Turning up the heat for kosher paella in Fitzrovia
A regular kosher pop-up at renowned Spanish restaurant Arros QD is a triumph
What happens when a kosher foodie and the owner of a Spanish restaurant get together? A kosher pop-up at London’s foremost paella spot – not once but four times – and last night I was lucky enough to go along.
Arros QD in Fiztrovia, founded by Michelin-starred chef Quique Dacosta, marries a passion for paella with the wonder of wood-fired cooking, in stunning interiors with a six-metre woodfire stove in an open kitchen lending a theatrical touch to the ground floor of the restaurant. Climb the curved staircase with its woodcarved wall decoration to a classic dining room and also a private room – the place is huge.
On a ‘normal’ day Arros QD serves up inventive Spanish dishes and wines from around the world, plus the renowned paella. It’s this that food writer and influencer Jo Nissim wanted to bring to a kosher market. She’d been busy doing cookery demonstrations at home, Instagram reels for Kosher Deli and Kosher Kingdom, plus providing recipes for this very newspaper, but it’s as curator and hostess of London’s first kosher pop-up paella experience that Jo truly shines.
“I’m strictly kosher at home and I mix in fairly religious circles. When I go to Israel and the US the kosher food is brilliant; our restaurants are definitely starting to move in the right direction but I feel like there’s more scope.”
Ever-ambitious, Jo hit upon the idea to do a kosher pop-up. She wrote a pitch and sent it to a few restaurants. One of them took it up, they started working on it, and then the restaurant owner changed his mind.
A couple of weeks later, Jo told a religious friend who works in property for the hospitality industry about the idea and a couple of days later she had a voicemail from him that said: “Be at this address at one o’clock in two days’ time.”
He had arranged for her to meet Marcos Fernandez Prado, Managing Director of Arros QD, and executive chef Eduardo Adrobo. “Marcos is Spanish, not Jewish, but he has a real affinity to the community and he really wanted to do it,” says Jo. “I’m not sure he knew what he was letting himself in for when he said yes, but they are an amazing group of people, just so willing to learn and understand and be accommodating.”
The operation is under the auspices of Kehillas Federation. and Spanish-speaking Rabbi Dendarovic was assigned to the project.
Not only did Eduardo accompany Jo on a shopping trip to Kosher Kingdom to source viable kosher ingredients to replicate what they use in the restaurant (with lots of to-ing and fro-ing on WhatsApp with Rabbi Dendarovic to check whether the items were allowed) but the team bought separate crockery, cutlery and cooking utensils plus magnificent paella pans.
The first pop up in May was a sellout. A second one followed in July and another in September. It seems that Jo has really hit the sweet spot and people are prepared to pay £150 per head for a kosher five-course feast with a glass of cava.
I sat up at the counter in front of the woodfire stove for a 20-minute paella masterclass to see the chefs in action. They explained that a true paella is made with rabbit and chicken, but tonight we were having paella with beef cheeks. The key ingredient is the stock and it takes just 20 minutes to make the rice, culminating in a beautiful caramelised base. The beef cheeks had been slowly cooked for seven hours and had they had their own rich honeyed crust. The combination of the two is sublime.
We started our five-course feast with tuna tartelette in a charcoal case and a tomato and garlic emulsion with a range of bread to dip into it. Rich flavours, interesting textures and a light and easy way to get started, before we tucked into a kale salad with citrus, tomato jelly and cashew nuts plus a rich, hearty duck cannelloni with creamy Jerusalem artichoke sauce – one of those dishes you can’t believe is kosher.
Cod in a saffron sauce followed, accompanied by double-cooked baby potatoes with green mojo verde sauce that Jo had first encountered in Tenerife and said to the chef “we have to have it at the popup!”.
And then the piece de resistance – the paella, brought to the table in the pan. It looks like way too much for two but we had no trouble devouring it between us. Truly, truly exceptional.
Dessert was a deconstructed ‘cheese’cake – with red fruit sorbet. I have no idea how they made this so creamily delicious in a non-dairy format but in truth I don’t need to know. I’m happy to leave that to the experts. I walked away feeling cautiously optimistic and a tad excited. Because if Arros QD can dish up kosher cooking at this level then I think the future of kosher restaurants is very bright indeed.
Email joannanissim@hotmail.com for the announcement of the next pop-up at Arros QD in 2026.
Follow @joanna_nissim
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