At home with the Caldesis

The Brief

Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi are successful restaurateurs and chefs, with two restaurants in London’s Marylebone and one in Bray, as well as a highly acclaimed cookery school and managing to find time to appear on TV and publish popular cookery books. With such demanding careers and a young family to look after, they moved out of London at the end of 2007 and were looking for a luxurious, high spec kitchen in which they could cook for family and friends as well as run cookery school lessons.

“The Caldesis are great entertainers and the most convivial hosts, and their brief was to create a beautiful but also highly practical space that worked both professionally and personally. Their passion for food is infectious and they wanted to make the most of the British weather with an outdoor dining and cooking area to bring a little of their beloved Italian lifestyle to the Buckinghamshire countryside.”

It soon became apparent that a completely open plan scheme would deliver the sense of grandeur the Caldesis were looking for. The space also needed to be carefully zoned into cooking, preparation, drinks, storage, dining and relaxing areas. Creating a wall of fully retractable doors opening onto the large decking area would not only bathe the room in light but also help to bring the outside in and create a luxurious, continental atmosphere.