Max Rocha’s restaurant Café Cecilia in Hackney, east London, has friends, family and beautiful food at its heart
Words Billie Brand
Photography Elliot Sheppard
Production Hannah Philips
Café Cecilia, named after Max’s grandmother, is merely six months old and it’s already the darling of the restaurant world. It’s not surprising, though, given Max’s CV: The River Café, St John’s Bread and Wine, Spring – all of which he kindly credits as inspirations. But no food has influenced him more than what his mother, Odette, would make when he was growing up in Dublin. Max is quite the family man: he worked with his father, designer John, on Café Cecilia’s interiors; his sister, designer Simone, on the uniform; and a drawing by his niece, Valentine, sits on the wall alongside photography by Jack Davison and Perry Ogden. But forget DNA, Max speaks of his cherry-picked team as if they’re family too. And perhaps that’s why Café Cecilia is such a joy – that, and very good food. Here, Max discusses the wonders of cooking and the origins of his signature dish, Guinness bread (it’s delicious). Plus, he shares his recipe for roast onion squash with black-olive dressing.
Max: “My mum influences the menu in every way. We talk daily and she’ll come in once a week to check on the food. Her name is always on the menu: ‘Odette’s chocolate cake’.
“She’s always been obsessed with food and cooked a lot for her family. She taught herself from three books: The River Café Book by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, Chez Panisse Menu by Alice Waters, A Year in My Kitchen by Skye Gyngell. She isn’t into very Irish things like ham and cabbage. We grew up eating seasonal food inspired by southern French and northern Italian cooking. It was quite different from what my friends would have for dinner in Dublin!
“It’s funny – I didn’t get into cooking properly until eight or nine years ago, but I was chatting to my mum recently and said, ‘When you were younger, you were always helping.’ I was just really interested in what she was doing. My Irish granny was really into baking too – not professionally, but we would make scones together and she’d tell me how to make them better. I always wanted to impress her.
“Baking is what started it all. I was working in the music industry and I was diagnosed with depression and needed time off. During that period, my mum and I did a bread-making course at a bakery in Norwich and I just thought, ‘Oh my, I want to be a baker.’ I loved working with my hands instead of behind a laptop. It didn’t seem as stressful as trying to get a band signed.
“When you’re cooking, you don’t think about anything else apart from being in your immediate environment. That’s what I really love about it – it’s physical and you’re always on the move. As soon as I put my chefs’ whites on, it makes me feel better. It really helps my mental health.
“We have a strict no-hangovers and no-phones policy at the restaurant. I’ve experienced hangovers in the kitchen a lot and it provides such a bad atmosphere. The staff always comes first: I try not to make the hours too long; we only do two nights a week; if we run out of ingredients for a dish, then that’s it, we take it off the menu. I don’t want anyone burning out. I learned that from Farokh Talati at St John Bread and Wine. He’s a great mentor of mine.
“I love each and every member of my team. I have worked with everyone in the kitchen before in a different restaurant and they’re all excited to be here and have their input on the menu. Rosie, one of our cooks, is my left hand. We first worked together at Spring and then during lockdown we converted my flat into a kitchen and started selling picnics. I wanted to see if people liked the food I wanted to make – the Irish food, my mum’s food – and Rosie was on board from day one. You can see how important she is to me, it’s there on the menu: ‘Rosie’s cheese and egg sandwich.’
“When we came to open Café Cecilia, I was initially looking for an old building that felt more lived in. But then we found this and it was a blank canvas. I love the high ceilings and the way the light comes in through the window. Guests are either looking at the canal or at the kitchen. I love the mid-week crowd because you get different age groups – it’s not just young people or the foodies. It’s a total mix, which is exactly what I wanted.
“The food here is what I want to cook. Guinness bread is always on the menu. It was the first loaf I made with my mum when I was changing career. It’s a nod to Ireland and my heritage. I feel like London doesn’t have enough soda bread – there’s just sourdough everywhere! We blitz up the ends of the Guinness bread, roast it with sugar and then fold it into ice cream to make Guinness ice cream. There’s no waste whatsoever.
“We always have a cheese toastie and a glass of house wine on the menu for a fiver. It’s really important for me to have that for my friends, so that they can come in for lunch and don’t need to have anything fancy. And there’s always a pasta. I’d like to have two pastas on the menu because it’s the thing I like to make the most. There’s nothing better than coming in early, reading my cookbooks and just rolling pasta. It’s so therapeutic and there’s so much sensibility and practice that’s needed to make it right.
“A lot of the cookbooks on the shelves belong to my mum. I find reading cookbooks a really good way to keep me open to different dishes and ingredients. I have them on display so guests and the other chefs can read them too. My dream is to write my own – maybe in four or five years’ time!
“While I work with my mum on the menu, I worked with my dad on the aesthetics. The interiors are 100 per cent a reflection of my taste – it’s like walking into my flat! We have the same flooring in my sister Simone’s house and my dad’s house, so it very much feels like home.
“I’m really particular about what music we play too. I like folk music and a lot of old music my parents would play, like Al Green or The Velvet Underground; we’ll play Frank Ocean on a Friday night. I’m really into music and play drums and guitar. My friend has a studio where I go to let out a bit of steam. I’ll put the headphones on and drum away.
“When we’re not working, my family and I love to get together and eat. On a Sunday my mum will cook her roast chicken. My dad and I go to a lot of Chinese restaurants together. I love Gerrard’s Corner in China Town. It feels like a proper Hong Kong dim sum restaurant and I feel very comfortable there. My dad has set places that he goes to, like La Petite Maison in Mayfair. It’s so beautiful. But my favourite place is the Guinea Grill. It’s just an amazing bar with really simple food.
“When I started cooking, it wasn’t cool at all. None of my friends really got it and now everyone’s into food and it’s great! We opened the restaurant on my birthday last summer, in Leo season. I enjoy my birthday – seemingly all Leos do! I feel like I’ve finally got my own thing that people are into and it’s so nice that people want to come and eat here because they like what we’re cooking. But I do love that my mum, dad and Simone are a part of it. I think we’ll celebrate the anniversary – get some overly tacky balloons, put some records on and have a party.”
Max’s recipe for roast squash and black-olive dressing
½ onion squash
10 large sage leaves with, stalks removed
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
Olive oil
100g pitted black olives
1tsp chilli flakes
1tbsp Graceburn cheese and its marinating oil
1tsp thyme leaves
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, cut the onion squash in half and then into three half-moons. Wrap the other half in cling film and keep it in the fridge for future use. Place the squash in a bowl and toss with a tablespoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt, a grind of pepper, the sage leaves and two of the crushed garlic cloves.
Line a baking tray with parchment paper and place the squash flat on one side, sprinkle with a teaspoon of water and cover with tin foil. Place in the oven and, after 30 minutes, remove the tinfoil and leave the squash in the oven for another 30 minutes until fully cooked through. The timings will vary slightly depending on the squash variety you have. When the squash is cooked, set aside to cool and then prepare the olive dressing. Reserve the cooked the sage leaves.
Roughly chop the olives, remaining garlic, thyme and dry chilli together. Place in a bowl and cover with extra-virgin olive oil. Place the squash back in the oven until fully warmed through. To serve, lay the three pieces on a plate and crumble up the Graceburn cheese, followed by the dressing, dispersing evenly. To finish drizzle a tablespoon of the Graceburn oil over the dish, along with some of the sage leaves. It’s also nice to fry some sage leaves in a neutral oil as a garnish. The sage should not be too dark as it will taste bitter. You are looking for a dark green colour.
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