Milly Wilson and Suzie Bliss are the founders of N5 Kitchen, an independent company that has fast become London’s favourite fashion photo-shoot caterer. They’ve cooked for the likes of Naomi Campbell, Florence Pugh, Rita Ora and Nigella Lawson, and been hired to feed sets for global brands like Jimmy Choo, Net-A-Porter, Charlotte Tilbury, and more. In January 2024, the pair opened their first brick and mortar Kitchen Counter & Deli in Finsbury Park, finally bringing their delicious and hearty cooking to the people of north London! With daily changing menus for breakfast and lunch, the N5 Kitchen team is well on its way to becoming the capital’s top caterers.
“We’re a catering company. That’s how we started, and that’s the bulk of what we still do. And we’ve ended up in this funny niche catering to film sets and fashion shoots. So, we feed the crews on set breakfast and lunch.” Recently, they opened their first brick-and-mortar spot in North London, bringing their daily-changing catering menu to Finsbury Park locals. “We needed to move to a new kitchen,” Milly explains. “And we really wanted somewhere where we could also have a counter so the general public could come and get what we’re making that day. So that’s what we have in our new space. The counter is where people can get coffee, buy that day’s boxed breakfasts and lunches, and whatever baked goods we made that day”. “For everyone coming in off the street,” Suzie adds, “there’s always something different to try.”
We imagine that changing the menu daily must present quite a challenge, even as far as coming up with new ideas, but the pair insist the process is a lot of fun. “[The team] all sit down and get our cooking books out. Some days, you feel like you have too many ideas; other days, you can’t think of a single thing. But between the six of us, we always manage to come up with lots of delicious things, and there are always a few greatest hits that we do repeat,” says Milly. “Something like our Dandan noodles with crispy minced pork, which is super popular. And we try to cook as seasonally as possible, which makes things a little easier in terms of what produce to use.” “It’s quite a wholesome scene when we’re doing the menu writing,” says Suzie, “because we’ve all our gorgeous cookbooks out on the kitchen island, everyone’s got a cup of tea, and it’s really nice.”
Suzie and Milly have known each other for a long time, having met in their first year of university in Newcastle. They laugh: “We’ve been best friends ever since!”. While today, Milly serves as Head Chef, Suzie focuses her attention on the Operations side of things. “I mean, I always wanted to work in food,” says Milly. “Suz had a very serious corporate job at the bank. Whenever she had a day off, she’d help me in the kitchen until the day when I was like, ‘Imagine if you worked with me all the time?’. From then, we made that our goal.” “I think we all have a bit of a giggle thinking of me tottering around an office in heels,” Suzie jokes.
The two of them clearly share a deep-seated love of food, which Milly attributes to them both being “super greedy”. “It definitely comes down to us loving to eat,” says Suzie, jumping in. “This may sound corny, but a big part of it for me was when I met Milly at uni, and she would cook for our house of seven girls every night for dinner. She knew how to make all these incredible things and was such a great inspiration.” Milly laughs: “We were a house of seven very greedy girls. We were definitely known to make mac ‘n’ cheeses at 10 am while hungover.”
“We never had much of a grand plan,” they explain, “though this Deli space is as close as we’ve gotten to one.” The space that N5 Kitchen is located in now, says Milly, “used to be a Sylvanian families shop… it was the last one in Europe, I think?”. “I think it was the only ever physical shop,” Suzie responds.
The shop was closing down when they came across it, the pair tells us, so they bought the space and turned it into the space it is today. Where the sprawling, industrial kitchen is today, used to serve as a storage space full of Sylvanian families toys. “It was a big renovation project to make it a usable space,” says Suzie, as she describes how they’d find the odd toy buried amongst broken shelving. “It was kinda creepy, kinda cute,” Milly summarises. “Before they closed for good, we went in and bought a little café set,” they explain, “and we’ve now put it on display!”.
Back to the food, however, and N5 Kitchen emphasises a focus on seasonal produce and home cooking. “We aim for food that’s simple and delicious, without being overworked,” says Milly. “We just want to make something that you couldn’t necessarily make yourself,” Suzie adds. “It’s always really hearty and filling,” Milly continues. “A lot of clients have commented that our food is super filling after a long day on set, but it still feels healthy. I think a lot of set food tends to be things like bacon wraps or fried foods, whereas our always includes lots of vegetables, but also delicious meats and fish, yummy dressings, and carbs.”
While N5 Kitchen is branching out and catering to offices and the general public, it built its reputation on catering to fashion and movie sets and, by extension, industry stars. So, who have been some of its biggest clients, you may be wondering? “For us, [Yotam} Ottolenghi was probably the biggest deal,” they both agree. “And then, people like Naomi Campbell and Lewis Hamilton, those are just really fun.” (And, if you were wondering, Ottolenghi complimented the catering team on their menu). “We also do Nigella [Lawson] a lot and she really likes our food. She’s another good one for the cooking nerds,” Milly laughs.
With their new, physical space, the duo behind N5 Kitchen express a desire to become part of the community fabric in north London. “We want to be known by locals, and become part of the landscape… We’re also planning some community cooking lessons, teaming up with a local primary school to teach children some of the basic skills in making a wholesome meal. It’s something we’ve always wanted to do.” As Milly explains, “We’re both lucky enough to have parents that cook and taught us the basics. For kids that don’t necessarily have that, I think it’s such an important life skill, and now we have the space to do that.” Watch this space!
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