MY KITCHEN
Josceline Dimbleby
What do you use your kitchen for the most? I bought the house from Sarah Raven, the gardener-cook, so she had already planned the garden and opened up the kitchen. Cookery writing has always been part of my life, so I designed the kitchen to work and live in with my family – it’s not a separate professional space. I didn’t want anything streamlined or functional looking, although it had to be very practical. Any changes you made? I built on a bow window to house a balcony for my bedroom above, and changed the kitchen around completely, putting the island and stove in the middle of the room. 76 BBC Good Food Middle East February 2013
An architect friend did the drawings of the cupboards, and the builders made the base units. The central island means I can look out and talk to people when I’m preparing food and cooking. Was the dining area always there? I’d always had a sofa in the kitchen, where everyone can sit around while you cook – and where I can flake out when I’m exhausted. There wasn’t enough space here initially, so when the grandchildren began to arrive, we extended the kitchen to create a new dining area, where I could also put the dresser. My sofa is now in the bay, which opens onto the garden. Any other ways in which you personalised your kitchen? Because I’m tall, I had all the work surfaces and chopping board made higher. I don’t like everything hidden away, so I put in open shelves and have all my bits and pieces to do with food and cooking visible. What about lighting? I am a lighting obsessive, and can’t stand bright lights. I have hidden low-voltage lights above the kitchen’s work surfaces, and have created pools of light elsewhere – a light in a flowerpot
shining on an Indian embroidery, and a desk light to highlight shelves of spices in an alcove. I set the scene before a meal like a theatre, turning off all the kitchen lights to make it virtually invisible, and using candles and dimmed lights in the dining area. How did you choose your materials? I used lino tiles for the floor, which are warm to the feet, keep clean and work well, and chose a marbled effect, so it doesn’t show any marks. When the new work was done, I changed the wood surfaces by the sink – they were nice to start with but had quickly gone black. To match the flooring, I picked a speckled granite, which is brilliant and impervious to everything. What's your least favourite bit in the kitchen? I don’t much care for the tiles along the splashback, but it took me a while to realise that. I changed the colour of the walls several times when I first did the kitchen, choosing this pale terracotta to give the room warmth in the morning, when this westfacing room is less bright. Final thoughts? For me, the kitchen is to do with life and family and people – and it’s perfect now I have grandchildren.
Photographs GEOFF WILKINSON
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ne of Britain’s best-loved cookery writers, Josceline Dimbleby has sold more than two million recipe books. Her latest, Orchards in the Oasis (Quadrille), recently won a Guild of Food Writers award. Formerly married to political commentator David Dimbleby, Jossy (as she is known to her family and friends) has three children, including Leon restaurateur Henry Dimbleby, and six grandchildren. She now shares her west London home with her partner, Johnny Culme-Seymour.
Cookery writer Josceline Dimbleby’s kitchen is central to her life, as she explains to Vanessa Berridge.