Travel the Formula 1 calendar from your own kitchen. Search any driver, circuit, country or race since 1950, then bring that place to your table. No passport required, though an apron helps.
Every driver leads to a country, every country to a circuit, and every circuit, eventually, to dinner.
Where it began
My mom and I.
Every race, a seat at our table.
For almost a decade, my mom and I have kept one tradition. Wherever Formula 1 races that weekend, that is where dinner comes from. Melbourne sends us to the Australian coast. Suzuka brings Japan into our kitchen. Monza means Italy, and a very long lunch.
What began as a way to watch together became the best part of our week. A country we have never visited. An ingredient we have never bought. An hour side by side at the stove before the lights go out. Somewhere between the first course and the checkered flag, it stopped being dinner and became ours.
For years we joked that it should be a cookbook. Now we are writing it, together, one race at a time.
Podium Plates is more than a book to us. It is a reason to keep building something side by side, to keep learning the places we have only seen on a screen, and to follow this sport a little closer with every season. Support it, and you are not only backing a cookbook. You are pulling up a chair at our table, and coming along for whatever comes next.
Every contribution goes toward researching, writing and printing the first edition.
An illustration of our race weekend table. Photos from our own kitchen are on the way.
Our tradition
Wherever the race goes, dinner goes too.
MELBOURNE Barramundi with lemon myrtle butterSHANGHAI Red braised short ribsSUZUKA Teriyaki salmonMONACO BarbajuanMONZA Risotto alla milaneseMEXICO CITY Tacos al pastor
A World, A Menu, A Race Weekend.
Every round opens a new country to taste. In our house, the formation lap doubles as the dinner bell.
The race weekend ritual
Five things, every round.
Discover the destination
Find out where the race is, what surrounds the circuit, and what the locals eat when nobody is filming.
Choose one dish
Pick something that belongs to that place. If you cannot pronounce it yet, even better.
Share the table
Sit down together. The meal is the reason, the company is the reward, and the leftovers are the bonus.
Watch the race
Lights out, plate in hand. Years later, one bite will bring the whole race back, including the parts you would rather forget.
Repeat next round
Next round, a new country. By the finale you have eaten your way around the world without queuing at a single airport.
The first cookbook
The Founders Edition
One chapter for every round of the season. Each one carries you to the host city and home again, with dishes made for an ordinary kitchen and stories worth telling over them.
One thousand copies, numbered and signed by hand. Five hundred hardback, five hundred paperback, and a digital edition for everyone else.
Every dish belongs to the place the race visits, and we research it in the culture it comes from. When a recipe is our own take, we say so, rather than inventing a grandmother we never had.
Written for any kitchen
Every recipe is written so a first time cook can follow it from the chopping board to the plate, with swaps for hard to find ingredients and versions for every kind of diet.
Every fact traced to a source
Dates, results and history are checked against more than one source before they reach a page. The stewards would approve.
Independent and unofficial
We are fans of food and racing. Podium Plates is not connected to Formula 1, the FIA or any team, though we would happily feed all three.
Where the book is todayFirst three chapters drafted
Australia, China and Japan are written. The rest of the season is being researched now.
Be part of it
Pull up a chair with us.
Founders Edition
Buy the cookbook
One thousand numbered and signed copies, from $49.99, and a digital edition at $19.99. Leave your email and you will hear the moment orders open, well before the lights go out.
Pull up a chair with our community of cooks and race fans, and unlock the whole archive back to 1950, for $3 a month.
Every season since 1950, with its story and full results
Every recipe, with its full method, swaps and dietary versions
A race weekend menu with one combined shopping list
Printable recipes and every result for every search
New member features as we add them
Join at $3 and keep that price for as long as you keep your seat. Cancel anytime.
A yearly seat, $99 a year. Everything above, plus each new Podium Plates cookbook sent to you every year, with early access before anyone else. Coming soon
Support our journey
Help a mother and son turn a family tradition into a book worth keeping. Every contribution goes toward researching each chapter and printing the first edition.
One time, from $1
PayPal, Venmo or card
Support is not a preorder or a donation, and is not tax deductible.
Questions
Before you pull up a chair.
What is the Founders Edition?
Our first cookbook, limited to one thousand printed copies: five hundred hardback at $79.99 and five hundred paperback at $49.99, plus shipping. Every printed copy is numbered and signed by both of us, so it comes to us first and then travels on to you, which takes a little longer than an ordinary parcel. The digital edition, at $19.99, is unlimited.
When can I buy the cookbook?
We are writing it now, one chapter per race weekend, which is roughly the pace of the sport itself. Join the list above and you will hear first when orders open.
What is The Podium Table?
The Podium Table is our community of cooks and race fans, and a seat is $3 a month. It opens every season back to 1950, with its story and full results, every recipe with its swaps, dietary versions and shopping list, and every result for every search. Join at $3 and you keep that price for as long as you stay. A yearly seat, coming soon at $99, adds each new cookbook sent to you every year, with early access.
What can I see for free?
Something from everything. Every season has its calendar, its winners and the opening of its story; every race has its top five; every driver, circuit, country and team has its profile; and every country has a signature recipe. The last five seasons and five landmark years are free in full. A seat at The Podium Table adds the rest.
Do I need to follow Formula 1 to use it?
Not at all. The calendar is simply our excuse to travel by plate. Every recipe works perfectly well on a Tuesday, no safety car required.
Where does the race history come from?
The archive is built from Wikidata, a free public database, and checked against the season and race results published on Wikipedia. Every page shows what it was checked against.
Is this an official Formula 1 product?
No. Podium Plates is an independent, unofficial cookbook made by a mother and son. It is not associated with Formula 1, the FIA or any team. We simply cook, very enthusiastically, in their direction.
The race weekend newsletter
Every Grand Prix, in your inbox.
One email a few days before every race: what to cook, the story of the place, the history of the circuit and the drivers who called it home. Free, and as easy to leave as it is to join.
Your next race weekend starts at the table.
Start with this weekend's Grand Prix, or wander any season since 1950. Bring an appetite; we will bring the history.
Golden squares of buttery semolina, each crowned with an almond and soaked through with cold orange blossom syrup: the sweet that marks Ramadan nights in Algeria.
Kalb el louz means heart of almonds, and it is the sweet Algerian families set out after the evening meal through Ramadan, with mint tea and conversation that runs late. Depending on the region it may also be called chamia or h'rissa. It is made from very little: coarse semolina, sugar, butter and orange blossom water, rested overnight, baked until deep gold, then drenched in cold syrup until every grain is heavy with it. One almond sits on each piece, and some families hide a seam of ground almonds inside as well.
Its secret is patience rather than skill. The semolina rests for a night so it can drink its liquid, and the finished cake rests again so the syrup can travel all the way to the bottom. The reward is a dense, moist, fragrant square that is somehow both crumbly and soft, and a recipe that does most of its work while you sleep, which is the best kind of preparation there is.
The syrup
Ingredients
2 cups (400 g) sugar
3 cups (720 ml) water
1/2 lemon
1/4 cup (60 ml) orange blossom water
2 tablespoons (40 g) honey
Method
Put the sugar and water in the saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil, add the lemon juice, and boil gently for 10 minutes without stirring.
Turn off the heat, stir in the honey if using, and leave to cool completely. Once cold, stir in the orange blossom water and refrigerate until needed.
The cake
Ingredients
2 3/4 cups (500 g) coarse semolina
1 1/4 cups (250 g) sugar
7 tablespoons (100 g) unsalted butter
1/4 cup (60 ml) orange blossom water
1/4 cup (60 ml) water
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
24 whole blanched almonds
Method
In the wide bowl, mix the semolina and sugar. Pour over the 7 tablespoons of melted butter and rub the mixture between your palms for 3 to 4 minutes until every grain is coated.
Stir the orange blossom water and water together. Sprinkle half over the semolina and rub it in gently for 5 minutes, lifting and letting the grains fall through your fingers. Do not knead or press.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel and leave it at room temperature for 10 to 12 hours. Keep the rest of the orange blossom liquid covered alongside.
Put a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat it to 400°F (200°C). Break up the rested semolina with your fingers, then sprinkle in the remaining orange blossom liquid while rubbing. If it still feels dry, add water a teaspoon at a time.
Brush the pan with the oil. Tip in the semolina and spread it evenly, then press it down firmly with the offset spatula or the back of a spoon into a flat, level layer.
With the sharp knife, cut right down to the bottom of the pan into 24 squares or diamonds, 4 rows by 6. Press an almond into the center of each piece and brush the surface with the remaining tablespoon of melted butter.
Bake on the lower rack for 30 minutes, then move the pan to the middle rack and bake for 20 to 30 minutes more.
As soon as the cake comes out, ladle about a third of the cold syrup evenly over the hot cake, running it along the cut lines. Wait 5 minutes for it to soak in, then pour the second third, wait again, and pour the rest.
Leave the cake uncovered at room temperature for at least 4 hours, or up to 8, before serving. Recut along the lines to lift out each piece.
Coming soon
