Caroline Phillips

Journalism

Caroline Phillips
“Caroline Phillips is a tenacious and skilful writer with a flair for high quality interviewing and a knack for making things work.”

Caroline Phillips

Journalism

All articles from 2014

Westernising Japanese food at Kurobuta

The Luxury Channel | 24 Nov 2014

‘You’re going to hate Kurobuta,’ my teen children announce cheerily. ‘It’s uncomfortable and noisy.’ Well, naturally, I wanted to prove them wrong – what self-righteous mother wouldn’t? But given the fact that I’m now sitting on something like a park bench, only less comfortable – a wooden, plank-like seat – in a restaurant that is chronically loud, cavernous and unpleasantly dark, it’s going to be difficult to disagree with my teen lifestyle advisors.


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Dining at UNI

The Luxury Channel | 19 Nov 2014

Outside it has the look of a Belgravia hair salon or a candle and scent shop – with its black awning and white façade with lots of glass, and window with a big image of a Japanese face. From the pavement, passers-by don’t really see diners. But inside is UNI – a restaurant serving Japanese and Peruvian fusion food, aka Nikkei cuisine.


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Salad days

Chewton Glen | 19 Oct 2014

“I was very sad to leave Cliveden,” says William Waldorf Astor, the fourth Viscount. In 1942 his grandfather gave the estate to the National Trust, but the family continued to live there until they found it too difficult, about which more later. Thus Lord Astor spent his first 16 years living at Cliveden, his family home, and a house with a political history – from the Dukes of Buckingham to the Astors.


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The ultimate style edit

Chewton Glen | 19 Oct 2014

You are staying at Chewton Glen or Cliveden House. Have you got a bulging case, but nothing to wear? Or did you not know how to translate city clothes to country looks without buying a whole new wardrobe? What you need is The Look Doctor, Annabel Hodin. The woman who will sort you out a core wardrobe for everything from the Oscars to a relaxed country weekend.


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There’s something special about Sicily

The Luxury Channel | 17 Oct 2014

There’s something special about Sicily. As Vogue Editor Alexandra Shulman has written, ‘Oranges are more orange in Sicily.’ And as Goethe wrote, ‘The key to Italy is Sicily.’ Whichever way you look at it, this once-rich island, the biggest in the Med, is magical. It’s famed for its Baroque, Byzantine and Corinthian architecture, cliff-top villages, beautiful beaches, stylish hotels and superb cuisine. I experienced first the luxury of tranquillity and life in the slowest of slow lanes in agroturismo Il Vignale (a week in a way-off-the-beaten-track north coast villa), before taking to the road for a further week to round up the best of the rest of places to stay.


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Sicily hot list: the super-8

Lusso | 10 Oct 2014

There’s something extra fab about Sicily. Everything is just that bit hotter (or cooler), more beautiful, and more intense. As Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman has written, ‘Oranges are more orange in Sicily.’ Whichever way you look at it, this once-prosperous island, the biggest in the Med and the meeting point between East and West, Africa and Europe, is magical. Go for its global class gastronomy that knocks the socks off almost anything you’ve eaten before. Tip up for its beautiful beaches. Go to marvel at its Byzantine, Baroque and Corinthian architecture and cliff-top villages. And to chill in stylish and super romantic hotels and villas.


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Short cuts

London Review of Books | 9 Oct 2014

As we stepped off the ferry onto the Aegean island of Symi in late August, our thoughts were on sunbathing and sailing. But the first thing we saw was a group of what we soon discovered were Syrians carrying small backpacks holding those few possessions they hadn’t lost during the crossing from Turkey. A week later, the number of frightened, hungry and exhausted refugees had grown substantially; when we arrived there were about fifty, now there were around two hundred. An old man with gashes on his face sat bleeding in 30° heat for ten hours waiting for a doctor. He slumped forward, seemingly drunk from dehydration. He’d hit his face against the rocks when the Greek port police fired a shot in the air. Symi is the island closest to the Turkish mainland; the same thing is happening on many other outlying islands.


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Eco-chic Monaci Delle Terre Nere, Italy

Adelto | 28 Sep 2014

It’s a Sicilian paradise. He was, he says, instantly besotted and decided to dedicate his life to its restoration. That was in 2007 when Guido Coffa – a former automotive engineer – chanced upon La Monaci, a 19th-century villa in the foothills of Mt Etna, Sicily. It was then a working farm. Five years later, writes Caroline Phillips, it’s a very different story. It’s a chic, stylish boutique hotel with 15 bedrooms/suites in the villa and others dotted on the 40- acre organic estate. Welcome to Monaci delle Terre Nere.


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Welcome to my bed spa

Queen of Retreats | 15 Sep 2014

I’m on a retreat in my bedroom. Call it Bed Spa. This because I’ve broken my ankle and had an op. My life is normally crazily busy, but now I’ve been forced to stop. Suddenly I realise how much of my running around is unnecessary. And what’s important in life. The chance to be unfettered by the outside world is rare, especially at home. My bedroom has monastic white polished plasterwork, a Moroccan bedcover twinkling with sequins and a view of trees. Anyone would want to spa here!


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Caroline’s favourite articles from 2014

The Potting Shed

Our Man on the Ground | 18 Aug 2014

The Royal Triangle is like a sort of reverse Bermuda Triangle – so instead of aircraft and ships disappearing under suspicious circumstances, tasteful Highgrove daisy…

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