Design Notebook ...............

 Thonet Bentwood Chair

Designed in 1859 by German cabinetmaker Michael Thonet, the No. 14 chair (also known as the Vienna coffeehouse chair) emerged as the first example of bentwood furniture. Surviving models from the mid- to late 1800s feature hand-caned or laminated wood seats and are usually stamped with the country of origin. (By the 1870s, Thonet owned offices in almost 20 countries.) At auction, a No. 14 from the 1860s with a near-perfect seat can fetch about $1,000.

Picasso owned one, so did Brahms. And 150 years after Michael Thonet introduced the first mass-produced seat, and its design has remained virtually unchanged for 150 years. The chairs became staple in cafes around the world. They are extremely durable; if you knock them over they bounce rather than break as they are so flexible but elegant. 

Seasonal recipe for November

Raised game pies

By Gordon Ramsay

Makes 4

Water crust pastry is the traditional pastry for making raised pies and the essence of this pie.

250g mixture of game, such as loin of venison, partridge, pheasant or guinea fowl breasts

60g smoked bacon, chopped

200g sausage meat

2 eggs, beaten

1-2 tsp each freshly chopped parsley and sage

Grated zest of half a lemon

5 juniper berries, finely ground

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the water crust pastry

250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

½ tsp fine sea salt

1 egg

50g unsalted butter

50g lard

85ml water

1 Begin by making the pastry. Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Crack the egg into the middle and sprinkle over some of the flour to cover. Put the butter, lard and water in a small pan over a gentle heat. Once the butter and lard have melted, increase the heat and bring to the boil.

2 Pour the boiling water and fat around the edge of the bowl and quickly stir in using a palette knife. Knead the dough lightly until smooth, then wrap in clingfilm. Rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

3 Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Trim the game meat of any fat or sinew, then cut into 1cm cubes. Mix with the bacon, sausage meat, one of the beaten eggs, herbs, lemon zest and crushed juniper berries, and season with salt and pepper. Divide into 4 portions and roll into balls.

4 Reserve one third of the pastry for making the pie lids, wrapped in clingfilm in the fridge. Roll the remaining pastry out on a lightly floured work surface to a 2-3mm thickness. Cut out 4 circles, 14cm in diameter, using a saucer as a template. Place a ball of stuffing in the middle of each pastry disc. Press the stuffing gently to flatten at the base slightly.

5 Roll the reserved pastry to the same thickness as before and cut out 4 lids, 7cm in diameter. Place a lid over the top of the stuffing. Wet the rim of the larger pastry disc, then mould it up and around the filling to meet the lid. Curl the edge of the lid up to meet the top inside edge of the pie case and press together to seal. Repeat with the others, then chill for about 30 minutes until the pastry feels firm.

6 Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas 5. Make a neat steam hole in the centre of each pie lid with a skewer. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the pies from the oven and reduce the temperature to 170C/Gas 3. Brush the pies evenly with the remaining beaten egg, then bake for a further 20-30 minutes until the pastry is cooked and the centre of the pie is piping hot. Allow the pies to cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature with piccalilli.

Seasonal food November

This month’s newcomers...

Brussels sprouts, cranberries, Jerusalem artichokes, parsnips, pheasant, swede

Still in season: Beetroot, butternut squash, carrots, celeriac, chestnuts, elderberries, kale, onions, potatoes, rabbit, red grouse, salsify, watercress, apples (Egremont Russet, Blenheim Orange, Orleans Reinette), pears (conference, Concorde, Winter Nellis), pumpkins, quince, goose, venison, walnuts, wild mushrooms (Horse, Oyster, Blewitts)

VEGETABLES

Beetroot, Butternut squash, Brussels sprouts ,Celeriac, Chestnuts Jerusalem artichokes Kale, Mushrooms ,Parsnips Pumpkins Swede, Watercress

FRUIT

Apples, Cranberries, Pears, Quince

MEAT

Goose ,Grouse, Hare, Pheasant, Venison, Wood Pigeon.

FISH AND SEAFOOD

Crab, Crayfish ,John Dory ,Oysters ,Salmon Sea trout

Seasonal recipe for October

Butternut squash and vanilla soup

By Gordon Ramsay

Serves 8

This is an incredibly rich, indulgent soup, but is also amazingly simple to make. Adding the seeds from a vanilla pod lift this soup completely, and the black specks look pretty, too.

1 large butternut squash, weighing about 1kg

200g butter

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 vanilla pod

300-400ml chicken stock

150ml double cream

1 Peel, deseed and dice the butternut squash. Melt the butter in a large saucepan, then add the squash. Season with salt and pepper, then sweat the squash for a few minutes until it starts to soften. Split the vanilla pod lengthways in half and scrape out the seeds. Add the split pod to the pan, reserve the seeds for later.

2 Pour in enough stock to just cover the squash and bring to the boil. Cover with a lid and cook until tender. Transfer the mixture to a blender and whiz until smooth (you may have to do this in batches). Pass the soup through a sieve, using the back of a ladle to push it through, into a clean pan.

3 Stir in the cream and add the reserved vanilla seeds. Check for seasoning and reheat, stirring regularly. Serve in warmed soup bowls.

Seasonal food for October

This month’s newcomers...

Butternut squash, celeriac, chestnuts, elderberries, figs, kale, oysters, partridge, pumpkin, quince, walnuts.

Still in season: Artichoke, aubergine, beetroot, broccoli, carrots, courgettes, fennel, garlic, lamb, potatoes, onions, pak choi, rabbit, radishes, red grouse, rocket, watercress , apples (Egremont Russet, Blenheim Orange, Orleans Reinette), blackberries, wild mushrooms (Ceps, Chanterelles, Oyster), pears (Beth, Williams, Merton Pride), peppers, sweetcorn, goose, venison

VEGETABLES

Artichoke ,Butternut squash ,Celeriac Chestnuts ,Courgettes , Fennel, Kale, Mushrooms, Pak choi, Peppers, Pumpkins ,Rocket, Rosemary ,Spinach ,Sweetcorn, Watercress.

FRUIT

Apples, Blackberries, Figs, Pears, Quince

MEAT

Grouse, Hare, Lamb, Venison

FISH AND SEAFOOD

Crab, Crayfish, John Dory, Oysters, Salmon, Sea trout

Design Notebook………….

Bestlight Desk Lamp.

Created in 1930 by Robert Best and made in Birmingham, the Bestlite (from around £300+) is very British and very fictional. The angle of the lamp is adjusted via the pivoting swan neck arm. It has a chrome height adjustable arm with an adjustable shade and base available in matt black, matt ivory or glossy white.

It’s not a pretty lamp but very clean in design and impressive, it’s well constructed and durable and is still a firm favourite in many homes. It’s a very straightforward design with no gimmicks and it comes in a variety of lamps and wall brackets in the same shape and they all work well. An early example of the Bauhaus movement it was featured in the 'Architects Journal'. This opened up the light's potential to the architectural community and huge success followed.

Legend has it one sat on Winston Churchill’s air raid shelter desk during the war. 

New Kitchen Journey

I have asked Andy Randall head of design at tsunami uk ltd what you should be looking for or how you should approach buying a new kitchen and his expert advice is, “people should trust what they think and want but be open to inspiration and advice from us. Easier said and done as people continuously form opinions and ideas, they should ask as many questions as they can, ask the same questions in different places, this gets rid of dodgy salesman answers that get given!”

When we embark on changing our kitchen so it not just suits our needs but also our lifestyle here is how the whole process works at tsunami uk ltd.

1.            Client comes in and talks a little and looks around showroom (we will tend not to go to deep here)

2.            Meeting for design brief booked in (very important from our side as Tsunami, if they are interested and serious they will come back for a proper meeting, we have found people we take a brief from when they just walk in, never, really never go ahead. Important to remember that for an hour of their time we a giving hours of our time in designing)

3.            Design brief (The most important bit! this is the opportunity for us to understand the client and for them to tell us as much as possible, the better the drief the better the design! )

4.            Designing (this will take 7-10 days for us to design, drawer, price)

5.            1st Presentation (We will present the design and concept we have come up with. This is done using hand drawn plans, hand drawn measured perspectives, and costings, at this stage the entire design is talked through, from basic concept to finishes. However nice the design/drawings this is really the first main discussion so changes almost always occur. This is good as this is the real refining of the design to suit the client)

6.            2nd Presentation (The design presented here should not be a shock, it should include the changes made at the last meeting and the costs really pinned down, because of this the client should know the design, the finishes, the final cost. A deposit will normally be asked for here to proceed.)

7.            Deposit received (we will now release drawings, samples and our project manager will come to site, until this point we will have been quite cagey, we do not release drawings as they are our strong point, we do not release samples as we work very very hard to secure rare and exclusive materials)

8.            Kitchen ordered (delivery will now take 12-14 weeks. During this time we would generally liaise with the client’s contractors who are doing the building work, ensuring that the site is going to be ready for the kitchen delivery)

9.            Kitchen Here (We are ready to fit to a ready prepared area, floors down, wall first painted, electrics and plumbing in place. It will take about 3 ish weeks to fit)

10.          Fitting (Normally the kitchen gets first fitted, units only. The worktops get template and there is a pause while they get made 10-14 days. The worktops get fitted. Second fix of the units is completed all appliances in, things finished off. The client now has a finished Kitchen)