Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Interview

Words of Wisdom: An interview with Diana Henry

“You don’t go looking for your passions. They find you.” 

This advice was given to me recently by Diana Henry, author of ten cookery books including the brilliantly named ‘Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons’ and equally enchanting ‘Roast Figs Sugar Snow.’

I’ve always been a keen collector of cookery books myself, but since starting my food blog, my cookery book collection has exploded. I’ve long admired Diana’s work, so I was delighted when, in response to my request for an interview, she emailed me back herself and invited me to her house for a cup of tea and a chat.

Stepping into Diana’s vast, open plan kitchen and seeing the light pour in onto her floor-to-ceiling colossal collection of cookery books, I felt like a fifteen-year-old with a backstage pass to see their pop idol. Diana was so welcoming, down-to-earth, straight-talking and funny. It was just like sitting down with a friend you’ve known for years.

Diana Henry’s stunning kitchen and cookery book collection

Diana is something of a household name in the UK through her brilliantly written columns in The Sunday Telegraph’s Stella Magazine, Red Magazine, House and Garden and Country Living. She pursues unusual ingredients and exotic flavours, with recipes being sewn together with stories from near and far, to create an “otherworldly” food experience.

“I like dishes that have a story behind them, that are called something unusual. Food is not just food; it has a context in our lives. I love the way that it’s not just a plate of things that’s going to taste good or give you energy – it’s a connection. I’m big into connections.”

Persian Rice from Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons

The other side to Diana is much simpler, with seasonality often taking centre stage. Great puddings, straight-forward suppers and pub classics, as can be seen by her recipes in ‘Food from Plenty’, ‘Cook Simple’ and her popular two ‘gastro-pub’ cook books.  Diana’s cookery books have all been published by Octopus Press, an imprint of Mitchell Beazley.

Her next book, ‘Salt, Sugar, Smoke’, due to be published in October 2012, is all about the art of preserving, including fruits and vegetables, jams and chutneys, and as usual, is bang on the money. Diana showed me a sneak peak of her recipes and photographs and if I were the betting kind, I’d say her newest book will be her best.

Her dedication to her work is quite astounding. She works very methodically, usually spending a couple of days writing and then a couple of days cooking, finding that the two disciplines require a different pace.

“I love cooking, but I love writing just as much. I spend ages refining and going over things, tinkering with them and changing things. I love that thing of trying to get a balance in your writing but also it has its internal rhythm. I’m better at it now, but you do have to learn to write to length. It takes a while to establish your own voice. I think now I write with more humour and I suppose over the time I’ve written it’s become a bit more elegant, if you like.  I put a lot of myself into my books and I just want them to be warm and human.”

Diana is definitely warm and human and her own cookery books really do reflect her character. She plans her mini-breaks around the best places to eat; seeking out local mills or the best tea shops and has, for as long as she remembers, always taken a notebook with her to record things she’d like to try out at home. She will leave no stone unturned in her quest for good food and will often go more than the extra mile:

“Once, I made my husband drive miles out of our way in America to eat a doughnut! There was this doughnut place in Vermont, we weren’t even in Vermont – we were in Massachusetts  – and I made him drive all the way there because I’d read this description in a magazine. They were fab doughnuts though!”

Her earliest food influencers were her mother, grannies and aunts in Ireland, with her earliest food memory being her mum bringing wheaten bread out of the oven as she was sitting up on the counter:

“She’d take it out and as soon as it was cool enough to handle would cut me a slice and put my aunt’s raspberry jam on it. I can remember sitting there and eating it as if it were yesterday.”

She remembers cooking from the age of six, sending her mum out to buy complicated ingredients, allowing to her to experimentally make ‘ice cream terrines’ and ‘guinea fowl in puff pastry’ – “Stuff you’d never make now!”

Middle Eastern Orange Cake

Diana left Ireland to read English at Oxford, venturing out to Raymond’s ‘Le Petit Blanc’ for a meal she still remembers and reading ‘Le Manoir’s’ menu from outside the walled driveway on misty nights. She went on to be a successful television producer, until she started a family and realised that she just didn’t enjoy leaving her child with a nanny.

Turning to food writing as a second career alongside being a busy mum, Diana has become hugely successful, gaining accolades from The Guild of Food Writers, twice including “Cookery Writer of the Year.” Despite this, she is incredibly laid back about it all:

“You know, you have a hobby that turns into this thing, where you get paid to do something wonderful. That’s not to say that when I’m going through the bins at 2 o’clock in the morning, trying to work out how many eggs I’ve put into something by counting eggs shells, I don’t think, “Oh my goodness, why do I do this?” And the worst thing about my job is the washing up – I do loads of it!”

She has always had a great love of fiction and prose, ‘The Arabian Nights’ and ‘The Little House on the Prairie’ inspiring her first two cookery book titles. At the moment, she is quite taken by the well-constructed writing of New Yorker Adam Gopnik, author of ‘The Table Comes First’.

Of course, Diana is also influenced by other cultures, travelling, “though not massively,” but “sucking it all in” whenever she does. She often collects cookery books from abroad, even though she can’t read them, just for their pictures or design. All the cookery books across all the floors in her house, including all the great classics, (she estimates 4,000!) are categorised by country and subject.

As well as solidly producing best-selling cookery books and writing her columns, Diana also manages a very busy home.  In their newly refurbished home with her partner Ben, they are now a family of seven, all with individual needs and demands. There are often mountains of food left over from shoots, but despite this, there is never anything the kids want to eat. Are they fussy eaters, I wondered?

“They are very aware about additives and they wouldn’t eat a ready meal. I cook every day, but there are some days that I will cook something plain. I think cooking for kids is really hard. The dishes that they love are pretty time consuming, like lasagne. When I make a lasagne I feel like a need to go and have a lie-down! I mean, that’s definitely a request dish!”

Although Diana is a solid household name when it comes to food writing for traditional publications, Diana actually has a quite a private existence, shying away from blogging, websites and Twitter:

“I just don’t think I have a big enough ego to do Tweeting, or stuff like that. It might be my age, but I think “Why would anybody care what I’ve done of an afternoon?!”

I asked Diana what she thinks about the explosion of food blogs and whether she reads any:

“I do read some blogs and think, my goodness; they’re even more passionate about food than me! I think it’s great that people care so much about their food that they cook it and photograph it. I mean, I’d probably be doing that now, if the internet had been around when I was in my teens.

I was also interested to know how she felt about bloggers adapting her recipes:

“I see stuff all the time on other people’s blogs that’s mine and I take it as a compliment. I’ve no idea whether they’ve looked for permission or not; I don’t really care as long as they’ve said it’s mine. I think with cooking there’s nothing new under the sun. There’s only one way to make a Victoria Sandwich.”

If she had any advice to food bloggers, it would be to “cut to the chase”:

“People have limited time and most new writers and bloggers could use a good Editor! It’s very important to learn how to write to length, to keep things brief and succinct and to write about only the things that you are really inspired by.”

What struck me most about Diana Henry was that she doesn’t separate herself from food or from her food writing; it is always there, it is part of her life and part of who she is. Perhaps that is what makes her stand out; there is no pretence, just good, honest, food.

Above all, I think Diana made me realise that having a passion, whether it is for food or anything else, is a really rare thing, to be nurtured, followed and embraced!

 

Diana’s first two cookery books have recently been re-published by Octopus Press, due to a continued demand for them. 

Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons – Enchanting Dishes from the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa RRP £15.00

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow – Food to Warm the Soul RRP £15.00

Salt, Sugar, Smoke (10 Oct 2012)

All published by Octopus Press/Mitchell Beazley

An Interview with Sarah Cook from BBC Good Food Magazine and Top Tips for Food Styling

Yesterday, I wrote about the Food Styling course I took at Leiths School of Food and Wine with Sarah Cook from BBC Good Food Magazine. There were lots of lovely comments (thank you!) including a link to another lovely student’s Blueberry and Vanilla Cake, which is very much worth checking out.

Following the course, I was able to have  a chat with Sarah about her journey into Food Styling, as well as picking out some of the ‘top tips’ I gleaned from the course for budding food bloggers wanting to improve their skills.

Sarah Cook, Deputy Food Editor, BBC Good Food and Food Styling Course Tutor

There are lots of routes into Food Styling, but Sarah styled her first recipe about five years ago, jumping right in at the deep end after taking a Professional Food Diploma at Leiths School of Food and Wine.

“I won a six-month internship at Good Food Magazine after taking a course at Leiths, so now that I am teaching there I have come full circle! I think the best and easiest way to start is by styling your own recipes because you have a very clear vision of how you want them to look when you write them. It’s also a great way to build confidence before you begin styling anyone’s and everything!”

As to the qualifications and skills required of a Food Stylist, Sarah is Leiths qualified. Having said that, not everyone has a chef’s background, but it is helpful:

“If a recipe suddenly fails on a shoot I hopefully have the skills and know-how to put it right… Say the loaf cake has a sunken middle? Probably too much raising agent. If you’re a really competent home cook, then at the least I’d probably suggest a short baking course, because that’s generally the more sciency bit to put things right! And a good eye, an artistic flair – it’s the perfect job if you’re creative and you’re a foodie, you get to combine both bits! I would say that the key attributes for a Food Stylist are to be a good cook and baker, organised, a team player, artistic, versatile and calm!”

Although Food Styling and editing sound like the ultimate fun job, Sarah finds that there are challenges:

“Working mainly editorially (for a magazine) the hardest parts are shopping and shooting out of season. I spent this week arranging cakes for a Jubilee street party feature on a freezing, rainy day! By August I’ll be steaming puddings, with all the ovens raging, and trying to find nice looking Brussels Sprouts when most people are eating berries and barbecuing their dinner!”

There are, however, plenty of perks and highlights of being a Food Stylist:

“I’m biased because I think I pretty much have the best job in the world. Every day I get to be creative with food, try great recipes, explore great shops and work with lots of different, but equally passionate people. It is hard work, the days are long and you’re on your feet from 9am till 6pm, but it’s definitely worth it.”

I was also keen to ask Sarah about her ‘rise to the top’ at BBC Good Food Magazine and how her role differs now that she is also Deputy Food Editor:

“Now I’m working for one magazine, I spend more of my time planning what I want to put in each issue, writing recipes, editing other people’s recipes and briefing and organising shoots. The cover is my baby too, which is probably the most important food picture in each issue, so that’s an exciting (and nerve-wracking!) job each month. As we’re monthly, our working months are quite cyclic too…2-3 weeks of frantic writing and testing, then 2-3 weeks of shooting features.”

The big question – is Sarah beginning to see more food bloggers interested in a career in Food Styling?

“Lots more! Most bloggers I know are happy doing what they’re doing but looking for tips to step-up their skills. For those who are looking to become a food stylist, I would say try to assist as many different stylists as you can – I’m still picking up new things when I work with someone different for the first time. Offer yourself for free and always remember to take a pinny!”

 Top Tips for Food Stying

Keep an eye out for food trends and develop a more critical eye. For example, look at some of the different styles within magazine, websites and other blogs – Donna Hay always styles her food in a very bright, fresh and simple way with blue or white backgrounds and simple crockery. Other styles include shabby chic, using vintage kitchenalia, or old-fashioned props. Some shots are taken against a darker background and are more intense. Other shots are minimalist, for example, shot against white wood with only white plates. Summer features are more outdoorsy, depicting a desire perhaps for healthy eating, natural and organic produce

Start a Food Stylists tool-kit  including knives, spatulas, palette knives, brushes, measuring spoons, piping bags/nozzles, small scales, timers, tongs and thermometers, rolling pins, sieves, skewers, straws, funnels, blow torch etc.

Don’t use the same plate for every photo you take, pick up mis-matched crockery from charity shops and vintage fairs.

Keep a list of where to buy out-of-season produce and more unusual items, such as micro herbs, banana leaves, courgette flowers…

Try and assist on a food shoot to pick up practical and first-hand styling tips.  

 

Thank you Sarah for the extra interview and words of wisdom!

 

Interview: Vanessa Kimbell tells us how to be ‘Prepped!’

There can be no doubt that Vanessa Kimbell is an inspirational woman. Over a year ago, Vanessa gave up her successful career to pursue her dream of writing a cookery book – called Prepped! She came up with a new and exciting concept and landed a publishing deal with Spring Hill who jumped at the chance of giving this new author the opportunity to share her ideas through a recipe book. At the same time, Vanessa started a blog, called Writing a Cookery Book to document her journey charting the highs and lows of the process of writing her first book. Her blog gave those of us who followed it the opportunity to become part of the process, both through reading Vanessa’s posts and in some cases, through recipe testing. As a very new blogger, I was one of the lucky few to be part of ‘Team Prepped!’ testing Vanessa’s recipes for her ready-made Vanilla Pancake Mix and her Chocolate, Vanilla & Black Pepper Cupcakes.

It has been a privilege to be a (tiny part) of Vanessa’s creative journey and to watch the anticipation levels grow in the lead up to the launch of Vanessa’s book. Just a few days before the official publication date, I met Vanessa for the first time in her home to talk to her personally about what really inspired her to write Prepped! and to find out where Vanessa’s journey will take her next.

Vanessa, what was the inspiration for Prepped! – the actual moment that you decided to write a cookery book?

The actual moment, believe it or not, was when I was visiting a hypnotherapist. I had read that you could be hypnotised into losing weight. I was talking about the fact that I was food obsessed and that I woke up thinking about what I was going to cook, that I owned about 400 recipe books, that I think about ingredients everyday, that I listen to the radio and watch the television about food and I suddenly realised that I was somewhat obsessed with food.

I wanted to stop thinking about food because I thought if I stopped thinking about it then I might actually lose some weight. Then, I thought, you know what, I don’t want to stop thinking about food, I need to do something with it. It’s a passion, rather than anything else.

There were also a few incidents that had happened in the lead up to that moment. One of them was that a particular girlfriend would almost look at me and shake her head in disbelief at the fact that I would be able to whip something up out of absolutely nothing on a moment’s notice or that I could turn up to a party with a cake that was already decorated even though I had only been given two hours notice to come. Things that I would take as standard practices, she had no idea about.

So, I went to the book shop and there was nothing that answered her questions – how to do two things at once in the kitchen. A lot of people may have been doing it for a lot of years but nobody, as far as I’m aware, had tackled that particular way of cooking. It’s not what you cook its how you put it together and how you manage the process in a timely fashion.

Does it take a certain amount of confidence as a cook to be able to do that?

I think because I’ve been cooking for many years, some twenty-two years in fact, it is instinctive for me but what I observed was that it is not instinctive for all cooks and in order to make somebody do something you have to give instructions. The difficulty was translating the physical way of cooking two or three things at once into a way that people could follow it.

It took me about a month to work out how I did it myself and the only way I could describe it to someone was that I link my cooking together, like a chain. It’s not even one chain, one recipe could link to ten other things.  For example, an elderflower syrup could make nine other recipes, in fact, more than that because you could substitute or swap it all the way through for perhaps a rhubarb syrup or a lemon syrup, so you can do twenty different things with one base recipe. You could make a cocktail with it, a sorbet with it, you can add it into ice cream, you can add it to a savoury dish.

Prepped! is about thinking: what can I make at the same time? How can I make two things out of one recipe?  This book tackles that really nicely.

Do you think that ‘linked cooking’ is something that people can learn how to do from your book?

Oh totally, just on a very basic level if you are making custard you could make double the recipe – one half you’d use on your crumble and the other half you use as an ice-cream. And the point is that as soon as people start looking at it they are going to realise they will be doing the same amount of shopping, the same amount of cooking and the same amount of clearing up.

What have you found to be the highlights of the process of writing?

There have been so many. Meeting like-minded fantastically, amazing people who have got their own stories and their own recipes. That, to me, has been huge. Yes, as a mum, you meet other mums but through this I’ve actually met people who are like me. To be able to chat about food with other people is a joy.

Another highlight has been broadcasting through the BBC, which also brings me into contact with people. And I suppose getting to meet people like Nigel Slater, Dan Lepard, Rick Stein, Sophie Grigson and Jason Atherton. People who are really seriously amazing foodies who have been supportive and who have been kind and didn’t laugh.

In a nutshell, who is your book for?

My book is for people who are time-short foodies, people who love cooking  already or who perhaps don’t cook as much as they want to because they don’t think they have enough time.

In essence, the way that I cook is multi-tasking so you end up with delicious food but with a more concise and streamlined way of cooking in the kitchen. Although I have been quite instructional and I haven’t made too many assumptions about anybody’s ability. At the same time I haven’t made people who already cook utterly bored with what they are reading.

Do you think your book will  encourage the average busy cook become more adventurous?

What I’m hoping for is not that people will become more adventurous because I think that people are naturally inclined to be adventurous and that’s the fashion at the moment. What I’m hoping for is that instead of people slogging away and missing all the fun they can take advantage of any opportunity that comes their way so that things can be ready to go.

Prepped! is real because I really am a mum, I really have three children, I really cook in my kitchen and I really have to do all my own washing up. The joy of having had all these recipes tested by my team of recipe testers, ‘the preparati’ (as they called themselves) to me is the most important thing because they are all real people. We’re not all about sitting in the test kitchens of celebrity chefs who don’t even have to do their own washing up.

Having got to where you are today would you do it all again?

Yes I would and yes I will. There is a second book that will follow. But I will do things differently. I will go to bed before one o’clock. Past that time I don’t think my work was as good as it should have been. I would take longer than a year to do it. In all honesty, I had no sleep for a year. In a way it has been worse than having a baby because it has been all-encompassing.

Also, with the first book I had a huge learning curve. At the beginning I would write recipes and I would cook instinctively and not measure things. I also had some serious learning to do with photography. Though now there is a template. The first forty recipes I wrote I had to go back and re-write because they were too long for the format they were put in and that was really hard work. It was almost as hard as writing and developing them in the first place.

Is the food in Prepped! genuinely the sort of food that you cook for your kids and your family?

Yes, it is exactly what I cook and how I manage to be this ‘domestic diva’ or ‘kitchen genie’ or whatever I was described as! I have put every trick I know in the book, not only from the point of view of being  a trained chef but also as a working mum.

I believe I have put everything in the pages of Prepped! that will allow a person to tackle their food in the same way.

Prepped! – Gorgeous Food without the Slog – a Multi-tasking Masterpiece for Time-short Foodies is published by Spring Hill (RRP £20.00) Available at Waterstones and Amazon (currently at £10.60)
Thank You to Vanessa Kimbell for cooking me a lovely lunch and for allowing me to interview you with two kids in tow and for my signed copy of your book!
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