Coconut and blood orange mini cupcakes
Last week at the 60th Berlinale Film Festival, the lovely Alice Waters asked a few of us Chez Panisse alums to join her in making a meal overlooking the Brandenburg Gate. The occasion was to honour her friend, the incredible artist Christina Kim who is the creator of the beautiful and socially responsible clothing company DOSA. Based in L.A., Christina makes the softest scarves in the world and the lady knows how to wear neon pink like nobody (see below)! This year the Berlinale commissioned her to make a curtain to cover the Brandenburg Gate that was then pulled back for the opening of the festival to reveal a newly remastered print of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.
The Mayor of Berlin came along with the Berlinale’s entire international jury and Tilda Swinton too. She looks so stunning in real life, you just feel like jumping in a trash can. But she is completely cool and bohemian and she brought her adorable kids who gobbled down the mini cupcakes!
Watching the curtain go up
The curtain
Metropolis at the Brandenburg Gate
view from the dining room
It was freezing, but we wore our vintage furs and new fleeces and puffer jackets to source organic food from the Berlin area for the dinner. Here are some pics for you of the process.
- The bread tasting
David Tanis and David Lindsay choose the best veg for our lasagna
Our menu
Best rosé in the world x
Spinach pasta
Black truffles for the creamy sauce
The spinach and kale lasagna with truffle cream
I served my apple galettes with buttermilk ice cream. I LOVE German buttermilk
candied violets on violet cupcakes
I was listening to Billie Holiday today while I was working and heard this song for the first time. How is it possible I have never heard this before? Here are the words for you. Still don’t know how to add a song to the blog. Do you? Enjoy the lyrics anyway. x
It was winter in manhattan, falling snow flakes filled the air,The streets were covered with a film of ice,But a little simple magic that I learned about somewhere,Changed the weather all around, just within a thrice.I bought you violets for your furs and it was spring for a while, remember? I bought you violets for your furs and there was april in that december.The snow drifted down and the flowers, and that is where it lay.The snow looked like dew and the blossoms as on a summer day.I bought you violets for your furs and there was blue in the wintry sky,You pinned my violets to your furs and gave a lift to the crowds passing by,You smiled at me so sweetly, since then one thought occurs,That we fell in love completely, the day I bought you violets for your furs.
papered window through the security grates
the sun came out today, hooray!
a table was delivered to the shop (our future work-top was an old art school desk)
it is all getting closer. sigh.
i papered the windows so no peaking!
i want a few surprises.
x x claire
marshmallow cupcakes YUM!
I have taken a break from photographing my customers in order to show you a little of the goings on at Violet on Wilton Way, sorry if it bores you…
There is SO much to do when you are opening a business.
Permits,painting, plumbing, electricity, phones, internet, choosing colours, sanding,sourcing, building, demolishing, ordering, canceling, the list goes on. it makes it hard to breath.
Best friend ever! Aidan is back again this weekend doing some fine painting and keeping it prana in his and his wife’s line of super cute yoga gear, BuddhaMonkey – x They are even planning to have stuff for your pets to stretch in! Where do they find the time?
I would also just like to thank the men of Chilango for bringing good burritos to London. If you are from California you are aware of the craving, like none other in the world, for a burrito. Though I think Chilango has to get rid of that basmati rice and go for long grain, it still hits the spot every time.
burritos and beer, oh yeah
There is quite a lot of anxiety attached to this project, but I tell myself to just keep breathing (through respirators) and keep thanking my incredible husband and friends for helping.
namaste.
It was so good to be back at the market Saturday!
I missed you guys.
I have a very exciting announcement to make…
Violet is going to have a little kitchen on Wilton Way E8 very soon. It will be our factory and HQ. I will let you know more details as we iron them out. The last few weeks have been full of exciting DIY and we have dragged old friends in from far and wide to lend a hand. Banker by day, painter and decorator by night, our dear friend Aidan dusted off his brushes this weekend and helped Damian crash it out. Our old San Francisco friend Peter McKnight took a break from building football pitches to tidy up our back garden. It looks like Tuscany out there! Another good friend, local restauranteur Henry Dimbleby of delicious Leon fame even walked a tray of hot soup and toast down to the boys. Such community spirit!
Peter's tidy tools
See you guys next week. xxxx
Happy New Year guys. I look forward to hearing all about your Christmas dinners and New Year’s parties. Some very sweet customers have sent me lovely messages about the Christmas Puddings and Christmas Cakes they purchased from me this year. Keep them coming! I love it. x
A happy (albeit serious) Christmas Cake customer x
So it’s totally freezing out there and I can’t ask the girls to stand outside all day at the market for me in these conditions, now can I? Plus you are all on a cleanse probably. No wheat, no meat, no sweet, right? Follow healthy eating regimes now so you can treat yourselves when we open back up.
VIOLET has gone on a brief hiatus for the first half of January to rest up, warm our tootsies, and contemplate 2010.
We re-open on Saturday the 23rd of January. xx
This is it for 2009!
We would love to see you tomorrow for the last market of the year. At the end of the day on Saturday, we will be closing up the stall until the last week in January so come and get your VIOLET CUPCAKES while you can.
Of course you can also pick up some mince pies tomorrow and if you’re lucky, a Christmas pudding or Christmas cake, but we only have a few left thanks to Hattie Ellis’s brilliant article in the Times. x
Here is a blury photo of a pudding:
's pudding time children!
do you remember PRIMUS? sorry, but with all of this RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE malarkey i had to remind you x
Get your guitar hero out!!
Merry merry Christmas xx
Saturday was bustling at the market and everyone seemed to be getting into the spirit of the holidays. I strung up some Christmas baubles and made a display of Christmas cakes and Christmas Puddings in anticipation of the hordes that would descend after our lovely mention in the Times last Thursday.
It was freezing out there though! I was given a leopard print furry jacket for my birthday from Damian but it didn’t fit, so it went back to Zara and I had to resort to the ol’ North Face. There were quite a few cats walking around the market and buying cupcakes yesterday. But this girl, a VIOLET regular, wore hers the best. Plus she had the coolest basket. They were both so sweet to let me take their photo too. Thanks girls! xx
My cute customers x
I am so excited to introduce you to my blog!! Bear with me while I figure it all out…
There is going to be a lot to come so watch this space. A big shout-out to the boys at YES for making my site so beautiful! We aren’t totally finished but I was too excited to share it with the world, so I jumped the gun and launched it. Plus this great piece came out in the Times today so I thought it was only appropriate.
Hope you like it too. let me know x Claire
