3 Questions With... Holly Middleton-Joseph
2026-06-30
Sitting down with Holly Middleton-Joseph (@hollymiddletonjoseph), Head Chef and Director of Hausu (@hausu_london), feels like chatting with an old friend.
Recently named one of the National Restaurant Awards' Rising Stars 2026, her menus are full of dishes inspired by her Chinese and Trinidadian roots that feel personal and generous.
We talked about why lasagne is the ultimate act of love, the dishes she keeps coming back to, and the simple chef’s trick to beautifully caramelised meat and fish.
Which restaurant are you a regular at and what are you ordering?
It's not going to be a fancy restaurant. It's going to be Silk Road in Camberwell. I love it. I go once a month. That's quite a lot, isn't it? I’m ordering lamb skewers, homestyle cabbage, homestyle aubergine, shredded kelp. All those dishes are quite saucy, so if you get the the hand-pulled noodles as well, you can then pour all those sauces on top and make a new dish. And it's really, really quite delicious.
If you're having guests over for dinner party, what are you serving up to impress them?
To impress them? Or because I love them? Because there's a difference, isn't there? I spoke about this with my mum and my fiancée. I said would do a roast duck with cherries, and they said but what would you really cook? I’d cook lasagna for someone I love. I like taking care of a dish. With lasagna, there's all the elements: the ragu, the béchamel, making the pasta, because I would do that. Cooking it so you get all those crunchy bits along the outside. The most important part is allowing it to rest, because if you don't and you just cut into it, it will just go everywhere. It needs that time to slightly solidify, so you can see those layers. Serve that with a crunchy, bitter leaf salad with oranges in it, maybe some shaved fennel, dressed with some Aged Malt Belazu Vinegar. It’s rich, a little sticky and really banging.
What’s your favourite way to use Belazu on the menu?
We mix your White Condimento with Crete Gold in a spray bottle, and we spray all of our meat and fish with it as it's cooking on the grill for caramelization. I can't take credit for this, though, we can credit Sam Andrews for this, Head Chef at the Waterman's Arms. As it’s cooking, you spray it, and then the sugar in the White Condimento gives it a really nice caramelisation and crust. And we spray all of our fish and meat with it.
