Dish / Carolyn Faye Fox

A first tome from a top local toque

Hughes hammers out pieces at

Ore, her new South End shop.

Heavy Metal

Ore
80 Dartmouth St., Boston
(617-247-7426) storeore.com

Jewelry artist Sophie Hughes vintage hammers will never touch the head of a nail. Thats
because when this 27-year-old Maine native buys hammers, the texture of the steel, not the
strength of the tool, is what shes really looking for. I have one Ace Hardware hammer and that
can hit nails, but it would never hit my silver, Hughes says.
Her designs of distressed silver and gold can be found at her new South End shop, Ore,
which opened in November, stocking her full line as well as a selection of accessories from
other local designers. Hughes pieces are all created in her studio, located on the second floor
of the shop. Torches, pliers, files and anvils surround her wooden workspace, but the hammers are her favorites.
She uses those hammers and her antique anvil to lend a rough texture to most of her
bracelets, necklaces, earrings and rings, while the torches soften the metal when shes making more delicate chains. She also dunks silver in a patina dip, which speeds up the tarnishing, occasionally brushing away parts of the dip for an ombr effect. The pieces themselves
look kind of rugged and raw, and the smaller details balance it with a feminine aspect,
Hughes says. After building her tool kit for nearly 13 years, she has a Vulcan-level comfort
around metal and flamecustomers might even see her torching silver while chatting on
the phone. / Hannah Sheinberg

Spitting Image
The forthcoming Seaport restaurant expected to
be known as M.C. Medici will henceforth be called
M.C. Spiedo. Thats the word from a rep for
Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier, the James Beard
Award-winning chefs famous for Arrows Restaurant in Maine. Spiedo means spit or skewer
in Italian, and a 40-inch steel spit will be used to
roast locally sourced meats and poultry at the Italian-themed restaurant, slated to open in February
at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.

H e a v y M e ta l p hotography: Ho lly Rike; ha ir: STACY xiong / viselli san toro Sa lon ;
makeuP: lauren leach / viselli santoro salon; sty ling: re nata certo-ware; wardrobe: cy nthia rowley dress

an open book: Chef Daniel Bruce

B o s t o n i a n

ig-name chefs often have big

egos to matchor sometimes
exceedtheir reputations. Not
Daniel Bruce. The longtime executive chef of the Boston Harbor
Hotel and founder of the Boston Wine
Festival, Bruce has an endearing low-key persona. Maybe thats attributable to his upbringing in a series of rural New England settings.
It certainly lends an appealing quality to his
first cookbook, Simply New England. Its
recipes are proudly regionally based, with
entries like pumpkin Indian pudding and fiddlehead and green onion soup, and they often
feature a family angle, from Nana S.s fall-offthe-bone crockpot chicken to a meatless red
flannel hash Bruce created for his vegetarian
daughter.
Bruce includes marquee dishes such as
grilled prime filet with horseradish sauce and
red wine syrupa signature at the hotels Meritage restaurant for more than a decadeand
48-hour fennel-cured salmon. But the real
attractions of the book, which was written with
former Boston Herald food critic Mat Schaffer, are, as the title suggests, simple preparations: molasses barbecued chicken, easy Maine
potato and chive cakes, even recipes for meatloaf, tapioca pudding and perfectly fluffy pancakes. (Bruce is no food snob: His favorite
chicken recipe is enhanced with onion soup mix
by his nana, although he refrains from using
that ingredient in the entry.) And there are tips,
stories and a selection of soups to keep you happily busy in the kitchen all winter. In short, this
ones a keeper.

I m p r o p e r

bruce books it
tools of the trade: Sophie

T h e

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