Here is something which will never be past its sell-by date. After all, good art lasts for ever, doesn’t it. But I must admit that this post should have been racked up on the blog shelves of cheoff.com long before now. Mrs Cheoff and I purchased this lovely artwork from Julie Smith as a wedding anniversary gift to ourselves in 2016. For our Ruby Wedding that year to be precise.
Seven years later, and much has changed. Our marriage is seven years older and our love is seven years deeper, of course! There have been all manner of those small delights and major threats - here’s looking at you, Covid - which we can expect to meet as we navigate a life on this planet. But our own example of Julie’s work continues to remind us of a special moment and provides us with regular distraction; whether we give it an affectionate glance or spend several minutes once again exploring its intricacies.
Back to seven years before. We travelled to Norfolk as part of our ‘Ruby’ celebrations in the summer of 2016 to enjoy a little photography and sculpture culture. A bit more than a bite to eat at ‘Benedicts’, our favourite Norwich restaurant. And a visit to Blickling Estate which included taking a flight of stairs up to The Loft Gallery where 'In Stitches' were holding their exhibition. At the time this group consisted of three women all ablaze with creativity and textile talent.
Patricia Birks was there. Her teaching and influence was acknowledged on the day and is still recognised by the other two who we met. You can still see the work of Justine Williamson on her website and Facebook page. We were immediately attracted to its rich colours and its raised and structured surface textures.
Julie Smith completed the trio and presented yet more tempting offerings; broader landscapes vying with zoomed-in flower portraits. We were pulled more to her work and narrowed things down to a pick between a calmed-by-blues wintry scene and a blousy close-up of daisies. You have already seen the final choice hanging in one of our dining room alcoves.
We are most certainly not on a mission to save artists from penury and hunger but as electronic connection was made and our transaction confirmed it was wryly amusing and poignant to hear Julie say, “That’s lovely. I’ll be eatin’ steak tonight.”
The four corners of the whole piece will click open in a ‘Lightbox’ for each image to show the detail which Julie includes in her work.
Julie’s business card is taped to the back of our mounted work. Those links and contacts remain the same. You might be keen to use them after seeing some of her output here.
Neil Gaiman exhorts us all to ‘Make Good Art’. This is just one of a series of posts in my blog where I advocate that you also buy good art. Creativity deserves to be appreciated, rewarded and fed.
Julie Smith’s talent remains worth your serious attention.
On the way home from our very recent stay in Norfolk we reached the Kings Lynn road and headed east in the wrong direction. Only for a mile. We had promised ourselves a visit to Back To The Garden - Farm Shop to grab as much of their bounty as we could before leaving the county.
A pre-planned purchase of enough of Mrs Temple’s Wells Alpine cheese to cook Richard Bainbridge’s lovely ‘Alpine cheese soup’ proved successful. And then, amidst the crates of seductive fruit and vegetable produce, were these pale and exceedingly interesting quinces. I’m not sure that this fruit will make Diana Henry spring to your mind but my thoughts immediately turned to her cookbook, ‘salt sugar smoke’*, perched patiently on a shelf back home and I bagged up enough of this slightly unexpected harvest knowing that there was a recipe on page 226 waiting for my attention. This is just one of so many deliciously approachable recipes in the book. Not readily available on the interwebnet thingy - all the more reason to buy your own copy!
*Diana (or her publisher) goes all lower case headings with this 2012 offering so please don’t be jangled by my faithful repetition of the device here and in the title of this post.
Trust Nigel Slater to wax art historically over this fruit.
The pickling liquor took up the raw sienna pigment from my cinnamon sticks.
It would have been a missed opportunity to ignore our first Poinsettia of the season’s appearance in the house. #feelingfestive
The peeling, cutting and particularly removal of the core will have you marvelling at the decidedly tough nuts you are dealing with. You will need a sharp knife and the taking of much care.
Poaching the quince segments is a tense time. The potential for reducing them to unwanted mush is roughly in line with that of parents who supervise like hawks but suddenly need to ask themselves, “How in Fook’s name did my child come to have that pair of scissors in their hand!?”
Alles in ordnung. (My low grade pass in German O-Level just reared its ugly head!) Sterilised jars and slightly reduced pickling liquid meet up with the just soft, but not too-softened, quinces. Ready for lids to be screwed down and seals to be clipped tight.
The combination of sour and sweet and the presence of quince’s perfume make this a heady mix. I’m not even going to question if this batch will be mature enough by the end of the month. It will most definitely make an appearance on Boxing Day with our traditional ‘cold collation’ lunch.
An extra reward for my efforts remains. Enough pickling liquid survived, its tang softened by quince contact. Leaf gelatin will be added to make a jelly. Lozenges of that around a cut of pork or a terrine will add a ‘Cheoffy’ touch to some of my more developed plates very soon.
Labels were applied for a final photo before I settled down to write on some of Mrs Cheoff’s hand-crafted Christmas greetings cards. It looks like we have enough of a generous Kilner jar of pickled tracklement to accompany our own festive hams, cheeses and terrines. That small, but perfectly formed, supporting duo of mini jars might be used as gifts. But for whom? Hmmm…
Our fourth visit. About time I dished the dirt, eh? (#Spoileralert: No dirty dishes here - Benedicts is all about hospitality at its polished best)
This meal was a treat for my Mum as part of her 90th birthday celebrations. I had messaged ahead and asked for minimal fuss on that account. Chef Bainbridge has his own inspirational and much-loved mother and I guess he was not going to let my Mum’s evening pass without acknowledging her particular landmark. This greeting card and a pudding with a message at the end of the meal (pic at the end of this post) were quiet, thoughtful gestures which added to Mum’s enjoyment but did not distract other diners. Nicely done.
We were greeted by Adam Vass who I introduced to Mum as the ‘Head Honcho of Hospitality’. But Adam is just one representative of a team who effortlessly bust a gut to make your dining experience special and memorable.
We shared the current tasting menu. I won’t try to describe the dishes which gave us waves of pleasure across the evening. These pictures should give you more than enough food for thought. They are from Benedicts social media pages and are most likely taken by the multi-faceted and terrifically talented Katja Bainbridge. A click on each picture will link to her originals. Here they are - you might even try scrolling to the end of them before exploring booking options. Good luck!
Be prepared for nibbles and treats to arrive from the kitchen as you relax into your first drinks and try to remain calm at the thought of further glorious offerings in store.
Benedicts Homemade Crisps
Benedicts Mini Cheddar • Apple • Chive
Rice Cracker with Sherry Mousse
Those ‘further glorious offerings’? Here are two dishes from our tasting menu.
Wells Alpine Soup • Wild Garlic Tortellini
‘Milk & Cookies’
There is tangible joy in a room full of excited and delighted diners. This is due to the seamless delivery of everything which should be found in any top restaurant - great food and perfectly judged service. There is also the welcome bonus of generous prices. Mum was able to use all her still very much intact faculties to soak up the wonderful experience created by Benedicts exceptional team.
The Michelin Guide UK have also visited. Their pithy two word assessment below of ‘Simple restaurant’ gives no clue as to the complexity and quality of what is offered at every service at Benedicts. Subjectivity leaves all sorts of blurred edges but I just can’t help wanting to give those Michelin inspectors a subjective kick up the arse.
Richard, Katya and the Benedicts team will, of course, remain magnificent whatever a tyre company or a blogging bloke like me might think.
Rhubarb dessert and one very happy birthday Mum.
Here are some of the team celebrating yet another award shortly after our visit.
We continue to be lucky enough to have experiences elsewhere which help us know and understand a little bit about good food and service but we loved Benedicts from the start. Each time we return things get better! Which means that our 240 mile journey there and back will never be a barrier to returning as often as we can.
Our celebration of so many (FORTY!) years of marriage started in June with a trip back to Norwich where Jan and I met. This could have involved a bit of soppy nostalgia but the city is so darned vibrant and interesting that, whenever we visit, we have no need to mush over student days. Instead we discover what has changed (Oswald Sebley Jewellers ceased trading a while ago) or what is brand new. We did include familiar ground by visiting the university campus. The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts opened four years after we left but we have explored it since and this time viewed the latest in a fine series of exhibitions which are aimed at distracting from the fabulous regular collection.
It was terrific to see the Cartier-Bresson photographs lined up. Many of them are iconic images but having the chance to view them outside the pages of a printed book was refreshing.
The Giacometti 'Line Through Time' was our favourite of the two exhibitions. As a 'retired' history of art student, I found out much fresh information about an artist whose work, although comfortably familiar, had all sorts of nuances which had previously escaped me. Alberto's work is shown world-wide. You can see how transfixed Jan was by a quintet of the sculptor's figures when we walked round the Maeght Foundation seven years ago. I still insist that her expression here reveals a magnificent pout rather than a scowl.
Picture not taken in Norwich
At the Sainsbury Centre our visit was supplemented and enhanced by a hugely knowledgeable attendant. He also alerted me to a lovely publication, giving a fascinating, sometimes rambling, history of the building itself... on sale at a knock-down price in the SCVA shop.
Both exhibitions are finished now but the Centre, along with the rest of the city of Norwich will continue to offer lovely things for any visitor.
We had already tried one of the newest, loveliest things in Norwich last November. We rounded off our summer 2016 trip with a revisit.
'Benedicts' is now a year old and has developed at breakneck speed into a compulsory place to book for anyone who loves great food. Our bill tells very little about the delights which we enjoyed a second time round. I will provide a link to my proper review as soon as it's ready. Suffice to say that, after making impressive first impressions back in November, the Bainbridge Brigade still managed to raise the bar with the quality of food and service.
We wandered around parts of the rest of the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk and made good use of our National Trust membership. One of their properties proved to be the source of a special item which we took home. More of that in a future post.
We haven't had any break beyond five days so far this year but that's not been a bad thing. Spring in Barcelona was vibrant and intense. Different areas of Britain have provided new bursts of historical, artistic and geographical interest but Norwich will remain most likely to draw us back again soon.
