From the Vitsœ kitchen: March

A recipe for Coconut cookies, in chef Will’s words

Now popularised by modern chefs into the term ‘family meal’, eating together is a practice so ingrained in restaurant staff culture that it feels entirely normal. I am still friends with many of the people I ate with daily through the years. I have been best man at some of their weddings, seen some of their kids christened, and stood at some of those chef’s gravesides. It had never occurred to me that the ‘staff meal’ wasn't a thing outside of the restaurants where I had formed my career. So, when I came to Vitsœ eight years ago, and discussed what was needed from a chef in a furniture company, I was happy to learn of Vitsœ’s belief in a culinary responsibility for its team. After all, ‘company’ comes from the Latin cum pane, meaning 'with bread' — the act of coming together to break bread. We all know the kitchen is the heart of the home; and that an army marches on its stomach.

At our production building here in Leamington Spa, UK, we pause at 10:00 for a morning tea-break, and then again at 12:45 for lunch. Every day. All teams put down their tools, or their laptops, or reading, or drawings and walk to Bay 18 for a sit down, a bite, and a chat. Eating together binds colleagues in a way that is intangible. It's a human act, animal in nature but sublime in effect. To that end, here is the recipe for one of the biscuits that we share during our ‘family meal’:

Ingredients:

• 260g desiccated coconut
• 130g light brown sugar
• 130g granulated sugar
• 3 egg whites
• 140g dark chocolate (we use 74%)

Method:

1. Mix everything, apart from the chocolate, in a pan and then gently warm it all together until everything is combined and consistent
2. Spoon the mix onto a lined baking sheet, about 25g a ball - but you can change this without any consequence
3. Bake at 170C (370°f/gas 3), for twelve minutes
4. Take out and leave to cool
5. Meanwhile, melt two thirds of the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
6. Once everything has melted, remove the bowl from the heat, add the remaining chocolate and let the residual heat melt the fresh chocolate
7. Once everything has melted again, return the bowl to the pan and heat gently until it’s nice and smooth - this double melting will ‘temper’ the chocolate and make it snap when you bite into it. You can of course omit this step, and just have softer chocolate. It's your cookie, and your time!
8. Drizzle the chocolate over the cooled biscuits and leave somewhere to cool completely before serving

I imagine they would keep for a couple of days in an airtight container, however I have never had the opportunity to try…