Terrines Made for the Upper Crust
Pâté en croûte, the centuries-old French dish composed of meat terrine baked in savory pastry, was first developed out of economy as a way to preserve and use up bits of offal. But today, with skilled kitchen staffs in short supply, the labor-intensive delicacy — which requires multiple days of confiting, jellying, laminating and simmering — feels like a luxury item. “I like the technical aspect of it,” says the chef Nicolas Delaroque, 42, who serves a classic rabbit-and-tarragon version modernized with a little less fat and a bit more spice at his restaurant, Maison Nico, in San Francisco. Markus Glocker, 42, of New York’s Koloman, likewise set out to create a lighter take on the original. “You’re not going to feel like you just ate a stone,” he says of his salmon en croûte, in which slices of tramezzini, a fluffy Italian bread, are wrapped around a rare salmon filet slicked with scallop-and-parsley mousse and topped with gherkins and a beet-infused butter. At Melbourne, Australia’s Aru, the pâté en croûte is reminiscent of a fancy bánh mì. Chả lua, a ground Vietnamese pork loaf, is combined with chicken liver pâté for the filling, and the jelly layer between the meat and the pastry is seasoned with rice vinegar, soy sauce and Maggi, an MSG-spiked seasoning. “It’s quite a humbling experience,” says the charcutier George Jephson, 39, of assembling his iteration, which is stuffed with pork belly, confit pork tongue, crisped chicken skin, pistachios and port jelly, and can be found at his East London wine bar, Cadet, and at nearby restaurants, including Chiltern Firehouse. Still, making use of the whole pig, he says, is worth the effort. “I worked 10 years as a butcher, and we didn’t sell a single piece of pork liver,” he says. “Now I sell 60 kilos a week.” — Lauren Joseph
The Thing: A Geometric, Globe-Trotting Collar from Bulgari
Lately, haute joaillerie designers have been practicing their own version of democracy, combining stones of all sorts — from ancient and rare specimens to faceted minerals only recently extracted from the earth — without regard to hierarchy. Thus, a single bedazzled collar like this geometric one in shades of rose from the Italian jewelry house Bulgari can be seen both as an object of beauty and a primer on how gems emerge from and reflect history. Bits of reddish-orange coral, used for eons as decorative amulets in classical and Indigenous cultures, are interspersed with large cushion-cut pink tourmalines, stones initially documented in 1890 in the mines of San Diego. A lattice of oval and pavé diamonds provides the necklace’s Art Deco-inspired pattern, but it’s the iridescent glow of some semiprecious newcomers — a half-dozen violet-hued kunzites, named after the American mineralogist George Frederick Kunz, who certified the gem in 1902 — that really steals the spotlight. Bulgari Mediterranea High Jewelry necklace, price on request, bulgari.com. — Nancy Hass
Photo assistant: Roberto Gigliotti
A Paris Chateau with 19th-Century Influences
The 37-room Château des Fleurs, right off the Champs-Élysées in Paris’s Eighth Arrondissement, takes its name from a nearby garden that served as an open-air ballroom in the 19th century. The garden is long gone, but the hotel draws much of its aesthetic inspiration from that same period: botanical stained-glass window panels, fringed velvet chairs and wrought-iron balconies. Its designers, Benito Escat and Pol Castells of the Barcelona, Spain-based studio Quintana Partners, were just as influenced by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, incorporating his vivid colors and curved lines. Quintana designed most of the furnishings, from the velvet headboards and ruby red bathroom tiles in the guest rooms to the spherical sconces illuminating the small subterranean spa, rendering many of them from upcycled materials. The restaurant is something of a surprise, too. The Korean-born chef Ji-Hye Park transplanted her restaurant, Oma, from the Ninth Arrondissement to Château des Fleurs’s ground floor, where she continues to offer dishes such as mulhué, a spicy seafood main course made with raw sea bass, sea snails and white cabbage. “We’re bringing something new to the neighborhood,” says Park. “It’s a new chapter, a new challenge.” From about $434 a night, chateaudesfleurs.paris. — Lindsey Tramuta
Watch Report: Bracelet-Style Timepieces in a Range of Blue Hues
Digital tech: Dallas Raines. Set designer’s assistant: Maggie DiMarco
Another Thing: An Abstract Filippo Carandini Cabinet
In recent years, collectors have come to regard one-of-a-kind design objects and lighting with the reverence once reserved for sculpture and painting. Now, the Italian designer Filippo Carandini, known for his minimalist, brightly hued interiors and products, is making a cabinet that actually resembles an abstract canvas. Further scrambling the distinction between art and craft, it’s part of the new Nilufar Open Edition collection, the first time the Milan-based gallery is producing furniture in nonlimited quantities. Beginning with a six-foot-tall hinged frame constructed by local artisans, Carandini layers on impressionistic slashes of vivid acrylic paint (although there are a few basic color combinations, including this version in saturated jewel tones, no two armoires will be the same). After the piece dries, he sends it to a specialized lacquer shop for a hand-sanded, ultra-high-gloss finish. “If people wind up liking this, I don’t know exactly how I’ll keep up painting each one,” he says. “But I’ll worry about that later.” Filippo Carandini for Nilufar Luna cabinet, price on request, thefutureperfect.com. — Nancy Hass
Photo assistant: Martina Giammaria
