The kitchen in Sophie Conran’s London home is dominated by a black Aga and bright pink walls. Open shelves are cluttered with spices and condiments, delicate teacups 
and items from her own range of tableware.

It couldn’t 
be farther from the startlingly sleek, modern interiors 
we have come to associate with her family name – and neither could her cooking. Her father Terence may own some of London’s most stylish restaurants, but Conran 
was brought up in the Sussex countryside, surrounded by chickens and the produce of the family vegetable patch.

“One of my earliest memories,” she recalls, “is being 
in a forest of asparagus. I must have been tiny, because it was towering over me, all feathery and dotted with red berries. My parents were proper old hippies who grew their own veg, and my dad was always taking me out into the garden, showing me what he’d grown and telling me what we could make with it. We only went to restaurants occasionally for a real treat – my mum cooked hearty meals for us at home.”

Caroline, Conran’s mother and Terence’s third wife, to whom he was married for 33 years, was a food writer whose books include Delicious Home Cooking and Family Cook, and it was by her side that Conran developed a passion for cooking. This has since been seasoned by the influence of the different cuisines she encounters on holiday.

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“My parents bought a stunning farm deep in the countryside of Provence when 
I was a teenager,” she says. “It was a rural paradise. I first tasted soup 
au pistou at the local bistro there when I was 17. Years later, I wrestled the recipe from the maître d’, who scribbled the ingredients and an incoherent idea of how it was made on a scrap of paper.”

In her dining room, Conran’s love of food becomes abundantly clear. One wall of shelves is piled high with cookery books. From French to Japanese, Nigel Slater to Annabel Karmel (whose food her two children particularly like) with a few of her mother’s and father’s tomes nestled 
in between, they are all well thumbed, with pink Post-its sticking out at intervals to mark her favourite recipes.

“I regard food as therapeutic and joyful,” she explains. “I enjoy spending time in the kitchen cooking for my friends and family. But, over the years, my food has become less complicated and, when I’m hosting a dinner party, I like to be prepared so I can enjoy the evening.”

The crème brûlées are done and in the fridge, a rack of lamb for 
the main course is marinating and just needs to go in the oven, and the vegetables for the soup are all prepped. “If you’re stressed, your guests will sense it, and that’s when things start to go wrong,” says Conran.

Tonight’s gathering is to raise funds for Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s Go Pink campaign, hence the colourful dress code. As she greets her friends in her Diane von Furstenberg frock and Louboutin heels, the immaculately groomed Conran exudes not even a whiff of anxiety. Soup warming on the Aga, she joins them on the sofa to talk about primary schools, matchmaking and holidays. She admits there is one thing that still manages to ruffle her feathers, however: “I do get nervous about cooking for my dad. I now ask him exactly what he would like to eat before he comes round. Last time, he requested roast chicken – and, thankfully, there were no complaints.”

For information about how to host your own Go Pink event, 
visit breakthrough.org.uk/go_pink/ or call 020-7025 2452

Soup au pistou

Serves 8

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