Sunday 1st September 2013

Oh the vigour and greatness of our Great City: dined (a certain divinity was there) and barbied yesterday, dined on Friday, dined on Wednesday, lunched at Penn on Thursday, was bolt upright at the Royal Albert Hall, closing the Proms, on Tuesday, having forged back from the Country that day. Dined in the country last Saturday, in a summer scarf, after landing at Row from Rome earlier in the day and surging 240 miles in my official car with Xenon driving lights to the Gay Mother’s.

Otherwise have been dead-heading and working on stains: was also kept up all night on Wednesday/Thursday morning by a stray cat trapped on my terrace.

Tuscany a distant dream, as if never happened. All rest-cure benefits evap. I was so well there, sleeping each day until 9 with a one or two hour interval between 5 and 7 in the morning. The air excellent, no stifling heat, and the bedrooms so dark.

Angus Willis, international food writer, food stylist and cook, King of Hastings retail, Creator of the Tudor House, Hastings (feature coming up in Interiors, written by Sid Id, no less) cooked at La Foce: apart from his Pici con Pomordoro Crudo, which I did better the week before at Il Cortile, his vision of Tuscan food was unsurpassed. He respected the origins yet made it new. His achievement was Heaven-high and unsurpassed.

For Angus the Tuscan essentials are the charcoal grill and the wood-fired oven. Fortunately my villa had both. What a miracle!  The other crucial element is the approach to shopping. Angus improvises and seizes chances others would miss. There’s no fixed list. Menus are conjured from what the market offers. So we had quail with figs, done in the wood fired oven, and the famous octopus, frozen to tenderise, then boiled, then finished with spices on the charcoal grill. The classics of Tuscany, papa di pomordoro, were faultless, lifted by what Laura Malcolm called a garnish, but Angus said, ‘It’s not a garnish because you eat it.’ The garnish question was never quite settled.

For the celebration lunch, when we received the Western Australian father and son team, the son a friend of Prince Dmitri Hersov, the father a full monologist and pizza-chain founder, not fond of Jews, taglia di manzo was done on the grill with a highly original salad of rare leaves from the market, grilled courgettes and pecorino shavings. Angus said courgettes should be grilled with no oil.

The pizza evening was attended by the Multis who were so taken with La Foce that they stayed on a whole extra day and took the octopus dinner the following night as well. But the thought of the pizza evening did not please the Photo Multi who dreads carbs in the evening. He wanted the menu altered but nothing could stop the progress of pizza from the pizza oven and the Multis were enchanted finally and even slept well in the simple La Foce B and B despite being full of pizza.

Which was a massive mercy, for if the Multis were alienated…

The Gala closing ceremony was a tomato soup followed by the grilled octopus with roasted potatoes then a knock-out salad of fennel and radiccio.

Angus introduced tirelli which are little biscuits made with olive oil. You can buy in packets and they will lift your pre-dinner drinks/nibbles phase to another sphere.

Laura Malcolm revived her True Bellini, made with real peach juice.

So endeth our Tuscan dream for this year: but do not despair. On the 3rd day he rose again. You’ve read and you’ve learnt. Now you too, no matter how wretched your simplicity, can follow in Poor Little Rich Gay Tuscan footsteps.

Angus Willis: Western Australian Lunch, the 1st Course: Fresh Cannellini beans, Prosciutto and with Wild Fennel Flowers

Pizza Evening at La Foce

Papa di Pomodoro Lifted by an Angus-Willis-Created ‘Garnish’

The Actual Octopus, Styled by Angus Willis Himself, With Roast Potatoes and Rare Leaves

Fontalgozzo, on the La Foce Estate, My Self-Paid Villa: A Good Solid Box, Restyled by Cecil Pinsent

Fontalgozzo, on the La Foce Estate: Her Pool

The Most Famous View in Tuscany, As Seen from My Villa at La Foce: Now We Say Farewell to Tuscany for Another Year