Tea at Trianon: Home Farm Cooking

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, May 21, 2021

Home Farm Cooking

A very monastic-looking setup. From Architectural Digest:

The architect and designer behind high-profile projects like the recently-opened West Hollywood Edition and London’s Design Museum, John Pawson is known for his light, minimalist touch. Pale woods. Clean lines. Never an overstuffed sofa. And the new Cotswolds country house he shares with his interior designer wife, Catherine, is no different—as evidenced by their latest project, Home Farm Cooking (Phaidon). The book of 100 recipes—from gooseberry fool to venison pappardelle—showcases their rustic, restrained home, as well as the meals they make there.
This isn’t John’s first foray into cookbooks. Twenty years ago, the architect collaborated with food writer Annie Bell on Living and Eating, a publication that combined his pared-back aesthetic with simple-to-make recipes. The 2001 title went on to become a cult classic, inspiring a second iteration. This time, it’s all about a project with Catherine, which celebrates the minimalist home (and kitchen, of course) they’ve created in the Cotswolds. “Twenty years on, we thought, now could be time to do a new one,” says Catherine on a call from their Cotswolds home. (Read more.)

From House and Garden:

There are three kitchens, one at each end of the 50 metre line-up, and the third in the converted hay wain guest house. None of them is immediately obvious. Everything - the batterie de cuisine, ice cream makers, juicers, the Magimix - are either hidden behind bi-fold doors that spring open at the touch of a fingertip, or housed in the pantry and larder. Everything is in triplicate. A first for Catherine. 'Extravagant, I know,' she says, 'but the kitchens are used all year round.'
The family spent the winter months inside the central farmhouse with its low ceilings and fireplace, then moved to the light and airy barn in the summer. A massive sash window, made in Germany with a raw stainless steel frame from Sweden, frames the view and connects the interiors to the outdoors. Spring recipes feature foraged fresh spring greens, wild garlic pesto, nettle risottos; summer marinades for seared meats and salad dressings for al fresco eating. Autumn is spent harvesting wild mushrooms and pumpkins, roasting nuts, pickling red cabbage, caramelising fennel, and making soups. Then Christmas, which Catherine admits is, 'the one time of the year when John indulges my desire for over decoration.'
Married to a world famous minimalist whose projects include a Benedictine monastery in Czechoslavakia, Calvin Klein’s flagship stores, and London’s Design Museum, Catherine’s decorative skills - honed at the Inchbald School of Design and at Colefax and Fowler - have generally been somewhat curbed. It is the first time in 32 years of marriage that John has ever countenanced curtains, even if they are plain white wool ones, and zooming in on their library reveals that in this house their books are no longer covered in fishmongers’ white marbled paper for uniformity. The Donald Judd sofa she bought, a signed and numbered work of art, is, 'madly comfortable, everyone piles into it,' John says approvingly. 'I think the whole thing with marriage is that it is much more important to be with someone you get on with, than someone who has architecturally the same taste.' (Read more.)