Simple and Delicious Recipes from the Heart by Alida Ryder

For my publication, The Waiting Room, I included an extract out of Alida Ryder's cookbook, Simple and Delicious Recipes from the Heart, which had found it's way into our media offices.

I have to say that there is so much about the book that I like. From the size, the soft cover, the matt pages and the beautiful images that are good enough to ... (well you can't eat them) so I'll just have to say that they are good enough to feast your eyes on.

Alida's recipes are true to the title. They are simple and delicious. 

In the book you will find wonderful pasta recipes such as spaghetti and clams as well as other absolutely mouth watering savouries such as burgers with brie and peri-peri prawns which were so good that I had to share them and featured them in the recipe sections of the mag.
There are also some decadent sweet treats for tea times and coffee times and after meal times.

I like that at the beginning of the recipes she adds a little bit of a personal note that makes one feel that you are kind of being welcomed into the home of a friend who is sharing not only a meal with you, but also her passion for good food, people and life.

 Alida also writes a blog on which you can see her latest culinary endeavours which you can find at http://simply-delicious.co.za

Interview with Justine Drake

Towards the end of last month I had the opportunity of interviewing Justine Drake for Leadership magazine.

I have to mention that it was one of the easiest interviews that I've ever had to do. Apart from the fact that I'm a huge foodie and Justine is somewhat a doyenne of South African food and food publishing, the commonality of food and what it stands for was overwhelmingly more important and part of her personality so that any awkwardness that may have arisen because of my being in awe of her, was immediately swept away by her warm and engaging personality.

And as we discussed food in all its forms and representations, this is what really came to the fore: food is more or less about personality. The very idea of putting food on the table, of being a provider, not only in bringing home the bacon (so to speak) but then preparing it with love and effort and presenting it to your family and friends, is what a true foodie is all about.

This is the approach that Justine has taken in her presentation and representation of food over the years and now more especially in Fresh Living Magazine which she is the editor of and which is Pick and Pay's consumer magazine.

In addition to her magazine work Justine has published five cookbooks and produced two tv series, Just   In Africa, which was aired internationally on the BBC.

Meeting Justine reminded me that while some of us choose to base ourselves in the kitchen, we are by no means stuck there and more importantly, that the task of providing a beautiful meal for our families is by no means a menial task but something that is all-embracing and life enhancing.