The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
My Saturday
Designer Roland Mouret shares his weekend plans
4am I sleep with the windows open, so I get woken up by birds, which is nice but also annoying. We spend every weekend at our cottage in Suffolk – I love to be out of London. 10am
On a Saturday, I stay in bed until 10am like when I was a teenager. I need that lie-in to let go of the week. I am a control freak and my husband [sculptor James Webster] gets p—sed off at me if I am still in that designer mode. 10:30am
I’ll have a cup of tea, toast with bitter jams made by my mother-in-law, cereals and fruit outside on the patio and James will have a swim in our pond with the newts and the dragonflies. 12:30pm We go to the food market in Framlingham
to buy organic vegetables. I’ve started to cook more and I’ve become a flexitarian this year. It’s a big deal for me – as the son of a butcher from Lourdes, meat was always at the centre of food. 1:30pm We go to The Station pub for lunch. I always have a pint of cider with oysters; the atmosphere is unpretentious. 3pm Next, antiques shopping.
Dix-sept Antiques has a strong selection of French art-populaire objects and I have coffee with the owners in their garden. Three times out of four, I’ll buy something, like plates. I’m a magpie, I love to collect things. 5pm It’s time to walk our Jack Russell, Dave. We take him to the marshes and the beach. After his walk he has chicken and salmon croquettes from Lily’s Kitchen. 6pm I take two hours to cook dinner on a Saturday night, usually from Ottolenghi’s Simple book. The recipes are actually really hard but delicious – like the cauliflower, pomegranate and pistachio salad. 9pm After dinner we watch TV. James likes things with aliens and I like aspirational movies where someone becomes a famous singer. We have to compromise and, for some reason, Stranger Things is currently that middle ground.
Midnight After three episodes, we go to bed. Things can keep me awake at night: work, the next collection, or also if friends have problems or are sick. Anything that I don’t have a solution for. I put lavender oil on my pillow to help me fall asleep.