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When not designing minimalist masterpieces, architect John Pawson can usually be found in the kitchen of his Notting Hill townhouse with his wife of 32 years, Catherine, a South African–born interior designer. He doesn’t really touch the stove, yet they produce culinary magic together.
When COVID-19 locked down England, the couple found themselves at Home Farm, their recently completed country house in the idyllic Cotswolds. A year later they are publishing Home Farm Cooking, out April 28 from Phaidon, which contains 100 season-based recipes that, as John puts it, will “get you through the year.” Its publication comes 20 years after Living and Eating, a collaboration between John and food writer Annie Bell, which The New Yorker has called “one of the most wonderful cookbooks ever published.” Ahead, the Pawsons talk about what it took to merge their distinctly different design sensibilities when they married, the “ceremony of eating” in their household, and the challenge of working together from home—as Catherine says, “I married him for better or for worse, but not for lunch.”
Vanity Fair: How did you both meet?
Catherine Pawson: We met at the hairdresser. I was in a chair with tinfoil in my hair, and John walked in with a girlfriend. The hairdresser said to me, ‘Oh, that’s John Pawson. His picture is in the magazine you’re reading.’ Three weeks later I sat next to him at a dinner party.
John Pawson: I gave her a lift home. Actually, she gave me a lift home. Then, as I didn’t have anywhere to live, she very kindly put me up at her flat.
But the two of you had very different design sensibilities. At the time Catherine was working at Colefax and Fowler, Britain’s bastion of chintz.
John: Her flat was a complete Colefax interior. So you spent the whole time falling over things–stools, ottomans, poofs, and sofas. I don’t like sofas. They are so unmanageable spatially.
How did you bridge your taste divide?
Catherine: I just gave in. He won.
How did you end up at Home Farm?
John: I didn’t want to have a place in the country. I didn’t think we needed one. I like London so much. But Catherine thought it would be nice to get a tiny cottage somewhere which we could escape to on the weekends. She made the mistake of showing me photos of this dilapidated, very big property. It has a 17th-century farmhouse, 18th-century barns and other buildings, a medieval pond with carp in it, an orchard for cider. It is on an escarpment looking down on a beautiful valley.
It is a listed Grade II building, so there were lots of restrictions. We kept all the beautiful bits—what was left. It’s much more complicated renovating existing buildings. It took us four years. So many decisions. In the end we have 28 rooms here. There would have been a lot more, but I made the bedrooms spacious, and we have three kitchens. It’s a series of farm buildings, strung out. If you want to live in any part of it, you need a kitchen nearby.
Was the renovation stressful?
Catherine: We’re still married. Which is like a miracle. It was quite intense. Our biggest arguments were about sockets—electrical outlets. John doesn’t like to see them, so we don’t have very many and they are all very well concealed.
John: They are so ugly
Catherine: But we’ve forgotten the stress of it.
But John, you did make some concessions to Catherine?
John: Having curtains and sofas…things I wouldn’t normally do…it was a price worth paying.
Your relationship with food?
Catherine: When we met, John had one idea about food, that it should only be one color—white. He likes whitefish and white asparagus and panna cotta. And he likes the plate to be very clean. He doesn’t like a big mess on the plate.
We both grew up in large families in which mealtimes were sacrosanct. Both of our mothers were good, natural cooks. Martha [Stewart] asked John’s mother for her recipe for Yorkshire pudding. My mother’s cooking was a very big influence on me. It was home cooking—comfort food. Things like fish pies, roast chicken, and soups. I love soups, in winter and summer.
John doesn’t cook. He’s more of a director. He gives ideas of what to cook and creates the spaces in which we cook and eat. He also designs the majority of the cookware and tableware. It’s all part of the ceremony of eating. He controls every element of it, but it’s not about him actually doing the cooking.
What is the genesis of Home Farm Cooking?
John: Twenty years after my first cookbook, Phaidon, which publishes all my books, asked me to do another cookbook. I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it with Catherine.’
Catherine: The idea was to do a seasonal book. It begins with spring, but we started work on it in winter, just before the lockdown. There were quite a few challenges getting it done because of the pandemic. We cooked and shot everything at Home Farm. My favorite recipes are simple ones that require the least amount of cooking, things like grilled peaches with mozzarella. I like using very good raw ingredients with very little intervention.
I asked some of my favorite chefs to contribute recipes. There are so many amazing cookbooks that come out every year. I’m an amateur cook, so I asked for help from some professionals.
John: It’s 100 recipes that will get you through the year. It was very much an in-house production. Nick [Barba] from my office did the graphic design and Gilbert [McCarragher], the architectural photographer who has shot all my work, did the photos. He had never done food photography before, but I didn’t want somebody telling me what to do—if you are a professional food photographer, you tend to have a way of doing it. We had a learning curve, but at least it looks fresh.
How has everybody dealt with lockdown?
John: The last 12 months, with our two adult sons here, the kitchens have really come into their own. The boys were able to have lunch on their own and work independently. There was no friction. Rather remarkable.
Catherine: It was complete bliss last summer because the weather was so beautiful. Winter was more challenging. In December it is dark by three o’clock. The evenings are very long.
John: One of Catherine’s challenges has been having her husband working at home.
Catherine: I married him for better or for worse, but not for lunch.
Did you ever really get on each other’s nerves?
John: No.
Catherine: Yes.
What discoveries have you made during the pandemic?
Catherine: Watching nature unfold every day has been such a joy. We are in a very rural area, so at the moment we are surrounded by newborn lambs. Bulbs are busting out everywhere.
The changing of light has been an endless source of pleasure. Inside the house we have the most beautiful shadows and streaks of sunlight. We get fabulous sunsets almost every day.
John: And we got a dog for the first time! Our lockdown puppy—a cockapoo. Lochie.
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