redacted recipes: The Artful Kitchen: Ronell of myfrenchkitchen

Lately I have been making repeated visits to myfrenchkitchen to look enviously at Ronell's food art. The minute I saw her artwork, as well as the photos of her atelier, I conjured up an image of a kitchen filled with paintings and knew I'd be adding her to my mini-series, The Artful Kitchen. I sent Ronell an email explaining that I just knew her kitchen must be full of her wonderful paintings and asked her if she would let me profile her. Ronell replied promptly and explained that I had imagined incorrectly:

"My kitchen is a crazy place," she wrote. "I am a firm believer of 'out of sight, out of use', so everything in my kitchen is either hanging from a century old plough, attached to the ceiling, or on open shelves. Therefore I have no room for art on the walls. I have a whole shelf stacked only with old medicine and laboratory equipment that has been dug up in our garden from the eighteenth century, and I suppose that is my contribution to art in my kitchen. Except maybe for a large black board above the counter where I write some of my thoughts or a saying of someone else and do a sketch/drawing alongside – it depends on the season, on my mood, on a latest experience or just simply a philosophical impulse that hits me and changes weekly or monthly, again depending on the vibes of life."

She offered to take photos of her kitchen for me (which she is now displaying at myfrenchkitchen), and I eagerly accepted. As you can see here, Ronell's kitchen is a work of art in and of itself.

Ronell's apricot-colored walls provide a warm backdrop for her shelves of interesting and useful objects.

An old bell jar covers oranges, while a silver trophy holds a collection of dessert forks and knives. The mortar and pestle is sitting on an iron "doormat" adjacent to the stove, which Ronell uses as a safe place to set down hot pots and pans. The good luck horseshoe once belonged to a horse named "Skoene" (shoes) on a farm in Stellenbosch, where Ronell once lived.

Ronell discovered the old bottles in a cave which opens onto the back of her garden (she lives at the foot of a cliff and has three caves into the "mountain" on her property). In the early 1900’s, a doctor and his family lived in Ronell's house, using the house for his medical practice. Ronell writes, "We found literature and laboratory things, syringes (still sealed) and medicine bottles (still sealed), buried under a huge heap of planks..." and "...dusted them carefully because some still have the labels on the bottles, which are a bit fragile, but with careful handling, we could salvage them. And those that are ruined, are just beautiful too."

Ronell allows her house to reveal its history, and adds "...some walls are left unpainted because of original paintwork we’ve discovered and parts of our wooden floors have old paint splotches all over them, so it is just right that the old jars should also find their rightful place in the house."

Ronell's Samson juice extractor takes pride of place (she tries to drink a glass of extracted fruit and vegetable juice with herbs every day) next to a wooden tray filled with her ever expanding collection of silver and pewter. Ronell confides that she likes to have "little corners" in her kitchen with specific functions, so the silver items in the rustic wooden tray holds her coffee and tea things with mugs hanging to the ready above. The pretty bag holds sugar cubes in different colors and shapes, which Ronell buys from a store in Tours.

Ronell has always hung kitchen pots and pans and utensils from the ceiling. Years back she explained to her partner that she wanted some "farm instruments" to hang things from, and "...one day he showed up with this 'plough' (there may be a more descriptive word but I don't know what it is). He saw it next to the road, dumped somewhere and he just knew it was what I wanted. (He knows me too well..!) So he found the farmer and asked if could have it and then brought it home, cleaned it, treated it and attached it to my ceiling. It has traveled with us ever since and I love my plough."

The “backsplash” behind the sink was found in one of the caves. Ronell suspects it was probably intended to be some sort of fireplace decoration, but thought it made a better backsplash. The silver candelabrum was a wedding gift and Ronell sometimes lights the candles while she works in the kitchen. The box it is standing in front of is a wine rack turned onto its side, with the openings supplying a place to store candles, chalk for the blackboard, the blackboard brush and other tools Ronell uses at the sink.

FInally, of course, there is the blackboard Ronell originally wrote to me about. The item she claimed was the only thing resembling artwork in her kitchen--and that because she occasionally draws on it.

Ronell, I respectfully disagree with you. Your entire kitchen is a feast for the eyes. Thank you so much for sharing it with me and for patiently answering all of my pestering questions!

(Previously) The Artful Kitchen: Wary Meyers

Comments

WHOA!!! Cool kitchen! I feel like a redesign of my own!

Posted by: Manggy | November 27, 2007 at 07:32 AM

i love it!

Posted by: frenchtart | November 27, 2007 at 08:08 AM

Thank you for writing such a lovely post about my kitchen Ann! I feel honoured to share all this space on your blog! Now maybe I should take on your kitchen?
Ronell

Posted by: myfrenchkitchen | November 27, 2007 at 11:04 AM

Manggy, great, isn't it?

frenchtart, I love it too!

Ronell, I love your kitchen AND your paintings, and it was my pleasure to write this (as you know I'm a little nutty about food and kitchen art). And good lord, NO, you should not take on my kitchen! It's a complete and utter mess! :-)

Posted by: Ann | November 27, 2007 at 11:24 AM