Continued from previous post:
I had a conversation with my friend, a photographer, a couple of years ago and we discussed the phone vs camera conundrum. His view, then, which I agree with is that you must choose. Phone or camera. It’s tedious and removes the magic if you shoot everything double, a quick one on the phone and then a better one with the actual camera - you want to enjoy the moment not just document it.
My latest attempt to address this not so serious problem is the FujiFilm XT5 which I bought 2 weeks ago here in HK (yup, still here.) I bought it, full price, at the mall next door and it came with a 16-50 lens (not a full frame camera.) I got the less good version of the lens as affordability is key to this experiment.
I can’t vouch for durability or reliability over time but it’s light and easy to bring everywhere. I haven’t shot a single image on my phone for 14 days and here and in the next post you can see some results.
Another key in making my experiment work is that I’m shooting everything jpg, not RAW like I usually do with the Canon. This means there’s much less room manoeuvre in correcting the files. I want the pictures to jump directly between Camera and Phone, no laptop involved, no delays and no postproduction. I might even trade my phone in for the Air version and forget about ever using the camera on the phone.
I hope you like the pics, Hong Kong is an absolutely terrific town and the food here is ridiculous. People have come and gone, we had 19 amazing workshop guests here in April, the kids flew in and back out today, almost in time for school (we kept the youngest pup here with us.)
Hong Kong has that 60’s or 70’s vibe (mixed in with extreme modernity and luxury) and the Fuji XT-5 is a very retro machine so it all falls into place.
On another note, we have plans to leave HK soon, next stop Rome where we’re hosting a photography workshop - switching the wan tan noodles for a carbonara as it were. Hong Kong is so hard to leave but if you must, Rome will soften the blow.
If you want more info on the upcoming photography workshops or for that matter any other workshops please contact us:
[email protected]
It’s funny how nobody ever ran for office without “so many people encouraging them to do so.” Or the one where people post a gorgeous old photo of themselves “because they happened to be going through old albums, you know, casually.” Photographers do this too, they happen upon some of their best work when arranging old files - everyone misplaces masterpieces, you know how it is.
What isn’t made up, however, is that I’m very often asked here on IG what cameras I use. Say, thrice a week, give or take.
I use a Canon R5 for what you might call serious work (although I must admit I’m never serious about work - restaurants, that’s another story.) The R5 is a beast of a machine, reliable, fast and easy to use. The files are great. But, it’s not a sexy beast and it goes badly with a linen suit when you enter a trattoria in Rome. Like driving a bus in a tux. It’s also very heavy.
In the old days I was purely a Leica man (and a bit of Hasselblad too.) I’ve given Leica a go several times over the past decade. They do make the most beautiful cameras, superior lenses and the digital files have gotten pretty great over the years.
Over the past few years I’ve shot most of what you see on this page on my phone (current version iPhone 14.) That’s fine as far as it goes but shooting with a phone is like cutting steak with a bread knife. It’s not right. And the files, while mostly fine here on IG don’t really cut it if you happen to get a great shot and you want to use it for other purposes.
For a while I tried the Leica Q3 with the 28 lens which is lovely and the files are great, but I need more lens versatility. I need be able to pull back, take a portrait or zoom in on a plate. Later they released a 43 version which is more versatile but still limited. The M11 with a couple of lenses is an option (I had the M10 for a while) but it’s very expensive and not something you want to schlep to the beach or the pub or bang around with all the time.
Continued in the following post …
New Turin / Piemonte Workshop dates - October 6-8, 2027
It’s become an annual tradition for us to host an “Autumn Feast in Piemonte” workshop here in our home region and home city of Turin.
Going to markets, cooking together, wine tasting, long tables, long lunches and late dinners, four nights in a row. Lots of shenanigans too.
It’s a three day “bonanza”, a mix of Town and Country and too much of everything.
Our fall workshop in Piemonte this year has been very full for a long time but next year’s dates are just announced and if you’re interested please write to us:
[email protected] (manger as in eating in French, not manager.)
Here is also a list of our other upcoming workshops:
/workshops/
These images are some of my photographs for the Piemonte / Turin section of Mimi’s cookbook, Old World Italian - the best seller of all her cookbooks.
I’m putting some photos from our Piemonte workshop last fall in stories, I laughed so hard when I was going through them that I nearly choked on my G&T (I’m not including the craziest ones) - that was fun, thanks for the memories guys.
Today is Mimi’s birthday, her 22nd since I met her that January night in Paris. I say night but it was closer to morning, I was was down and out, so to speak, had lost my friends and left my wallet at my hotel. I needed a girl to get me home and there she was, on the other side of a simple rope that was meant to distinguish the rest of us from ... people like her. I crossed the rope without thinking about it, walked over to Mimi and asked her if what she was wearing was a Missoni dress, which indeed it was. Knowing things can come in handy. When Mimi tells the story she says that my fashion familiarity made her drop her guard, as if maybe I was batting for the other team. In that moment I was, however, swinging for the fences.
It turned out to be the home run to end them all,
What a life we’ve had together darling.
Moral of the story, sometimes you need to cross the line.
ps Mimi is wearing the dress in question on the last slide, there she’s pregnant with Audrey. The dress has more or less been retired and it hasn’t been easy keeping it from the clutches of our growing daughters. They can have it of course, over my dead body.
20 Years!
Today our son Hudson Paul is celebrating his twentieth birthday. He’s our original lovechild, born just a year after we met. We often like to joke that he closed the deal. This young man is endlessly precious to us, he’s got quality in spades and has, I’m sure, a bright future ahead of him. As far as I’m concerned he can be whatever he wants to be.
We had a lovely lunch together just the three of us, at Gatto Nero which is our favourite restaurant in the world and the place where we have celebrated most family birthdays. Today was Hudson’s fourth “compleanno” at the Cat. And he wore the suit I got married in that day in Paris. Of course we opened a bottle of red from 2006.
Torino couldn’t have been more beautiful than it has been today, warm and sunny. We picked up a birthday cake at Pfatisch, a bottle of nice Burgundy on the walk home and a few peas and strawberries at the greengrocer. Hudson requested a leek and chicken pie with peas and home made fries (chips) on the side for dinner, He’s got the best mother in the world for that job, some boys are born lucky.
Everything today feels tender and light and optimistic. And delicious.
Happy Birthday my boy, March 16th 2006 was a beautiful day, just like today.
Dining alone has a different feel entirely to dining with company. It’s less joyful, less laughing out loud, more time for reflection and nurturing ideas. Mostly you turn into the dog in the kitchen corner, you observe. When you share a table with someone, unless you’re a raging narcissist, you notice them. When you are alone you notice the colour shade of the walls, the font on the menus, the mood of the staff - you notice the waiters more than they notice you.
Dining alone doesn’t come without risks. If they seat you next to another solitary diner, or a talkative couple on holiday who take a keen interest in your presence, then you’re fried. Luckily Brits are less prone to intertable chattery than some.
The places I like best are very well known but they are largely frequented by locals and most have been around for a while. None of them are hip enough to attract travellers who need to cross them off bucket lists. They are not “I’ve been there, it was awesome or it sucked” kind of restaurants, they are “We’ve been going there for years” kind of places.
From my seat I’ve observed and overheard (I try to tune out when the discussions get too private) fascinating things. What I enjoy most is how happy people seem to see each other, to catch up, how much they enjoy the food and sharing it. This has been my most prevailing observation. Old friends catching up, over wine & food. British diners, at least in the places I love, are among the happiest and most polite to waiters. Then again, what is there to complain about. We are talking about restaurants that fly close to perfection. All the booze helps too, I suppose. Brits drink a hell of a lot more than Italians and even the French.
Let’s imagine I were stranded on a desert Island for a few months and that desert Island was London. I would have restricted yet generous terms of where to eat. English apple and black coffee for breakfast. Seven restaurants on repeat for lunch from Monday to Sunday. My dinner a bottle of wine and some cheese, bread and charcuterie at my hotel except for Fridays and Saturdays when I’d get to go out.
You can find my lineup in the comments, if you want.
48 hours in London. With Kids
It was a week but as GG wrote, A story has no beginning or end. So we might as well look back to that Wednesday night.
A family trip should include some time alone, that night it was just us.
Simpson’s in the Strand is reopening and we have drinks at the upstairs bar, two martinis. We are the only guests but Mr Jeremy King, the most qualified man in London to helm this venture is seeing out some people. I shake his hand, which is as soft as his voice - but his presence carries weight. This is a good start to the evening. The barman shows us the not yet finished Romano’s and we peek into Nellie’s downstairs before settling into the Grand Divan which is every bit as beautiful as I had hoped - this place is a masterpiece, albeit still in the making.
Thursday - breakfast at Bruno’s in Soho, as good a place as any to start the day. Mimi and I race each other to the Design Museum, she by bus, I take the tube. I lose. The kids love the Wes Anderson archives. Lunch is at Daquise, a polish canteen in South Kensington. The waiters are great and the Borscht is gloriously crimson. After lunch they drag me to the V&A to look at dresses but I sneak out early and buy my boy the ice cream his mother had denied him. In the afternoon I take the girls to Pollock’s toy store in Covent Garden where we buy a dog called Digby then we have a Pig bun at St John wine bar. Dinner is at the Park. It’s a lovely place and while I get a little jealous by Mimi fawning over Bryan Ferry I get my revenge when we spot Kristin Scott Thomas at a nearby table.
On Friday morning we break up the troops in a rain soaked London, I take the girls to Tate Britain for the Constable/Turner show, Mimi takes Lucian to the Aquarium. Early lunch at the wonderful Sweetings in City (Mimi takes Lucian to Dim Sum Duck). We have oysters, eel, Shrimp cocktail and turbot with fries and lobster Mac&Cheese.
The rain doesn’t stop so we maximise my new membership at Tate and cross the river for a Tracey Emin retrospective. On the way home we stop by Corneliessen art store for some supplies.
That night I schlep the girls down the street for some delicious Korean.
My Edinburgh list
On February 18th I checked out of my hotel in Soho where I had been spending the past two weeks, first with Mimi and later on my own. I rarely have breakfast - well, in theory - but in view of my upcoming journey to Scotland and my utter lack of faith in the on-board catering of English trains, I made an exception. If you must know I had a delicious bagel from Beigel bake, gorged with fine English bacon and brought to my bedside by a lovely chap who thought nothing of climbing the stairs twice because the first time he had forgotten the brown sauce. You may think me rude to accept his effort but I assure you that sometimes brown sauce is more important than manners.
I arrived on time at Edinburgh’s Waverley which is apparently the only railway station named after a novel (according to a billboard at the station.)
Another billboard has a quote from Sir Walter Scott “A glass of good wine is a gracious creature” and I cannot disagree with that.
I spent the following week in my own company (which I love) and my daughter’s (which I love even more) who is studying there but I have to admit my concern at her jammed social calendar which left relatively little room for me - which was fine - but one has to wonder when Edinburgh University students find time to actually study.
I was soon joined by a large section of my family, my wife, my three youngest, my eldest and ... my mother.
Now let me get to the point so this post may be of some use to you. I searched high and low once more for the best restaurants and while most of my favourites are not new discoveries, there are some new entries here. These are my suggestions, please take them with a pinch of salt, they taste better that way
I ran out of space before I could get to the point - you will find my Edinburgh suggestions in the comments
I was in London in January and I heard, then, that a new Italian was about to open in Soho. I rarely eat Italian food over here, for obvious reasons, but something about this one, called Vibrato @osteriavibrato , seemed worth a taste.
I’m back in London now and my visit coincides fortuitously with the opening of Vibrato, which was yesterday.
Great guys behind this place, not that I know them, but they seem to have the credentials, the ambition and the heart. The last one being the most important. When I say I don’t know them, I should have spoken in past tense. After my lunch today I feel I know Charlie Mellor, one of the founders, a little bit. He sat down with me for a while. We share many of the same passions. We both love Gatto Nero in Torino. We both love Italian food. He used to be an opera singer so I assume he loves Opera, as do I.
Most new restaurants are a disaster.
A restaurant needs a reason to exist, especially in London which is full of eateries.
Let’s start with looks.
This is the most beautifully designed, small new restaurant that I have ever been to.
The design is rooted in history but certainly with a contemporary touch. You can feel it’s new, there’s no faking the past. Vibrato doesn’t look like it’s always been there. But it looks like it always will.
The cutlery is lovely, the candlesticks eclectic, the waiters are dressed as they should. And they are good waiters too.
The music is right, The cocktails are perfect and dewy and glistening.
On the menu: Pan regional offerings from much of Italy, and not just the obvious pick, some obscure ones too.
I had the courtyard ragu, it’s very good but today the pasta might have arrived a tad warmer - they just opened, let’s remember that. Then I had the mixed grill - I was in the mood for a Sunday roast. I was expecting something good but standard. This mixed grill was outstanding +.
And they have a piano, embedded in one of the handsome, wooden lined walls. Towards the end the head waiter unbuttoned his cream coloured linen jacket, sat down and played a song, like an angel.
I’m one day late but I think I just fell in love with a restaurant.
London Part IV - That night we saw a cabaret at the Crazy Coqs, very, very good fun. Too many Martinis perhaps and more to follow at our very late dinner at Dover. Can’t really rate that place but someone screwed up the reservation and it might have been me ... but it might also have been them. Very nice Italian barman gets top marks and the place looks quite beautiful, burger was ok. On Saturday Man Utd beat City so that was all I needed to have a lovely day - bliss actually. Lunch at Trishna, one of the top Indians in town, 9.4/10. Vietnamese takeaway in bed. Mimi left before me so I had Sunday to myself, Rochelle Canteen starting with a Bloody Mary. I’ve had better Onion soup but a meal here is always worth it 8.8/10 this time, usually rates higher. I was reasonable on Sunday night, just a bottle of red and some cheeses from Bailey and Sage. And the Night Manager, right from the source - the telly, BBC. Haircut on Monday, Truefitt & Hill, some essentials at Fortnums and a real quickie lunch at The Devonshire. Do they still deserve all their plaudits. Yes, I’m afraid they do. This time a solid 9/10 but often score higher.
Final treat was on BA business class back to Turin (which I got at a bargain) they serve you one G&T in a glass and a second one to compliment. That’s what I call flying high.
Dry February has a horrible ring to it but I’m almost considering it. No I’m not.
London Part III - The spy who came in from the cold at Soho place Theatre was really good despite the theatre mimicking a cruise liner upon entering and a conference hall in Finland once seated ( I actually grew to like it - all very civilised) 9/10, which means a jolly good show. We also saw High Noon but this was better. Things got interesting on Wednesday when I had lunch by myself at the much discussed Yellow Bittern. It seems to be a polarising restaurant but I have only good things to say. Apparently Ottolenghi wrote in the Guardian that it was on the expensive side, to the chagrin of the co proprietor, Mr Corcoran. I don’t think it’s too expensive, not least when compared to restaurant like Berenjak, two hours or so well spent with delicious, simple and homey food. The Yellow Bittern has a sprinkle of originality, intellect and humour and I think Hemingway would have described it as a good, honest place that anyone should be lucky enough to visit. 9.3/10 That night, post theatre diner was at Kettner’s in Soho. The food was rubbish-ish but we had the room to ourselves, my company was 10/10 and it shows you that sometimes the food doesn’t matter so much, especially when you know what’s for dessert later. 6/10. Thursday was a very rainy day, we had lunch in Notting Hill, at Dove. This was a rather regrettable meal, not bad but didn’t measure up to my previous experiences. Mimi wasn’t in the mood to share any of my preferred choices (much of the best stuff here is for two) so we each weirdly had the Bavette which was billed “with morelles and bone marrow” and up to a point it probably was, but what sounded like one thing was in fact another - a very fusiony plate, the meat was of a high quality but the morelles were hiding. I won’t rate this experience, let’s call it a blip. Dinner that night at Quo Vadis again, yes, why not - around the corner and one of the best places in town. Friday was lunch at St John, Smithfield. I had the Mallard, Mimi the Haddock. This is a classic. 9/10. Part IV and I promise it’s over
London Part II - The following day I had lunch with Louise at St John, Marylebone, Partridge and other things. Just lovely. She had ordered a Fergroni before I arrived, I scolded her for that, a little. Then I drank most of it. 8.7/10 Dinner was at Dove. My second visit. Last year I had a fantastic lunch here with the family, we were even lucky enough to try the deservedly famous burger. My dinner with Louise was brilliant, the grilled sea bream an absolute winner, again. Based on that, one of the top, top places in town 9.2/10. On Saturday Mimi and I had bagels in bed, then we took Louise and her friends for Vietnamese near the hotel. The food was fine. Date night at Arlington - again a top place, great food, We had our starters and our mains and a fish cake to compliment, which was odd but very tasty 8.8/10. Sunday was at Andrew Edmunds, a place I love but am not in love with, if that makes sense. Everything was very good but this place has a dour quality, which can be nice, on a Sunday 7.5/10. Dinner in bed, takeaway from Al Balad, very satisfying after a big night out.
I think our next lunch was at The Hart - a newish gastropub in Marylebone. What can I say, it’s rather perfect, the food delicious, the place beautiful. Shall we say 8.9/10. Monday night, dinner with friends at Quo Vadis, 9.5/10 again.The cocktails here are outstanding, as is everything else. That dinner was a bit boozy so Korean seemed appropriate for the fallout on Tuesday - Chungdam in Soho was perfect for that 9/10. You may be thinking that I’m generous with the ratings but bear in mind that we are pros at this and know how to select good restaurants, anything below a 7 is a disaster. Actually 7 is a disaster.
That night we had a very early dinner at the much lauded Berenjak - pre show. Everything here tastes delicious, but for a 45 min experience at the counter, I’d be much happier to pay half the price. 8.1/10. Continues in Part III
