Last weekend something very exiting happened in Muswell Hill. A new cafe opened. That it has opened a few doors from where I live and I can almost yell my lunch order from my front room is amazing enough, but the fact that it serves some of the best food I’ve ever eaten (and I’ve eaten lots) is a very rare treat.
It’s owned and run by Australian born Chris and his Polish born wife Bibi. They make absolutely everything themselves and it’s divine. Chris trained in Australia before moving to London where he worked with Gordon Ramsey in his signature restaurant in Hospital Road.
He’s worked in some of the finest restaurants in Indonesia and in Egypt where he had a staff of 170. He also worked as number 2 head chef at London’s Dorchester Hotel for four years, was executive chef for at the Edwardian Hotel in Mayfair and executive chef for two years at The Hilton Tower Bridge.
Chris and Bibi have just converted what was the chocolate shop on Tetherdown into the most convivial cosy, modern little eatery complete with fantastic antique furniture.
The counter at the back came from an old paper mill in Essex and is stunning.
In front the food stands on an old joiners bench which was sourced in Holland by antique dealer Drew Pritchard.
The wooden floor boards are from an old textile factory in Islington and you can see where it’s been worn down by the trolleys
and the main table at the front is a very well worn butchers block from an old French Country house.
As for the food, oh my God the food, well I’ll eat anything and have just had mackerel and sweet corn straight out of the tins while writing this but I do know and very much appreciate exquisite home made food when I see it and that’s what you get at Chriskitch.
I went there on Saturday (first day it was open) and we were kindly given a big plate of desserts to try. Chocolate and wild strawberry tart, orange cake,
baked cheese cake to die for, look at them all in their own little baking tins, banana cake and a scrumptious cake made with polenta. My friend and I were literally in a quiet cake euphoria and couldn’t believe how good it was. We were barely aware of Chris chatting away enthusiastically about his ingredients and cooking methods. We were very happy in our little cakey worlds.
The next day a friend came over and we went there for a proper lunch as I was desperate to go back and show off my virtually en suite cafe to her. Well what joy….we had beetroot, orange and feta salad with pomegranate, and aubergine and chilli salad, with blue cheese and beer bread and corn and chilli bread, all of which Chris had made.
With the most delicious baked cheese cake to follow, coffee and the most delicious home made peach juice. I know I’ve used delicious twice in one sentence….but it was.
It’s been Chris and Bibi’s life long dream to have their own deli one day and now they have, in my lovely Tetherdown in a beautiful Victorian building which has………
it’s very own OUTSIDE EATING AREA !!!!! How lovely will that be in the Spring and Summer. ( No pics of that because it hasn’t been beautified quite yet ).
Chriskitch is open every day till 6pm and opens at 12pm on Sundays.
7a, Tetherdown,
Muswell Hill
London. Just by Fortismere school
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