Cartier jewels and Basque food at Alta

With a lunchtime restaurant reservation but an otherwise free day, we decided to head over to the V&A and see the Cartier exhibition there. We’ve been members at the V&A for a little while now so get in to the exhibitions for ‘free’ but do need to make sure that we do actually make the effort to go every now and again in order to really make the most of the membership.

It took some convincing to get my husband to go. He finds things like this – ostentatious displays of money – completely offensive. But I managed to get him to agree to come with me (otherwise I’d have just visited at some point without him). He also agreed to limit his complaining about it to one pre-entry grumble. Win.

There are a lot of beautiful pieces to see in the exhibition, ranging from brooches and earrings through to larger tiaras and necklaces. I must admit that it did all seem a bit superficial though, relying on the shiny pretty things to carry the weight of the exhibition, rather than much substance. There was a room that grouped pieces by their geographic inspirations, and a room where they showed a video that illustrated some of the craftsmanship that goes into making a panther brooch, but beyond that it was all glitz and no depth.

Some of the most interesting pieces – an articulated snake necklace and the mystery clocks (minimalist timekeeping masterpieces) – were staged as if they were major objects but they suffered from a lack of information and context about what made them so interesting and worthy of display, beyond of course, being pretty. I wanted to know more about the mechanics.

Perhaps most interesting was reading the labels as to who owns or had owned the pieces. Although many came from the Cartier collection, many were in private ownership, some from the Royal Family or other posh titled folk, but some came from surprising sources, like Freddie Mercury’s sister. Although historical pieces were well-represented, there was little that was particularly modern, which is where the story of who has the money to commission pieces all gets a little murkier.

Nevertheless, my favourite piece was probably not a tiara, although the one above was the one I liked best. That title has to go to the piece below. I have no idea what it is, but it reminds me of Leonardo the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

After a morning of shiny objects we headed over to Soho where we had a reservation for the soft launch of new Basque restaurant, Alta. Tucked away in Kingly Court, Alta is the brainchild of chef Rob Roy Cameron, who brings international experience from working at renowned establishments including El Bulli, and it focuses on Basque-influenced cooking methods.

Spread over two storeys, downstairs has a cosier vibe with open kitchen area, whereas upstairs is lighter and more airy and includes a private dining area.

We took full advantage of the soft launch to try a number of dishes from the menu.

We started with the snacky section and wild farm flour sourdough bread and salted butter, and house pickles (a variety of veg including picked radishes, carrots, onions and a pepper).

We then moved on to the small plates section which we hit pretty hard. Our first dish was the colourful and beautifully presented smoked mackerel with ramsen capers and PX vinegar. I usually avoid mackerel and I often find it too fishy of a fish for me, but the fishy-ness here was actually super subtle.

When the sardine empanada was placed on the tables I almost saw my husband’s soul leave his body. Although he’s pescatarian, he doesn’t really usually go for anything that still has a head and when he saw this I’m pretty sure we both imagined that tucked just under the pastry was the whole body of the sardine. In actual fact the head and tail are just for presentation purposes and inside was more what you would imagine from an empanada.

We also had the house txistora – little Basque sausages like a softer chorizo.