The Gourmand
For our anniversary a few months ago, I got my husband a subscription to Stack, which sends you a different independent print magazine every month. It’s brilliant, tell all your friends (owner Steve is also very nice). Month two’s delivery was The Gourmand, ‘a food and culture journal’ that I’d heard of but never read. I have to tell you, it’s really nice even if you don’t much go in for food. You can probably tell from the covers.
The third issue is the source of my discovery of food author and former antiques expert Anissa Helou.
Anissa is from Lebanon, but moved to London aged 21 to study interior design. She got into an antiques career at Sotheby’s and later owned an antiques shop in Paris, becoming a prolific collector over time. In 1999 – and this is the bit that made me gawp – she sold almost her entire collection at auction to fund the purchase of a loft in Shoreditch and to concentrate on her new career as a food writer. How’s that for commitment to property obsession and journalism? Anissa we salute you. Here are a a few of the pieces she still owns.
This figurine has a hole at the corner of her mouth where you can stick a rollie.
This is a nice looking French cast iron teapot.
Antique fishing book by Rev. William Houghton with great drawings.
Read more about Anissa – and see bits of her loft – in The Gourmand. And FYI she’s opening her first restaurant in Covent Garden this year.
how funny, I bought my husband the exact same gift and we are loving the mag deliveries too and yes The Gourmand is the best so far! Great covers…
It’s a good gift (basically it is a gift for both of us in truth). Well done us.
The french teapot is to die for! would look to own one of my own!
Spot on with this write-up, I actually believe this amazing site
needs a lot more attention. I’ll probably be back again to read more, thanks for the information!