Two islands, one wood oven
Olive & Ash began with a promise made over a very long dinner in Crete: that one day we would build a room where nobody checks the time. Sofia grew up between her grandmother's olive groves and the harbour tavernas of Chania; Tom spent a decade cooking over fire in kitchens from Palermo to London. In 2021 we found a former joinery workshop with good bones and better light, planted an olive tree in the courtyard, and got to work.
Everything that can touch the fire, does. Flatbreads blister in the wood oven, whole fish arrive over embers, and the vegetables — most of them from growers within forty miles — are treated with the same seriousness as the lamb. The menu changes with the seasons and, honestly, with whatever made us greedy at the market that morning.
— Sofia & Tom Karalis Founders & Keepers of the Fire