I am someone that allocates a lot of weight and meaning to objects. It’s always been the case, my bedroom as a child was filled with treasures, as far as I saw them at least. Whether it was teddy bears & a bath pearl collection when I was little or later beer mats and pint glasses at university. The association of an item to a person, time and place has always been strong. And nothing has changed as I am in full swing of my adulthood. As I write this I’m looking at a collection of cow creamers that started on a whim as the jugs of choice for my lovely café Henley on Toast and just opened up from there, some as gifts, some found by me, all I can tell you the where and why.
I have recently been involved in the task of packing up my family home and the decisions on what to keep and what to pass on. A challenge for me without a doubt. Looking at a cereal bowl and knowing it was your chosen one, worth battling your brother for at the breakfast table or a platter that represented family meals together on special occasions. I packed up an absolute hodgepodge of items, some folks would understand like some great saucepans, others perhaps not, like a specific mug, I’m actually drinking out of as I write.
I was delighted to attend the opening of the new exhibit at The Burton Gallery, here in Bideford
What We Keep: the Art of Collecting - a fantastic exhibition , well worth a visit - I particularly loved the shopping list collection!
It's probably around now that the word hoarder comes to mind. Well – I suppose I can’t blame you. But I don’t see it like that. The Larder is a good example of a collection of items gathered over the years that pull together as one. Various boxes, baskets, furniture pieces, pictures and stands. When I go to use a certain box or basket I can recall exactly how it came to be in my possession and reader, more often than not that someone no longer wanted said item and I gave it a home… ok I can see why the hoarder word has come up! And my hope is that the passion I have for these items translates into the feel of the shop being welcoming.
But there are other items very specifically chosen and sought out in the Larder and I found myself thinking about one this weekend. Wooden seedling trays.
Before the Larder I was involved in a really, rather special temporary dining and events catering company called Chateau Marmot – I’ve spoken about it here before I think. And I had the immense pleasure of working with some truly exceptional chefs. One of our chefs also happened to be an old family friend – I don’t know that I’ll share his name, I think I’ll hold on to that. But as well as creating exquisite food he had an exceptional eye for presentation – really focusing on the food itself – where it came from, why its in season now. His food was thoughtful. So when he came to me and suggested that we use wooden seedling trays for canape boards, I admit at first I couldn’t see why, but the moment we had some and started using them I could see it clearly. It brought it back to the beginning somehow, gave reminder of the ground from whence it came and also provided an incredible eye catching canvas to showcase the canapé in question. It really stuck with me, that level of striping it back, simplicity and the elegance that came with it. I remember clearly one of my very first purchases for the Larder was a set of ten seedling trays and I still have most of them now. Used in a whole variety of ways. One has my coffee machine sat upon it at home which caught my eye.
This wonderful chef and old friend took his life several years ago and the tragedy of this event is still so ever present for those that knew him. A caring man gone and culinary light truly & tragically went out and he is missed. I think of him very often, particularly when I’m frying an egg as he taught me the best way to do it one day during set up of an event. A quiet moment of enjoyment between two old friends and now colleagues.
Unfortunately the cheffing industry has a high volume of suicide and I have known far too many more lost during my time in hospitality. I worry so very much with the way that hospitality is going at the moment, with so many closures that this statistic will only rise. I am not here to preach nor do I have any answers on how to resolve this but I suppose, as we have just reached the end of Mental Health Awareness Week the idea of looking around you and reaching out was on my mind. The theme of this years week was ‘Action’ – a good one I think. And perhaps that action is just to look around and have awareness if someone is struggling. Make that call you’ve meant to do, invite that person out for a coffee. It’s not as simple as that, nowhere close but sometimes little things really do mean a lot.