My Notting Hill: Jamie Oliver's Recipease

When we first moved to England,

I would do a 2 hour commute

into London for work...

and then another 2 hours home.

(And I loved it.)

In the evenings,

the first hour was on the tube

getting to Paddington

where I would hop on a train

and haul my buns

back out to Oxford.

In London during commuter hours,

free newspapers are passed out

to commuters as the enter the tube entrances.

I love sitting on the packed-yet-silent tubes

and listening the ruffles of newspapers.

Because there's no cell service (yet),

it is like a time transport

to people reading books & papers.

(And I loved that, too.)

I remember reading the Evening Standard

on the tube one night

the first few months we lived in England.

There was 30-Minute Meal insert

by this English chef, Jamie Oliver...

he was cooking with exotic ingredients

like "rocket" and "coriander"

and making weird sounding things

like Portuguese tarts for dessert.

For some reason,

I kept the paper

and it's still sitting in my recipe book today.

Now that I've been here a while

(3.5 years already!),

I realize what a naive little pup I was.

Jamie Oliver is practically the king of the cooking scene here.

(And "rocket" & "coriander" is actually just arugula & cilantro. Oops.)

While I still don't have an affinity for Portuguese tarts,

I have fallen in love with Mr. Oliver.

He taught me to roast a perfect chicken, afterall.

And, now, he set up shop in our neighborhood

with the cutest place you ever did see:

RECIPEASE.

Cooking classes, cute baking goods,

take away meals for dinner,

gorgeous baked goods & coffee for easy snagging,

and of course- a restaurant with his yummy recipes.

It's a sweet place

that's easy to find

right above the Notting Hill Gate tube station...

Stop by. 

Either grab a coffee

or sit a while 

in the sunny windows upstairs

over a gorgeous plate of his yummy creatiions.

(I personally dig the thai green curry or the spiced carrot pancake with hummous!)

*    *   *

RECIPEASE

92-94 Notting Hill Gate

London W11 3QB

(other locations available here)

*photography by Noah Darnell