The Venetian Pantry

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -45:09 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. My guest today is Eleanor Cording-Booth, an interiors writer whose work you’ve probably come across in publications such as House & Garden, British Vogue, Cabana Magazine and the Evening Standard.

Welcome to Spilling Tea, the podcast where I invite people I admire to come over for a cuppa. Each episode, I open the doors to my home (and pantry) to a different guest: we chat about career and personal highs and lows, the path to entrepreneurship, their dreams and aspirations for the future and the wisdom they gained along the way. All accompanied by some homemade snacks and a good cup of tea. Welcome to Spilling Tea, the podcast where I invite people I admire to come over for a cuppa.

You know when you meet someone for the first time and you just click? Well, this is what happened when I first met Franky, founder and CEO of Jolie, an international interior design practice which is pioneering the field of immersive aesthetics, a neuroscience-based approach to interior design that involves all five senses.

Now, I am not usually one to brag. But in the past decade, I have collected a list of various ailments and miscellaneous health conditions that would make any hypochondriac pale in comparison. Allow me to paint the picture: Severe chronic bloating, to the point of being regularly mistaken for pregnant. Two uterine polyps and a confirmed endometrioma. A gradual, significant weight gain despite a healthy diet and regular movement, that doesn’t respond to the things that are supposed to work.

The places that are worth the hype and those that are not. Where I've slept, eaten and shopped – plus my personalised Google Map. The coastal town of Margate, in Kent, has a bit of a mixed rep.

A note before we start: all of these are personal recommendations. No press invites or gifting — I paid for everything myself. It’s Chelsea Flower Show week (19–23 May) — the yearly appointment that turns the nation’s obsession with all things garden into a spectacular bonanza.

Image from Bruno Munari’s book, Supplemento al Dizionario Italiano There are three important caveats to this article, which I feel are important to stress before we continue on this wonderful journey into untranslatable Italian phrases: Dialects, in Italy, are often referred to as such, but they are much closer to languages in their own right, with their own vocabulary, grammar and syntax.

For those of you who need the recap: a few years ago, I was asked by a lovely couple to help with the Interior Design of their gorgeous Georgian Notting Hill property – a four-bed, 3 floors end of terrace Maisonette with high ceilings, flattering square proportions and an unusual double-fronted garden. If you are interested in having a snoop at the project’s overview (including the before and afters), you can refer to my previous article below.

A quaint town in the English countryside, a pretty cobbled street, back-to-back Antique shops to explore and a foodie stop or two (with a boutique hotel thrown in the mix). This is my idea of a perfectly spent weekend away from the hustle and bustle of London. There are a few towns I have come to rely on for my city-breaks expeditions that fit this description (Rye, in East Sussex, being one of them, closely followed by Deal, Lewes and Bruton).

When you think of a pantry, I bet staples are one of the first words that come to mind. Don’t get me wrong, every pantry worth its name (whether it is a full-on larder or a humble but well-stocked kitchen cabinet) needs to have the basics: your pasta, your grains, pulses, spices, morning cereals, etcetera. But I’m not here to discuss any of those things. No, today I am here to bring you a few food items that, in my opinion, will take your cooking and hosting to another level. Are they bougie?