To celebrate AnOther Magazine's 10 year anniversary this February, ten of the world's major fashion houses have each designed their ultimate fantasy cake which will be realised by ten of the most innovative chefs and food artists. The final
To celebrate AnOther Magazine's 10 year anniversary this February, ten of the world's major fashion houses have each designed their ultimate fantasy cake which will be realised by ten of the most innovative chefs and food artists. The final creations will be on display in Selfridges' Wonder Room Concept Store for one week commencing on 15 February.
Bringing together the world's of fashion and food, this project has been curated by Jefferson Hack and artist, food stylist and cookery writer Annie Nichols. Over the next three weeks, Annie will be posting weekly diary updates documenting the process of the project through words and pictures, providing a taster of what's to come. Part 1 begins in December 2010 when Annie first visits the AnOther offices, charting the initial inspirations, through to her meetings with chef and restaurateur Mark Hix, multi-talented confectioner Andrew Stellitano, chocolatier Paul Wayne Gregory, Clair Ptak of renowned East London cake company, Violet and jellymongers and spectacular food creators Bompas & Parr.
Annie Nichols: "I distinctly remember Gary Newman's Cars playing on my iPod on the walk to the AnOther offices in December last year. It was very cold and the pond in Victoria Park was frozen. AnOther's Fashion Editor Agata Belcen asked if I wanted the brilliant job of finding some of the world's leading cooks, chefs and artists to make the cakes proposed by ten fashion designers. I pulled together a variety of reference materials: books from my days as a chef, which contain step-by-step guides to techniques such as sugar-blowing and pulling, and the work of 'sugar maestro' Michael Nadell. Our first meeting was with Mark Hix who Jefferson suggested. We then met with Andrew Stellitano who is working on the Gucci cake. His original idea was to produce a savoury cake, using ham and tortilla laser-cut into the iconic Gucci double 'G' logo'. Unfortunately, the savoury idea isn't practical for the display nature of our anniversary project, but fear not, he's working on something very special! We also visited Paul Wayne Gregory at his Croydon headquarters — he has previously cast heads and shoulders in chocolate and his ideas for his AnOther cake are equally ambitious. Sam Bompas of Bompas & Parr, who started the company with Harry Parr creating English fine jellies before moving onto more large-scale works and Claire Ptak of Violet cakes also have exciting plans. Claire runs a unique artisan cake company from her shop Violet on Wilton Way, East London and every Saturday on Broadway Market. Her molasses and ginger cake is my absolute favourite. Claire moved to London with her English husband five years ago from her native San Francisco where she was head pastry chef for doyenne of modern American cooking, Alice Waters at Chez Panisse. I am a big fan! Cannot wait to tell you more…"
AnOther Birthday Cake — Part 2 will be posted on Wednesday 2 February.
