December already!

Kicking off Christmas, visiting York, Lee Miller at Tate Britain, David Bowie Centre at the V&A Storehouse, French Orchestral Pop and a new Bertazzoni range cooker

Reviewing how many things I packed into November and I felt the need to mark it with my very first Substack newsletter. I wasn’t very well over the summer and it’s as if I’ve been trying to make up for lost time cramming things into the rest of this year. November did not disappoint as a precursor to Christmas!

The chief highlight of November was taking my mum (above, outside the sweet shop) to York, for a catch up with my son at university and to visit York Christmas Market. Through circumstance, I’ve been to York four times in as many months; fortunately it’s an atmospheric place to visit with plenty to do.

York city centre is compact and mostly pedestrianised. In summer there are many performance artists, seeing a wizard lead a walking tour is not unusual. The pretty narrow streets are perfect for wandering and browsing interesting window displays.

Although Yorkshire is famous for Betty’s Tearoom and “fat rascals”, my personal recommendation is to grab a sandwich or pastry from Thomas the Baker and sit eating it outside York Minster. Thomas the Baker are also famous for their cherry bakewell muffins and Fat Scamps (above, their version of Betty’s’ trademarked Rascal).

York Christmas Market had around 60 stalls selling gifts and food. It runs until December 21.

York is stuffed with places to eat. One favourite is Cosy Club (a chain with branches outside London), housed in an old cinema building, with a crowd pleasing menu, reasonable prices and spaces to dine or drink with friends. For daytime pitstops, I tend to pause for coffee at an existing cinema, the York Picturehouse City Screen. It’s spacious with huge windows overlooking the River Ouse. They’re a licensed bar and Picturehouse members can claim up to 20% discount on food and drink.

On each York trip this year, home from home has been Ibis Styles York Centre which recently reopened after massive refurbishment. The interior highlights York’s local heritage and mythology - such as brewing, vikings and the occasional black cat. We particularly like this branch of Ibis Styles as it’s a ten minute walk from the railway station making it handy to drop or collect luggage even if your room isn’t ready yet. I can also use my well-used ALL.ACCOR loyalty programme to claim silver status perks such as a free welcome glass of wine and can request late check-outs. It’s a much more elevated experience than Premier Inn or Travelodge, both of whom often charge higher rates for their York rooms. Using an Accor app-only discount, mum and I shared a twin room costing £220 midweek for two nights (including a fantastic breakfast).

We used my Art Pass (via Art Fund) to visit York Art Gallery for free (usual price £8.50pp). On two floors, this was well worth a visit. Upstairs, the permanent collection represents local twentieth century artists as well as better known names such as Picasso, LS Lowry and Paul Nash. There’s a massive ceramic collection and presently some pieces by Grayson Perry and a temporary exhibition devoted to Harold Gosney’s work; including graceful horse sculptures and preparatory drawings.

Downstairs, York Art Gallery was filled with entries for Aesthetica 2025 art prize and a giant light installation of previous entrant “Submergence” by Squidsoup. You can walk amongst the dangling lights as they change colour and sequence. Very Yayoi Kusama!

Back in London, I caught up with two of my favourite OG blogging buddies, Michelle Greedy Gourmet and Jeanne Cooksister for lunch at Ottolenghi in Spitalfields. It was especially appropriate as Ottolenghi was a firm favourite amongst food bloggers when we first met in 2009, before he was a major culinary star with multiple restaurants and bestselling cookery books. It’s pretty pricey - expect to pay around £45-50 per head for two courses with a cocktail - but it’s a great atmosphere with divine tasting food and someone must have been chopping all those salad ingredients for HOURS.

Afterwards, we went to the Lee Miller photography exhibition at Tate Britain. I am a huge fan of Lee Miller and especially loved the Lee biopic starring Kate Winslet last year. The film, financed by Sky and streamable on NowTV, brought to life many scenes where the iconic photos featured in the Tate show were captured. This notoriously included Lee posing in Hitler’s bath tub. Starting with her surrealist collaborations with Man Ray and Vogue fashion photography, the show moves on to her war photography. A highlight for me was standing face to face with Lee’s wartime press uniform and camera that snapped all those famous images. We were bemused that post-war, Lee went on to have a gourmet food writing career, she was a retro-food blogger of a fashion! Lee Miller is on at Tate Britain until 15 Feb 2026.

The next weekend, with my husband (above) on a fine sunny day, we made one of our frequent Saturday daytrips to Hampstead. It’s a short hop on the Overground from Walthamstow to Gospel Oak from where we climb over Parliament Hill, admire the view, then grab a coffee on Hampstead High Street. Having just seen the Lee Miller show, I was keen to identify the house she lived in with Roland Penrose on Downshire Hill.

Food wise, it has been a busy month. I reviewed Supperclub.tube (above) for London Unattached. This is a restaurant in a decommissioned Victoria Line carriage housed in Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum. See more pictures and read my review at London Unattached.

Also for London Unattached, I joined editor Fiona for a beef wellington masterclass hosted by chef Oliver Gladwin at Sussex Restaurant in Soho. This took place in their private dining room overlooking the restaurant kitchen.

Whilst we enjoyed a six course tasting menu, Oliver Gladwin demonstrated how to make the perfect beef wellington and in between courses, we had a bash ourselves. You can read Fiona’s full article about the experience with my pictures at London Unattached.

Red Gold From Europe Dinner

Towards the end of the month I attended the Red Gold from Europe dinner to launch an EU funded campaign to promote high quality canned tomatoes from Italy and Europe in the UK. I sat with Kerstin Rodgers and met up with numerous foodie folk I’d not seen for a long time. Canned tomatoes are a staple in our house and although I enjoyed the meal, I felt tomatoes weren’t centre stage enough on the Red Gold menu.

Two other arts and culture experiences in November:

Finally I visited the V&A Storehouse which is just up the road from Walthamstow in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Park. Actually on arrival, I realised that the V&A East building, close to Westfield Stratford, is the new museum due to open in 2026. The V&A Storehouse is over the river Lea closer to Hackney Wick but a short walk away. I visited twice, once without booking to wander the main storehouse space, a second return visit to see the ticketed David Bowie Centre. The current inaugural Bowie display, curated by Nile Rodgers, is a tiny selection of the 9000 items from Bowie’s estate now held by the V&A. Highlights were several instantly recogniseable Bowie outfits and a fateful 1960s rejection letter from Apple records saying “you’re not what we’re looking for at the moment.”

On 11 November, at the London Palladium, I saw French singer Zaho de Sagazan live for the third time. Having toured her hugely successful debut electro-pop album, La Symphonie des Eclairs (Lightning Symphony) for nearly two years, this show was a symphonic reinvention backed by a 30-strong orchestra. As I saw during her Lille Zenith show last year, Zaho often ends the show jumping off the stage to twirl amongst the audience, so I deliberately booked next to the aisle and indeed for a few moments she sang inches from my seat. There is also a David Bowie connection - Zaho performed a cover of Modern Love at the Cannes Film Festival 2024 to honour jury president Greta Gerwig in reference to its usage in the film “Frances Ha” - Zaho’s version of Modern Love is on constant repeat on my Apple Music playlists.

Finally, this month saw what I hope is the conclusion to The Oven Saga. I won’t repeat it now, but you can read about it on Instagram here, here and here. We are now, after four months being oven-less, some false-starts and significant electrical works, the proud owners of a Bertazzoni range cooker. I picked up a fresh pair of Scion fox oven-gloves in TK Maxx to celebrate. It’s my third pair over recent years but they do take quite a hammering.

Well that’s the end of my first Substack and I hope by the time the next one comes around I will have many more than my three (much appreciated) Substack followers. I can’t believe December will be as exciting as November but already planned are some trips to Soho Theatre to watch Camille O’Sullivan and some comedy, a review of KENREX play, my Walthamstow friends’ annual Christmas wreath making party and planning how to mark a family milestone birthday during Christmas itself. At long last I also hope to have Maisoncupcake.com rebranded on a new blog theme.

Thank you for reading! I’d love to read your comments about anything above. And please subscribe for next time!

Sarah Trivuncic, Maisoncupcake.com

More frequent snippets on Instagram via @maisoncupcake (food and personal account)

Less frequent snippets at @lovethestow (Walthamstow pics) and @fashion_art_writer (art gallery visits and cultural stuff)