things I don’t normally have time to do, like my own bread, dumplings, pasta, cakes and doughs. It was nice not to feel rushed, to do something for an hour, leave it and come back. Most of what I made at home couldn’t be replicated here but I was able to try out lots of other things that I want to put on the menu.”

Lori: “I started making bread again, which I used to love doing in Italy. I would make two loaves, one for me and one for my neighbour. All of us were so appreciative of any kind of food made by someone else.

“I think it was interesting to have a change of mindset from the privileged, spoiled person to the person who is just trying to survive, be healthy, nourished and not ask too much of the surroundings. That was humbling in a very basic kind of way.

“But I think we’ve all realised how much we’ve missed each other’s company, and what a total joy it is to be with people that you love at a table, or to just sit like we’re sitting now. Those simple things we took for granted, like people, are just so precious.

“Just remember how much you care about sitting at the table with friends and people you love. When you do it right it gives you so much energy, that exchange with other people. Even if before you think, ‘I’m tired, I think I just want to go home,’ suddenly you’re at the table and thinking, ‘Ooh, I feel really alive and energised.’ And that’s really nourishing for everybody.”

Asparagus and ajo blanco

Laura: “When English asparagus come into season, you will see them on the menu every day. To me, they signify something special and the season is so short that we need to pay homage to them. They are perfect in combination with a sauce. I often serve them with Cambridge sauce, ajo blanco, gribiche, romesco, trapanese, dukkah and feta, parmesan shavings, butter and lemon.

“Ajo blanco is most commonly eaten as a chilled soup in Andalusia. In summer I serve it in little glasses and drizzle olive oil and scatter cherries or melon over the top. At Towpath I also serve it thicker, as a sauce to pour over asparagus. ‘Ajo’ means garlic but the real flavour comes from the almonds. Marcona almonds are fatter and wetter, more delicately almondy than your average almond. It is important to use a high-quality almond when making this sauce.”

Serves four

28 very fresh asparagus
200g blanched Marcona almonds
250ml water
50ml sherry vinegar
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
100ml olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 170C.

Lightly toast the almonds on a tray in the oven for 10 minutes – you don’t want them to colour but just start to release their natural oils. Transfer the almonds to a Magimix or blender and blitz to form a smooth paste. This will take about 10 minutes. You will have to stop the machine regularly and scrape down the sides and bottom of the container with a spatula, as it takes some time for the oils to release and loosen up.

Please be patient when making the sauce as it can seem very frustrating turning the almonds into a paste. You will need to constantly be scraping the almonds around the Magimix. This stage is very important to get a smooth sauce. If you add water in immediately – as per the next step – you will always end up with a coarse texture and you want this silky smooth.

Once you have a smooth almond paste, add in a dash of water, a little bit at a time so it fully incorporates with the paste (you may not need all the water). It takes a while for the water to be absorbed, so be patient. Once you have the consistency of thick yoghurt, add the vinegar, garlic, some salt and pepper and blitz. Slowly pour in the olive oil until the mixture takes on the consistency of double cream. The sauce will thicken as it sits, so you might need to add a dash of water before serving.

(To make the ajo blanco for soup, whisk more water into the sauce until you have a soup-like consistency. You may need to add more sherry vinegar as well, to get the proportions right. This soup is incredibly rich, so I only serve it in small glasses. It’s lovely served with a beetroot salad or tossed through monk’s beard, and is also delicious on the side of beef, lamb or fish.)

Cut or snap off the woody bottoms of the asparagus and discard. Wash the remaining spears well to remove any grit from the tips. Boil the spears in salted water for 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness – they should be cooked but still have a bit of crunch to them. Drain but do not rinse under cold water. Lay on individual plates, spoon over the sauce, add salt and pepper. Serve with bread to soak up the delicious sauce.