Extremely Moorish: at home with the Clarks
This,’ says Samuel Clark sombrely, ‘is my mother.’ He’s holding an earthenware jar in his hands, while his wife Samantha looks on, mildly amused. I soon discover that this is one of Samuel’s favourite party tricks; the aforementioned ‘mother’ is actually a bacterial culture (from the French mere) that one douses in wine to produce home-brewed vinegar. ‘Quite aromatic and volatile,’ says Samuel.
The Clarks’ Highbury kitchen is every bit as colourful as the couple’s restaurants, Moro and Morito. A row of jolly red geranium pots lines the kitchen counter; in the background a Moroccan coffee pot hisses on the cooker, filling the room with the warming aroma of a fresh brew.
Walls and shelves are covered in art pieces, from a miniature Antony Gormley sketch and a Man Ray portrait of Samuel’s grandmother, to an Expressionist portrait over the family dining table.
The couple have an enviable modern art collection. Samuel’s father was the renowned landscape painter Anthony Fry, and he is a descendant of Roger Fry, the art critic and member of the Bloomsbury Group. For Samantha, cooking for their own coterie of artist friends is always an edifying experience: ‘Perhaps it’s their sensitivity to materials, but there is something about artists’ brains that makes them real foodies. You’ll often find that they’re good in the kitchen.’
It’s not just artists who are fans of the couple’s food. Since opening Moro in 1997, the Clerkenwell restaurant has become a mecca for chefs, celebrities and locals alike, who love its Moorish-inspired cuisine and sharing plates.
Their Highbury home is a calm retreat for the pair from their hectic life — two restaurants, three children and a fourth cookbook in the works. It was a welcome surprise on their first viewing of the property to find that the pretty 19th-century terraced house also came with a beautifully landscaped garden: ‘We get a lot of pleasure from watching things grow. Gardening and tending to the plants is the perfect antidote to frenetic kitchen life,’ says Samuel.
The Moro Souk Dining Tent will be at the Wilderness Festival in August (shop.wildernessfestival.com)
Photographs by Brijesh Patel
Hair and make-up by Terri Capon using Laura Mercier and Bumble & Bumble
