One of my most viewed posts to date is a blog post I wrote almost two years ago about Nigel Slater’s kitchen. It’s been a hit for good reason; because his kitchen is awesome. Beautiful charcoal hues, a strong presence of wood, clean lines and those bi-fold floor to ceiling windows. I still want and need all of that in my life.
It came as a complete shock when one day I got an e-mail from Rudi Thackray – the man and genius behind designing Nigel’s set. And for good measure, he also designed Lorraine Pascal’s Fast Fresh and Easy Food set, the Aquatics Centre Entrance for the 2012 London Olympics, Heston Blumenthal’s Perfection set and The Jonathan Ross Show set to name but a very small few. Um, woah.
Rudi saw the hype on my site about his kitchen, and got in contact looking to share some inside info and crack the illusion behind the set. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I built up some courage and asked if he had any sneaky behind-the-scenes stuff. He did.
Just for you guys, here are a few exclusive behind the scenes pictures and a slight insight into Nigel’s kitchen …
What looks like a relatively small set {in terms of TV shows}, contained within an existing back garden outside of London, Rudi and his team have us all fooled. In the picture above, you can see the step that carries through into the ‘garden’ below.
Below I did a mock-up of what I think to be roughly the layout of the set. I took a stab and guessed the guy in the red shirt {in the 5th picture} was standing at the set entrance. From here, the rest is guess work and that the timber walls you see in the 4th and 5th picture are faux stone walls which you can see in the doorway of the 2nd picture.
Here I was, utterly convinced such a place actually existed. I will forever attempt to figure out TV sets now. A massive thank you again to Rudi for sharing his exclusive pictures, and for anyone curious, you can check out my original post on Nigel’s kitchen here.
xx A
Image 1, 2 and 3 cred. Image 4, 5 and 6 c/o Rudi Thackray.
