All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

At home with our food editor in her historic Devon hall house

At her home in Devon, House & Garden's food editor Blanche Vaughan lives a life dictated by the rhythms of her garden and the seasonality of the produce she grows

By Emily Senior

24 October 2024

Dean Hearne

‘I'd describe my style of cooking as simple. Less is more, really focusing on the characteristics and flavours of the ingredients,’ says House & Garden’s food editor Blanche Vaughan, a chef by training who, before she became a food writer, worked in the kitchens of the Michelin-starred River Cafe, Moro, St John and Chez Panisse. As a cookbook author and editor she has developed her own style of English cuisine, merging the elegant informality of Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson with the earthy luxury of the pioneers of the farm-to-table movement like Margaret Costa, Rose Grey, Alice Waters and David Tanis. Her latest project, House & Garden’s new cookbook ‘A Year in the Kitchen’ is a compilation of recipes that have appeared in the magazine during her tenure, some written by her and some by the writers she has commissioned – a starry roster that includes Rowley Leigh and Sally Clarke. The book is divided seasonally, ‘which to me just seems the most natural way’, and is a guide to using ingredients when they are at their best.

‘It's almost a diary of all the stuff that I make at home for my friends or my family. It's very authentic. The most pleasurable aspect of cooking for me is just going out into the garden, seeing what's growing and coming up with an idea of how to prepare it,’ she says. ‘When I cook I’m trying to improve the ingredients, rather than turn them into something entirely different.’

The approach is not dissimilar to the one she has adopted at the home she shares with her husband, the art dealer, Hugo De Ferranti, and their seven-year-old daughter Alba. The house (featured in House & Garden in 2007) was Hugo’s home first. A hall house in Devon with spectacular views over Dartmoor, it is mentioned in the Domesday book, with walls of cob (an ancient West Country building material made of clay mixed with straw) and a thatched roof. The earliest records of a dwelling on the land date back to the 15th century. A large extension was added later in the 20th century, which now houses the living room and above, Blanche and Hugo’s bedroom.

The sitting room in the newer part of the house was originally furnished by Robert Kime. Later Hugo's friend Camilla Guinness repainted the walls in Oxblood distemper and added bookshelves, a log store and berber rugs. The sofas, chairs, ottoman and upholstery fabrics are from Robert Kime.

Dean Hearne

The house had been a labour of love for Hugo, carried out over two decades. Two big name decorators had already had a hand in its design before Blanche moved in. The late Robert Kime, a friend, assisted with the layout, furniture and lighting. Robert sourced the bed in the main bedroom, a copy of a Lutyens design, and the Moroccan lantern that hangs in the lightwell of the staircase. In the sitting room the sofa, ottoman and fabrics are all recognisably his.

Next came Camilla Guinness, who ‘cosied the place up,’ repainting the sitting room, adding bookcases, rehanging pictures and adding a new layer of fabrics, rugs and comfortable places to sit. The keystone of the house of course is Hugo’s rotating gallery of artworks. ‘Things come and go,’ laughs Blanche, indicating the framed flag over the fireplace, plugging the gap left by a painting recently sold. In the living room alone hangs a Grayson Perry, a Lucian Freud, a Peter Blake, and two botanical pictures by Endellion Lycett Green.

(left) A portrait of a woman by Ishbel Myerscough hangs next to an Andy Pankhurst (right)

Dean Hearne

In the snug, the botanical art is grouped together. On the wall at the end of the room hangs a Sarah Graham, and Ishbel Myerscough and a Nestor Fitzgerald.

Dean Hearne

Blanche has gently added her own taste to the mix, papering the snug in a green grasscloth by the designer Totty Lowther, and turning the veranda into a conservatory with a table for informal dining. Blanche’s kitchen is warm and unfussy. She isn’t the kind of cook who goes in for gadgets, her only concession being the KitchenAid and her bean-to-cup coffee machine. The most important part of the room is her larder; ‘I like food stored at larder rather than fridge temperature and space to put the juices, jams and preserves that we make from the garden.’ There is also honey produced by the couple’s bees, with leftover wax being turned into handmade candles (‘Unbelievably time consuming to make, but they smell absolutely delicious’). But her most impactful changes have been in the garden, now lined with borders newly replanted by the garden designer Catherine Fitzgerald, with an extensive vegetable garden, greenhouses and an orangery currently under construction. The views from the house over Dartmoor are staggering, the lawn rolling straight on to a panorama of moorland and sky and no other buildings as far as the eye can see.

Tom Griffiths

'I first visited with a friend of mine after an agricultural show that goes on a couple of fields away every August. I met Hugo for the first time and he invited us for tea here afterwards. It wasn’t his good looks or humour I fell for. It was the fact he knew how to decorate a house! I immediately loved this area, how rural it still is. But apart from the farming there's an artisan side. Lots of local people are making delicious food, growing or crafting wonderful things. There is a great sense of creative energy here as well as beauty.'

House & Garden: A Year in the Kitchen

~~£35~~ £26 at Amazon

Dean Hearne
1/37
The sitting room in the newer part of the house was originally furnished by Robert Kime. Later Hugo's friend Camilla Guinness repainted the walls in Oxblood distemper and added bookshelves, a log store and berber rugs. The sofas, chairs, ottoman and upholstery fabrics are from Robert Kime.
Dean Hearne
2/37
Above the fireplace hangs a framed Chinese early Red Cross Siege flag from the Boxer Rising.
Dean Hearne
3/37
On the other side of the room a Grayson Perry hangs above a sofa from Robert Kime.
Dean Hearne
4/37
A Lucien Freud etching hangs above a vintage Ferranti record player.

Dean Hearne
5/37
In the dining room Robert Kime sourced the antler sconces. The painting was a gift to Hugo from Karl Lagerfeld. The old refectory table is from Robert Kime, the chairs are from Christopher Hodsall. The side table is from James Graham Stuart.
Dean Hearne
6/37
The egg lights are from Christopher Hodsoll. The antler mirror was sourced from Guinevere.
Dean Hearne
7/37
The conservatory is a new addition to the house, constructed in a space that was formerly a veranda. The campaign chair is from Christopher Hodsoll, the rug is from Oka
Dean Hearne
8/37
The table cloth is Bertioli from Thyme England.

Dean Hearne
9/37
The downstairs bathroom walls are hung with old family photos and memorabilia.
Dean Hearne
10/37
Blanche had the tips of the antlers that hang on the wall of the hall gilded. In the hall a bust of Hugo’s great grandfather, Dr Sebastian de Ferranti sits under a table.
Dean Hearne
11/37
The mirror was bought from the Emma Hawkins sale at Sotheby's. The lilies were grown in the garden.
Dean Hearne
12/37
The blue Aga was a remnant from the previous owners. Above hangs Blanche’s collection of antique copper pans, some from Paris, some from Bailey's Home Store in Ross-on-wye.

Dean Hearne
13/37
The kitchen sink is from Howe.
Dean Hearne
14/37
The blue chair was inherited from Hugo’s father's house, Henbury Hall. Above the sofa amongst the botanical paintings hangs a small landscape by Walter Sickert.
\
Dean Hearne
15/37
A jug from Matilda Goad is filled with flowers cut from the garden.
Dean Hearne
16/37
In Blanche's daughter Alba's playroom a set of Grayson Perry prints dominate a wall.

Dean Hearne
17/37
The bed in the main bedroom was sourced by Robert Kime and is a copy of a Lutyens design.
Dean Hearne
18/37
The fireplace is original.
Dean Hearne
19/37
The bathroom window looks out over Dartmoor.
Dean Hearne
20/37
In Alba's bedroom is Hugo's grandfather's childhood bed re upholstered by David Mlinaric who decorated Henbury Hall. On the wall is an Elliott Puckett silhouette of Alba.

Dean Hearne
21/37
In this bedroom green wall in a colour by Papers & Paints is a foil for the red bed tester in a fabric by Katherine Ireland.
Dean Hearne
22/37
In the hall hangs a botanical painting by Endellion Lycett Green and a large moth by Sarah Graham. The lantern is from Robert Kime.\
Dean Hearne
23/37
The pictures are by Sarah Graham.
Dean Hearne
24/37

Dean Hearne
25/37
Dean Hearne
26/37
In this bedroom ‘Greville Pink' by Papers and Paints has been used on the walls. The bed tester is in a fabric by Soane.
Dean Hearne
27/37
The borders were replanted by Catherine Fitzgerald.
Dean Hearne
28/37
On what was a grass tennis court Hugo and Blanche have added a pond and fountain with Antony Gormley bollard sculptures.