1+1+1 for 365, day 23: Ode to a cook book

TODAY'S QUOTE
“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” Harriet van Horne

TODAY'S BOOK
Kook en Geniet (Cook and Enjoy It) - S J A de Villiers

I would have included this book anyway at some stage, but decided to talk about it today as a small tribute to its author, Mrs SJA de Villiers, who passed away 2 days ago at the age of 91.

Kook en Geniet was my first cook book.  It was a book prize at school (for doing well in Biology, no  less!) and I was only too happy to have a copy of it, since it had been more or less the standard cook book in the country for a long time already by the time I received a copy of its 22nd impressum. It is illustrated by only four colour photographs - the rest, although numerous, are in black and white and if one looks at them today, the table settings and other items also tell quite a lot about of the interior decoration and style of the times.

Mrs De Villiers did indeed, teach the nation to cook.  She published the first edition herself in 1951 when she could not find a commercial publisher at the time - yet another one of those lessons to all of those who have had to suffer numerous rejection slips, and also to publishers who sometimes do not know a good thing when they see it.

The first English edition was published in 1961.  Revised editions followed and the two language versions together are now published, in a modern format with colour photographs and contemporary design (since 1990) by Human & Rousseau.  In total Kook en Geniet and Cook and Enjoy It have sold more than a million copies.  A copy (sometimes more than one copy from different editions) can be found in households all over the country: it is indeed the classic and standard South African cook book, although numerous other excellent titles have appeared over the years and still more are being published every year.

What Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861), The Joy of Cooking (1931) by Irma Rombauer or Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) by Julia Child had done elsewhere, Mrs De Villiers did for us in South Africa 60 years ago.  It combined advice, information on methods and  recipes for all occasions. Most recipes were easy-to-follow if not always easy-to-make.  Even today it is the first place where I look if someone wants to know how to make some traditional recipe like bobotie or melktert or souskluitjies.

I am no gourmet chef although I like cooking. I still cook from Kook en Geniet today.  My copy lost its cover during one of my house moves, but it contains cuttings with recipes from magazines and quite a few pages bear the proof that it has been well-used in my kitchens over the years.  It travelled with me when I lived overseas and still has pride of place on my shelf although it has been joined by various other cook books from all over the world. 

Some of the dishes I have attempted by using Kook en Geniet have earned the praises from guests. Sometimes things flopped. But that has not been because of anything that Mrs De Villiers did not make clear.  It has been mainly because I did not follow the instructions or tried to vary the recipes too much with my own ideas about what ingredient could be replaced by something else...


TODAY'S PICTURE

Like the rest of our homes, the things we treasure
 in our kitchens tell something about who we are.

Picture & text: © Lee Labuschagne - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED