“I love my scarf because it’s a bow, it’s a hat, it’s whatever I want…”, says one of the girls on the Hermès scarf playground.
This is where a scarf lover can learn, like any sailor on the sea of chic, to tie unique knots and do whatever they want with their scarves. When I downloaded this Hermès Knotting Cards (download here), I immediately fell in love with these techniques and started to think that I have enough space in my wardrobe for even more versatile Hermès scarves. They always save the day and add that something to each woman’s look.

Some time ago I was looking for a simple and delicious recipe to be prepared quickly without any trouble. I wanted something to work well with my favorite lavender honey in the morning but in the meantime a perfect match with the afternoon tea. A good friend of mine saved me with these wonder-and-addictive Chocolate Chunk Cookies – I do them as often as I can and all my dear ones are amazed by their versatility in terms of taste and texture. They are crispy enough while soft and smooth, not very sweet nor very salty. Bon appétit!

Ingredients:

• 225 grams butter
• 110 grams granulated white sugar
• 340 grams brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 340 grams all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 spoon sea salt
• chopped almonds, mini dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk the butter with the sugars until smooth (about 5 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla and continue to beat for two more minutes. Then stir in flour, baking soda and salt and mix until incorporated. Take small pieces of dough and arrange the cookies on the baking sheet by hand – you can give them any shape you want (I love the way handcrafted cookies do not resemble one another) and remember: the thinner, the crispier! Then sprinkle with chocolate chips and almonds.

The inspiration for my good friend’s recipe was, she said, from this artisan-style sweets cookbook. I didn’t try it yet, but here’s a treat that very soon will be more than an item on my wish list:

The Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread: Cakes, Cookies, Bars, Pastries and More from New York City’s Favorite Bakery

Surfing the web in the name of what’s good and beautiful, I found this wonderful old article written by Julia Child for The York Times on May 17, 1987. It’s the recipe of a Belgian dish called waterzooi chicken which I never tasted but one day I’ll try and share it with my friends . I heard it calls for a skillful blending of egg yolks and cream at just the right moment so may the inspiration be with you!

© Schlesinger Library

The Most Interesting Recipe I’ve Clipped

ALTHOUGH CHICKEN POACHED in wine with a julienne of vegetables sounds like nouvelle cuisine, it’s an age-old method, and one I have been rethinking, transforming and enjoying for more than 35 years.
I first encountered the idea in the guise of a waterzooi, a famous Belgian dish originally made with fish, and one of the specialties of my wonderful old teacher Max Bugnard, a French chef who had owned a chic little restaurant in Brussels before World War II. His waterzooi was an aromatic stew of eels, perch and other very fresh white fish cooked in white wine, fish stock, herbs and generous handfuls of matchstick-cut carrots, leeks, celery and onions. The resulting broth, rich and complex, was then thickened with egg yolks, a good bit of creme fraiche and a final velvety touch of the best butter, before being poured back over the fish. A divine ambrosia indeed, and in those halcyon days nobody gave a thought to six egg yolks, large dollops of heavy cream and lashings of butter. (Incidentally, despite his taste for rich foods, M. Bugnard had a long and healthy life, retiring at 85 and dying peacefully at the age of 93.) I served that well-remembered dish in 1950; in 1956 I encountered another waterzooi, in the French gastronomical magazine Cuisine et Vins de France, but it used whole small chickens instead of fish. I tried it on friends with signal success, and was pleased to see a similar version two years later in a New York Times article on Juliette Elkon’s ”The Belgian Cookbook.” Her waterzooi featured a seven-to-eight-pound capon.
When I was living in France in the early 1950′s, cut-up chicken was unheard of. You bought your chicken whole. Returning to this country some years later, I snobbishly resisted any suggestion of ready-cut chicken until I started my television series, ”The French Chef,” and was suddenly cooking for a large audience. I was rather rapidly won over to the idea of buying chicken in pieces.
Waterzooi is still truly one of my favorite recipes, because it is simple to do, delicious to eat – and so adaptable. (If you want a lighter version of this famous dish, leave out the last step of adding the cream and eggs.) Here is my easy-to-cook and easy-to-serve contemporary recipe.

© Schlesinger Library

Julia Child with Master Chef Max Bugnard at the Cordon Bleu Cooking School, Paris

Waterzooi of chicken

2 large carrots
2 medium onions
2 tender ribs of celery
2 medium-sized leeks, white and tender green parts only
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
2 1/2 pounds cut-up frying chicken, legs or thighs or breasts (with bone), or a mixture of these
1 1/2 cups dry white French vermouth
1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
6 egg yolks
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley.

1. Trim and wash the vegetables and cut them into julienne matchsticks one and three-quarters inches long and one-eighth inch wide. (This should come to about five cups in all.) Toss them in a large mixing bowl with the tarragon and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.
2. Wash and dry the chicken pieces and set aside.
3. Using a casserole large enough to hold the chicken and the vegetables comfortably, layer in the following order: one-third of the vegetables, half of the chicken, half of the remaining vegetables, the rest of the chicken and the remaining vegetables. Pour in the vermouth and enough chicken broth to barely cover the chicken. Up to this point, the recipe may be prepared several hours in advance. Cover and refrigerate.
4. When ready to cook, bring to the simmer, covered, and cook slowly 25 to 30 minutes or until the chicken pieces are tender and, when pierced, the juices run clear.
5. Strain out the cooking liquid, degrease it and adjust the seasonings.
6. Blend the cream and cornstarch in a small mixing bowl. Whisk the egg yolks in a large bowl and stir in the cream mixture. Slowly whisk in the hot cooking liquid. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Set over medium-low heat, swirling the casserole gently, until the sauce is warmed and thickens slightly, but do not bring to the simmer or the egg yolks will curdle.
7. To serve, ladle the chicken, vegetables and sauce into large warm soup bowls and sprinkle each serving with parsley.
8. Serve with boiled potatoes, noodles, gnocchi or just good French bread.
Yield: Four to six servings.

One of the most passionate writings ever is Julia Child’s My Life in France – about the adventures in La Belle France, the training at Le Cordon Bleu, her extraordinary transformation, and founding of ‘her true calling’. Using Julia’s own words, these pages are ‘an awakening of the senses’, an absolute sensorial blessing. I wonder who could ever resist no to go to Southern France for few days after this ravishing reading.

While in London for the New Year’s Eve, I unexpectedly came across one of the most spectacular and sophisticated exhibitions I visited in 2010.

A feast for the eye and for the Guuey in you, Dior Illustrated: René Gruau and the Line of Beauty from Somerset House revealed the true nature of René Gruau’s work through Gitta Gschwendtner‘s transparent gauze boxes in shades of red, pink and nude. It was all about how volatile matter can be just the way Dior’s creations (perfumes, accesories) and Gruau’s illustrations celebrated the uplifting potential of  style and luxury. A precious freindship in the land of beauty.

The exhibition featured among forty original illustrations for Christian Dior Parfums, sketches, magazines, poster adverts and a selection of Dior Haute Couture dresses personally selected by John Galliano including a special dress designed by Galliano himself, exquisite vintage perfume bottles. There were the the must-see originals: Miss Dior from 1947, Diorissiomofrom 1956 styled in Baccarat crystal (the only one designed by Dior hiself), the Diorling amphora from 1963, also styled in baccarat crystal and the beautiful J’adore bottle from 2000, wearing the same masai necklace shocased by Galliano in his first Dior show in 1997.

©Andy Stagg

Flower Woman

© SARL René Gruau

“I was drawing flower women, soft, sloping shoulders, generous busts, a slim waist and wide skirtslike flowers petals” Christian Dior

Gesture and Attitude

© SARL René Gruau

To Grau the smallest details of everyday life were the most powerful: a woman putting her hair up after a bath; kicking her shoes off or leaning her face on her hand.

L’Homme Gruau

© SARL René Gruau

Gruau introduced a new relaxed and debonair spirit to his illustrations, often scandalously depicting the banal situations of everyday life, such as emerging from the shower.

A Shared Vision

© SARL René Gruau

Both Dior and Gruau were deeply influenced by architecture and they shared a love for the elegant Belle Époque societ of their childhoods.

And this was my favorite part, in which the curators explained Gruau’s passion for the Japanese calligraphy and how he drew inspiration from the Kabuki theatre from which he borrowed the use of masks, blindfolds, veils, and fans, which he used to great effect to accentuate and conceal parts of the face and body.

Line and Silhouette

© SARL René Gruau

‘Just a line? But it is the basis of all art, with a single line we can express grandeur, nobility sensuality, the line synthesises sensations and concentrates knowledge.’ René Gruau

Now if you would love to immerse into the work of this splendid artist, you can draw your inspiration from these amazing books I discovered:

Gruau by René Gruau - Te Neues Publishing Company, 1999

Gruau by Gilles de Bure – Herscher, 2002

René Gruau: The First Century by Sylvie Nissen and Vincent Leret – Thalia Publishing, 2010

The Kabuki Theatre by E. Ernst – University of Hawaii Press, 1974

And if you want to make a special present to a very special someone, you can purchase a René Gruau print with an embossed monogram from the artist’s official boutique.

In his wonderful book The Art of Travel, Alain de Botton has, besides revealing precious aspects of a voyage, few insights on the fascinating train traveling.

Of all modes of transport, the train is perhaps the best aid to thought: the views have none of the potential monotony of those on a ship or plane, they move fast enough for us not to get exasperated but slowly enough to allow us to identify objects. They offer us brief, inspiring glimpses into private domains, letting us see a woman at the precise moment when she takes a cup from a shelf in her kitchen, then carrying us on to a patio where a man is sleeping and then to a park where a child is catching a ball thrown by a figure we cannot see.

And earlier in the book, while referring to Edward Hopper’s paintings posted above, he points out:

…the atmosphere inside half-empty carriages making their way across a landscape, the dreaminess in which we seem to stand outside our normal selves and have access to thoughts and memories that may not arise in more settled circumstances.

Inspired by these thoughts and by the opening, few months ago, of a new train route, from Moscow to Nice, I  decided to remind those of you who enjoy the experience of traveling rather than hurrying to their destination that mass transport might not suit your cholesterol. In fact fast travel is in essence no better than other fast-related stuff, being fast-food or fast-fashion. I’m going to try to dilate time and book this trip for myself during the next summer, dreaming of a romantic, fancy XIX-style holiday with trains running at 40 km/h.

The route, which was originally operating at the end of the 19th century, before the Russian Revolution, was suspended over 19 years ago. It is said that Russian writers, poets and musicians took advantage of it on their way to Côte d’Azur. But the  great opportunity to discover Europe from East to West is now back.

The Train 17 leaves The Belorussky Railway Station in Moscow every Thursday and in within 53 hours cuts across Europe with stops at 22 stations. Among them many cultural and leisure places: Warsaw, Vienna, Innsbruck, Milan, Genoa, and Nice. Three of the 12 carriages offer de luxe-class travel while six are reserved for first class and only one is second class. Fares start at 306 euros for second class travel and range to 1200 euros for travel in the most luxurious compartments. These ones are furnished with plush carpets, private showers, toilets, televisions and Matisse reproductions. Although I’m sure they won’t mind if you bring your own original van Gogh..

You can find out detailed information on eng.rzd.ru or russiantrains.com

Bon voyage!

Moscow-Warsaw -Vienna-Innsbruck-Milan-Genoa-Nice route

1. Wool

Wool is indispensable for its comfort, warmth and versatility. No matter how used, for this sophisticated suit or that warm cardi, home decor or outwear, it gives our body and home the time to breathe and look good.

Try: This luxurious Alpaca Bathrobe from Alicia Adams Alpaca, the splendid Festival Rug by Anthropologie

2. Chiffon

I love chiffon! It’s not just an elegant, sensual & no-secrets fabric, but I think of it as a celebration of the whole lightness of being. To wear while good times and don’t forget: ‘It is wise to disclose what cannot be concealed’. Chiffon can be found in elegant evening dresses, scarves, blouses and accessories.

Try: Evening Chiffon Bandage Strap Dress from Matthew Williamson, Poppy Skull Print Silk Scarf by Alexander McQueen

3. Crochet

Home is where all our energies are at their highest peak. Staying in with your friends and family for Christmas and going the cozy way compares to nothing in the world. Whenever you plan to give your Christmas an artisanal touch, chose the crochet and you know you can’t go wrong. As a wear or as a cover, it always gives you the soft and delicate feel you want. A loving craft – children will adore it.

Try: The fantastically warm Jocker Throw from Missoni Home, the Knitted Cap Sleeve Dress by Alexander McQueen

4. Taffeta

Taffeta is crispier but very elegant and sounds like nothing else. This luxurious fabric will make everyone at the party envy your discreet nighty shimmer.

Try: Vivienne Westwood’s Taffeta Top & BB Dakota Taffeta Skirt

5. Embroideries

They always come first for an elegant and lovely home decor. Plus, they add an exotic and impressive touch on your party. Don’t forget somebody’s hands gave their best for that very piece!

Try: Dottie Bed Linens by Matouk, Tudor Dog Embroidered Pillow from Villa Home Collection

6. Silk

Not only was it discovered by a queen, but it definitely makes you feel like you have a crown above your head. Wearing it is a matter of fluidity – all soft and luxurious will make those around find you the most exquisite host. Wear it with pride and everyone at the party will doubt you broke a nail for that fabulous Christmas dinner. Oh, and don’t forget the fancy tree skirt! Silk works beautifully in anything from evening wear to home decor.

Try: Vivienne Westwood’s Knotted Washed-Silk Dress and Champagne/Black Edwardian Gypsy Dress by Collette Dinnigan

7. Cotton

…is light, breathable and amazingly soft hand whether in Pima, corduroy or queen velvet – the most smooth, luxurious and elegant of them all (inside or outside the bedroom).

Try: cotton napkins for your Christmas table from Scents&Feel, 12 for Christmas panel – Apron, Oven Mitt & Pot Holder

8. Linen

Linen is a favorite in the kitchen. Not only its cooling properties make it ideal for oven mitts, napkins and tablecloths but its natural, raw look makes it our favorite companion at the Christmas table.

Try: Raw linen Fog kitchen set by Yumiko Sekine – Full Apron, Garcon Apron, Waffle Towel & Tuscan Linen Pillow by Villa Home Collection

9. Baskets

They look good and they smell good. Made of straw, osier, willow, bamboo, rattan, reed, rush or wood, your baskets should hide everywhere in your house – and not just in corners! Embellished with ribbons or lace, they are the place to be for the lovely small things in our home.

Try: various models of baskets from Coco Company

10. Wood

Along with the linen accessories, each piece made of wood in your kitchen will thank you now and every Christmas. Wood accessories confers every room a cozy feel and unforgettable nights in front of the fire.

Try: The Mango Bark Bowls by Roost

11. Brick

I remember my grandmother’s brick kiln – it just gave every food the magic touch we can’t never reach over the years. Brick it’s magic for your palate as for your eye. Go for it at least in your holiday chalet.

Try: these Antique Handmande Bricks for home decor

12. Paper

Find the proper holiday cards for your loved ones and write them by hand.  I would go for I would go for these perfect Christian Lacroix Note Card Set

13. Raw Pottery

Eating food cooked in earthy pots connects you to heaven. Since always people used clay pots to spoil their taste – it is said that this traditional way of cooking gives a specific flavor to the foods that can’t be reproduced in a metal pot. And as my grandmother’s secrets connoisseur, believe me, it’s true! Give your family a treat for Christmas and cook in clay pot marked “lead free” like this Spanish terra cotta cazuela.

Try: Cocotte Terra-Cotta Clay Pan

13+1. Leather

Give your best friend in the kitchen a warm and safe place – it’s efficient, nice to touch and smells so good!

Try: Zwilling J.A. Henckels Limited-Edition: three professional knives in soft leather