A Taste of ... New York, with Nick Honeyman from Paris Butter

Honeyman has adapted his love for cheesecake into a simple recipe using feijoa that takes just 10 minutes. Photo / Supplied

My love affair with New York started early. At 18 I landed in a Harlem hostel for a few weeks while I was backpacking around the world and, unbeknown to me at the time, acquiring a fascination and love for food on my travels that would shape the rest of my life.

New York was big and bold, with people everywhere in a city that felt like it never slept. I could not believe the amount of restaurants and fast food eateries that were constantly full and seemingly endless. I'd go from window to window scouting out the menus to see what I could afford: not much, as it would turn out.

I ended up at Eisenburg's: a late night deli with a homely feel and some very tired looking cooks. They had dark lines under their eyes and fresh burns all over their forearms - had I known at the time that I was staring at my future I may have given up before I started.

Nick Honeyman says eating cheesecake reminds him of New York. Photo / Supplied

But what I ate that night at Eisenburg's were two of the simplest and best dishes of my life: a pastrami reuben sandwich and a New York cheesecake. They were simple dishes that had been refined to complexity and perfection.

For me, food takes me places in my memories and cheesecake takes me back to NYC. These days I don't have a huge amount of time back at home so I've adapted my love for cheesecake into a simple recipe that takes 10 minutes and uses one of my favourite New Zealand fruits, feijoa.

What Honeyman ate at Eisenburg's in New York were two of the simplest and best dishes of his life: a pastrami Ruben sandwich and a New York cheesecake. Photo / Getty Images

Currently, my 24-hour foodie tour of NYC would be: reuben sandwich and cheesecake from Eisenburg's, the original Kronut from Dominique Ansel, a Michelin star meal from fellow Kiwi chef Matt Lambert at The Musket Room and cocktails at the most avant garde bar in the world, The Aviary.

• Nick Honeyman is head chef and owner of Paris Butter in Herne Bay and seasonal restaurant Le Petit Leon in the south of France.

Individual Feijoa Cheesecakes

10 feijoas
Sugar
Lemon juice

200g cream cheese
25g Greek yoghurt (or coconut yoghurt)
Zest of 1 lime, finely grated
25g icing sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and lightly scraped

1. In a mixing bowl, using a whisk, incorporate the cream cheese and Greek yoghurt until smooth. Add the lime zest, icing sugar and vanilla. Place in a piping bag and put in the fridge.

2. Cut the feijoas in half. Using a teaspoon neatly scoop out the flesh into a bowl and reserve. Keep the shell of the feijoa in water with half a lemon squeezed in to stop them from going brown and set aside side.

3. Put the feijoa flesh in a blender or mixer, add 10 per cent of the weight in sugar to the mix and blend on high for 1 minute. Pour the mixture in a pot and reduce it over a low heat for 15 minutes, aiming for a puree consistency. Add lemon juice to taste.

4. Dry off the reserved feijoa shells and carefully fill them with the feijoa puree. You may need to flatten off the bottom of the shells so they can stand up. Place them in the fridge to set.

5. Pipe the reserved cheesecake mixture on to the feijoas and serve.