KITCHENS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN Exactly how can we inject more conviviality and pleasure into our Listen to The Unsociable Kitchen. COSY COVID WEDDING As everywhere, lockdown brought confinement to our home at Fyning Copse HEADING FOR EUROPE At least in our habits and mindset we now seem to be moving closer to our very own continent. This satisfies my Europhile instincts. Clare Finney explores in BBC Good Food some ways in which British attitudes to food are developing. Incredibly to the young, it was once considered a bit rude to pass a brief appreciative comment at a dinner party. We were supposed to poke the mouthfuls past our stiff upper lips and converse about more cerebral topics. Now though, Clare and I agree that Brits are joining Europeans in recognition of the role of food as an organising event, even during the day. This chimes perfectly with the way I’ve always lived, why in fact I made a career out of kitchen design. It’s not just about the pleasure of an indulgent five-hour lunch – though of course sometimes it very much is. More important really is cultivating the atmosphere of real kitchen living with a creative mix of food, cooking, conversation, family activities and home working (the kitchen table a classic spot for this), bringing the space to warmest life. It does all centre round the table, a practical one rather than the shiny mahogany segments found in the dining room. A homely pine table sends out a wealth of signals and messages. Read up on this enriching subject in Adam Gopnik’s The Table Comes First. MELLOW READING REC From the intriguing title to the personal and nature-immersed narrative, you experience a compelling journey with Chris Stewart. He and his wife Ana Exton bought a derelict mountain farm in Andalucía in 1990, the same year we bought Fyning Copse. I have an extra sense of affinity with Chris since we were also born in the same year, 1951. Their remote Spanish house had no kitchen, just an upturned oil drum as a table. Ours was originally a galley strip, a five foot corridor with stove and sink and only a two foot gap to walk through. The Stewarts camped in their house for a year, while our interior, a smaller project, was up and running in a fast four months. In the case of both these homes, staying put long term has allowed us to bed down deeply. Paving stones become old friends, trees feel like relations. The shabby becomes not so much chic as sacred, expressing character but also a sense of time and place knitted together. In Chris Stewart’s account, lemons represent both the sun and refreshment, driving over them a sign of wildness as well as abundance. There’s no one around to pick them up or worry about their monetary value. Nature can just be left unattended and the land rarely visited. I can’t wait to visit him to hear his ideas about kitchen-making - he ended up rebuilding their cottage completely. I’ll be finding out all about Ana’s and his special take on Andalucian life, slower cooking and growing their own produce. Chris has even agreed to let me take my camera. Enjoy the autumn in this beechmast year. Around here at least we’ll be walking over beechnuts in this most lush and generous of seasons. I hope it treats you and your kitchens and gardens well. Johnny |