Never mind the food, it’s Nigella’s kitchen we’re really drooling over
A see-through toaster, rose gold cutlery and copper mixer ... what’s REALLY whetting JAN MOIR’S appetite
ALL I want for Christmas — is everything in Nigella’s new kitchen. And I mean everything! From her bundt pans to her biscuit jars; from her eyelevel double oven and grill to her pink rubber spatulas; from her see-through toaster to the darling little glazed ceramic tray she uses as a spoon rest. Nigella’s shelves and worktops just groan with utter gorgeousness.
For her new BBC2 series At My Table, Nigella is ensconced in a brand new kitchen, a place of wonder and brick-sized waffle irons; a veritable treasure trove of culinary hardware and all-round foodie grooviness. There is a double-door fridge the size of a wardrobe, a batterie de
cuisine that hangs above her head, festooned with enough basket sieves and balloon whisks to make mayonnaise for an army on the march.
There are copper shelves — copper! — stacked with enviable flatware and handmade glazed ceramics. There are coloured water glasses, a divine baby-pink cake stand and a metal-plated KitchenAid that looks capable of repelling bullets as well as whipping egg whites.
How have I lived until now without a hand-carved wooden pig centrepiece filled with onions or lemons, just like Nigella’s?
Why have I been happy to settle for a boring plastic bottle of Greek extra virgin next to my hob, instead of half a dozen glorious Italian glass flasks, into which a selection of different cooking oils have been lovingly decanted?
I lust after Nigella’s trio of beautiful fat-bellied coffee pots in different sizes, the ‘teeny vintage milk bottles’ she fills with love-in-a-mist flowers for table decorations, the bevelled measuring spoons she uses to scoop cocoa powder, those perfect, long-stemmed champagne saucer glasses and — hold me — her set of peerless Netherton Foundry woks and pans, the ultimate in Shropshire-built iron cookware. Oooh, Magnifico! as Nigella herself might say.
In Nigella’s kitchen, every last teaspoon or stray teacup has to earn its place at the table, while every bit of kit and cooking caboodle has to be stylish, practical and covetable to gain entry.
Of course, in the middle of this glorious cornucopia of kitchenalia stands the most exotic item of all: Nigella herself. There, in the twinkling firmament created by her mania for tea-lights and fairy lights, the domestic goddess, now 57, reigns supreme once more.
This series finds her demonstrating recipes from her new cookbook At My Table — her best for years. Her red-hot roast salsa and her spiced almonds are already firm favourites Chez Jan, even if I don’t have the perfect Apacuka ceramic bowls in which to display them, but let’s not intrude on private pain.
No wonder Nigella appears to be in a saucier, more frivolous mood than ever before.
The first episode found our heroine smiling at a meringue topping as if it were a child she had just rescued from a burning orphanage. Elsewhere, she finds inner peace in slicing leeks, scatters dishes with Aleppo pepper that looks like ‘shards of terracotta’, admires some slices of ham that are ‘as pink as a kitten’s tongue’ and observes that ‘going slowly is rather peaceful in the morning’.
In one arresting segment, Nigella gets up in the middle of the night to make a batch of emergency chocolate brownies — as you do.
It was hard to focus on this carb crisis because she was wearing such a lovely silky pistachio and pink dressing gown, imprinted with a map of Venice. Santa, I have been a very good girl this year, so can I have one of those, too?
Back in the kitchen, Nigella dons a fetching black cocktail dress and a pair of disposable black rubber gloves to fondle some frozen peas before administering a splosh of vermouth here, a flourish of dill there and a perma-smoulder everywhere.
She cooks in an L-shaped work area, with stainless steel worktops, a built-in hob and shelving underneath to store her achingly fab crockery.
Behind her is a wall that appears to have been stamped with copper and swirled with verdigris, while sliding glass doors lead out to a plant-filled patio. Here, Nigella’s guests sit on pink metal chairs around a wooden trestle table to snack on her chicken traybake and her queen of puddings.
Is any of it even real? Doubtful. In previous series, her kitchen was a television studio copy of the one in the Chelsea home she shared with ex-husband Charles Saatchi.
In 2015, for the post-divorce TV series Simply Nigella, she was in a more sombre mood, portrayed by a humbler workspace.
That layout is more or less replicated in her new kitchen, but I don’t ever recall such a banquet of desirable items being on display. Judging by the outdoor shots that feature in the programme, we are suppos to believe that Nigella’s new hom and kitchen is in the warren of lit streets to the south of Notting H Gate Tube station in West Lond — where she almost certainly do not live.
Yet to buy into a television ch and her recipes is to buy into t lifestyle, too. Nigella has alwa propagated a kind of stylish, midd class, West London yummy mumm extravagance, as fascinating as it irresistible.
Before, it presented itself in t reckless strewing of expensive ing
Santa, I’ve been very good — can I have that too?
such as pomegranate seeds and blueberries, or by using half a dozen different types of soy sauce when one would suffice.
Now, it manifests itself in the profligacy of cookware and tableware and decadent gadgetry.
Do I trust in the make-believe of Nigella-land? I do, I do!
There is no sign of her infamous pasta cupboard, but she does have a new and dedicated chilli shelf, nicknamed the Hot Spot.
Here, in a cupboard with its own in-house, chilli-shaped fairy lights (stop it) lurks her global selection of pastes and sauces and powders.
Under the stairs there is a Harry Potterish baking cupboard, where she stores all her fluted tart cases, shaped pastry cutters, biscuit moulds and cake tins, all in a jumble of delight.
Who doesn’t love the promise of pastry and the air of celebrations to come that this suggests?
Good to see that Nigella is back in her spoon-licking, biscuit-dunking, full cream glory. And doing it all with only the very best of utensils and gadgets — even if it does make the rest of us green with envy.