The Israeli chef duo doing meat their way in Camden
The Black Cow is a steakhouse - but not like any you've been to before
Louisa Walters is Features Editor at the Jewish News and specialises in food and travel writing
I was in the kosher butcher when I heard about The Black Cow – a non-kosher steak restaurant in Camden. “I love the irony of this,” laughs Shri Kraus, who, together with Amir Battito, opened the restaurant in Hawley Wharf (the new bit of Camden market) in 2021.
The two Israeli chefs, who both live in north London, have worked together for many years as caterers and restaurant consultants, meaning that they have always been cooking and serving for clients but when it came to opening restaurants they only did that for other people.
“Restaurant owners would come to us and say, here’s the concept, here’s the location, make it work,” explains Shiri, 44. “And then one day this opportunity came up. The owners of this amazing new building said to us, ‘Would you be interested in taking the main unit and developing a concept for it?’ which is of course what we do, but this time we did it for ourselves.”
It’s a large, spacious, yet convivial unit with an attractive bar and lots of large tables for groups – perfect for sharing, which is what the concept is all about. Indeed, ‘sharing is caring’ is the first section of the menu and as we tucked into the signature corn bread with lamb butter, Husky corn ribs with salted crumble and feta cream, and Casbah, which is a deep-fried brik pastry-filled take on a Philly cheese steak, Amir 39, who started working in hospitality as a teenager in Israel, explained: “I’m always looking for opportunities to make money and I decided to work in restaurants and hospitality because that’s what I love. I learned to love what I’m good at and do what I love.”
With Pesach approaching, I had to ask – what makes your steak restaurant different from all other steak restaurants? Shiri laughs. “As one of our customers said, it’s not a steak house – it’s a house with steak. Steak restaurants are all very samey. Israeli restaurants are very samey too – it’s all the sharing plates with aubergine and cauliflower, pomegranate and tahini. Always the same dishes – different touches, but the same food. We wanted to do something different.
“When you go to a classic American-style steakhouse, you always get different versions of the exact same thing. Everybody gets a steak with a side and a sauce. You always get the same cuts. We bring a different aspect to that both in the flavours, which are more Middle Eastern, with lots of spices, and also in the concept so all the steaks come pre-cut, perfect for sharing. We serve dry aged-cuts by weight and other sharing dishes so it’s not like a steak and a side. I think a lot of people are looking for a bold palette and also looking for Israeli hospitality, which is very relaxed. We are here with our customers every day – we go to the tables, we joke around, we sometimes do some shots, and people love that.”
I mention that Ottolenghi is about to celebrate 20 years since he opened his first restaurant in London. “He was a visionary in the sense that he brought the right food here at the right time,” says Shiri. “He brought a fresh new style with all the amazing flavours. When I look at what we’ve done with the Black Cow we too have brought something new.” They certainly have. The menu sings with the sound of sumac, harissa, chermoula and ras al hanout, flavouring dishes such as Caesarea (roasted lettuce), Wings of Change (spicy chicken wings) and Cheesy (their take on cauliflower cheese).
Shiri originally trained as a nurse but got into restaurants eight years ago, training at The Palomar and The Barbary. “I don’t think I went into this restaurant thinking I want to do something very different. Amir and I just are different in the way that we think as individuals, the way that we think as a company. The Black Cow is called that because we are a bit of a black sheep.”
Amir says that Israeli chefs mostly come from families that originally were not Israeli. “I grew up with Moroccan food at home and my wife is Iraqi. My best friend is a Yemenite. Israeli cuisine is a melting pot. The influences are endless and that is what’s creating the uniqueness.”
Shiri explains what is unique about the meat. “We’re very lucky to be working with excellent butchers who supply us with all the regulars – rump, sirloin and ribeye – but also the aptly-named butcher’s cut, otherwise known as onglet. It’s not popular because it’s not straightforward to cook, but it’s very tasty so butchers used to keep it for themselves. It’s a special cut because all the blood from the abdomen flows through it, it’s very lean and it has an extremely aromatic flavour. So we are basically saying to the butcher give us the cut that nobody else will buy. Because we like to do things differently.”
While I’m eyeing up the Danny for dessert – a chocolate cigar filled with vanilla custard – our onglet steak is brought to the table nicely charred with a large bunch of herbs. These are set alight and the resulting ashes give the whole dish a smoky elevation. It makes me think of the Passover burnt offering.
Shiri laughs. “We have taken the food out of Israel. You can’t take Israel out of our food.”
Shiri and Amir’s second restaurant, Epicurus, will be opening at Stables Market in April 2023.
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