We spoke to Jo Davda (left), the lead ceramist behind Brickett Davda, to discuss the inspiration behind the workshop's beautiful line of tableware. Their colours take cues from what the company calls 'a very English palette'—the calm, misty tones of the Sussex coast. Every piece is handmade in Brighton and enhances the joy of eating at home, with a group of friends or for a cosy morning breakfast alone.

Jo Davda has created bespoke pieces for the likes of Ralph Lauren and an anniversary collection for the legendary Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California. You may have come across Brickett Davda dishes in the cookbooks of Anna Jones, Jamie Oliver, Sophie Dahl, Bill Granger, and Gordon Ramsay.

Susan from our Borough store fell in love with these dishes when she lifted one and noticed how comfortable and light it was to hold, which is a remarkable feat for natural earthenware clay. 

What’s the inspiration behind Brickett Davda?

As a child, I spent a lot of time with my father in his garage, watching him make furniture for our home. He had expensive taste but little money, so he built versions of the modern furniture of the time (1960s and 1970s). This spawned the functional-creative side of me, and though I studied painting at art college, I realised it was the making of functional pieces that really inspires me.

How did you come to work with ceramics?

My brother, who spent two years in Italy working on traditional pottery, introduced clay into my world. We were living on a farm at the time and I made moulds from any discarded vessels I found in the old milking sheds and outbuildings. Slowly I began to hone down these shapes into more functional and simplistic forms, and so started building a tableware collection and there it was, I was in love with clay!

 

What do you want every Borough Kitchen shopper to know about your company?

I would like the Borough Kitchen shopper to know that at the heart of our making process is the food that is served, shared and eaten from the pieces. That's our aim, to enhance that wonderful experience of cooking and eating.

Name a kitchen tool you can't live without, and one that you *could* live without but don't want to?

I couldn’t live without my Japanese chef’s knife, used daily and loved. I would, but don’t want to, live without the pressure cooker, which makes delicious food in a quarter of the time for those busy moments.

Unexpected guests are arriving on Saturday. What's on your table?

A platter or two of tomato and basil bruschetta and some small bowls of olives to keep the unexpected guests happy, whilst preparing a large bowl of Spaghetti Vongole made with local clams, accompanied by crisp dry white local Sussex wine (our favourites are the Rathfinny sparkling wines).

Shop Brickett Davda ceramics here.