Designers’ breakfasts

This morning’s papers were full of designers. But instead of talking about their usual topics, the stars of this morning’s appearances were waxing about altogether more foodie fare.

In The Guardian, Sir Terence Conran joined seven other celebrities, including Helena Bonham Carter and architect Lord Richard Rogers, to share what he eats for breakfast for a feature on the most important meal of the day.

As I’m sure you’ll be dying to know, Conran starts with a glass of proper orange juice then moves onto a freshly ground Gourmet Noir coffee form the Algerian Coffee Store with warmed milk. ‘Sixty years I’ve been  pouring that into my bladder,’ he tells The Guardian.

Much to the complaint of his wife, Conran then follows up the juice and coffee with a Havana cigar called Hoya de Monterrey. Unfortunately the image in my mind of Terence in a fluffy slippers and a smoking jacket is dashed by Conran’s assertion that he’s usually dressed by breakfast, which he eats in his kitchen dining room when at his London home.

The only mention of solid food comes when Conran shares his penchant for crisp croissants in a good hotel or eating in lorry drivers’ caffs when on driving trips in France. No mention of Daljit Singh’s sausages, Mr Singh’s Bangras, but after the launch of Conran Singh last October, perhaps it’ll be fry ups all round in 2011.

Meanwhile in The Times, Philippe Starck gets a notable mention for his collaboration with winemaker consultant Michel Rolland in producing LA Organic olive oil.

The, unsurprisingly, beautifully-packaged product, which will be sold in Waitrose, has been a long love affair between the pair and the Spanish olive groves that they both feel passionate about.

Starck tells The Times, ‘Olive oil is more than just a product. When I make a chair, OK, it’s nice, people put their ass on it – pefect. But when you feed somebody, that’s beautiful.’

Good to see not everyone’s on post-Christmas diets.