The Spice of Life
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WEEKEND JOURNAL. FRIDAY - SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28 - 30, 2011 WSJ.com/lifeandstyle The Spice of Life In Spain’s Heartland, Saffron Is as Good as Gold oto TH F ood/ kF Stoc LUXURY FASHION HOMES Perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena Tina Gaudoin on stunning winter Software billionaire Larry Ellison’s has a nose for fragrance W3 coats worth the big splurge W4 obsession with trophy homes W10 W2 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday - Sunday, October 28 - 30, 2011 PAGE TWO WEEKEND JOURNAL. 8-9| Cover Story In Don Quixote’s legendary stomping grounds, Spanish saffron is the spice of life. 4-5 | Fashion Tina Gaudoin on the most spectacular, splurge- worthy winter coats. Plus, clashing patterns. The field of fashionable options has never been wider or more indulgent. 10-11| Homes How American software billionaire Larry Ellison has taken serial property buying to new extremes. 3| Luxury Hermès perfumer illustration by Jean-Manuel Duvivier Jean-Claude Ellena’s fashionable fragrances. All Hallows’ Eve Is More Trick Than Treat Travel 6| [ European Life ] year-olds dressed as Chuckie, the A Rising Food Trend Saying ‘I don’t’ to marriage, but ‘I do’ to a honeymoon. killer doll from “Child’s Play”—if Last week, we celebrated Na- you’re charitable and assume that tional Baking Week. A new and, to BY SAM LEITH IN LONDON the dungarees and kitchen knife my mind, entirely delightful devel- Food & Wine are some sort of fancy dress—ex- opment in our cultural life is the 7| Halloween draws torting Haribos with menaces obsession with smart bread. As re- Tuscany’s iconic Bistecca. Plus, wine’s dropping price. near. It brings from petrified pensioners. cently as 10 years ago, sourdough with it a frisson of These 8-year-olds, be it was regarded as exotic and suspi- fear. Up and down known, don’t have lisping voices cious—something to do with San 12| Books the country, folk and Lord Fauntleroy curls: they Francisco, probably not tasting The political rise whisper quiet have five-o’clock shadow, a strong very nice. Now, every second fridge prayers under their breath, bolt sense of their due entitlements has a rye starter bubbling away. of Marine Le Pen. the door and turn on extra lights. according to the current trick/ Artisanal breads are coming to These people, be advised, aren’t treat exchange rate and a lovingly occupy the same place in this de- superstitious. Their minds aren’t accumulated arsenal of eggs, fire- cade that the sun-dried tomato 13-15| Culture plagued with images of ghosts works and plastic bags full of dog did in the 1990s. The surprise hit On the ‘Moneyball’; and witches and things that shud- doo with which to play jocular of the TV schedules has been a der and creep in darkness. Their tricks on spoilsport adults who show called “The Great British the Orsay’s new vision; minds are plagued with images of Bake-Off.” Bakers such as Richard unlucky ‘13’; and more. things that shout and ring door- Bertinet, Dan Lepard and Andrew bells and ride their bicycles on To the London dweller, Whitley are media stars, while the pavements. the approach of All home bakers exchange tips on 16| Friday Night, Saturday Morning Let me paint a picture. Most poolish and post photographs of Friday nights, there tends to Hallows’ Eve isn’t one crumb structures on Twitter with Rafe Spall’s newest role. Plus, the Journal crossword. gather below my window a knot hashtags like #breadporn. Let’s of sullen teenagers debating the of suburban coziness. hope that, unlike the sun-dried to- WSJ.com/lifeandstyle ups and downs of their love lives mato, this food trend endures. in language that would make a sailor blush. On Oct. 31, thanks to won’t join in with the spirit of Like the Dickens the importation of a charming Halloween. Giving them chocolate The approach to February’s bi- tradition from small-town Amer- only encourages them. centennial of Charles Dickens’s ica, these kids are licensed to In years past, when I lived in a birth is under way. Fine new bio- ring my doorbell. frisky area of South London, I graphical studies by Claire Tomalin Halloween trick-or-treating is simply didn’t answer the doorbell (“Charles Dickens: A Life”) and another of those trans-Atlantic co- after dark on Oct. 31, and I know I Robert Douglas-Fairhurst (“Becom- productions that—like extraordi- wasn’t the only one. It’s not un- ing Dickens”) have already come nary rendition and the “missile known, indeed, for people to out, with more in the works. Dick- shield”—plays less well in the U.K. cower at home with the lights off ens-mania is expected in public than in the country that thought it and their heads below the level of spaces, museums, theaters and the up. Think of trick-or-treating in the the windows in the hopes trick-or- small screen. It makes me wonder: American context and you think of treaters will think that they’re out Is there any writer of equivalent Barbara Tina Fuhr Editor Carlos Tovar Art Director Charlie Brown and Linus, or of E.T. and be reluctant to waste a dog’s stature whose direct influence is so Beth Schepens Deputy Editor Elisabeth Limber Weekend Art Director waddling around in a sheet. egg on the letterbox. little felt in the literary culture of Brian M. Carney Books Page Editor To the London dweller, though, Heigh ho. But that’s life. As today? We have many Dickensians, the approach of All Hallows’ Eve long as they keep egging our but oddly few Dickensian writers. Questions or comments? Write to [email protected]. isn’t one of suburban coziness. It houses, we’ll keep soaking their —Next week, Please include your full name and address. heralds, rather, an epidemic of 8- Haribos in Tabasco. Francis X. Rocca in Rome Friday - Sunday, October 28 - 30, 2011 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. W3 LUXURY A French Perfumer’s Seductive Sense Jean-Claude Ellena Reveals What His Nose Knows, Applying a Haiku Approach to Puzzling Out Scents BY LANIE GOODMAN the perfumer’s own experience, fume, Mr. Ellena smiles. “Perform- which will be released in English ance,” he says, “is a very American dor is a word, perfume is next month as “Perfume: The Al- concept. If you can measure the es- “O literature,” Jean-Claude chemy of Scent” (Arcades Publish- thetic value of a product, and smell Ellena, the official in- ing), he longed to write something it from 20 meters away, then it’s a house perfumer for Hermès since “more literary,” he says. success. Another concern is a per- 2004 and possibly the most adven- Based on a year’s worth of notes fume’s tenacity, which can also be turous, unconventional nose in from the author’s notebook, his measured in time. For me, elegance France, writes in his new book. “Journal d’un Parfumeur” aims to se- is defined by discretion—not invad- “Journal d’un Parfumeur,” which duce. His goal, he says, was to con- ing the space of your neighbor.” was published in May by Sabine vey that perfume formulas aren’t like Mr. Ellena pauses, gazing at the Wespieser, explores the conundrums food recipes, measured in liters and distant Mediterranean. “There’s a of his profession with the delicacy pinches, but more like haiku. wonderful quote by Provençal writer of an olfactory poet. “In the past, perfume creators Jean Giono, who says: ‘I love to look Mr. Ellena, whose father was a didn’t communicate about what they behind the air.’ That’s what I try to perfumer in Grasse, began training were doing—it was an open secret,” do—go behind the obvious. You have as an apprentice in a local perfumer says perfume expert Jean Kerléo, to bring people’s noses a little further factory in 1964 when he was 17 years who was Patou’s chief “nose” for 35 than what they see to sense what is old. After four decades of working in years, and is now the founding presi- happening somewhere else. You enter Paris and New York with multina- dent of the perfume museum Os- the scent and follow the path.” tional companies, and creating more mothèque in Versailles. “In his book, than 100 fragrances, including Van Jean-Claude Ellena lays his cards on Cleef & Arpels’s First, Cartier’s Dec- table, and you’re sometimes sur- laration, Bulgari’s Eau Parfumée au prised. He represents a new way of Thé Vert, he is exactly where he crafting fragrances today that is wants to be: hidden away in a forest reminiscent of the early days when ) in Cabris, a tiny hilltop village in the perfumes like Shalimar, Arpège and r tranquil Riviera back-country near Joy were a luxury, made with heavy, cove k Grasse in the south of France. expensive, pure extracts, not eau de (boo He composes fragrances at his toilette. Jean-Claude is always look- r teu own pace in his private lab, housed ing for something very particular, i éd in a contemporary split-level glass- but his perfumes remain a mystery.” r ese walled villa that was custom-built Since abstract ideas are hard to i for him by Hermès. Dressed in khaki talk about (“How do you talk about e Wesp pants and a crisp white shirt, Mr. this…? he sniffs demonstratively in in Ellena leads the way past his of- the air), Mr. Ellena offers an example ;Sab x fice—a long table with sharpened of the difficulties he sometimes en- tou r pencils where he ponders his mathe- counters.