[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-la-dame-de-kensington":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Today I met up with \u003Ca href=\"http://ellenlindner.livejournal.com/\" class=\"lj-user\">ellenlindner\u003C/a> and \u003Cb>Stephen Betts\u003C/b> in Kensington to browse the bande desinée collection at the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.institut-francais.org.uk/content/view/38/70/\">Institut Français\u003C/a>. Stephen's started a fabulous new website, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.comixinflux.com\">Comix Influx\u003C/a>, designed to help people translate comics, mostly from French into English. (Stop by his site if you think you might be interested in giving it a try!)\\r\n\\r\nI've been meaning for ages to draw something for Ellen's \u003Ca href=\"http://whoresofmensa.livejournal.com/5227.html\">'Whores of Mensa' challenge\u003C/a>: draw your favourite lady chef. I was going to draw my friend \u003Cb>Fiona Wells\u003C/b>, who is generally amazing in the kitchen and also makes marvelous cakes for the \u003Ca href=\"http://www.house-gallery.co.uk\">House Cafe\u003C/a> in Camberwell. But at the Institut, Ellen found this luscious book, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.house-gallery.co.uk\">Elles sont chefs\u003C/a>, and assigned me on the spot to draw London-based chef \u003Cb>Sally Clarke\u003C/b>:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/sally_clarke-8c7010d98b.gif\">\\r\n\\r\nI must confess, I've never even once eaten in a London restaurant that had a proper 'chef', but from what the book says, I'm sure she could be my favourite. In fact, I've eaten lots of good meals, but I think the only time I've ever had an acclaimed chef cook for me was in Moscow, and he invited us to come round to his house for a meal. Except we had to bring all our own plates and cutlery because he never actually used his kitchen at home and only owned one plate. His food was brilliant. I felt kind of embarrassed because I'd cooked for him a few weeks before without knowing he was a big chef, and experimented with homemade sushi made from all Russian ingredients. It was a little odd.\\r\n\\r\nAnd I just bunged an \u003Ca href=\"http://ilyas.ru/ap/\">avtoportrait\u003C/a> up on a site just set up by Russian illustrator \u003Ca href=\"http://www.ilyas.ru\">Ilya Kazakov\u003C/a>. It's a bit of a cheat because it wasn't exactly intended as a self portrait, but it works in a pinch.","2008-04-19T21:10:00.000Z","la-dame-de-kensington",[],"la dame de kensington",1776628722611]