Focaccia Mia is a family story.

It starts with Ida. Raised in a restaurant family in Naples, she brought that same love for food to London and started Ida’s Kitchen back in 1999, cooking from her home kitchen while raising her first son. For over 20 years she built a reputation catering for some of London’s most prestigious offices.

Then 2020 hit. Like many businesses, everything suddenly stopped.

During that time, Ida and her son Jamal started talking about what the future could look like. Jamal had just graduated in marketing and had a vision for taking the business somewhere new. Ida had the food. Jamal had the ideas. It felt like the right time to build something together.

They rebranded, launched a new website and moved into their first commercial kitchen in NW London in 2021. Within a year, they’d already outgrown it.

Then came the dream - transforming an East London railway arch into our kitchen. Starting from an empty shell, they built Ida’s dream space from the ground up.

Soon after, Jamal’s younger brother Jalees joined the team - a passionate young chef and Ida’s protégé.

Then in October 2023, the brothers launched something new: Focaccia Mia.

Big focaccia sandwiches, bold flavours, and a lot of love behind the counter. What started as a small idea quickly took off, with queues out the door and an amazing local community forming around us.

Family run. East London made.