On Kindness, Cake & A Few Black Friday Gems

A compliment or two

After my essay on cake last week, one of our longest-standing customers, Claudia, wrote to me. (Longest-standing as in loyal, I should say, not ancient.) She thanked me for the weekly emails, always lovely to hear, and she agreed with the Nick Cave notion I quoted back in October: that it is, in fact, quite all right 'not to know.'

She also paid the business and, slightly embarrassingly*, me, an especially touching compliment, and I quote:

“You are very kind people and run a company which accepts and nurtures different personalities in your workforce, giving them a chance in life they may not easily get elsewhere.”

A generous thought, and one that gave me pause. My youngest, Joey, is fairly convinced I’m somewhere on the autism spectrum myself. However, unlike Sheldon’s** mother, mine never had me tested, so that particular mystery may accompany me to my grave. But I’m certainly happy to admit to being mildly dyslexic, and possibly a little… niche?

It did also connect, I felt, with Nick Cave’s idea. Because, I think 'not knowing' invites curiosity, and 'kind curiosity' becomes connection between individuals (there’s nothing like showing interest in someone to make them feel valued.) Claudia’s note reminded me that this is pretty much how we muddle along here. No one pretends to know everything (me included), but we try to meet the gaps with kindness rather than judgement. Charlie Mackesy might say the same thing, only he does it with and a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse, all looking wistfully into the distance (for context see the 'Last Word' below.)

It also made me wonder, in conversation with a friend the other day, what on earth I’d have done if I hadn’t inherited this business. I left school with no qualifications and even fewer commercially useful interests. Railways, hi-fi, the pub and chasing girls do not, sadly, a career plan, constitute.

And yet, if Claudia is right, then what a compliment it is.

Because as I look around the business, yes, we are a mixed and occasionally quirky bunch. There are definitely some characters. But the mix works, mostly. And when it doesn’t, because we’re human, and humans don’t always get on perfectly, we try to understand what went wrong and make adjustments.

Not a grand philosophy, perhaps, but not a bad one to run a workplace by. Babette and I attempted the same approach at home (I still do….most of the time!) … with varying degrees of success. 

*One that I thoroughly enjoyed, however, so not that embarrassing… just me feeling I ought to be modest, and failing with some delight.

** Sheldon Cooper, the notoriously autistic character from TV series The Big Bang Theory

Cake developments

Now, I have a major development on the cake front, which I feel sure you’ll want to be kept abreast of.

Last week, Martin Turner, our Riedel account manager and long-standing friend, came to see me, conveniently timed for elevenses. I’d suggested that if he brought the comestibles, I’d provide the coffee. A fair division of labour, it seemed to me.

Well, as luck (mine, and later several others in the company) would have it, he’d just come from a meeting at Harrods. And Harrods, as I’m sure you know, has a Food Hall. And the most important thing sold in that Food Hall is…?

Correct….

Cake.

In Martin’s case, a large chocolate cake, handsomely decorated, gold leaf*** and all. The cake itself was magnificent: beautifully baked, moist, buttery, deeply chocolatey and generally unctuous in all the right places (just like my ideal woman really). In short, perfection. Several members of the Reigate and Cobham teams were also beneficiaries of this largesse, so it wasn’t just me who achieved a momentary state of bliss.

As a result, I'll now add Martin’s name to the pleasingly growing list of all-time greats, which already includes Jo, Roger and Lee. On reflection, he should have already been on last week’s roll of honour, as his partner baked a superb cake for me a couple of years ago. I trust this belated recognition helps repair the oversight.

***Now, as you may have gathered over the years, I’ve led a rather sheltered, some would say uneventful, life, and the opportunity to eat gold had simply never arisen. So, you may imagine my disappointment when, on tasting said gold leaf, I got… nothing. Not a whisper. Completely flavourless. It didn’t even seem to be trying. I’d thought the least it might do was taste faintly of mint…

To product…

As you might expect, we have a raft of Black Friday offers this week, including some of my absolute favourite brands.

Firstly: Demeyere, the best pots and pans in the world, with prices to match now at 20% off.

I use their 28cm Atlantis frying pan with some regularity. When I’m frying bacon for a chicken Caesar salad, I pre-heat it for a minute and spread the bacon not just across the base, but up the sides as well. The heat conducts so fast and evenly, that I end up with at least 50% more usable cooking surface than I’d get with an ordinary frying pan. Now is a very good moment to try one. Now with 20% off.

Next, Epicurean Chopping Boards, my favourite type for over 30 years. Thin, lightweight, dishwasher-proof, made from wood fibre and resin. They don’t blunt your knives (as glass, steel or melamine will), they don’t crack if left wet for too long, and when they eventually look a bit tired, a quick pass with a sander restores them beautifully. Quite possibly a board for life, certainly for several decades. Now with 20% off.

And now, new from Studio William’s Charingworth Cutlery range:

Charingworth Fiddle Vintage 24-piece, was £115.00, now £95.00

Charingworth Baguette 24-piece, was £110.00, now £89.00

The Fiddle particularly appeals to me. The shapes feel unpretentiously English, and the distressed finish means you’re unlikely to notice the scratches and scuffs of use, they’re already built in. It’s a fashionable look, which initially put me off, but the longer I look at it, the more it wins me over.

Now, I’m not sure whether this will encourage you or send you running for the hills, but I rang one of my oldest friends in the trade, Dan Flower, who looks after Studio William, to ask how they achieve this “distressed” finish. And according to Dan (with a little poetic licence), the process is essentially this: take an electrically driven rotating barrel, a sort of boutique cement mixer if you like, throw in the cutlery, add "aggregate", switch it on, stand well back, and let physics do the rest.

The key point, Dan assures me, is that there’s no finish to wear off. What you’re buying is simply 3.5mm-thick 18/0 stainless steel that’s been artfully “knocked about” until it looks exactly as you see it in the photo. Rather attractive, and very clever.

Baguette, I have less to say about, not because it isn’t attractive, but because it is exactly what you’d expect: a nicely made, polished cutlery pattern in 3.5mm 18/0 stainless steel. A bit of weight, a simple elegant design, nicely executed.

With Christmas approaching, it’s a natural moment to consider refreshing or expanding the cutlery drawer. We have Studio William, Robert Welch, Elia and Grunwerg Windsor from which to choose.

Lastly: Kuhn Rikon Culinary Five-Ply 24cm & 28cm Frying Pan Set (Uncoated)

Since we started stocking this range earlier in the year, we’ve been surprised and delighted by how well it has sold, and the customer feedback has been happy and excellent.

Two qualities stand out for me:

• the very good heat spread, and

• the fact that they are uncoated, which, in the right hands, yields great results.

That said, if you’ve never cooked in uncoated pans before, there is a learning curve. If that gives you pause but you’re curious about the benefits, I suggest trying a single pan before committing to a set.

But if you’re ready, this pair, a 24cm and 28cm, are plain stainless steel pans with 3mm-thick bodies that spread heat beautifully. Food caramelises easily, and the results are richer and tastier than the same food cooked in a non-stick pan simply because you get that deep browning instead of food skating about on a coating.

The RRP is £199.00 (not that anyone sells it at that).  Recently on offer at £114.95, but for Black Friday we are selling the set for £99.95. For this quality, that is a bargain. Full stop.

The rest of the Kuhn Rikon Culinary Fiveply range has 25% off the RRP.

The last word

So, that’s it for this week, but I thought I’d leave you with a line from Charlie Mackesy’s new book,

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, The Horse and The Storm, which rather appealed to me:

“I worry that I’m not very good at anything,” said the boy.

“You are kind,” said the Mole, “which is everything.”

I trust you have a good weekend. I’m off to a 60th birthday party in London on Saturday night, and on Sunday we’re doing a family Christmas shopping expedition, which will, I suspect, be fun, despite the crowds.

I trust you have pleasant and peaceful weekend

Warm, regards

Andrew