SPOTLIGHT / Letitia Clark, Writer & Chef
Spotlight is a special corner of Buonfresco, our monthly subscriber newsletter, in which we invite a creative person whose work we love to answer questions tied to a theme. June’s edition was all about Glorious Food and Good Company…
Quinces II, by Letitia Clark.
With two of the most beautiful and bountiful cookbooks published in the last few years to her name (Bitter Honey and La Vita è Dolce), and basketfuls of culinary, artistic and literary experience, we were very pleased to invite Letitia Clark into our Buonfresco Spotlight.
Letitia is a lover of clotted cream and puns, watercolours and cats, Campari (the best) and lemons, and, very importantly, iced buns; she grew up in Devon, has an MA in English Literature, trained at Leiths, worked in publishing, cooked at Spring, The Dock Kitchen, Moro, and further afield, and has had her recipes and food writing featured in numerous food publications and lots of newspapers. If you haven't cooked from her books already you must! Her food is transportative, comforting, exciting, informal, and beautiful.
Letitia joins us from Sardinia, where she has lived, written, painted and cooked since 2017. With her perfect combination of artistic, literary and culinary skills, sensitivity and creativity, we are thrilled to welcome Letitia to the Spotlight and to hear her responses to our food-related questions (chosen particularly to complement our current Letters from Meduseld exhibition!).
Portrait of Letitia Clark. Photo: Matt Russell
1 | What does food mean to you?
Family, love, pain, necessity, life, everything.
2 | Favourite savoury dish?
Spaghetti with clams.
3 | Favourite sweet dish?
Peaches and cream. Anything with fruit or cream or preferably both.
4 | A dish to comfort/ a dish to wow?
Cauliflower cheese/ Cannoli.
5 | Your fantasy dinner party guests?
Patience Gray, MFK Fisher, Elizabeth David, Gerald Durrell, Emily Bronte, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear.
Letitia's strawberry ricotta cream layer almond sponge.
Photo: Charlotte Bland
6 | Favourite ingredients or foods to paint?
Aubergines, tomatoes, borlotti beans, citrus, figs.
7 | Top 3 cookbooks?
Too hard to choose!
8 | Your recipe for a perfect meal?
Make as much ahead of time as possible. Don’t over-think and over-complicate. Keep it simple, generous and beautiful.
9 | A dining experience of note or a special feasting memory?
Eating my first Oyster on the windswept coast in Brittany with icy Muscadet, raging wind and rain, and an oyster-shell sky. The smell of bladderwrack.
Scenes from one of Letitia's cooking classes in Sardinia.
Bitter Honey, one of Letitia’s cookbooks.
10 | The best ingredient in the world is...
Olive oil, lemon, salt. I can’t choose one, there has to be all three.
11 | A meal is incomplete without...
Olive oil, lemon, salt.
12 | The biggest influences on your culinary career?
My first boss, Stevie Parle, my last boss, Skye Gyngell, my one-time boss, Tom Jaine, the books of Patience Gray, Elizabeth David, M F K Fisher. All the Sardinian/Italian people I have met who have taught me about food/growing/eating.
13 | A favourite quote/ wise words/ mantra?
Less is more. It will all be alright in the end. If it’s not, then it’s not the end.
SEE MORE
You can follow Letitia on Instagram for behind the scenes content, recipes, and beautiful photos, and visit her website to buy book, order watercolours, and for more information about her Sardinian food and drink classes and experiences.
Artichokes by Letitia Clark. Available to buy as a print.
Photo: Charlotte Bland
“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.”