23.06.17 INSIDE AL JAZEERA
Can the world’s most controversial TV network survive?
BEACHES CRUISES PARTIES What’s hot in the city now
why I hate holidays
By Hannah Betts
Plus:
yana peel cocktails in cans and the rise of neo-boho
haim
Glastonbury, Taylor Swift and soundtracking the summer
contents 5 Dressing for your ex in UPFRONT 7 Our MOST WANTED is Tod’s two-tone snakeskin bag
5
8 Cara Delevingne steals the scene in FLASHBULB 13 Folksy fringes and laser heels in STYLE NOTES 14 It’s prime HAIM!
tsiakkos & charcoal ‘Tsiakkos & Charcoal on Marylands Road serves the best Greek food in London. Try the meze — for £25 you get five courses and as much hummus and tzatziki as you want. The dream.’ Lily Worcester, lifestyle assistant
21 Can al JAZEERA survive the desert storm?
SUN CITY: your London summer guide 28 One HOLIDAY HATER tells all 31 Shooting for bronze in BEAUTY 33 GRACE DENT scoffs comfort food at Red Rooster 35 TART dish up a healthy carbonara 37 Festi-friendly booze in DRINKS 39 Art without borders in HOMEWORK 41 ESCAPE to Ecuador 42 Yana Peel’s MY LONDON 24
COVER Haim photographed by Charlotte Haddon. Styled by Sophie Paxton. From left, Este wears ATTICO dress, £875, at net-a-porter.com. Alana wears BEAUFILLE top, £400; trousers, £480, at boutique1.com. Danielle wears BEAUFILLE top, £498, at sales@beaufille.com; JIL SANDER trousers, £480 (jilsander.com)
Here are the ES team’s top 5 local restaurants
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4
cafÉ 209 ‘A no bells-and-whistles, BYO Thai restaurant where owner Joy is a local celebrity thanks to her chatty hostess manner.’ Katie Service, beauty editor
ida ‘Tucked between Queen’s Park and Kensal Rise, this is a proper Italian, family-run affair — and the tiramisu is exceptional.’ Dipal Acharya, commissioning editor
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2
chicks on fire ‘This is the best chicken you’ll eat in London (big claim, I know). It’s a Holloway secret, serving amazingly cooked, affordable food and owned by the lovely Hassan.’ Helen Gibson, picture editor
el rancho de lalo ‘This fab Colombian spot in Brixton Market has massive portions — I dare you to finish the bandeja paisa (sausage, steak, pork belly, kidney beans, rice, egg, corn bread, avocado and plantain).’ Frankie McCoy, features writer
Visit us online: standard.co.uk/esmagazine • Follow us:
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Editor Laura Weir Deputy editor Anna van Praagh Features director Alice-Azania Jarvis Acting art director Wendy Tee Fashion director Nicky Yates Fashion features director Katrina Israel Commissioning editor Dipal Acharya Beauty editor Katie Service Associate features editor Hamish MacBain Features writer Frankie McCoy Lifestyle assistant Lily Worcester
Acting art editor Andy Taylor Art editor Jessica Landon Picture editor Helen Gibson Picture desk assistant Clara Dorrington Social media editor Natalie Salmon Office administrator/editor’s PA Niamh O’Keeffe
Merchandise editor Sophie Paxton Fashion editor Jenny Kennedy Fashion assistant Eniola Dare Chief sub editor Matt Hryciw Deputy chief sub editor Nick Howells
Contributing editors Lucy Carr-Ellison, Tony Chambers, James Corden, Hermione Eyre, Richard Godwin, Daisy Hoppen, Jemima Jones, Anthony Kendal, David Lane, Annabel Rivkin, Teo van den Broeke, Hikari Yokoyama Group client strategy director Deborah Rosenegk Head of magazines Christina Irvine
ES Magazine is published weekly and is available only with the London Evening Standard. ES Magazine is published by Evening Standard Ltd, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington, London W8 5TT. ES is printed web offset by Wyndeham Bicester. Paper supplied by Perlen Paper AG. Colour transparencies or any other material submitted to ES Magazine are sent at owner’s risk. Neither Evening Standard Ltd nor their agents accept any liability for loss or damage. © Evening Standard Ltd 2016. Reproduction in whole or part of any contents of ES Magazine without prior permission of the editor is strictly prohibited
23.06.17 es magazine
upfront Laura Craik on reunion outfits,
Corbyn catwalks and the mile-low club
Josh Shinner, Getty, Splash, Alamy, London News Pictures
W
e’ve all heard of the revenge outfit, aka What To Wear When You Know You’ll Run Into Your Ex And Want To Slay. This week, a new subcategory enters the genre, brought to us by — who else — Kate Moss. People of London, I give you the reunion outfit — or rather, she does. And don’t you be telling me it won’t come in useful. No matter that you and your partner may never experience the particular piquancy that comes from being reunited after a three-month spell in an expensive foreign rehab clinic. In the arsenal of wardrobe options, the reunion outfit is still a handy one. Whether by rehab/prison/work trip to Swindon/silent retreat in Thailand, we’ve all been separated from our loved ones, and we’ve all wanted to greet them looking our best. Returning from a week-long holiday in Tenerife in the Nineties, I was obsessed with looking as tanned as possible for my then-boyfriend, which meant donning white dress, white sandals, white handbag and white biker jacket for my grand arrival into Gatwick. I looked ridiculous, like an ad for probiotic yoghurt. No wonder he dumped me for a whey-faced girl in jeans. As Kate illustrates, the reunion outfit should ideally be bereft of those showy-offy elements that comprise the average revenge look. Instead, Kate has opted for what can best be described as classic Kate: black jeans, black tux jacket, polka dot neckerchief. We’ve seen it all before, but that’s the point. It’s comforting, just as Alexa Chung’s leopard print coat must have seemed to Alexander Skarsgård when they reunited in New York. Or, er, Kim’s tactical wearing of a Pablo sweatshirt when she reunited with Kanye. Note also the eschewal of Kate’s usual pointy black ankle boots in favour of… well, you’d have to call them slippers. How very ‘I’ve just been at home waiting for you, drinking tea and watching Netflix’. And if you believe that, Nikolai, you’ll believe anything. Jeremy CORBYN COUTURE Corbyn First his personal style was hailed by Vogue as ‘very Vetements’; now Jeremy Corbyn has had a fashion show created in his Martine Rose’s LFWM show image. Menswear designer Martine Rose used a pic of Corbyn in his now-iconic grey shellsuit as her show e-vite, while the collection itself, shown in her Tottenham ’hood, featured items that could have come straight out of the Labour leader’s wardrobe — if you discount the small fact that they will eventually retail for more than he would ever deign to spend. Grey fleeces, utilitarian
From left, Kim Kardashian; Kate Moss and Count Nikolai von Bismarck; Alexa Chung and Alexander Skarsgård
“The reunion outfit should ideally be bereft of those showy-offy elements that comprise the average revenge look” cagoules, suits worn without ties and deliberately dadsy beige shorts were pure Jezza — uncool, ergo, kind of cool. What a month it’s turning out to be for Corbyn. Soon, someone will unearth an improbably handsome son who is the spitting image of Elijah Wood. Oh, wait. PLANE Randy If there’s one thing less likely to give me the horn than flying Ryanair, I’m yet to think of it. Maybe root canal work, or a dodgy prawn. So I almost applaud the woman who was recently caught on video straddling a male passenger she’d only just met on a flight, looking to all intents and purposes as though she was en route to joining the mile high club. Friends of the woman are now insisting that ‘no sexy time occurred’ — no doubt those sitting near the couple would agree that the experience was very far from being a sexy time, and was, in fact, revolting. Needless to say, it happened on a plane bound for Ibiza. Why Ibiza flights are always full of sex-crazed hens and stags, I do not know, but if you’re bound for one, best take your own in-flight entertainment. Would this make you horny?
HOT Margot Robbie Indubitably hot already, but now that Joe Alwyn is set to star opposite her in a new film, will she prove too hot for Joe’s girlfriend, Swifty?
NOT Botanical Water Artichoke water, basil water, lavender water… no
23.06.17 es magazine
THE most WANTED
SNAKE CHARMER Tod’s python messenger takes a bite out of summer’s primary palette Tod’s Double T Messenger Bag , £2,600 (020 7493 2237)
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARIE VALOGNES STYLED BY SOPHIE PAXTON
23.06.17 es magazine
FLASHBULB! Party pictures from around town by FRANKIE M c COY photographs by james peltekian Alice Temperley Grace Wales Bonner Thomas Cohen and Zoe Sidel
Peter Dundas Samantha Cameron
Anna Friel Ruth Wilson
Caroline Rush
Roksanda Ilincic Lulu Kennedy
Eric Underwood
Cara Delevingne
Late-night Laundry Shoreditch
Charles Jeffrey
Elephant in the room Kensington
Edie Campbell, Eric Underwood and Roksanda Ilincic were quite literally taken to the cleaners at immersive 1980s late-night dry cleaners-turnedspeakeasy party, Choreomania at Hoi Polloi by Theo Adams. Tinsel pom-poms? Check. Show tunes? Check. Glitter everywhere? Obvs. And when guests were having too much fun to leave, a DJ played way into the night. A second spin cycle, you might say.
Molly Goddard
Arizona Muse
Caroline Winberg
Diamonds might be forever, but endangered elephants may well not be. Hence a model turnout for Porter magazine and Tiffany & Co’s Save the Elephant dinner at The Orangery. Natalia Vodianova posed with men in traditional African dress and giggled with Naomi Campbell, while Cara Delevingne made friends with a papier mâché elephant.
Nametyx Herexxy Doutzen Kroes Natalia Vodianova
Nametyx Herexxy
Sophie Dahl
Nametyx Andrew Cook Herexxy
Sam Kershaw
Olie Arnold Greg Milne Nametyx Herexxy
Edie Campbell
Nametyx Herexxy Jack Guinness
Matthew Stone
Holly Shackleton
Julia Sarr-Jamois
Patrick Munsters
Grant Pearce
Gentlemen who lunch Knightsbridge
To Mr Chow to refuel after London Fashion Week Men’s, where Jack Guinness and Ulrika Lundgren toasted Salle Privée’s latest collection over lobster and green prawns. Eat up, boys — it’ll be LFWM again before you know it.
Teo van den Broeke
Nametyx Herexxy
es magazine 23.06.17
GO TO eveningstandard.co.uk / ESMAGAZINE FOR MORE PARTY PICTURES
LAURENCE COSTE earrings, £265 (laurencecoste.com)
style notes What we love now Rock reloaded
EDITED by KATRINA ISRAEL
Over the next four months Selfridges is set to become STEPHEN an interactive venue for a JONES headpiece, series of musical £525, at collaborations and Selfridges (0800 123 events. Entitled Music 400) Matters at Selfridges, the series will feature live performances in the store’s Ultralounge, with a host of re-released merch and memorabilia to boot.
Talitha dress, £885 (talitha collection.com)
EDIT58 woven basket, £40 (edit58. com)
SELF PORTRAIT skirt, £260, at net-a-porter.com
Neo-folk
Bohemian style is brilliant when you have nothing to do but pinball from beach to bar, basking in the sunshine. This summer edit takes into account those of us who want to dip into the folkloric while maintaining a city sensibility, with pieces that will please on tour as well as at home.
CECILIE COPENHAGEN top, £110, at brownsfashion. com TORY BURCH sandals, £130 (tory burch.co.uk )
VITA KIN dress, £1,534, at matches fashion.com
SENSI STUDIO bag, £265 (sensi studio.com) JOIE dress, £262 (joie.com)
APIECE APART dress, £430, at neta-porter.com
InSTARglam London creative consultancy Campbell-Rey’s feed is a design lover’s dream. Having previewed its Thierry table series at Salone del Mobile, we’re happy to report it’s now available to order. @campbellrey
Illustration by Jonathan Calugi @ Machas
ball skills
vanda jacintho earrings, above, £276; inset top right, £240 (vandajacintho. com)
Awaken your inner Slim Aarons hostess with some fabulous cocktail earrings to jazz up a kaftan or crisp shirt dress poolside. For a little exotic elegance, Brazilian fashion designer and jeweller Vanda Jacintho’s brilliant baubles are an instant party starter.
Add to basket: Paul Andrew’s debut Salvatore Ferragamo collection has landed. Lace up these laser-cut logo heels at ferragamo.com.
SALVATORE FERRAGAMO heel, £695 (ferragamo.com)
Follow us at @eveningstandardmagazine
23.06.17 es magazine 13
Sing it, sisters Haim are back with an album that’s destined to be the sound of the summer. As they prepare for Glastonbury they talk celebrity fans, cancelled gigs and live performance in the age of terror with Jimi Famurewa. Just don’t mention Taylor Swift… PhotographS BY Charlotte Hadden stylED BY Sophie Paxton
I
t’s a sweltering, appropriately Californian morning in London and, within the airconditioned sanctuary of Fitzrovia’s Villandry restaurant, the Haim sisters are explaining their father’s unique approach to limiting their screen time as children. ‘He was a drummer, so he set up a drum kit right in our living room and would just play,’ explains Danielle, the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist. ‘So it was just impossible to watch TV.’ ‘I think that’s how he got us to not watch it,’ chips in bass player, Este. ‘You’d be watching something and you’d just see him go in there and be like, “boom, ba-cha, boom boom ba-cha”.’ ‘And our mom was like, “It’s always so loud in this house,”’ concludes rhythm guitarist and keyboard player, Alana, laughing. That these three LA-born performers were raised in a musical household in which afternoon Nickelodeon binges had to compete with deafening drum solos explains plenty about their percussive, widely adored brand of harmonious pop-rock, which has garnered more than 400 million global streams and once beat Justin Timberlake — the actual Justin Timberlake — to No 1 in the UK album chart. But it also, perhaps, indirectly gives a sense of what it’s like to spend an hour with Este (31, queen of droll asides), Danielle (28, thoughtfully quiet interjector) and Alana Haim (25, motormouthed de facto spokeswoman). Additionally, it possibly tells you why their long-awaited return, capped by a bound-to-be-mobbed
14 es magazine 23.06.17
appearance at Worthy Farm this Sunday, has been so gratefully received. Because to be in Haim’s orbit is to encounter a sort of entrancingly noisy familial chaos. Up close it’s easy to see why, in the wake of 2013’s Grammy-nominated, gold-selling debut album, Days Are Gone, they charmed celebrity collaborators as diverse as Stevie Nicks and A$AP Rocky. Their famous fans include Hillary Clinton (who added them to her International Women’s Day Spotify playlist last year), Jay Z (who signed them to his management group, Roc Nation) and Florence Welch (who memorably ended a sold-out London gig at the Forum by crowdsurfing in a Haim T-shirt). In their company, prolonged singalongs break out, sentences are completed in three parts, sororal in-jokes
From left, Alana wears A.W.A.K.E. coat, £1,000, at net-a-porter.com. Danielle wears ATTICO coat, £1,166, at matchesfashion. com. Top, her own. Este wears CÉLINE dress, £2,400 (020 7491 8200)
fly and declarative statements are delivered in knowing Valley Girl hyperbole (Alana: ‘Trying Percy Pigs for the first time was, like, a really big moment for me’). In short, Haim (pronounced ‘high-im’) are an undeniable riot. Or, at least, they are until later, when a mention of Taylor Swift — the former tour mate, Hawaiian holiday buddy and general social media bestie who recently broke an eight-week Instagram hiatus to support Haim’s new single — causes a storm cloud of tension to momentarily form over our conversation. But all that’s to come when they swoop into the restaurant’s vacated back room with open arms (‘We’re huggers,’ says Este) and wide smiles. Their signature look, once denoted by leather jackets and cut-offs, has evolved
somewhat (Este wears a checked dress, Danielle is in a billowy Bardot top and Alana sports a wide-collared, pillar box red suit) but they all still have long, glossy Alanis hair. And, impressively, they are not acting remotely like women who, thanks to a secret gig at Islington Assembly Hall the night before and an early morning interview at Radio 1 with Nick Grimshaw, have all had only a few hours’ sleep. After we’ve finished speaking they’ll fly to Barcelona for another unbilled appearance, this time at the Primavera Sound festival. It’s the sort of sleepless whirl of airports and hotel check-ins that betrays a central fact: four years after soundtracking the summer of every discerning music fan on the planet, Haim are back with followup album Something To Tell You. But they’re back a lot later than plenty of people would have liked. Why the holdup? ‘Well, we toured Days Are Gone for three years,’ says Danielle. ‘Plus we wanted to just hunker down on songwriting and write the best songs possible,’ adds Este. ‘We’ve realised it’s a muscle you have to flex. It’s like going to the gym.’ Soon after starting, they’d flexed their way to ‘a million ideas’ for songs and ‘over 50’ actual demos, but couldn’t quite get over the figurative finish line. Drastic action was needed. So, last July, they cancelled a clutch of European dates, including a British stop-off. It was a necessary decision but one that clearly still stings. ‘We would never cancel a tour lightly,’ says Alana, ‘and I will make up those shows tenfold. I want to tour this record until my ears bleed and my eyes are dripping with God knows what.’ We happen to be speaking the weekend before One Love Manchester, Ariana Grande’s moving tribute to the victims of the terror attack at her 22 May concert, and I wonder aloud if Haim were approached. ‘No, but we would have played,’ says Alana, quickly. ‘We totally would have. It was such a tragedy so, of course.’ With more live shows on the horizon — and the murders at the Bataclan theatre and the Manchester Arena fresh in the mind — safety at gigs is firmly in their thoughts. ‘We are taking it very seriously,’ adds Alana. ‘Playing shows and being in venues, safety is absolutely first and foremost.’ Away from this grim new normal, those who do get tickets for the upcoming performances (which will include make-up dates for axed shows at Reading and Leeds Festivals) are, without a doubt, in for a treat.
23.06.17 es magazine 15
Left, Este with Taylor Swift and Jaime King at the Golden Globes party. Below, Haim on Saturday Night Live
The band with Kate Bosworth at the Vanity Fair Oscars party
Fashion credits This is a swathe of Danielle on stage in Austin, Texas
Produced once more by hip LA hitmaker Ariel Rechtshaid, Something To Tell You spills over with shimmery future classics (earworming single ‘Want You Back’, the enjoyably Eighties ‘Little of Your Love’) and manages to subtly update Haim’s winning formula of Fleetwood Mac-style hooks and R&B-indebted harmonies. Was there ever a version of the record that made a virtue of their talented social circle, enlisting friends and former collaborators such as Lorde or Bobby Gillespie? ‘Oh my God, in my dreams,’ says Alana. ‘But I think when we were going into this record we just wanted it to be us. We kept it really tight because there are already a million cooks in the kitchen with just three of us. You have three very strong opinions.’ The Haims were raised by Donna (a folk guitarist and art teacher turned estate agent) and Moti (who, as well as being a drummer, was an Israeli immigrant who came to the US as a professional footballer in 1980 before moving into real estate). As his daughters grew old enough to grip instruments, Moti started assembling the now semi-legendary family band, Rockinhaim.
M
uch has been made of Haim’s past in this sweetly naff early incarnation alongside their parents but, today, the sisters are keen to put it in perspective. ‘Honestly, we were not that good,’ says Alana, noting that they mostly played covers at charity gigs and bar mitzvahs a short walk from the home their parents still occupy. Then the girls finally stepped out on their own, ditching the ‘Rockin’ prefix — and their parents. In the end, it was the UK that helped them break through after radio DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, then of XFM, took a shine to 2012’s free-released ‘Forever’ EP. A tri-
Top, Danielle with Steven Tyler, and above, Haim with Pharrell and Scott Vener
Left, Haim with Karlie Kloss, Diane von Furstenberg, Jonathan Saunders and Okay Kaya
umph in the BBC’s taste-making ‘Sound of…’ poll and a myth-forging trio of appearances at 2013’s Glastonbury soon followed. ‘Performing with Primal Scream was another moment when I was like, “I’m def dreaming,”’ says Alana. They even briefly became London residents for a time, sleeping on blow-up mattresses in a poky Hoxton Square flat for a month and a half when their album came out in September 2013, and developing burning obsessions with Come Dine With Me and, as established, M&S’s premier porcinethemed sweets. Even when Este, who is diabetic, was forced off the stage at Glastonbury by a blood sugar crash, it proved formative. ‘I thought she was crying because we were all really emotional that day,’ laughs Alana. ‘I caught it superduper early,’ says Este, ‘Now I know I need to eat before I go on stage.’ Alana adds: ‘Also, there’s an emergency Snickers bar on her amp now.’ They drew raised eyebrows in the UK too when, during an appearance on The Andrew Marr Show, they jokily dedicated their performance to fellow guest (and then Prime Minister) David Cameron. The PM even tweeted a backstage shot of him grinning with the band. They quickly retreated from that moment representing any sort of policy endorsement (Alana has said, ‘We really had no idea what was going on, but he was quite nice’), but with unprecedented political fissures currently popping up on both sides of the Atlantic, I wonder what their take is on pop stars being politically engaged. It’s here that I run into a sudden roadblock. ‘That’s, like, a huge question, a very loaded question,’ says Alana, laughing nervously. Okay. Do they take an interest in politics? Alana, again: ‘We’re like anyone else. We wake up in the morning, read the newspaper and try to stay informed.’ I know that they attended January’s Women’s March, so it could be that they’re still justifiably wary. Or understandably private about their views. But it also becomes apparent that —
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Getty Images; Rex Features; Instagram
Left, with Bobby Gillespie at Glastonbury in 2013; above, with Lisa Love at a Fendi opening
“Our parents never wanted us to just sit on our asses and hope the world would give us something. Oh, you want something? Go get it”
given that their close friend and erstwhile #squad leader Taylor Swift has been both criticised and defended for not airing her political allegiances publicly — they want to avoid talk taking a tricky turn.
W
hen I ask about what life was like on Swift’s hugely successful 1989 tour, for which they provided support in the US, their sudden reticence continues and their friend becomes a kind of pop Voldemort: She Who Must Not Be Named. Were they influenced by her or the tour? Alana: ‘Each tour you always take something from.’ Have they discussed collaborating on a song with her? Alana: ‘The door is always open’. Do they ever feel the urge to defend her on social media, as actress and mutual friend Ruby Rose recently did? Este: ‘We can’t speak for anyone but ourselves.’ It is, of course, their prerogative to keep a lid on things. But given the fact this is a friendship that has hardly been shrouded in secrecy — from those Instagram shots of the gang larking about on Catalina Island to Haim’s attendance at the fateful Fourth of July party featuring Tom Hiddleston in his ‘I heart TS’ vest — well, it seems odd. The mood eases up as we move on to less treacherous conversational terrain — the fact they all now have different houses in LA, a collective coyness about their relationship status, their jokey plan to get Alana one of the backpack leashes usually worn by toddlers to stop her getting lost — but I get an indelible sense of the protective loyalty that has perhaps got them where they are today. And as our time elapses, we hug once more and they troop out as one, as tight a gang as ever. I’m reminded of
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Alana wears OSMAN top, £375 (osman.com). DRIES VAN NOTEN trousers, £405, at brownfashion.com. Danielle wears ATTICO top, £435, at brownsfashion.com. VICTORIA VICTORIA BECKHAM trousers, £450, at mytheresa. com. Este wears ROSETTA GETTY top, £930, at farfetch.com. SIES MARJAN trousers, POA, at selfridges.com
Hair by Candice Birns. Make-up by Adele Sanderson at Frank Agency using Giorgio Armani Beauty and Skincare. Fashion assistant: Eniola Dare. Location provided courtesy of the Barbican Centre (barbican.org.uk)
Alana (of course) talking about how, as well as unconventionally positioned drum kits, the Haim household was a place of steely determination and hard-won success. ‘Our parents never wanted us to just sit on our asses and hope the world would give us everything,’ she said. ‘Oh, you want something? Go get it. And it was the same with music. You guys want to be a band? Practise your f***ing asses off. We basically learned that, if you wanna do this, you’d better f***ing bring it. Or no one is going to care.’ ‘Something to Tell You’ is out on 7 July on Polydor. Haim play on the Other Stage at Glastonbury on 25 June
23.06.17 es magazine 19
Is this the end of
Al JazeERa?
The Middle East’s most famous news network has gone from delivering headlines to making them, as it is caught in the tussle between Qatar and its rivals and blamed for radicalising one of the London Bridge terrorists. John Arlidge investigates
Rex Features; Camera Press; Getty Images; Featureflash; Alamy
T
his afternoon, as she does most afternoons, Maryam Nemazee will ride the lift to the 16th floor of the Shard, the highest office floor in London’s tallest skyscraper, and take her seat behind the off-white curved desk in Shard studio. She will wait for the lights to come up before smiling and saying: ‘Good evening and welcome to Al Jazeera.’ Durham-educated Nemazee presents Al Jazeera’s flagship news bulletin most nights and is one of the Q ata r-ba sed network ’s most celebrated journalists. Millions worldwide currently tune in to her show. But how many people will soon be watching? Al Jazeera is confronting its worst crisis since it launched in 1996. Its signal is being blocked in five countries in the Middle East, the region where it is based and where it made its name. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Bahrain and Jordan have banned it. Now the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE are calling on Qatar, whose ruling royal family owns the network, to shut it down permanently. Someone is already trying. Last week it became the target of a powerful cyber attack. The Al Jazeera crisis is part of a broader boycott of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf states in protest at what they say is the gas-rich country’s support for extremists and even terrorists. Qatar’s new young emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, 37, is accused of everything from helping to fund terrorist affiliates to backing radical Islamist groups, notably Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. His decision to promote dialogue with Iran has alarmed local leaders who distrust Tehran and do not believe it has given up its nuclear ambitions. Saudi Arabia, firmly backed by the US after
From above, Al Jazeera’s London studio is at The Shard; its Doha HQ; Maryam Nemazee; the Trumps with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, far right
President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Riyadh, plus the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain have cut off all diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Qatar. The four countries have also expelled Qatari nationals. As Qatar’s calling card, Al Jazeera is in the eye of the storm. Saudi Arabia has closed its offices in the Kingdom, saying it promotes terrorist The Queen and Prince Philip with Sheikha ‘plots’ and has attempted to Moza bint Nasser and Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, father of the current emir ‘break the Saudi internal ranks’. Omar Saif Ghobash, UAE ambassador to Russia, accuses the network of ‘pushing extremist messages’. The pressure on Al Jazeera increased further when the mother and sister of the youngest of the three London Bridge attackers, Youssef Zaghba, 22, claimed that he was radicalised by watching the network. Leading Middle Eastern commentator Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi, who is based in Dubai, says Qatar’s neighbours in the Gulf will not give up until they have forced the closure of Al Jazeera. That would have devastating consequences for the country’s media ambitions and for the network’s 3,000-plus staff around the world, many of whom are British and work in London, which is the network’s second most important hub after Doha. Is there any truth in the allegations against Al Jazeera and can it survive the boycott of its home state? To find the answers you have to go to a place with the least glamorous name in telly. ‘TV Roundabout’ is a traffic island set amid dusty desert scrub on the outskirts of central Doha. Al Jazeera — the name means ‘The Island’ — takes up two low-slung beige, concrete buildings with blue windows fringed by grass and petunias that struggle to take root in temperatures that can nudge 50C at this time of year. Inside the green glass lobby there is the usual detritus of a TV station: discarded cups of coffee, M&M packets and
23.06.17 es magazine 21
Qatari-owned Harrods, far left; Theresa May and Qatar’s new emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Below, one of the Osama bin Laden videos broadcast by Al Jazeera; London Bridge terrorist Youssef Zaghba, right
Rex Features; Camera Press; Getty Images; Featureflash; Alamy
yellowing newspapers. It’s not much to write home about. But appearances can be deceptive. Al Jazeera, as I found out when I spent a week there a few years ago, is a big network with big ambitions — and its leading figures say there is no way the current campaign against it will succeed. One, speaking privately because, since the crisis staffers have been told not to give interviews, tells me: ‘Al Jazeera is too important to too many people around the world and certainly too important to the emir and the government for any amount of pressure to shut it down.’ Al Jazeera, which exploded on to the world’s media stage when it became the main outlet for grainy videos from Osama bin Laden after the 9/ 11 attacks, is more than just another rolling news network. It is a crucial — the most crucial — element of Qatar’s efforts to build itself a future. Geographically, Qatar is a tiny thumb sandwiched between the giant fists of the Middle East’s two regional superpowers, Saudi Arabia and Iran. In the roughest neighbourhood on earth, you need power. Qatar has hard power, thanks to the US. The emir’s father handed a chunk of the nation to the US military for its main Middle East base. The country’s sovereign wealth fund also owns more than £100bn worth of international assets including The Shard itself, Harrods and a stake in the London Stock Exchange.
“Al Jazeera is too important to too many people for any amount of pressure to shut it down” But Qatar needs soft power, too. That takes several local forms. One you can see in the vast new sports stadiums that ring Doha. Qatar’s successful bid to host the 2022 football World Cup was supposed to cement its role as a forward-looking global centre of sport, architecture and tourism. It didn’t work out that way. Ever since it won the right to stage the tournament, Qatar has struggled to rebut claims that its bid was corrupt and that it is mistreating the workers building the stadiums. Its attempts to become a cultural hub have faltered lately,
too, as the slump in the price of oil has forced the emir to cut back on his family’s ambitious museum- and gallery-building programme. That leaves Al Jazeera. As one editor puts it: ‘The network is now the sole credible voice of Qatar projecting the country as a modern, free-thinking, freespeaking, open Arabian hub in a region where such qualities are rare indeed.’
T
here is another reason Al Jazeera will continue broadcasting, and it is one that its journalists don’t always like to talk about. The emir foots almost the entire bill for the network, which exceeds £100m a year. That’s a lot of cash even if you are the head of state of the world’s richest country, per capita. Qatar has the third-largest natural gas reserves — 890 trillion cubic feet worth more than £1 trillion. The emir expects something in return: support — subtle but clear — for his foreign policy objectives. Although publicly Al Jazeera insists it is ‘not partisan’, one senior correspondent concedes: ‘We’re only 85 per cent independent. The other 15 per cent of the time we are helping to gently make the case for Qatar’s view of the region and the wider world.’ An editor adds: ‘My job is to make sure we are independent enough to be credible journalistically while also pleasing our paymasters.’ When rival states accuse the emir of using Al Ja zeera to suppor t h is objectives, they have a point. Up to a point. What about those allegations that Al Jazeera is biased in favour of radical Islamist groups? Watch the screens in its
Doha lobby and you soon notice that its coverage is different from that which we’re used to here. Corpses, including those of young children, often appear to emotive, swirling orchestral accompaniments. The language sounds odd, too. On the Arabic language channel, suicide bombers are often referred to as shaheed, or martyrs. Critics point out that Al Jazeera uses the expression ‘the state organisation’ to refer to Islamic State, as opposed to the pejorative ‘Daesh’. Some insiders say that Al Jazeera Arabic does whip up emotion and is often sectarian and partisan, but it largely goes unnoticed since few Westerners watch the Arabic service, preferring the more sober English-language channel. One former senior manager angrily refutes this. Wadah Khanfar used to be Al Jazeera’s director general until he left to set up Al Sharq Forum, an independent network dedicated to developing long-term strategies for political development, social justice and prosperity in the Middle East. Speaking from Doha, he tells me: ‘It is not Al Jazeera that is encouraging extremism. Al Jazeera reports on what is going on, including extremism. Those who cause and encourage it are the states — local and foreign — who have interests in this region.’ If anything, he adds, Al Jazeera plays a positive role by reporting more fairly and fully than any other network in the region. Virtually every TV station and newspaper in the Middle East is either state owned or state run or both, with all coverage shaped to the liking of powerful regional bodies. Al Jazeera’s independence, even if it is only 85 per cent, is valuable. ‘By covering all sides, we demystify and promote knowledge, if not always understanding,’ Khanfar says. He adds that the word shaheed is only used for Palestinians who die fighting Israel. Bias, of course. But proof of extremism? As ever in the Middle East, it depends on whom you ask. Regional officials and sheikhs are now conducting hurried rounds of shuttle diplomacy, hoping to calm the Gulf feud. Qatar recently signalled it might make some concessions to ease tensions but that does not appear to extend to Al Jazeera. Addressing the complaints of rival Gulf states, the Qatari ambassador to the US said last week: ‘If they are threatened by Al Jazeera… are they scared of free media and Michelle Obama and freedom of speech?’ It looks Sheikha Moza like Maryam Nemazee’s job bint Nasser, mother of the is safe for now. current emir
23.06.17 es magazine
THE ART OF AL FRESCO Let the battle of the summer art pavilions commence, as the ever lavish Serpentine Gallery’s offering — this year designed by Burkina Faso-born architect Francis Kéré — finds itself in a square-off with Dulwich Picture Gallery. The latter is celebrating its 200th birthday with its first pavilion (above), designed by Camberwell architects IF_DO. While the Serpentine is home to one of summer’s hottest parties (co-hosted with Chanel), Dulwich is keeping it arty with botanical workshops, film screenings or Friday Lates like Sargent: Wanderlust. Meanwhile, Sculpture in the City features work from 16 artists installed between office blocks, including a Damien Hirst on Cullum Street and Mark Wallinger’s lifesize black horse on the corner of Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street.
hot in the city
When summer hits, London comes alive like nowhere else on earth. Make this one your best ever with our guide to having fun in the sun words BY frankie m c coy
Lay your towel down at Neverland, left, for a cocktail or two, or take in the sunshine at Brixton Beach, below
pop up to the beach
What London’s pop-up summer beaches lack in tropical climes they make up for in sheer fun. Newington Causeway’s Backyard Cinema becomes Beachyard Cinema, with its new Miami-themed cocktail bar serving up all your favourite beachside coladas, plus a range of new-ish flicks such as La La Land and classics (Top Gun, anyone?). If you like the sound of the latter’s booze more than its blockbusters, head down to Fulham’s Neverland, the only beach bar to grace SW6, where baskers can bring their own alcohol or have on-site bartenders shake them up a £5 daiquiri to sip in one of the pastel-coloured beach huts. And then there’s classic night market Brixton Rooftop, currently transformed into a Cuban beach. Start with some good clean fun at one of its exercise classes, then pound the sand into the ground at the weekend raves — the pick of which is Garage Sessions with Artful Dodger, and DJ Luck and MC Neat.
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street vibes
It’s easy to love your neighbours when the sun’s out and you can bond over a shared barbecued sausage. Soak up the E8 community vibes at the Hackney Summer Fete on 8 July, where St John’s Church hosts all the coolest local street food, craft beer and vintage fashion any self-respecting hipster could desire, as well as music, a dog show and an after-party. Queen’s Park Day on 17 September, meanwhile, has donkey rides, cider and GBBO-worthy cake competitions. South of the river there’s the epic Lambeth Country Show (15-16 July), where New Orleans jazz legends The Hot 8 Brass Band headline after a jousting competition. The week after there’s the Camberwell Fair (22-23 July) which, in addition to lots of great music, food and drink, also has dance workshops (hip hop, samba), sock wrestling and tug-o-wars for the kids.
STRETCH OUT IN THE SUN
Alamy
When the sun’s glaring through your curtains at 4.30am, there’s no excuse not to get in a smug pre-work workout. Oxford Street office workers can hit the roof of John Lewis, where the Gardening Society pop-up garden is offering ‘Wake Up London’ tabata classes — 45 minutes of hardcore boxing circuits (left), based on the tabata training technique of high intensity exercise followed by rest periods. If HIIT’s your thing, also try Aviary’s HIIT the Roof rooftop sessions (top left), every other Friday from 30 June to 25 August, in Finsbury Square, where the views will distract you from the pain. Sound a bit much for a sunny morning? Stretch out at Dalston Roof Park’s Fat Buddha Yoga sessions, or Frame’s Breakfast Barre (below) on the banks of Regent’s Canal (12 July and 2 August), where you’ll be rewarded with breakfast from Gangsters for Granola.
TIPPLE-STOCK
A sunny afternoon spent getting lightly sozzled at a festival dedicated to booze? It’s the very essence of summer. Pull on your rosé-tinted glasses for London’s first ever rosé wine festival (21-23 July) at Bethnal Green’s Geffrye Museum (above left). Given that it’s in association with Laurent Perrier, you can expect some classy pink — there are 30 varieties on offer for sipping alongside cheese and charcuterie. Fans of tiki cocktails — those mad, colourful, super-boozy drinks in Aztec tumblers (right) — have the inaugural Spirit of Tiki festival in Regent’s Park: a two-day, rum-soaked bonanza of Bacardi, Mount Gay and Polynesian food (14-15 July). Alternatively, you can pay homage to the capital’s never-fading love of an 8% dry-hopped grapefruit pale ale at London Craft Beer Festival (4-6 August, above) — back for the fifth year with 45 breweries, beer-inspired food from Radio Alice and Morito, plus music from Hot Chip and Foals.
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SET SAIL TO PARADISE
EAT on your feet
One-off foodie pop-ups taste all the better outside in the sun. Start down in Canada Water at Hawker House with legendary pan-fried dumplings from Dumpling Shack (until mid-July) before whizzing up to the Our/London distillery in Hackney Downs for its weekly lunchtime sessions with super hot guest chefs, from Robin Gill (The Dairy) to Zoe Adjonyoh (Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen). At Kerb’s superbly named It’s Only Arctic Roll, But I Like It on 21 and 22 July at King’s Cross’ Granary Square, traders will recreate guilty food pleasures such as Pot Noodle and Angel Delight, substituting those delicious E numbers for top quality ingredients. And, of course, it’s your last chance to get stuck in to June’s London Food Month events, such as Westfield Stratford’s food trucks and Cook for Syria’s charity dinners, serving fabulous regional food.
Kerb, above, will be serving up sinful treats in King’s Cross
London has a lot of waterways, so your summertime plans should always include one boarding of a boat: and not just for a sail. Catch a film on the water as City Cruises launches the first on-Thames cinema, Movies on the River, with massive credit due to anyone who braves the screening of Jaws on 1 July. If you need some Dutch courage to steady your nautical nerves, head to King’s Cross, where Kentish Town’s Ladies & Gentlemen bar teams up with seafood legend London Shell Co for Wood’s navy rum and shellfish cruises up the canal (until 31 July). Or make like the Duchess of Cambridge and head to Paddington Basin for the annual Dragon Boat Race on 20 July, where teams take to the canal to paddle up money for charity.
London’s streets will be full of, er, street food this summer
horti-cultured
Living in a zone 3 £2,000-a-month shoebox doesn’t mean you can’t have a garden. Go green at a Kew Garden masterclass — Herbs in the Home on 2 July, for example — so you never have to buy a half-dead basil pot again. Or be inspired by the ever delightful Petersham Nurseries’ (left) private Petersham House Gardens, open to the public on 23 July. Chelsea Physic Garden (right) also has oodles of events, including an Introduction to Indoor Gardening on 21 September — perfect for your shoebox.
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Alamy; illustrations by Jonathan Calugi @ Machas
LIVE IN LONDON
Gutted at missing out on Glasto? You shouldn’t be: London’s own festival scene is epic, and you don’t even have to deal with trenchfoot or someone peeing on your tent. The pinnacle is Victoria Park’s massive weekender that takes in both Lovebox (below) on 14-15 July — with Frank Ocean, Solange and Jamie XX headlining — and Citadel (top right) on 16 July with Foals and Laura Marling. Down south in Brockwell Park there’s newbie electro festival Sunfall (above) from the people behind Shoreditch’s XOYO (12 August), while Clapham Common hosts the evermighty South West Four over August bank holiday. Further afield, at the end of the Piccadilly line is 51st State (5 August), the US house and garage fest that made its soldout debut at Trent Country Park last year with some serious DJs. In addition to all of this, there are, of course, the two weeks of British Summer Time shows in Hyde Park, featuring a wide range of heavy hitters, from Kings of Leon (6 July) to Justin Bieber (2 July).
this is BARDcore
London’s outdoor theatre programme for the coming months is one long midsummer night’s dream. Most obviously there’s Shakespeare’s Globe (above), where for a mere fiver you can watch everything from King Lear to Twelfth Night on Shakespeare’s roofless stage. While it’s warm enough to embrace the twilight hours, be sure to bag a pillar to lean on at a Midnight Matinee — with Romeo and Juliet on 30 June and a Mexican Much Ado About Nothing on 22 September. At Covent Garden’s Actors Church, meanwhile, there’s a promenade performance of Macbeth until the end of July, in which the audience moves through the grounds in tandem with the bloodspattered action. And if that sounds a touch heavy for a midsummer’s night, you can head to Regent’s Park’s Open Air Theatre (left) for some nostalgia (Oliver Twist), satire (a contemporary A Tale of Two Cities) and pleasingly cheesy musical theatre (On the Town and Jesus Christ Superstar).
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Holiday? More like helliday! Two weeks with nothing to do but lie in the sun and get lost in a not very good book: that was Hannah Betts’ plan. Then the leisure anxiety kicked in. Why, she asks, do modern-day Londoners find switching off so difficult?
I
illustration BY tim lahan
’ve just got back from a week’s holiday. Cue everyone and their dog saying: ‘You must be so chilled out.’ Not so much. In order to clear my in-tray before I could leave, I was required to slog 14-hour days for the two weeks before jetting off, culminating in not one, but two allnighters. The morning I departed, one of my bosses despatched 10 emails attempting to emotionally blackmail me into working while away. By the time I boarded the plane to Florence, I was a gibbering wreck: twitching, plagued with ‘Did I lock the door?’-type OCD and concerned I might miss the first few days of our jaunt by slipping into a coma. My packing had been so haphazard I was without knickers and my iPhone broke en route, while my beloved’s schedule was such that he flew out with me on the Friday, returned to London the next day, then joined me again 24 hours later. A picture of sun-dappled relaxation we were not. Far from being an aberration, such tensions seem par for the course when we Londoners endeavour to send ourselves on hols. As a capital newbie, I used to despise people who ‘needed’ holidays. I stayed put, abiding by the Dr Johnson axiom that a man who was tired of London was tired of life. Twenty years on, I realise I am tired of life, not least because of the effort required to maintain one in such a frenetically fascinating location. Metropolitan types need holidays more than anyone on earth — and yet we also appear to find them most problematic. First off, as referred to above, we tend to have to destroy ourselves to get there.
28 es magazine 23.06.17
According to the Office for National Statistics, Londoners work longer days than anyone else in the country: an average of two more hours a week, totting up to three extra weeks per year. Small wonder our attempts to extricate ourselves prove so masochistic. Personally, I’ve never had a break not prefaced by a workload of apocalyptic proportions, nor the thought: ‘Shall I just throw in the (beach) towel now?’ Many of us are so stressed in our day-today lives that it’s impossible to immediately switch into happy relaxed mode as soon as we reach our destination. Phoebe, 31, a lawyer, confesses: ‘I’m such a ball of exhausted fury by the time I arrive, I can’t even cope with charming local quirks. I threw a really shameful s*** fit on Mykonos last summer when the waiter couldn’t understand my urgent medical need for a Bloody Mary, then refused to eat any bread because it wasn’t gluten free. Only by day four — following an abortive hunt for chia seeds — did I realise that releasing myself from my controlfreakery was kind of the point.’ Even if we do manage to escape the hamster wheel, the psychological revelations that come with leisure may prove disturbing. Time off brings room to think — and that can be a killer. My brother has invented a term for this state: ‘holiday emo’. One assesses one’s work, relationships and love life and finds all wanting, prompting a series of posthols resolutions even more pathetically shortlived than their January rivals. (Currently, I am supposed to be engaging in strenuous sleep hygiene combined with HIIT sessions. Spoiler alert: I’m not.) Whoever we travel with is destined to
prove a problem. If one lays claim to a partner, there will always be a moment in which we hate them; indeed, a single moment of loathing should be considered pretty good. The issue of facing the challenges of travel, language, uncertainties and climate means that one’s own and the other person’s idiosyncrasies are inevitably revealed. September must be second only to January in its provision of D (divorce) days. A couple I adore still refer to ‘the gelato-face incident’. (If one chooses to holiday with family then quadruple the problems.) If one is single, there is the question of who to go with: a close pal with whom we risk falling out, or a casual acquaintance who will force us to be on best behaviour? A friend, who
asks to remain anonymous, recalls with horror the ‘cruise of doom’ in the wake of which he and a lifelong ally never spoke again. You might imagine that opting for a group sojourn would ease the tension. You would be wrong. The most hideous week of my life took place on a villa holiday stuffed with the muckers of a (now thankfully) ex-boyfriend. Think: a posse of terminally dim posh yobs intent on smashing the place up. Even if you like your companions, some Lord of the Flies situation will develop before the first vat of pink drink runs dry. As for excursions with packs of children, is anyone getting a holiday apart from said lobster-coloured louts? Parents remain trapped in some Dantean circle of hell while
“Even if you like your companions, some ‘Lord of the Flies’ situation will develop before the first vat of pink drink runs dry” gazing at the nipper-free folk enjoying themselves. (It’s okay, they’re not.) And then there’s the weather. If it’s ‘bad’ then the collective feeling is that participants have been short-changed. If it’s ‘good’ then there is lethargy and short-temperedness to contend with. Either way, it’s appalling. I say this as a
woman who has recently returned from a Florentine heatwave that even had the locals flustered. In my capacity as an ashenskinned vampire, I could hardly move. All this for a fleeting couple of hours feeling human on return, only to disappear with the first Armageddon-filled email. Alas, the more we capital types are deserving of holidays, the less equipped we are to deal with them. The answer, dear Londoners, is clear. Either do what the rich do and embark upon a state of rolling hols, so that even this begins to seem like a job, or abstain. Pick an Airbnb on the other side of town and luxuriate in everything the capital has to offer. Dr Johnson was right: there’s exoticism enough at home.
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beauty by katie service
glow-getters
Make like you’ve spent the summer in St-Tropez with these clever compacts
From left, Shiseido 7 Lights Powder Illuminator, £40, at johnlewis.com. ELIZABETH ARDEN FourEver Bronzing Powder, £29 (elizabetharden.co.uk). CHANEL Les Beiges Healthy Glow Luminous Colour, £42, at houseoffraser.co.uk. MAC Pearlmatte Face Powder/Fruity Juicy, £24.50 (maccosmetics.co.uk).
PHOTOGRAPH BY amy currell STYLED BY lily worcester
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feast
grace & flavour Grace Dent enjoys a generous serving of Harlem soul at Red Rooster
“Samuelsson’s food is very good. It’s comforting, decadent and restorative — no wonder Obama is a fan”
Ambience food
Jonny Cochrane; illustration by Jonathan Calugi @ Machas
I
t’s no piffling task to bring a Harlem restaurant to cross-central Shoreditch and inform the populace you’re here to teach them something fresh. Especially if that thing is ‘how to eat chicken’. We’ve seen chicken, thank you. We’re aware of its work. Meatballs, too. Remind me: so that’s like some small, spherical bits of burger? Gosh, I just can’t keep up. Still, this is what Red Rooster, Marcus Samuelsson’s new opening, within the equally spanking new hotel The Curtain, promised. And although I love Red Rooster in Harlem, and spent one glorious birthday there a few years back drinking bottles of 2010 OPP and eating yard bird, I was slightly troubled by its transfer to London. Perhaps, I worried, in freight it would turn into Hotel Chantelle, that popular Lower East Side brunch spot that pitched up in W1, providing a dining experience so disquieting that I can still only indicate what it did to me by pointing sadly at areas of an anatomically correct doll. Back to America awful Hotel Chantelle was kicked, having felt the London food scene’s unbridled smite. However, as Red Rooster took life, I felt that in its new birth there was lots to adore. The menu features stuff that sings to me, like meatballs with bone marrow dumplings and lingonberry, shrimp ’n’ grits and chicken ’n’ waffles. Not tight-skirt dining. A menu that needs fabric with a bit of give. I like the basement setting, the ballsy decor, the promise of live soul, dub and gospel music and the fact Samuelsson is bringing all this Ethiopian, Swedish, African-American Manhattan influence to a thoroughfare beside The Old Blue Last in EC2. Samuelsson’s intention is to celebrate black
red rooster 45 Curtain Road, Shoreditch, EC2 (020 3146 4545; thecurtain.com)
1
Still water
2
Original Webb fizz
2
Coke
£7
1
Cornbread
£4
1
Uncle T’s herring
£8
1
Helga’s meatballs
£9
1
Bird royale feast
£44
2
Glass Prosecco
£16
1
40ft Larger beer
1
Americano
1
Red velvet cake
Total
£4 £18
£6 £2.50 £7 £125.50
culture — its food, music and art — while also trying to cajole a broad, out-of-town, touristy clientele. It’s a juggling act and I can’t say how this schtick will fly with Londoners. But I do know his decision to whisk in De La Soul for the opening party felt like a stroke of genius — because if a person, wherever they’re from, remains blandly impassive to the opening bars of De La Soul’s ‘Buddy’, just cut them from your life. You don’t need that negativity. I’m chalking up Red Rooster as a hit, because if you sweep aside the staging and the story, Samuelsson’s food is very good. It’s comforting, decadent and restorative — no wonder Obama is a fan. Service is warm and generous spirited. I’d eat there any day. The cornbread was gorgeously warm and damp and appeared with sweet tomato jam and whipped honey butter. A starter of ‘Uncle T’s herring’ was so intensely up my street, I felt sad I didn’t know Uncle T personally. Soused herring lay in a pool of brown butter, horseradish, fermented rice and pickled turnip. The meatballs with lingonberry were delicious, even if for £9 you get three small tastes. We ordered, between three of us, the bird royale feast, which was a whole chicken on a platter with waffles, warm cheddar biscuits, mac and greens, pickles and a decent hot Rooster sauce. Yes, I know £44 for a chicken will send some readers slightly insane, but it was an excellent, enormous plump chicken in a well-seasoned crumb that fed many. I should add that it was swept to the table with grand aplomb, wearing an indoor firework. A bloody great roaring silver pyrotechnic device that made the whole restaurant swivel their heads. Perhaps I’m spoiling the surprise, but it may help to pre-warn you, so you can set your face to ‘Gosh look at that! Isn’t this great!’ Red velvet cake was a rather pointless order, as our stuffedto-the-gills stomachs really didn’t need it. Red Rooster made it from Harlem to Shoreditch beautifully. Samuelsson’s feathers are unruffled.
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feast
tart london Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison share their summertime take on spaghetti carbonara
Tart on the run: Lucy pulls on her trainers for a charity jog around Richmond Park
Jemima Jones (left) and Lucy Carr-Ellison
Josh Shinner
W
e’re both pasta addicts. We think about spaghetti all the time, rely on ravioli for comfort and inevitably end up tucking in to big bowls of penne several nights a week. And we adore taking long weekend romantic jaunts to Italy with our respective partners. It’s become a bit of a tradition. We come back telling each other about the dreamiest dishes we ate, from spaghetti alle vongole on the clifftops of Positano to seppie al nero at a Roman backstreet family-run joint. Here’s our take on carbonara, said to be one of the four quintessential Roman pasta dishes. It sums up the beauty of Roman cooking: simple, confident and incredibly delicious. Getting this dish right is an art well worth perfecting. The more Parmesan, black pepper and egg yolks the better, although be careful not to end up with egg-fried pasta! You can tweak this classic base to your taste by taking out the pancetta and making it veggie-friendly, adding seasonal greens to make it fresh and herby, or some chilli to give it some depth. This is our summer version, lighter and brighter than the classic but still luxurious. It’s a perfect dinner for all ages and a great way to get kids into greens.
Serves 4
summer carbonara
300g dried spaghetti 8 asparagus spears, sliced diagonally into 1cm pieces 200g fresh peas 100g broad beans (optional) 1 tbsp olive oil 5 rashers of pancetta, chopped 1 shallot, finely chopped 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 4 egg yolks Handful of Parmesan, finely grated Handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped 2 sprigs of mint, finely chopped ½ a lemon, juice and zest
Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add the spaghetti with a little salt. Cook to al dente, according to instructions, then remove from heat and drain, making sure to save some of the cooking water. In a separate pan, steam the asparagus, peas and broad beans for 2-3 minutes then dunk into cold water to prevent overcooking. Heat a little olive oil in a pan over a medium heat and add the pancetta. Fry until golden then add the shallot and garlic, stirring until everything begins to caramelise. In a bowl, blend the egg yolks, Parmesan, basil, mint, lemon zest and juice. To bring it all together, add 2 tbsp of the spaghetti cooking water back into the cooked pasta, followed by the pancetta mixture, vegetables and the egg mixture, stirring constantly until you’re left with a creamy sauce. Heap into bowls and devour.
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In the MIX
FEAST Original tin: Quello’s gently sparkling wine and Crooked Beverage Co’s boozy sodas
‘M yes, we can
Tinned bubbles and cocktails in cans? Welcome to a brave new era of festival drinking, says Frankie McCoy
P
ull on your drinking wellies — festival season is upon us. But what booze to stuff in your trusty North Face rucksack? Glass bottles are heavy and probably banned, there’s only so many cans of warm Strongbow and Red Stripe you can grimace through, and necking £10 cocktails from the bar every hour will bankrupt you, quickly. Luckily there’s a new wave of festival-friendly drinks to see you through four days in a soggy field.
Jonny Cochrane; glassware available at waterford.co.uk
“Blood orange and passion fruit-flavoured Midnight Stage is a hangover-busting citrus hit” Take Quello, a semi-sparkling white wine in a can that saves you the shame of decanting bottles of Pinot Grigio into old Evian bottles. Made from a blend of Trebbiano and Pagadebit grapes from independent producers in Italy’s EmiliaRomagna region, Quello is naturally fermented without adding carbon dioxide or glycerine, making it less eye-wateringly gassy and more gently fizzy. Founder Roberta Sergio created her canned wine as a reaction to the ‘stuffy and pretentious’ sparkling wine scene. ‘There’s none of the
pretension associated with prosecco or champagne,’ she says. ‘You can drink it straight out of the can’ — each of which is not only a perfect single serving, but easier to recycle and less dangerous than a glass bottle. It’s not just winos but mixologists who are taking on the canned market. You can get your minty hit with a can of Nixd, the rather lovely looking mojitos from artisan premixed specialist Tails Cocktails. Each 250ml can is made with nothing more than white rum, mint, lime and soda. Fine, it’s not freshly muddled, but you are in the middle of a field, and it’s a generous 8% ABV. If mojitos aren’t your thing, try Crooked Beverage Co, which is launching its ‘natural alcoholic sodas’ this month, in tins as neon-coloured and graphic as any 9% Peckham-brewed DIPA. Made with allnatural flavours, colouring and real fruit juice, they practically count as one of your five a day — and at 4.7%, they’re ideal afternoon sipping around the tent. Try the blood orange and passion fruit-flavoured Midnight Stage for a Mo’ please: Nixd’s take on the summer classic hangover-busting citrus hit that, unlike most pre-made cocktails, isn’t sickly sweet. Time to pull on your flower headband and crack open a tinny — summer’s here.
Douglas Blyde on why Malbec belongs to south-west France
any think Malbec originated in Argentina,’ says Yann Potet, maître de maison of 13th-century Château de Mercuès. ‘But, since ancient Rome, the grape belonged to Cahors.’ We meet amid newly coopered barrels below the cellar’s curvy ceiling, then climb to the battlements. Rather than barbarian hordes, Cahors’ 4,200 hectares of Malbec — paling in quantity, not quality, when compared with the 25,000 hectares sown in Mendoza — string below. In the chapel, diffused light illuminates names of a succession of 79 bishops who made this their summer palace. ‘It may be used as a conference room today,’ Potet notes, pragmatically. Toothsome paintings by local Marcel Bénaïs feverishly peer from walls up to three metres thick. From 1950 the warren-like hotel catered to a jazz-loving jet-set, later being snapped up by wine merchant Georges Vigouroux in 1983 — the pinnacle of a plan to reinstate the reputation of Malbec from south-west France. ‘Worth noting,’ says Potet, ‘wines from Bordeaux, three hours’ drive west, foregrounded the variety until the catastrophic 1956 frost devastated most of the crop.’ Vigouroux’s other bastion in the Lot, a valley famed for truffles and saffron, is Château de Haute-Serre. Aided by dynamite and diggers, Vigouroux replanted abandoned vineyards here before buying Mercuès. Jostling Malbec, I spy new Pinot Noir plantings and Chardonnay. Our guide shares a story of two nine-year-olds who stole away during a wedding, later discovered dozily clutching tannic straws by an open barrel. All wines, including the fatty Chenin, impress. Of Malbec, 1988 Mercuès, poured with pink duck at the Michelin-star dining room, is soulful while ultra-concentrated ‘Icon WOW’, made by both châteaux, is aptly titled (£166, cmwines.com). Also seek perfumed Cuvée Géron Dadine de HauteSerre 2010 (£32) and Château de Mercuès’ chiselled Grand Vin 2008 (£21), both from Malbec lovers. (dulwichvintners. co.uk; chateaudemercues.com)
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HOMEWORK
Wallpaper* editor-in-chief Tony Chambers on a boundary-busting art and design fair, the V&A’s new al fresco space and social media for your face
Piece makers
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Artist and designer Nathalie du Pasquier was an original member of Ettore Sottsass’ design collective Memphis, before dedicating herself to painting three decades ago. As prolific now as ever, she recently produced a capsule collection of exuberantly patterned scarves for Hermès and lent her playful aesthetic to Valentino’s AW17 collection. Her first solo art exhibition in London opens at Pace Gallery on 27 June. (pacegallery.com)
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Eye spy: Snapchat’s Spectacles
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The Design Museum goes full colour
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Chris Floyd, Ilvio Gallo
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The person
“The greatest luxury lies not in objects, but in the way they make us feel” Another stand-out installation comes courtesy of London design studio Based Upon, led by twin brothers Ian and Richard Abell. Inspired by their travels to Inis Oírr, an Irish island famed for limestone formations that have been sculpted over time by natural forces, they are presenting five sculptures to explore the intersection of natural and manmade forces. The artists will be seated in meditation throughout the fair, and as they inhale and exhale, the sculptures will ‘breathe’ along through light and movement. Their aim is to show how the greatest luxury lies not in objects, but in the way they make us feel. For a showstopper piece that you can (theoretically) take home, don’t miss the booth of contemporary art gallery Blain Southern, which is entirely given over to one work by Jeroen Verhoeven. The Dutch artist, who is known for harnessing cutting-edge production techniques, has created a Bubble Cabinet. What appears, at first glance, to be an ephemeral cluster of soap bubbles is in fact a functional cabinet, crafted from high-strength borosilicate glass. It’s a feat of material engineering, but also a triumph of imagination. A true masterpiece. (masterpiecefair.com)
The V&A unveils its Exhibition Road Quarter on 30 June, designed by architect Amanda Levete and her practice, AL_A. It comprises the first porcelaintiled public courtyard in the UK, populated with a glassfronted café and chairs and tables of Levete’s own design. The adjacent Sainsbury Gallery, a 1,100 sq m space, will initially play host to an immersive light experience by artist Simon Heijdens. (vam.ac.uk)
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he Royal Hospital Chelsea becomes the meeting point of creatives and collectors during Masterpiece London, an art and design fair that runs from 29 June to 5 July. Its old-world grandeur and bucolic surroundings make the hospital an unlikely choice of venue, but Masterpiece is no ordinary fair. What sets it apart is the juxtaposition of art and design from all periods and origins. Visitors are likely to find furniture by the likes of Zaha Hadid (from David Gill Gallery) near a sarcophagus from Sir John Soane’s country home (presented by Rose Uniacke), or contemporary aboriginal art close to a 1929 bar cabinet on skis by Paul Dupré-Lafon (at Galerie Dutko). As Masterpiece chairman Philip Hewat-Jaboor explains, this allows buyers ‘to engage serendipitiously with periods, genres and disciplines they might have previously been unfamiliar with’. Echoing a trend for immersive installations at art fairs, first-time fair participant Paul Kasmin Gallery has commissioned artist Iván Navarro to transform Masterpiece’s entrance hall. Chilean-born, New York-based Navarro is known for powerful light sculptures that wrestle with issues of politics and time. His Impenetrable Room will comprise multiple 6ft by 6ft structures — resembling musical instrument cases on the outside and fitted with mirrors and neon light on the inside. Arranged in circular formation in a nod to Stonehenge, this is bound to be a dazzling and evocative piece.
The building
Quarter masters: The V&A’s new courtyard
The experience
A new installation-based exhibition at the Design Museum, titled Breathing Colour, looks at how colour shapes the way we see the world. Devised by one of the foremost industrial designers of our time, Hella Jongerius, it includes simpler elements such as textiles and ceramics, but also ‘3D colour wheels’ of Jongerius’ own invention to illustrate the complex behaviour of light and movement on surfaces. As Jongerius says: ‘My goal is to call attention to colour as a mysterious, ever-changing entity.’ (designmuseum.org)
The technology
The rounded, boldly coloured video glasses by the creators of Snapchat caused quite a stir when they debuted in the US last year. Simply called Spectacles, they can record between 10 and 30 seconds of footage from the wearer’s line of vision, and share this instantly on the ever-popular social media platform. They are now available in London through a whimsical vending machine attached to a bunch of bright yellow balloons, which is set to move around the city from one day to another. £129.99 (spectacles.com)
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On a high: Quito’s historical centre
escape
EDITED by dipal acharya
Where to stay
With its creamy white stucco façade, the Italianate Casa Gangotena on the corner of Plaza San Francisco is a taste of old-fashioned luxury, featuring 31 bedrooms replete with plush carpets, huge beds and wall-to-wall white marble bathrooms. The best spots to hang out are in the quaint palm court conservatory or the dark clubby cocktail bar. For supper, enjoy a bowl of hearty potato soup with corn, avocado and cheese or spicy green plantain and fish stew, a local speciality, in the elegant ground-floor restaurant. The hotel also boasts fabulous rooftop views. (casagangotena.com) Casa Gangotena’s palm court, and exterior, above
Where to shop
quito chic
Straddling the equator high in the Andean foothills, Ecuador’s capital, Quito, is full of charm. Katie Law savours the city’s best, from preColumbian pottery and baroque bling architecture to guinea pig empanadas and killer pisco sours
Try the guinea pig empanadas Start the day with coffee or traditional ‘ponche’ at Zazu made from milk, egg and cinnamon, and a pastry at Dulceria Colonial on the palm-fringed Plaza Grande beside the cathedral. For a light lunch, try Tianguez café on Plaza San Francisco for a humita — a cornmeal, egg and cheese dumpling-like snack — washed down with a locally brewed pilsner. Tianguez also has one of the best crafts shops for replica pre-Columbian ceramics, jewellery, alpaca woollies and coffee beans. For a glimpse of Quito high life try Zazu, a 20-minute cab ride to the new town, for superb pisco sours, fresh shrimp ceviche and guinea pig empanadas.
Alamy
Where to eat and drink
What to see
La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús
Quito’s magnificent churches are the must-see legacy of its Spanish colonisation. For sheer baroque bling, LA Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesús, begun in 1605, with its twiddling, intricately carved stone façade and gilt-encrusted interior, wins hands down. The choir gallery of the San Franciscan Monastery has wonderful carved and painted wooden saints, while its beautifully tended cloisters are now home to several friendly parakeets, rescued by resident monk Father Wilson. The nearby Casa del Alabado on Cuenca N1-41 has outstanding pre-Columbian art and artefacts, displayed by theme in a restored colonial-era house. Don’t miss the magnificent changing of the guard — in 18th-century replica blue, red and gold uniforms — outside the Palacio de Gobierno, the seat of the President, every Monday at 11am.
The locals shop in the indoor Mercado San Francisco, on the corner of Rocafuerte and Chimborazo. Visit Señora Rosa’s tiny stall, piled high with fresh herbs, potions and lotions. Try her homemade remedies — my favourite was the invigorating nettle, rose petal and bittersweet herb body rub. Go native with a Panama or felt hat from nearby Sombrereria Sombrereria Benalcázar Benalcázar on Benalcázar Street, where Señor César’s family has been Mashpi Lodge making hats and hand-painted masks for two generations. Dip into artisan chocolatier Chez Tiff on Calle La Ronda, a charming cobbled street full of 17th-century houses turned artisan boutiques, and get a taste of how chocolate is made from bean to bar.
Expedition
Take a break from city life and immerse yourself in nature for a couple of nights at Mashpi Lodge, a three-hour drive north of Quito. The modernist glass, wood and concrete eco-haven cum luxury boutique hotel is discreetly nestled in lush, tropical foliage in the Andean cloud forest. Delve deep into misty woods of ferns, moss-covered magnolias and cecropia trees; peddle on a sky bike in thin air above the vast tree canopy 80 metres above ground, and take the most exhilarating dip of your life in the spectacular Magnolia waterfall. Four nights, with two nights each at Mashpi Lodge and Casa Gangotena, from £2,495 including flights, transfers, excursions and B&B accommodation, all with Cox & Kings (coxandkings.co.uk)
Chocolatier Chez Tiff
Head in the clouds: the Mashpi Lodge
The Andean cloud forest
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my london
yana peel as told to katrina israel
Home is… Bayswater, in a flat that used to be home to the Royal Society of Literature. I love the legacy of the Omega design workshops that were once based there and also the horses that people ride through Hyde Park — a bit of country life on our doorstep.
What do you collect? Serpentine editions, first copies of favoured Russian Literature, half-read New Yorkers, white trainers, Charlotte Tilbury lipsticks, talented creative partners and Muji 0.5 pens. Favourite shops? Hatchards and Heywood Hill for books; Rough Trade for albums; Cos for beautifully cut basics; Bodas for ethical essentials; Flowerbx for the best thank-yous (above), fresh from the market. Last play you saw? The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Donmar. I’ve followed Josie Rourke and Kate Pakenham since their Bush and Old Vic days.
First thing you do when you arrive back in London? I pick up a coffee from the 34 varieties at Markus Coffee (above) in Marble Arch, put on my Beats X and run through Hyde Park with Benji B’s latest on SoundCloud. What are you up to right now? Planning the Summer Party 2017 with Chanel and our creative collaborators. The annual gala raises essential funds keeping the Serpentine Galleries free and open to all. This year Francis Kéré designed the pavilion, Karl Lagerfeld drew our invitations and Caius Pawson, Es Devlin and Elizabeth Saltzman are also involved.
42 es magazine 23.06.17
The head of the Serpentine Galleries sips Martinis at Dukes, goes running in Hyde Park and splashes out on Chanel Best piece of advice you’ve been given? From Michael Bloomberg: ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.’ And from my parents: ‘Do your best and have fun!’ Who do you call when you want to have fun? My husband, Stephen. My three best girlfriends. Jason Basmajian, Ben Evans and Amanda Levete, Francis Sultana, Fiona Leahy, Sara Sjölund, Ben Pawson. Oh, and Hans-Ulrich Obrist (right, with Peel), of course.
Best place for a nightcap? Martinis at Dukes (right) or an old fashioned at The Cub Room at The Beaumont. What would you do if you were Mayor for the day? My 12-year-old son suggests making the buses free so no one would need cars. Super-speed electric car chargers will also be welcome, once they arrive for the new generation of black cabs.
Biggest extravagance? Hailo (shamelessly) — now called Mytaxi — and Chanel (discerningly). Earliest London memory? Nights at Subterranea or Tramp when I was at LSE. Visiting Sensation at the RA, then seeing the Chapmans’ Great Deeds Against the Dead at Charles Saatchi’s house (plus the letter of complaint in his loo from an irate neighbour). Who are your heroes? My grandmothers. One survived the siege of Leningrad, the other was the first female student to be accepted at law school there. Their fighting spirit lives on in my daughter. The Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Francis Kéré, is open from 23 June to 8 October
Getty Images; Matt Writtle
Best meal you’ve had? The Typing Room (above) at Bethnal Green Town Hall for the locally foraged elderflower and raw almond dessert. Chef Lee Westcott was in Hong Kong when I lived there.