Home on the Range

HOME
ON
THERANGE
BY DORIS ATHINEOS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANCES JANISCH PRODUCED BY HILLARY MAHARAM
Chef Stephanie Sokolove celebrates haute home-cooking and
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feel-good decorating at her Boston-area home overlooking Crystal Lake.
Stephanie Sokolove:
seasoned chef (loves comfort food),
devoted mom, gadget guru, fabric fiend
When Boston chef Stephanie Sokolove invites friends and family for Thanksgiving, they gather around the La Cornue range,
not a Steinway baby grand. And no wonder. Stephanie’s 900square-foot kitchen functions like an entertainment center,
where guests get giddy inhaling the rich smells of roasted turkey,
fresh-baked apple pies,and pecan rolls rising from several ovens.
Dressed in chef whites, Stephanie horses around with daughter Madeleine, 7, in the kitchen, but a Henckel’s knife block on
the countertop means serious business. Disciplined and ambitious, Stephanie doesn’t play with her food. Much admired for
her Back Bay “comfort-food” eatery—Stephanie’s—the restaurateur calls her kitchen the heart of her home in the nearby suburb of Newton. If so, the heart races like a champion athlete.
Something’s always cooking in Stephanie’s kitchen, which is
chock-full of useful equipment.She rolls out dough with a crimson silicone rolling pin that’s not only functional (“It doesn’t
stick”) but is attractive dusted in flour or resting on the marble
counter.The “silly pin” hints at her romantic side: She loves the
color red, toile de Jouy, antique linens, and Staffordshire pottery.
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Boston chef Stephanie
Sokolove craved a soft,
rounded sofa dressed in
feel-good velvet and
trimmed in flirty fringe and
tassels. Top left: Striking
Scalamandré quail-pattern
pillows atop the Knole sofa
inspired the color palette
for the entire house.
AMONG STEPHANIE’S FAVORITE THINGS ARE THE COLOR RED,
Right: Muralist Patricia Trapp
created the illusion of space in
a windowless dining room. The
Gustavian-style side chairs look
antique but are actually
reproductions by Charles Pollack.
Whimsical chandeliers sparkle
against a backdrop of blue-andwhite Staffordshire pottery. The
effect is veddy, veddy English.
Above: Boston Designer Nancy
McLaughlin continued the quail
motif with a custom-designed
area carpet behind the bar stools.
Above: Restless restaurateur
Stephanie Sokolove enjoys
Thanksgiving dinner in the
company of friends and family.
The golden turkey is trimmed with
cranberries and served on one of
her antique Staffordshire platters.
Left and right: Daughters
Madeleine (called “Maddie”), 7,
and older sister Courtney eagerly
anticipate the family’s holiday
meal extravaganza.
TOILE DE JOUY, ANTIQUE LINENS, AND STAFFORDSHIRE POTTERY.
NOVEMBER 2005
TRADITIONAL HOME
207
The kitchen is where she holds court. Positioned behind the
vault-like La Cornue range, she faces the room, not a wall. From
behind the free-standing island, she easily chats with family and
friends as she stirs. And unlike most homeowners, Stephanie
knows her appliances by their designer names and can recite the
faults and virtues of each, like a teacher reporting on an errant
child. She heats up with a Blodgett convection oven, Jade grill,
La Cornue rotisserie (“my favorite thing in the kitchen”), Fryolater, Groen steam kettle, and a café-style Miele cappuccino
maker built into the wall. She cools down with a see-through
Traulsen fridge (“I like the way it chills”) and Sub-Zero refrigerated drawers.“I live in the kitchen,” she says.
You would expect nothing less from the devoted daughter
of Boston banker Jack Sidell, who helped bankroll early Boston
culinary stars Jasper White,Todd English,and Tony Ambrose.“My
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dad comes into the restaurant every day for lunch,”says Stephanie
with a wide smile. But she earned her toque the hard way. She
trained with the demanding Paris-born Madeleine Kamman,
who ran a cooking school, Modern Gourmet, in Newton. (“I
learned tricks—like not to overwork the pastry dough.”)
Stephanie then co-launched a catering business, Sidell and Sassy,
in 1980 before opening Stephanie’s on Newbury in 1994.
Stephanie’s mother, lawyer Barbara Sidell, isn’t a foodie, but
she did introduce chef Stephanie to her favorite dish—Staffordshire, a type of pottery made in England in the 18th century.
“I’m definitely my mother’s daughter,” laughs Stephanie, who
now owns hundreds of Staffordshire plates.
At home with husband James Sokolove, daughter Maddie,
and two grown daughters, Courtney and Lindsey, who occasionally spend the night, Stephanie says she likes to relax. “But
Left: Chef Stephanie reigns
supreme in her dream
kitchen, which includes a
glass-doored refrigerator and
a café-style cappuccino
maker built into the wall,
and textural limestone floor.
Right: Husband James
Sokolove and Madeleine give
rave reviews to Stephanie’s
haute home cooking.
Right: Stephanie has clear views
of Boston’s Crystal Lake from
her three kitchen windows.
Below: The kitchen functions as
an entertainment center where
Stephanie is the star. Positioned
behind the La Cornue range,
she faces her audience,
comfortably perched on Frenchcountry style chairs. An array
of antique blue-and-white
Staffordshire platters ring the
room near the ceiling.
sweet charity begins at home
Chef Stephanie raises dough twice a year for the Starlight
Starbright Children's Foundation (www.starlight.org), a
charity co-founded by film director Steven Spielberg to
provide entertainment for seriously ill children.
Stephanie aids ailing kids by cooking up a storm. Last
May, she invited 28 well-heeled women to fork over $250
each for a master cooking class. Inside her cavernous
kitchen, guests crowded around the La Cornue range with
double ovens (gas for meat, drier electric heat for baking)
and caressed the Clive Christian cabinets. The chef admits
that the evening is less about chop-chop and more about
sip-sip with free-flowing California Bordeaux (Joseph
Phelps’s Insignia) and a uniformed wait staff. “It’s cooking
as entertainment,” says Stephanie, who performs on a
picture-perfect stage—a 400-square-foot, teak-topped
cooking island where the La Cornue range faces the room
so she can address her audience.
But charity doesn’t end at home. Stephanie and
daughters Courtney and Madeleine decorated holiday
cookies with young patients at Massachusetts General last
December and plan to spread smiles and sprinkles again
this year. The trio gives new meaning to hospital food while
the Starlight Foundation sends in the clowns. “Laughter is
the best medicine for sick kids,” says Stephanie. “We have
a blast. And it feels really good to be able to give back.”
Right and below: Guests include
contractor Carl Goldberg and
Stephanie’s sister, Kathy Sidell
Trustman, a restaurateur who runs
The Metropolitan Club, a steak
house in Chestnut Hill. Dishes on
the menu include dessert pecan
rolls (Maddie’s favorite) and sweet
potatoes. Stephanie’s beloved
Staffordshire makes a splendid
display, on the table and off.
Left: Maddie lines up for seconds.
she never stops working,” laughs daughter Courtney as her highand contemporary furnishings. “I
octane mother bounds around the house like a teenager on a
wanted Maddie to feel comfortbasketball court. The couple purchased the house three years
able in every room,”says Stephanie,
ago and then asked Boston architect John MacDonald to crewhose taste ranges from antique
ate their dream house.“It was basically a complete makeover,”
linens and an heirloom baby grand
says Stephanie. “I knew I wanted shingles and a stone base.
to a silvered bronze chandelier and
Stone feels substantial and permanent; I want to stay forever.”
other goodies plucked from
Stephanie hired interior designer Nancy McLaughlin to
designer showrooms.
bring the rooms to life.“When I hired Nancy, she said,‘I don't
In the sun-drenched living
do kitchens,’ ” recalls Stephanie. “I told her not to worry—
room, Stephanie craved soft, ➤
kitchens are my thing.”
Nancy focused on the
Stephanie’s Staffordshire For Thanksgiving, serve your
rest of the house. And
friends
and family their roast turkey on 1820 British blue-and-white plates
what Stephanie had in
and
platters.
“What are you saving it for?” asks Stephanie, who began
mind was the visual
collecting
the
English imports in 1978. “My mother gave me a few plates,
equivalent of the comfort
and
I've
been
on the hunt ever since,” says the Boston chef, who cherry-picks platters in Nantucket
food that has made her
(Weeds and the Manor House), Springfield, Vermont (Bittersweet Antiques), and on eBay, among other
restaurant famous. “Defiplaces. True blue is her favorite color, but she keeps her eyes peeled for black, green, and red, too.
nitely no stuffy damask or
She has bagged several hundred plates for less than $1,000 each. ”I love big platters,” says
silk brocade,” says StephStephanie, who has forked over $2,500 for the jumbo size.
anie, but luxurious velvet
To collectors, “Staffordshire” is shorthand for earthenware decorated with printed designs, which
rubs her the right way. “I
British potters figured out how to produce about 1780. Staffordshire, however, is actually a county in
wanted warm earth tones
the Midlands, 150 miles north of London, where transferware was born. Potter Wedgwood fired up his
kilns there in the 18th century, but the surrounding six towns (most famously Stoke-on-Trent) turned
and feel-good fabrics.”
the county's hillsides into ceramics central. Check out Spode's Blue Room (www.spode.co.uk).
Her busy life dictated
the livable mix of antiques
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Architect: John MacDonald
+
Interior designer: Nancy McLaughlin
For more information, see sources on page 222.
Above: The porch is wide enough to accommodate comfortable seating.
Top left: A dramatic 15-foot ceiling contrasts with the cozy seating area
in the curvy breakfast room. Left: About the mustard-colored toile in
the bedroom, Stephanie says: “More is better.”
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PHOTOGRAPH OF BREAKFAST ROOM: SAM GRAY
rounded sofas wrapped in lush velvet and topped with squishy
pillows. Trimmed in flirty fringe and tassels, the well-dressed
sofas makes visitors sit up and take notice.“The trim is a small
touch, but it makes a big difference,” says Nancy, who tied luxury to comfort in every room.
Stephanie’s feel-good decorating requires supercharged textures and meticulous attention to detail. In the family room, a
pebbly chocolate velvet Knole sofa with a high back and sides
is supported by silk ropes and a carved oak base. The pillows
atop it are covered in a striking Scalamandré pattern of quails
and wheat sheaves, which inspired the color palette for the
entire house. “My mother used the same fabric in her Palm
Beach house,” recalls Stephanie. “It was a different colorway,
but I just love the pattern. Everything grew around the quails.”
And that’s just what Nancy had in mind.“I always start projects by asking a client to show me something they really love,”
notes Nancy, who also wrapped two club chairs in “Edwin’s
Covey” and carried the quail motif underfoot in customdesigned floor coverings in the family room and bar area.
The pièce de résistance is the adjoining dining room, where
Boston artist Patricia Trapp conjures up views of a romantic,
misty English countryside in a windowless dining room.“The
perspective creates the illusion of space,” notes Patricia, who
worked as a theatrical stage designer in Brussels for 17 years
before returning home to Boston.
Despite the gorgeous murals in the dining room, family and
friends still head straight for the kitchen when they’re through
with Thanksgiving dinner. “Food really connects us,” says
daughter Courtney.“The kitchen is where we tell stories,laugh,
and joke around.The dining room is for dinner, but the kitchen
is where my family really lives.”