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How to make chocolate: tree to bar in Grenada

June 6, 2016 9 Comments Filed Under: Travel, Uncategorized

Cacao pods come in three main varieties: Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario, the latter a hybrid of the first two.  Recent gene tests suggest there are at least ten types, however. 
Cacao trees originated in South America but are now grown in Africa, the Caribbean, South East Asia, Central America and Northern Australia but all within 20 degrees of the Equator. Their favourite kind of terrain is hot and sweaty.
Grenada (pronounced Grenaida, not Grenahda, which is in Spain), a small volcanic island to the south of the Caribbean, almost off the coast of Venezuela, has some of the very best quality cacao pods. Why? The type: Trinitario and Criollo. The soil: volcanically fertile, rather like in Sicily. The weather: a steady, damp warmth.

Farming

Cocoa farmers earn very little. Across the world, child labour and starvation wages are used to produce your yummy chocolate bar. Many cocoa farmers have never even tasted the chocolate that their cacao beans go towards making as they simply can’t afford it.
Although chocolate is becoming increasingly popular, cocoa bean yields are under threat due to climate change and farmers ageing out of the system.
In Grenada, just as in the UK, most farmers are above retirement age. Their children don’t want to take it on – the work is hard and the wages are low.
The money earning bit, the added value, is when you make chocolate from the beans. Compact and less expensive machines have recently made this possible on a small scale. As a result, there are now three chocolate companies in Grenada.
  • The Grenada Chocolate Company. Started by British entrepreneur Mott Green, who unexpectedly died when electrocuted at his factory. It’s taken them a while to get back on their feet but, with the help of a new American factory manager, they are back to producing very fine chocolate a few metres away from where it is grown. You can buy their chocolate at Rococo Chocolate branches. Rococo’s owner Chantal Coady OBE has been supporting The Grenada Chocolate company since 2002 and donating cocoa from Grococo farm on Grenada since 2007.
  • Diamond Chocolate Factory. Makes Jouvay bars. (The ginger and nutmeg bars are particularly divine.) Their entire factory looks like something from the Kitchen Aid era, gorgeous rounded cream and chrome machines with 1950s design. It’s a pretty factory.
  • Crayfish Bay chocolate. New to the bean to bar manufacturing but, despite their cobbled together equipment (they are using a kind of barbeque to roast the beans), they are already producing fantastic quality chocolate bars. They also sell to Pump St Bakery. 
Magdalena Fielden, Mexican owner of the True Blue Bay Resort, has started an annual Chocolate Festival with her British husband to promote the high quality cacao from Grenada. Cacao is now the biggest cash crop on the Spice island, since the devastating hurricane Ivan of 2004 destroyed 90% of their former most important export, the fruit of nutmeg trees.

Tree to Bean

The actual trees are beautiful, with large oval reddish-brown and green leaves. The pods grow directly from the trunk, improbably hanging from thin stalks. When unripe they are purple or green, turning orange and red as they ripen. The pods start out as tiny white flowers, which are pollinated by sandflies.
Cacao beans are harvested throughout the year but the main crop is in the spring before the rainy season, which starts in June. The pods don’t just fall from the tree, they are chopped off with a long Dutch hoe. The trees are interplanted with other trees, papaya, nutmeg, bananas, coconuts and small bushes such as pineapple plants, and the forests are checked every few days for ripe pods, those that are orange or gold.
Each pod contains 30 to 40 white beans. A kilo of beans makes 24 x 50g bars (1200g chocolate).
I worked as a cacao farmer for a couple of hours at the Crayfish Bay farm run by a couple, Lylette, a Grenadian woman married to an Englishman named Kim Russell or, as he prefers to be known, Captain Chaos. He is missing a toe and most of his teeth. You know about the toe because he rarely wears shoes. Kim gave us a great talk on slavery – along the lines of ‘slavery didn’t stop because the white man suddenly became a nice person, it stopped because it was no longer profitable’.
This is hard, hot work. Once cut down, the pods are gathered into piles. Using a cutlass the cacao pods are cut in half, the thick skin discarded into another pile, and the creamy sticky beans gathered into buckets. The cacao fruit itself is delicious, rather like a custard apple. The pile of cacao rinds is left to rot, attracting more sandflies, necessary for cross fertilisation.
Kim’s farm is more like a cooperative. He profit shares with his workers, who take 90% of what their crops make. The day I went, he made us a delicious lunch of homemade bread, callalou soup (a Caribbean spinach) and a rice salad. You can rent rooms there if you want a farm visit.
I don’t think I could be a cacao farmer. It turns out that sandflies adore me, and I ended up covered with hundreds of small itchy bites despite wearing repellent and long sleeves. These tiny midges are called ‘no-see-ums’ because – yes, that’s right – you can’t see them. For the first 24 hours, you don’t feel too bad… then the itching starts in earnest. I’ve still got the scars. Locals told me that if you live there, you develop an immunity.

Bean to Bar

Beans can be sold ‘wet’ or ‘dry’. If they are sold wet, the factory ferments and dries the beans. Wet weight beans are white and weigh more than the dried brown beans and are therefore sold at a lower rate per kilo.
Fermentation 
The wet beans are kept in a bin covered with banana leaves or sackcloth to ferment for up to 48 hours.
Then the beans are turned every day for 4 to 7 days to ensure that the fermentation temperature is evenly distributed. Careful handling of this part of the process is essential for the end flavour.
Drying
At the Belmont Estate in Grenada, we saw the beans spread out in the sun to dry. This usually takes 4 to 14 days. Traditionally, young women in cotton dresses dance while shuffling their bare feet through the beans to ensure even drying. Nowadays this is mostly done with rakes.
Sorting and selecting
Cacao beans are sorted into different sizes, ones with blemishes are removed. The size of the bean is important to determine the length of time for roasting.
Roasting
The beans are roasted. Like coffee, this is an important part of the process when it comes to the end result, the taste of the chocolate. A low, slow roast is sweeter, less bitter.
Winnowing
After crushing, the thin shell separates from the beans and air is used to separate the shell from the pieces of the beans called nibs. Nothing is wasted; the shells can be used as mulch and some beans are retained in nib form. I personally love a large pinch of cocao nibs to get over a mid-afternoon energy dip.
Grinding
The beans are ground up. I saw this at the Diamond chocolate factory in Grenada. It goes in as crushed up beans and comes out as a fine paste, cocoa liquor.
Refining
Grinding the cocoa liquor until the particles are tiny, leaving a smooth mouth feel.
Mixing with sugar
This is when the sugar is added.
Conching
Mixing thoroughly while heating and aerating to create a smooth chocolate. This also reduces the acidity in the cacao bean.
Flavouring or adding ‘inclusions’
Prior to tempering, flavourings, lecithin, milk or extra cocoa butter is added.
Pressing
In factories that wish to produce the extra cocoa butter rather than buy it in to add to chocolate bars, a machine presses the chocolate into ‘cakes’ and extracts the cocoa butter. The liquor is separated into approximately two halves: 1) dry chocolate cakes, which are made into cocoa powder; 2) cocoa butter, some of which is used in cosmetics and some of which is added back to the refined and conched chocolate. A cocoa bean contains 45% cocoa and 55% cocoa butter.
Tempering
A process of removing crystals from the chocolate by heating a portion of the chocolate to a certain temperature, then adding unheated chocolate. Tempering is important to create the characteristic snap and gloss of good chocolate and to render it more heat resistant.
Moulding
The liquor is poured into moulds and shaken until the liquid spreads all over the mould evenly, at the same time getting rid of air bubbles. These moulds can take the form of a chocolate bar.
How much chocolate and cocoa butter is there in a Cadbury’s bar?
Cadbury’s contains 23% cocoa solids, which is not terrible. But ordinary, mass produced chocolate bars use ‘bulk chocolate’, not high quality stuff, and are filled out with vegetable fat rather than cocoa butter.
Why do Hershey bars taste awful?
They only contain 11% cocoa solids. They use more sugar than Cadbury’s and, most importantly, the Americans originally used sour milk in Hershey bars. (As a hot country, it was harder for them to obtain and preserve fresh milk over the vast distances.) The Americans got used to it. Mind you, the Europeans think our chocolate is shit too. They wanted to ban it in fact. #Brexit
What do they mean when they say a percentage, say 70% of cocoa, is in a chocolate bar?
It means that 70% of the bar is cocoa solids and 29% is sugar. The other 1% is vanilla and flavourings. N.B.: the 70% of cocoa solids may have different ratios of dry cocoa to cocoa butter.
Is chocolate really healthy?
Yes, it is. Though not the cheap stuff from the local sweet shop, only the expensive dark artisanal chocolate. That helps reduce appetite, raises magnesium levels, boosts serotonin, makes you look younger.
If I spread chocolate all over my face and body on the outside, is that a good thing?
I’ve done it. I had a ‘chocolate spa’ in which I was painted from head to foot with dark chocolate, then wrapped in cling film, then foil and left to bake for 20 minutes while a soothing soft voiced Grenadian woman massaged my temples. Then I washed it off in the adjacent shower and was subsequently rubbed all over with cocoa butter and peppermint oil. I smelled like an After Eight. I felt soft and fragrant and according to others, instantly looked ten years younger. Recommended.
What does Fair Trade mean? Is it fair?
Fair Trade ensures that farmers get a fixed price for their crop throughout the season. There have been times in Grenada where it’s virtually not worth picking the cacao pods due to the low price of the crop. Farmers should get a higher price for their crop but membership of Fair Trade is too expensive for some. Small scale cooperative schemes such as those at Crayfish Bay farm and The Grenada Chocolate Factory get rid of the middle man and motivate workers. Buy Grenadian chocolate!

TLDR?
Check out my handy infographic at the top. 

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Comments

  1. Johanne

    June 7, 2016 at 1:04 pm

    Best article on chocolate ever. Thank you. I really enjoyed reading this.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      June 7, 2016 at 7:06 pm

      Thank you so much Johanne xx

      Reply
  2. Pasta Bites

    June 7, 2016 at 3:57 pm

    What a fantastic experience! Hershey.. yuk. But i agree on Cadbury's as well as,fair to say, mass produced chocolate anywhere (Ferrero rocher anyone?). it's the ingredients, isn't it. Plus for years I have been on a crusade against palm oil. out with Nutella, in with Galamella!
    I love chocolate, actual proper chocolate like the one above. I heard on Italian radio just an hour ago that if #Brexit happens the price of chocolate will rise massively in the EU due to the currency used for the cocoa market (£). Glad of how I voted 🙂

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      June 7, 2016 at 7:08 pm

      Wow so they use pounds rather than euros to buy it? How odd.
      But I have to admit I do love Cadburys. I know it's not the super adult, high quality stuff but it's what I grew up on. Have you tried Cadburys with Daim bar in it? Bloody loverly.
      I'm trying to control my sugar intake right now though.
      Dark chocolate is more like a medicine, a couple of squares and you've had enough. It's so rich.

      Reply
    • Pasta Bites

      June 8, 2016 at 8:43 am

      Yes apparently they use pounds… odd. Haven't tried Cadbury's with Daim… will look out for it! and on dark chocolate, I totally agree. it's my treat, after dinner. At the moment I am loving Doisy & Dam… so delicious.

      Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      June 8, 2016 at 2:28 pm

      Don't know that chocolate but if you can get hold of Jouvay's ginger chocolate, it's to die for.

      Reply
  3. Aj

    June 8, 2016 at 8:26 am

    Good piece, commodity traders have a lot to answer for…

    Reply
  4. Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

    June 8, 2016 at 2:27 pm

    Yes I don't know much about them except that my mums bff was married to one and he was a complete drip who ran off with an Eastern European hussy. But he made a lot of money out of the whole thing.

    Reply
  5. polline moineau

    March 7, 2017 at 12:35 pm

    very-very interesting! thank you… I'm happy to never eat Cadbury, etc, I eat fair trade chocolate and biologic, and raw sometime … I understand now why it's important to choose what we buy

    Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Got the sewing machine out last night and hemmed t Got the sewing machine out last night and hemmed the top of these toile de jouey curtains in my summer house shed. The days are lengthening a little which brightens up my mood. Self care= trying to get up and washed. Trying to leave the house once a day. Keeping my hands busy. Finding small ways to be creative. #coronaloner #sewingmachine #curtains #shedsofinstagram #sheshed #springiscoming #supperclub #stayingsane #selfcare #lockdown3
Pasta aglio olio. I’m turning into a vampire. I Pasta aglio olio. I’m turning into a vampire. I get up later and later every day. I’m living in a twilight world- dim skies, getting nothing done. Next week it’s my birthday and every year I’m at my lowest ebb just before my birthday. Lockdown on your own is tough. My motivation, my mojo has disappeared. #lockdown3 #coronaloner #pastadinner #nofilter #january2021 #januarychallenge #selfemployedwomen #single #aquarius #0degrees
On the heath on Sunday. Must. Walk. More. #coronal On the heath on Sunday. Must. Walk. More. #coronaloner
Tonight’s lockdown dinner with my bubble. Proper Tonight’s lockdown dinner with my bubble. Proper pesto alla genovese with trofie, small boiled salad potatoes, steamed green beans (good tip: steam the beans in a colander plopped on top of the potatoes or pasta), good quality pesto sauce ( mine from local microbakery @seansloaf ), good olive oil (@pomoragoodfood), torn fresh basil, a few pine nuts. This turns this student dish into a balanced meal of carbs, veg and a little protein.  It’s cold outside, I’ve lit the fire. Covid rages in Kilburn high road in north west london. The rate is 1 in 30 london wide but I feel it’s higher in this poor inner london area. We have a high BAME population who are particularly vulnerable. It’s a little bit anarchic on my high street: cars perched on kerbs waiting for hijabi women, braving pound shops and Aldi . We are all covered up now. In winter masks keep your face warm, but you have a choice between safety and being able to see. I’ve not managed to prevent the inevitable steaming up of my glasses when wearing a mask. Nothing works.  #january #londonwinter #pestopasta #pestoallagenovese #vegetarian #pasta #trofie #supperclub #covid_19 #lockdownlife #lockdown3 #bubblegang
Galette des Rois, made yesterday in 12th night. Mi Galette des Rois, made yesterday in 12th night. Minus Crown and king as I cannot find either. This one is made with Tonka bean. Plus homemade puff pastry (well worth the effort). According to ike delorenzo at The Atlantic:  The tonka bean, a flat, wrinkled legume from South America with an outsize flavor that the US government has declared illegal. Nonetheless, it proliferates on elite American menus. The tiniest shavings erupt in a Broceliande of transporting, mystical aromas.
The taste of the tonka bean is linked strongly to its scent. "Scents," I should say, as the tonka bean has many at once. I register the aromas of vanilla, cherry, almond, and something spicy—a bit like cinnamon. When served cold—say, in tonka bean ice cream—the taste is like a vanilla caramel with dark honey. When warm, perhaps shaved over scallops, it moves toward spiced vanilla. Additionally, the aroma of the tonka bean shavings (it's almost always shaved) is so affecting that it seems like an actual taste in the way that opium, which has no taste in the traditional sense, "tastes" like its rich, flowery smoke.  Here is the recipe: 

Tonka bean galette des rois

Serves 8
Ingredients
* 140 g caster sugar
* 125 g salted butter, softened
* 100 g ground almonds
* 2 eggs, medium
* 1 tonka bean, grated
* 2 packs ready made butter puff pastry on a roll
* 1 yolk for brushing the pastry
Instructions
* Preheat your oven to 200c.

* Blend the butter with the sugar then add the almonds. Make sure it’s well mixed. Add in the 2 eggs one at a time, then add the tonka bean.

* If using a block: divide the puff pastry into two and roll out to 5mm thick. 
* Make two circles about 15 cm’s each in diameter. Lay one circle on a silicone mat/parchment paper on a baking tray and fill with the almond cream leaving a 3 cm border around the edge. 
* Paint the border with the egg yolk. Then lay the other circle on top, sealing the edges with a fork. 
* You could then carve designs into the top. Make a little slit in the middle to let steam escape then brush the top with the egg yolk
Mapo tofu is probably my favourite Sichuan dish. T Mapo tofu is probably my favourite Sichuan dish. This is a vegan version. ***

Ingredients:
- 400 g box of soft tofu not silken
- 5 soaked dried shiitake mushrooms, diced, keep water
- 1 red bell pepper, finely sliced
- 400 g fresh shiitake mushroom, sliced thinly
- 400 ml vegetable stock
- 1 thumb fresh ginger, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 tbsps groundnut or vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp fermented bean paste
- 1 or 2 small red chillies, minced or a spoonful of Chinese chilli paste
- 1 tsp heaped sichuan peppercorns, finely ground
- 2 tbsps soy or tamari sauce
- 2 tbsp cornflour in 3 tbsps water, mixed into a slurry
- 4 spring onions, finely sliced
- large pinch fresh coriander leaves

Prepare the tofu by cutting it into one inch cubes and soaking it in hot but not boiling salted water. Drain after 15 minutes.
Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms, covering them in boiling water. Leave until soft, then dice the mushrooms. Retain the mushroom soaking water and add to the vegetable stock water.
Prepare the other ingredients so they are ready to stir-fry: red bell pepper, fresh mushrooms, ginger, garlic.

Using a wok or deep frying pan, add the oil and heat to frying temperature. Add the bell peppers,fry for a couple of minutes, then add fermented bean paste, chilli paste or chillies, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sichuan pepper.
Add the mushroom/vegetable broth and simmer on high for a couple of minutes.
Carefully add the cubes of tofu, taking care not to break them too much.
Add the cornflour slurry, stirring for a couple of minutes.
Serve with rice or noodles, garnishing with spring onions or chives and or coriander leaves.  #veganuary #mapotofu #sichuanfood #tofu  #shitakemushrooms #supperclub #londonchef #msmarmitelover #ham&highcolumn #eatplants #lockdown3 #selfisolation #coronaloner #cooking #recipe #cookingfromscratch
Macaroni cheese with odds and sods from the Christ Macaroni cheese with odds and sods from the Christmas leftover cheese board. I’ve used @paxtonscheese truffled brillat-savarin and a mystery hard cheese that’s lost its label. Plus cream and topped it with samphire fried in butter. Haven’t bothered with making a roux- this is the lockdown lazy version.  #lockdownlazy #lockdown3 #supperclub #macandcheese #macaronicheese #truffledcheese #leftovers #leftovercheeseboard #londonlockdown #breakfast #coronaloner
Another thing the Japanese are brilliant at is san Another thing the Japanese are brilliant at is sandwiches. They use the softest, whitest, fluffiest bread. Their mayonnaise kewpie is gorgeous I don’t know why. Perhaps someone here can explain? Here I’ve used sourdough as it’s what I have; kosho which is a Yuzu citrus and green chilli condiment and the aforesaid kewpie Mayo to make an egg 🥚 sandwich.  I’m not a big egg fan but I suddenly had the urge. Also I’ve noticed when I eat eggs it satiates my hunger for hours. All that protein.  #sandwich #sandwiches #japanesesandwich #kewpiemayo #kosho #eggsandwich #sourdough #supperclub #cookingforone #solo #londonlife #lockdownlondon #recipe #snack #sundaysnack #sando
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Writing about tofu which I think has an unfair rep Writing about tofu which I think has an unfair reputation in this country. It’s so flexible and is a brilliant flavour sponge. Here I’m preparing my soft tofu for a Japanese dish: agedashi tofu. I first pressed it in a clean tea towel with a weight on top to firm it up a bit but not too much. Then I dusted it with cornflour and I will deep fry it in oil. Then I will serve it in a broth of dashi/mirin and tamari sauce, sprinkled with finely chopped spring onions and togarashi pepper from Japan. I would usually add some finely mandolined daikon radish but couldn’t find any. It’s a subtle dish of texture: soft yet crispy. After Christmas I’m desperate for light zingy fresh flavoured food. #supperclub #tofu #vegan #vegetarian #agedashitofu #newyearsday #cookingagain #lunch #asian #japanesefood
Happy new year from my bubble to yours! Keep holdi Happy new year from my bubble to yours! Keep holding on...
#happynewyear #happynewyear2021 #supperclub #hootenanny
Some of my Christmas food 🥘 lots of veg includi Some of my Christmas food 🥘 lots of veg including mashed swede with cheese and butter. I put pomegranate seeds with my sprouts, and cooked my carrots in marmalade ( worked v well), the mushroom wreath fell apart as I was transferring it to a tray 😤, roast potatoes and parsnips, then a cheese spread with fruit nuts, quince cheese (homemade), Chocs @lindtuk 😍 @guylian_uk @disaronno_official @baileysofficial @taylorsportwine and Brazil nuts. Plus a pavlova wreath ready to be topped with whipped cream and persimmons. 
#christmasdinner #vegetarianchristmas #vegetarianchristmasdinner #supperclub #londonchristmas #liqueurs #christmasspread #grazing #cheeseboard #port #pavlova
Christmas has started! Home-cured smoked beetroot Christmas has started!  Home-cured smoked beetroot and aquavit salmon with homemade blinis, creme fraiche, dill, Prosecco.  The fire is lit 🔥, the tree is up, 🎄the presents 🎁 are wrapped, we have a #brexit deal- a Christmas miracle. Peace and harmony. #christmas #christmasinengland #homemade #christmaseve #blinis #smokedsalmon #prosecco🍾 #londonchristmas
Done some doorscaping, the latest trend in Christm Done some doorscaping, the latest trend in Christmas decorating. It might also cheer up passersby. #christmas #christmasdecor #doorscaping #doorsofinstagram #londonchristmas #doorwreath #doordecor #doorsoftheworld #doordecoration #exteriors #london #supperclub #covidchristmas
Look at my gorgeous Nordic pine Christmas tree 🎄 from @pinesandneedles with some family ornaments and beautiful foodie ornaments from @gisela_graham  it’s 7 foot high and no drop. My parents brought over the candle lights. I’ve also used paper ornaments (apples and pears cut from maps) from @dionne_leonard which I first commissioned for a supper club.  #christmas #christmastree #christmasdecor #foodiedecorations #glassbaubles #supperclub #christmasinlondon
More #fbmarketplacefinds I find meeting the seller More #fbmarketplacefinds I find meeting the sellers interesting. It’s often about moving on whether through death, a change of circumstances, moving country, loss of a job. Today I visited a gorgeously renovated Edwardian house where the owners, an antique dealer & a master decorator had died with 18 months of each other of cancer.  The sister was there emptying the house, an incredibly painful experience. The husband who died was an expert in putting up lincrusta wallpaper which I’ve pictured here. All that craftsmanship and knowledge lost now.  The piece I got on Sunday, the teal chinoiserie cabinet, was from a Spanish guy returning to Spain. He’d lost his job as a hotel manager, the hotel, a big one, has now closed. The marble coffee table and arepas grill was from a Spanish couple who’d had a restaurant here for 40 years. They are now returning to Spain. Other slides: green Edwardian fireplace tiles, William Morris wallpaper, 2 small scalloped coffee tables, a knife and fork cutlery hook set.  A fireplace for my bedroom if I can find someone to put it in. #lockdownstories #covidstories #movingon #decor #interiors #bargains #secondhandstyle #edwardianstyle #williammorris #tiles #wallpaper #scallopededge #teal #chinoiserie #whitemarble #vintage #kitchenalia #supperclubrefurb #london #lincrustawallpaper
Another #fbmarketplace find £30. I can’t afford Another #fbmarketplace find £30. I can’t afford proper chinoiserie so I make do with fakes. The gradual doing up of my flat proceeds apace. Need to start on main bedroom. Looking for a storage ottoman (velvet?) bench to turn into a horizontal filing cabinet.  Any ideas? Above is a map of london based on the A to Z map which a minicab office was tossing out. Remember when we all carried mini A to Z books in our handbags? Before google maps? #nocrushedvelvet #chinoiserie #supperclubrefurb #londonapartment #londonflat #norfweezy #decor #organising #storage #interiors
My new/old rise and fall light over the dining tab My new/old rise and fall light over the dining table. Found for £50 on #fbmarketplace  but originally from @thefrenchhouse.net_ one of my favourite shops. Every day, a little more progress. #supperclubrefurb #supperclub #londonflat #interiors #lighting #riseandfalllights #lightingisimportant #frenchstyle #vintagestyle #rusticstyle #turquoise #diningtabledecor
Two vegetarian meal kits, laksa and ramen, from @k Two vegetarian meal kits, laksa and ramen, from @kit.eats.uk. Took only a couple of minutes to cook(see stories) and very good. I’m trying a few meal kits of late to see how hospitality has adapted to the great reset. As a cook I’ve always thought why would I need these but now I get it: it’s like going to a restaurant- the pleasure of food prepared by someone else. Getting jolted off of your normal repertoire, so it’s teaching cooking too.  #mealkits #vegetarian #homecooked #hospitality #covid #takeawayfood #foodpackaging #laksa #ramen #supperclubchef
Still working on my glass cupboard. I’ve hung up Still working on my glass cupboard. I’ve hung up all my wine bottle openers and cork screws. My favourite is the zigzag bottom left. If you find them at a flea market in France, if you are lucky you may get it for around 35 euros.  #supperclub #londonflat #londoninteriors #corkscrews #frenchkitchenalia #zigzag #tirebouchon #oakcupboard #diy #diyprojects
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