Absolutely Love a truck, a caravan, a bicycle, anything on wheels that can dispense something delicious. I’ve been obsessed with the Heartschallenger van in New York for some time and have been looking for any excuse to get it to London. It’s so clever, so cutely designed and just so novel.

Wandering around Venice in LA over the holidays I spied a beautifully designed truck serving hot dogs. The “Dogtown” truck. Powder blue with red graphics it reminded me of the Heartschallenger in all it’s utilitarian kitschness.

I got more than a little excited when a local friend calmly told me that there were hundreds of these magnificent creatures and that they all came together in foodie truck gatherings throughout LA. A kind of Roll up Pop up of sorts. Of course I had to attend one of these gatherings. First Friday at Venice literally blew my mind. Legions of wonderfully designed pimped up trucks serving the most randomly exquisite food (orange chocolate cointreau ice cream sandwich anyone? Or perhaps a Bacon Kimchi tofu with sesame salsa verde hot dog?)

I was in meals on wheels heaven…for a moment. Please London can we have some of these? Mr Whippy and Mr Chippy are just not doing it for me any more.

Get your Lard on!

Pin up truck

The Truck that started the Movement with 79,891 followers on twitter. Kogi @kogibbq

The grilled cheese truck has been named the third most influential twitterer in LA with 29,233 followers to date @grlldcheesetruk

The Dessert Melt. How could I not know this existed??

Even the food trucks name drop in Los Angeles

The mirrored Ceiling, the lights. Disco truck

Truffle popcorn? Yes please.

Now this is really something

Yes Really

An ice cream sandwich. Cones are so last decade…..

A Cake Pop Truck

Vegan. Red. Velvet. Of course.

Enough said.

A “food truck” in England. Not quite the same somehow.

More about the LA food trucks here…

http://mobimunch.com/

http://www.foodtrucktalk.com/category/california

http://www.thegrilledcheesetruck.com/

http://www.foodtrucksmap.com/

It’s just the sort of thing we love. A hint of science lab ,lot’s of pyrex and lab coats; lot’s of whirring of blenders, wearing of goggles and snowy clouds of nitro oxide. After all that you have a delicious ice cream that is made in front of your eyes. Part performance ,part haute cuisine and equal part delicious flavours. We had madagascan vanilla with salted caramel sauce and honeycomb sprinkles, so sublime. We tried and failed to take some home to everyone in the studio (honest) but the technology to take away is not in place yet.

A gourmet hike through sub zero streets to Camden it is then… Gosh how we suffer.

Pretty happy then to see Fluoro making yet another Fashion comeback in the Spring Summer ‘11 collections. ESPECIALLY Christopher Kane’s Fluoro lace confections.  The most perfect pieces ever. ” Dress Uppers” that inspired us to design the Harvey Nichols Press day in all those bright acid Shades we love so much

Fluorescent greenhouses Housed Beauty, shoes and Men’s accessories. Fluoro swings to perch on and pie pops to snack on in fluoro trays . Summer ‘11 we can hardly wait!

Christopher Kane. Gorgeousness in the extreme. Need this dress

A Fluoro Greenhouse ” shoehouse”

I like the idea of my Summer shoes being housed like this in winter. Retiring seasonally to the “ShoeGreenhouse”

Tom Dixon’s Fluoro coat stand. Elevating the mundane in the brightest possible way

Fluoro Green Greenhouse

Love these bags!

A Graphic fluoro Plan chest housed new collections of Jewelery and accessories

Fluoro Swings. Fun times

Pie Pops a new obsession. Made by the Fifth Floor restaurant. Delicious

My Neon Smiley face for an Instant Good Time.

“Artisan Chewing Gum factory” I mean everything about that implies a certain Willy Wonka fabulousness. Who can forget the three course gum from the film and the gum addicted Violet Beauregarde?

So off we went to Bompas & Parr’s first chewing gum micro factory in Whiteleys to learn about and make chewing gum. Genius. We got to choose from a flavour library of two hundred flavours (anyone for Damp or black pepper?) I chose Ambergris and grapefruit. Perfumey and delicious and truly the most fragrant gum I ever tasted. Given that we all chew gum (well we do don’t we?) I am thinking that bespoke gum could be the way forward. Like a custom blended fragrance. I know it’s going to sound indulgent to have your own gum blend but really why not? First date gum, wedding gum, Friday night gum, workout gum…cruising in a hummer gum? And the thing is…I am not even kidding.

The Flavour library. Must have sniffed about sixty scents. How many scents can one smell without reaching a “sniff plateau”?

The Chewing Gums base kit. My phial of Ambergris and grapefruit which I could happily use as perfume.

A gooey pink ball of perfumed gum. Yum.

My next door gum making neighbour made a gum chicken and egg

We designed the branding and a mini Patisserie in Harvey Nichols 5th floor to sell Claire’s delicious confections. We wanted to give a more modern interpretation of a pattiserie, a break from the multi layered cake stands and mismatched vintage china cups that are pretty much everywhere.

Inspiration came from the geometric, colourful form of the iconic battenburg cake.

We created the branding that would be used in all printed material from the logo to the monogram which was used as a light motif in the packaging

We decided to create a modern sleek contrast from which to display the nostalgic treats. Fluoro perspex for a jolt of modern, powder pink and yellow for a touch of battenberg and gold powdered Scaffolding to bind it all together in an industrial yet luxurious way.

The Claire Clark afternoon tea is sublime, the bubblegum Marshmallow Pavlova transported me to a place that is indescribable but is in my food memory bank filed under ecstasy. If you can’t make it to afternoon tea the pattiserie is open until mid November. I rarely say this BUT…The Jaffa cakes are even better than the real thing. The Battenberg slices, the toffee bark with salted pecans and the chocolate Covered honeycomb have made our world a more luxurious sugar coated place.

Pop Up Patisserie photographs by Barry Lewis

Happy Birthday to Makeda! My wonderful assistant who is unspeakably brilliant in so many ways (on top of working fabulously, she bakes brilliantly and rocks a hat/headpiece nearly every day) – A suitable birthday honour then to be featured on the Vogue Blog. Modeling a sneak peek selection of headpieces for Vogue Fashion’s Night Out at the Louis Vuitton store. We can’t wait for Fashion’s Night Out. Lots of fun planned!

Slice of lime with that ?

A little tardiness on the blog front as I took myself to Ibiza (again) for the last of the summer wine. Or last of the summer hierbas as the case may be.

Sunning ourselves at El Chiringuito a vision approached our cluster of loungers. A mirage of sorts. Well for me anyway, beach mirages for other people are probably the man/woman of their fantasies wearing very little. For me a beach mirage goes a little something like this…I am hungry, a ruggedly handsome man in a Breton top accessorised by a beautiful leather holster comes toward me holding a pail of oysters on ice. Think more Hermes holster than tequila shot holster and you get the idea. Freshly shucked bliss…

Love the chainmail shucking glove with his silver bracelet. How gorgeous is the leather holster? Ah the details…

Would madam like the shallot vinaigrette? The green or red tabasco, the lemon juice? Everything?

Nasturtiums. Love the appeal of eating beautiful flowers. Raw food canapes from Zenses Ibiza.

I used to be a fan of the radical detox holiday. It was like a prescription of drastic correction that I enforced anually for having too much of a good thing (a convent school upbringing can do that to you). Detoxing in Thailand, fasting in India, bootcamp in Mexico. A masochistic set of healthy holidays. The last time I went on a fast in Thailand I persevered through two weeks of “nothing broth” while fellow holiday makers filed past me with plates of lobster further cementing my misery. Mission accomplished and bursting with rude health we finally went off to a neighbouring island where our exquiste teak villa awaited…complete with a mini bar stocked with my favourite red wine. Oh dear.

I woke up the next day and instead of glowing with post detox gorgeousness. My face was covered. IN. RED. WELTS. The shock of the alcohol on my impeccably clean bloodstream. The rest of my holiday was spent hiding behind a penguin classic, large sunglasses and a giant hat. A distinctly post op Look that in retrospect was pretty hilarious. That experience taught me the lesson of trying to achieve balance and not living in such extremes.

Now Instead of going on extreme health kick holidays I try and temper my everyday life to incorporate the positive aspects that I learned on all those holidays and I save my holidays for doing, well Holiday things. I like a trip where I wake up and can sip a Spirulina smoothie and at sunset have a glass of good red wine. Balance.

Delicious healthy lunch that Ibiza Retreats arranged at our villa.

On a recent trip to Ibiza (an island that can knock you off or put you on balance like no other) I met the lovely Larah from Ibiza Retreats. Larah runs retreats in Ibiza which run from a day to a few weeks. They serve delicious raw food, have life-coaching, yoga, massages…all the good mind, body and soul stuff. On this trip Larah was our holiday “wellness concierge,” now this is a concierge service worth having both away and in everyday life. She booked us reflexology, massages, vibrational healing (this is amazing) and liberally sprinkled healthy fairy dust on our holiday. You’ve got to love someone who adds cucumber and strawberries to your daily pitchers of water. Vitamin Water indeed, this is the original and yet another trick I took back home.

Phone Detox. We placed our mobiles on trays of cleansing Ibizan sea salt. Mine is now switched onto another vibration (and devoid of inappropriate texts)

Larah took us on a one day multi sensory retreat which was just extraordinary. Set in a private villa we had an unforgettable afternoon of eating raw superfoods (a shot of raw cocoa we downed contains the same nutritional value as a large steak) having treatments, listening to music and engaging in wellness rituals. I loved the Multi Sensory Ritual where we were blindfolded and had scents placed under our noses, different tastes planted in our mouths. This took me out of my comfort zone and is not something I would usually do but I found it strangely liberating and left with a heightened senses of awareness. Always a good thing.

This is a wonderful mindful experience to have with friends and I highly recommend it. Of course you can also run off to Aura afterwards for more wonderful experiences. Mojitos on the terrace, Dinner in the garden, Disco indoors…it’s my favourite place to escape to this Summer. Ah The Joy of Balance…Happy Holidays!

Lunch at Cas Gasi. Incredible food that comes from…

…their garden.

Ibizan hens. We ate their eggs for breakfast every morning.

Silk blindfolds for the multi Zensory experience. Delightful.

At the Retreat. This cat has the ultimate water/fountain bowl

The Goddess like girls from Zenses who do the Multi Zensory day retreats with Ibiza Retreats.

After a night at Aura. A smoothie at the organic juice bar on Benirras beach works wonders.

I love Jelly. I particularly love the spectacular jellies that are the signature of Bompas and Parr. An inspirational pair that I have had the joy to work with on many fun filled projects. When I first came across Bompas and Parr a few years ago I had to pinch myself. I walked into their architectual Jelly Banquet at UCL and what lay before me was my personal version of heaven. A long wobbling fluorescing stretch of illuminated pink architectural jellies. The perfect merging of food, architecture and art. Delightful.

They are a genius double act. Well spoken, incredibly knowledgeable and often exquisitly dressed. Sam at one of our first meetings arrived dressed in a smart suit with a bow tie, pink socks and wielding a giant spoon. Most importantly they have the most infectious enthusiasm, they believe anything is possible and with them it truly is…Breathable alcohol, scratch and sniff cinema, architectural punchbowls and the recent phenomenally sucessful parliamentary waffle house. They really are revolutionising our perception of food in a dizzying fashion.

Last night we went to their book and studio launch. Their studio is somewhere I want to loiter in…occult jams in one corner, levitating strawberries in another and fridges full of delicious quivering jellies.

The book is wonderful and I urge you all to buy one. It’s beautifully shot, informative and dare I say it the perfect antidote to the growing legion of  ”serious” cookery books. Food is fun, this is fun and this coming weekend I’m inspired to make the rosé and rhubarb jelly. Maybe I can persuade the boys to show me how to make it levitate. A levitating rosé jelly in my garden…Pure Joy.

It’s worth mentioning their next adventure happening in July. The Complete History of Food . Go boys!

Mark Ronson’s birthday party. We got Bompas and Parr to do an architectural jelly table which ended up in a decadent jelly fight (the best parties do!)

Aphrodisiac jellies

Levitating Strawberries. What could be better than levitating food?

Some of the infamous jellies.

Laura and Phoebe get heavily involved in the breathable architecture. And inhale……..

Beautiful concrete figurines by Kathy Dalwood

I have a fascination with the colour Black. I am told it is not really a colour so I have a fascination with a non colour…just to be difficult. My Interest in Black food was first realised when a few years ago I went on a Valentines date to my favourite Italian restaurant.

I devoured an inky black pool of squid ink risotto accompanied by copious amounts of red wine. Divine. At the end of a very romantic evening I looked into the bathroom mirror to find my mouth transformed into a liquorice smile…My mouth was black, my teeth were black. Valentines night and my seductive pool of black risotto had morphed me into a black toothed Mary Queen of Scotts. We cried with laughter at the Valentines chefs revenge. I am sure my tears of laughter were black too (and we did go out for four years after that so it wasn’t really a disaster)

Since that moment I have had a black food obsession. Caviar, Black truffles, Black rice, Cuttlefish, squid ink…all delicious and all very very black. There is something dark and slightly unsettling about eating black food. Perhaps it is the association with darkness and thereby death? I love the idea of a monochromatic dinner with all of the dishes and drinks being black. So much so that when I went to a supperclub thrown by a A razor, a shiny knife and we realised or mutual interest in black food we decided to throw a dinner with precisely that. Bompas & Parr who we collaborated with researched and found that Black banquets were not a new thing and did in fact have a glorious history. Of course! One of the most remarkable was hosted by Grimod de la Reyniere in 1783.

Inspired by the feasts of the past we devised an eight course menu of all black food. We found the perfect venue in the Quintessentially charitable pop up club in the House of St Barnabas. A beautiful Georgian house in Soho complete with a garden and it’s own chapel (from which we served black vodka and jellies)

I designed the tables to have contrasting black elements in a variety of materials. Black concrete figurines, shiny liquorice towers and Black matte ostrich eggs. Black object filled with the blackest flowers nature can provide…Black Dahlias, Black Calla lillies and clusters of blackberries,  blackcurrants, Black grapes (grown in my very own garden)

Let them eat black! And we did.

Our Black banquet menu

Black Pyramid Jellies by Bompass and Parr

A tower of Black Jellies in the Chapel at the House of St Barnabus

Deliciousness

We raided all the local charity stores for object…then sprayed them black.

Liquorice and Black Jack towers and Black Waterford Crystal glasses make the table setting complete.

Liquorice strands as napkin rings. Nice to play with pre dinner

Paul Glossop our very talented in house Director of Balloon artistry…Aren’t we lucky?

Dita Von Teese came to show her support… we love Dita.

The fun bit is getting to take the balloons home. Taxi?!