HTSI Editor’s Letter: Sir Jackie Stewart’s Fridge and Other Delights

Few things have delighted me more in recent months than the contents of Sir Jackie Stewart’s fridge. The legendary racing driver is our aesthete this week, and as usual in our interrogation, we like to poke around. We’ve grown accustomed to the neatly arranged bottles of rare condiments, homemade brewing projects, and champagne that seem like the standard answer to what people keep in their fridges, albeit Terry de Gunzburg fruit plates sparked a flurry of reader comments when we posted yours last week.

Our Esteta column looks into the corners of a personality that other interviews cannot approach

Hooray for Stewart, then, whose vegetable drawers reveal not zucchini and green things, but a buffet of classic chocolates: dozens and dozens of miniature Mars bars, Twixes, and Milky Ways. How he manages not to immediately gorge himself on them (as would no doubt be the case at our house) offers a clue to the discipline required to win three drivers’ world championships. Or maybe it’s just the inevitable hangover from growing up when sugar was still strictly rationed. I find Stewart’s stash especially charming, one of the strange revelations one always finds in The Aesthete. The column peers into the corners of a personality that other interviews can’t come close to, which is why, some 14 years after it was introduced, it remains my favorite article in the magazine.

More food and charm in our Cult Shop, which is visiting this week Paul Rothe and his son in Marylebone, a deli that has been serving up freshly made sandwiches and an amazing array of mustards for over 120 years. I have often passed by the small facility near Wigmore Hall in London and marveled at its Formica interiors and immaculately stocked windows. Such institutions are becoming rarer in city centers as local residents move to the suburbs and landlords raise rents. Paul Rothe & Son represents beautifully simple luxury: it’s unique, consistent, immensely popular with everyone—from local workers to opera singers to movie stars—and it’s only gotten more valuable over time.

On the subject of which… this week’s cover story takes us inside the French watchmaking academy Lycée Edgar Faure, which has produced a handful of fascinating young independent watchmakers. While craftsmen with some talent in this elite field have generally followed a fairly standard career path, these graduates are challenging the orthodoxy that to become watchmakers one must train or work in a grand Swiss house. Brian Ng meets the next generation of trainees as they learn the codes of complications and casings (well, they probably realize I’m no expert), while Beat Schweizer photographs the class of 2023. It’s heartwarming to see the youngsters learning trades one might otherwise assume that they are the exclusive domain of their elders. It is very likely that these young students will one day be the next stars of watchmaking.

From the rarefied to the much more everyday: fashion shoot this week by Antoine Harinthe and Benjamin Canares focuses on that wardrobe hero, denim, highlighting the humble work material reinterpreted in the hands of the designer. Throwing on a denim shirt always makes me think summer has really begun, and these images put new spins on the garments that get better with each wear.

@jellison22