Rohan Naik: café owner

Everybody has a story. Turnpike Lane-raised Rohan Naik, who runs Blackstock Kitchen, found his childhood eating choices – Dad’s Mauritus dishes, Mum’s Irish meals and after school snacks from Green Lanes – led him naturally towards the path of running a café. Interview by Nicola Baird. Photos by Kimi Gill

Just by the Blackstock Road and Monsell Road traffic lights there’s a little café that’s just celebrated five years of operation under the management of Rohan Naik. Rohan was only 23 when he and his friend, Abel Wilson then 20, opened the Blackstock Kitchen at 136 Blackstock Road, not far from Finsbury Park, intending to make their café a community venue. Rohan says the name was picked deliberately because: “The kitchen is the most important room in the house – it’s where people eat, come together and cook and that’s what we’re doing here.”

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So, has Rohan achieved his goal? The answer is surely a big yes. The Blackstock Kitchen serves delicious daily specials – today it was a light Kerala curry with tamarind, coconut and prawn; Malaysian Nasi goreng rice, which is sweet and light, and a new tray of Brownies with blackberry, blueberry and raspberry  – making it a go to place for people who like food, won’t pay silly prices and enjoy the craic. Go more than once and you’ll start spotting the regulars, including postman Andy who nips in for his takeaway coffee, and Andrew who’s there every morning for his caffeine fix.  There are often staff from Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association and the council’s Elwood Street offices.

“I know a lot of my customers by name,” says Rohan. But what’s extra special about Rohan is he really cares about what people eat. He’ll tell them what’s cooking but is happy to adapt  ingredients, or he asks what people normally enjoy eating and only then suggest something they might like to try which is similar but might be a little bit different. For example, Islington Faces’ brownie and hearty bread obsessions are well-known which led to the suggestion that I should try the cardamom bun made by Bread by Bike in Brecknock Road – the bakers which also create Hippy Bread. Knowing I don’t drink milk (he remembers this!) there’s a slice of lemon on the saucer when a cup of Earl Grey is served.

As a result, Blackstock Kitchen has many loyal regulars.

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Places Rohan likes in Islington

• I try my food but when catering for everyone I’ll eat the specials at the end of the day or I’ll eat at home. I also like to eat at Yildiz, 163 Blackstock Road or sit out the front of Pappagones on 131 Stroud Green Road and have an ice cream.
• I like my neighbours: Sultans Carpets, 146 Blackstock Road has been there for years and also frequent Mr Patel’s liquor shop nearby.
• There’s been a lot of changeovers in five years, but I still get my meat from the Highbury Butcher (it was run by David and is now George), 183 Blackstock Road and for halal from Albarak. I also go to White Brothers, 150 Blackstock Road for fruit and veg and get bread delivered from Bread by Bike at 30 Brecknock Road. It’s easy to get produce locally and that’s putting money into the local community too.
• Bank of Friendship, 226 Blackstock Road has a nice garden and good beer. It’s got a big community vibe – the staff know the locals – and quite a welcoming environment as a sports pub, you don’t feel you’ve got to be watching sport.
• Hemingford Arms, 158 Hemingford Road in Barnsbury does nice food but it’s not a pretentious place.

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Blackstock Kitchen is also a place to see Rohan training – he’s given work experience to more than 50 young people some of whom, like Sammy, then go on to work for him. He also operates with a team of eight part-timers, often university students, who also get the benefit of his culinary training.

Rohan grew up in Turnpike Lane and has very fond foodie childhood memories. “I had a nice diversity of food growing up as my Dad was choosing Mauritius and Indian flavours and my Mum was cooking Irish and European dishes. From quite a young age, around 13, I started to experiment with cooking and baking,” he says.

“Living in north London I was tasting Mediterranean, Turkish, Kurdish and Greek foods along the Harringay Ladder. With my friends an after-school staple for 50p was lahmacun (also known in Turkish shops as pide).

By the time Rohan was ready for work experience it was obvious where he’d want to work. His first stint was at the Asian and Oriental School of Cooking in Hoxton which had a cooking school upstairs and a restaurant downstairs.

He went to Leeds university, studying Sociology and Technology, but the food bug was growing stronger. “Once I’d finished, I moved to Ireland to do a cookery course in Cork at the Ballymaloe Cookery School. I lived on site for three or four months and it was back to basics in a really nice way. I’ve worked with people in kitchens who cook well but have no knowledge of sustainable agriculture. It’s not a cookery school where all the ingredients are handed out. There you see the cows, feed the chickens, bake the bread, everything is as organic as it gets.” http://cookingisfun.ie

Olympics
Moving back to London in 2012, Rohan was on the temping circuit working with chefs – and doing weddings – all round London when he was asked if he’d like to work at the Olympics. Of course he wanted to!

“It was an amazing time. I moved around and catered for the basketball players (Lithuanian and USA), the Paralympics and also the public food market in the Olympic village. It was so busy we’d use 24 tonnes of pig on the hog roast every day. We were also serving pie and mash, fish and chips – the traditional British food that tourists who were avid Olympic goers wanted to try. The site was taking £48,000 a day.” There were some drawbacks though admits Rohan as: “The tents were without air conditioning and it was during Ramadan – a lot of people were fainting and collapsing. We were doing 16-hour days too, so there was a big sense of camaraderie back of house.”

Everyone missed the London Olympics when they ended, but Rohan had by then saved up and was able to open the Blackstock Kitchen with Abel. “We didn’t have much experience but we were young, brash and confident,” says Rohan laughing at his younger self, realising how they definitely didn’t “over think” the new business. But after a year and a half, Abel missed the “buzz of professional kitchens,” and left, leaving Rohan to run the cafe. Fortunately, he and Rohan are “still good friends.”

As Blackstock Kitchen enters its seventh year of trading it has a deservedly good name locally as a friendly place  which serves the food you really wish you could cook, and does this at affordable prices. They are also starting to do regular private catering events from birthday parties and weddings to hen dos. “I want to use this place as a hub with a cinema supper club and quiz night so it’s more of a social space, as well as somewhere to get some good food,” says Rohan who clearly likes to cook for a crowd.

His food is great, so if you haven’t been yet then do visit. I should add as a disclosure that my daughter is one of Rohan’s team and wow, he’s taught her to cook well. Thank you!

• Blackstock Kitchen, 136 Blackstock Road, N4 is open Mon-Sat from 10am-6pm
• Twitter @blackstockkitch

Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z  index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola