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.
Silky poached chicken, rice cooked in its own fat and broth, and three bright sauces: the plate Singapore quietly considers its national dish.
Immigrants from Hainan island brought a simple poached chicken to Singapore, and the city spent the following century perfecting it. Today it is sold at nearly every hawker center, usually by a stall that makes nothing else and sees no reason to. The genius is thrift: the water that poaches the bird becomes the broth that cooks the rice, and the fat trimmed from the bird is what makes that rice glossy and fragrant.
It is mild, clean and deeply savory, which is exactly what you want in the steam heat of a night race at Marina Bay. Everyone at the table seasons their own plate with chili, ginger and soy, so the cook gets credit for every combination.
The poached chicken
Ingredients
1 whole chicken
1 tablespoon (18 g) kosher salt, plus extra for rubbing
2 inch (5 cm) piece of fresh ginger
4 scallions
1 tablespoon (15 ml) Shaoxing wine
about 4 quarts (4 liters) water
1 teaspoon (5 ml) toasted sesame oil
Method
Rub a small handful of salt all over the chicken skin, then rinse it off under cold water. This scrubs the skin and leaves it smoother and paler after poaching. Pat it dry.
Put the water, the 1 tablespoon of salt, the ginger coins, 2 whole scallions (tied in a knot so they fit) and the Shaoxing wine in the stockpot. Cover and bring to a full rolling boil over high heat.
Holding the chicken by the wings with tongs, lower it breast side up into the pot until it is fully under the water. Add more boiling water from a kettle if any of it sticks out. The water will stop boiling.
When small bubbles return, turn the heat to the lowest setting and cover. Keep the water just below a simmer for 40 to 45 minutes, peeking every 10 minutes. If you see steady bubbles, lower the heat or move the pot partly off the burner.
Lift the chicken onto a plate and push the thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh without touching the bone. It must read 165°F (74°C). If it does not, return it to the pot for 5 minutes more and check again. Keep the broth on very low heat; you need it for the rice and sauces.
Fill the large bowl with cold water and plenty of ice. Plunge the chicken into it for 10 minutes, turning once. The shock firms the skin and gives it the springy, jelly like layer underneath that Singaporeans prize.
Drain the chicken, pat dry and rub all over with the sesame oil. Let it rest on a board while the rice cooks.
Chicken rice
Ingredients
2 cups (400 g) jasmine rice
3 tablespoons reserved chicken fat
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
2 1/2 cups (600 ml) hot poaching broth
2 pandan leaves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Method
While the chicken poaches, chop the reserved chicken fat into small pieces and put it in the saucepan over medium low heat. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the fat has melted into a clear liquid and small golden bits remain. Scoop out and discard the bits, keeping 3 tablespoons of liquid fat in the pan. If you have less, top up with oil.
Raise the heat to medium. Add the garlic and ginger and stir for about 1 minute.
Add the drained rice and stir for 2 minutes so every grain is coated in fat.
Pour in the hot broth, add the salt and push the pandan knot into the rice. Bring to a boil, then cover tightly, turn the heat to the lowest setting and cook for 15 minutes without lifting the lid. Turn off the heat and leave it covered for 10 minutes more. (Rice cooker: do the first three steps in a pan, then transfer everything to the cooker and press start.)
Remove the pandan leaves and fluff the rice with a fork, lifting from the bottom.
Chili sauce
Ingredients
6 fresh long red chilies
2 bird's eye chilies
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (2.5 cm) fresh ginger
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons (30 ml) calamansi or lime juice
3 tablespoons (45 ml) poaching broth
Method
Put all the chili sauce ingredients in the blender and blend until fairly smooth, scraping down the sides once. Taste: it should be hot, sour and a little sweet. Add more salt or lime if it tastes flat.
Ginger and scallion sauce
Ingredients
3 inch (7.5 cm) fresh ginger
2 scallions
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons (45 ml) neutral oil
Method
Put the ginger, sliced scallions and salt in the small heatproof bowl. Heat the oil in a small pan over medium high heat for about 2 minutes, then carefully pour it over the ginger. Stand back slightly: it will sizzle. Stir.
Soy dressing and to finish
Ingredients
2 tablespoons (30 ml) light soy sauce
3 tablespoons (45 ml) poaching broth
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 small cucumber
1 small handful cilantro sprigs
Method
Stir the soy sauce, broth, sugar and sesame oil together until the sugar dissolves.
Cut off the legs at the joint, then cut each into thigh and drumstick. Cut along each side of the breastbone and lift the breasts off whole, then slice them across into pieces about 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick, keeping the skin on.
Arrange the chicken on a platter with the cucumber, spoon the soy dressing over the meat and scatter the cilantro on top.
Coming soon
