If harissa and tahini are as commonplace as salt and pepper in your arsenal of ingredients, this is thanks in no small part to Ms Sarit Packer and Mr Itamar Srulovich. The couple – who hail from Israel – are co-founders of Honey & Co, a tiny Fitzrovia café that’s been at the forefront of the surge in popularity of Middle Eastern cuisine in the UK since it opened seven years ago. “When you see za’atar for sale in Waitrose, you know things have changed,” says Ms Packer. “It’s definitely much easier to find Middle Eastern ingredients now, and there are some amazing new Middle Eastern restaurants, especially in London.”

Generous meze plates, hunks of pomegranate-flecked slow-cooked lamb shoulder and, especially, desserts rich with the heady flavours of orange blossom and rose, pistachio and sour cherries, have won Honey & Co a loyal following. These days, Ms Packer and Mr Srulovich juggle their time between publishing cookbooks and hosting a food podcast, as well as running a deli, Honey & Spice, and their second restaurant, Honey & Smoke. Opened in 2016, Honey & Smoke is a bigger, buzzier version of the original, with the focus on boldly-flavoured dishes – from octopus to celeriac – which arrive at the table smoking from the charcoal grill. “Honey & Co is so small, it’s like sitting in someone’s living room,” says Ms Packer. “There, we serve dishes that remind us of home – lots of meze, and all the tahini you could dream of. At Honey & Smoke, we have more of a grown-up, party vibe.”

At both restaurants, however, there’s a dish that diners keep coming back for: a creamy cheesecake made with a sharp hit of feta, served on top of golden, vermicelli-style nests of kadaif pastry, with honey syrup and seasonal fruit. “When Sarit first came up with the recipe, it was just one of the desserts,” says Mr Srulovich. “But it soon became our signature dish. We could never take it off the menu now – we have people who come across town just to get their cheesecake fix, so we knew it had to be part of the offering at Honey & Smoke when we opened, too.”

For something so delicious, the cheesecake is surprisingly easy to recreate at home. “We take calls from people all the time who want to order it for dinner parties or events, and we always suggest people try making it themselves first, because it’s so simple,” says Ms Packer. “The only ingredient you need to hunt down is the kadaif, but that’s much more widely available these days – we even sell it at our deli, Honey & Spice. One advantage is that everything can be prepared separately in advance, then assembled when you’re ready to eat.”

The kadaif base is made from a batter that’s dropped onto a hotplate in thin strands. “There are some very cool videos on YouTube of it being made,” says Ms Packer. “You can use it in sweet and savoury dishes, but here we add butter and sugar and bake it in small rounds to make the base, providing a nice crunch. If you can’t get hold of kadaif, use filo pastry, finely shredded with a knife.”

When assembled, the cheesecake is served with fresh fruit. “Change it according to the seasons,” suggests Ms Packer. “In summer, we serve it with flat peaches, blueberries and raspberries.” If you’re entertaining, the perfect precursor to the dish would be, “our adana lamb kofta, with a pepper and aubergine salad,” according to Ms Packer.

Give Honey & Co’s signature dish a try yourself with the recipe below.

For the kadaif base:

• 25g melted butter
• 50g kadaif pastry (or shredded filo)
• 1 tbsp caster sugar 

For the cheesecake cream:

• 160g full-fat cream cheese (we use Philadelphia)
• 160ml extra thick double cream
• 40g icing sugar
• 40g honey of your choice (a grainy one works best)
• 50g smooth, creamy feta
• Seeds from ½ a vanilla pod (or 1 tsp vanilla essence) 

_For the honey syrup: _

• 50ml honey
• 50ml water

_For the garnish: _

• A few fresh oregano or marjoram leaves
• Mellow-flavoured seasonal fruit, such as white peaches or blueberries (raspberries or apricots are also good)

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.

Mix the melted butter with the pastry and sugar in a bowl. Fluff the pastry by pulling it and loosening the shreds with your hands until it gets an even coating of sugar and butter. Divide into four equal amounts, pulling each clump of pastry out of the mass like a little ball of yarn. Place these on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. They should resemble four flat birds’ nests, each about the size of a coaster.

Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool and keep in an airtight container until ready to serve. The pastry nests will keep for two to three days, so you can prepare them well in advance.

Place all the cheesecake cream ingredients in a large bowl and combine with a spatula or a big spoon, using circular folding motions until the mixture thickens and starts to hold the swirls. Don’t use a whisk: it’s vital not to add air to the mixture as the secret is in the texture. Check that it is sufficiently thick by scooping some onto a spoon and turning it upside down: it should stay where it is. If it is still too soft, mix it some more. (If you are increasing the quantities in this recipe to feed lots of people, I suggest using a paddle on a mixer for this, but you’ll need to watch it like a hawk so it doesn’t turn into butter.) You can prepare the cheesecake cream in advance (up to 48 hours before serving) and keep it covered in the fridge until it is time to assemble the dessert.