The cook and the film-maker, who struck up a friendship on Twitter, discuss aesthetics, watching and being watched, and the benefits of ageing
Mark Cousins and Nigella Lawson seem, at first, an unlikely pairing. He is an author and film-maker from Northern Ireland, based in Edinburgh, who makes enraptured documentaries about the wonders of cinema. She is one of the most recognisable faces in the food world, a cookery writer and broadcaster who, with each new offering, seals her status as a national treasure.
Looking closer, their friendship – and it’s a relatively recent one, conducted mainly via Twitter – begins to make sense. Cousins approaches everything he sees with unbridled enthusiasm and a sense of almost childlike awe, to which Lawson clearly responds. She shares his love of the movies, particularly Italian cinema, while he is evidently a great fan of her TV work, declaring it “more noticeably aesthetic, more into imagery and feel, than many” food shows. And they are both fascinated by visual allure – its pleasures and many pitfalls.
