Most comprehensive SA cookbook ever will thrill foodies

WITH just a week to go to Mandela Day, when South Africans will give up 67 minutes, or a day, a week or more to do good in their communities and help alleviate poverty in some way, it’s time to consider how you will get involved.

On the final page of this handsome hardback, which elicited great reviews, is an announcement in small print which states that the Nelson Mandela Foundation “will receive all royalties from sales... to develop and support community food and agricultural projects to aid in the upliftment of the impoverished through food sustainability and empowerment”.

Now, as July approaches, it’s a good time to remind potential purchasers about this generous gesture – anyone looking for a comprehensive cookbook that presents a treasury of recipes from the kitchens of our diverse communities could hardly do better than snap up this culinary compendium.

Add to that the feel-good, do-good aspect of your purchase, and you may want to buy an extra copy for someone special in your life.

First, a little about the book production: As one has come to expect from Quivertree, this is a great book to hold and admire, from its innovative and trendy cover to Toby Murphy’s delightful photographs on the endpapers. Wonderful images of food and cooks throughout the book taken in food gardens, fishing boats, kitchens, restaurants and homes. And, almost without exception, every personality looks as cheerful as can be, which is pretty inspiring.

The contributors of recipes are, to quote the cover “...our finest cooks, chefs, bakers, farmers, foragers and local food

The Great South African Cook Book

heroes”. They also represent an intriguing mix of entrepreneurs from every corner of the land, each with their own appealing story and culinary specialities. Many hail from the Western Cape and Gauteng is also well in the picture, but after that the locations thin out to a few from KwaZulu-Natal, just two from the Free State and a few from the Eastern Cape. A lone cook from the Northern Cape shares this status with one from Limpopo province, while the North-West and Mpumalanga are not ignored. Down south the Garden Route features, but the Overberg is practically ignored, which, given the gastronomic talent in the Elgin and Stanford areas, is surprising.

The recipes cover the basic fare of many South African cultural groups, and there is a strong emphasis on greens, raw ingredients, and foraging, which is both trendy and health-giving.

A surprising lack of soups – just three – when you consider how many of us regard sustaining vegetable and meat soups as essential winter fare. At the other end of the menu, just one ice-cream makes the grade: admittedly a delicious recipe from brilliant chef Franck Dangereux, but again, South Africans regard icecream , preferably homemade, as a given during the hot months, both inland and along our coastline.

Turning to main courses, it’s a pity that the paucity of Karoo contributors results in lack of an ostrich dish, a meat so important to Little Karoo farmers and townsfolk.

With 360 pages of appetising, colourful, diverse gastronomical temptations, there is more than enough to digest and try out to keep keen cooks and bakers busy for years. This is by far the most comprehensive South African culinary title ever published, and for this reason alone, is a title everybody who has an interest in food should possess. –