BUY THE BOOK

FRESH HAPPY TASTY

South African chef Jane Coxwell leads a charmed life. She sails around the world on a beautiful yacht, experimenting with exotic foodstuffs along the way. The yacht, Eos, is owned by American Barry Diller, who founded the Fox news channel, and his wife Diane von Furstenburg, the Belgian-born princess who became a famous fashion designer.

Cooking for these exalted personages and their guests can’t always be easy, but Coxwell has lasted four years and a few circumnavigations of the globe, so it can’t be all bad either. She trained under David Higgs in the Cape and has since cooked on a slew of private yachts, with a break on the ground as head chef at a Napa Valley winery.

“Cooking for Diane von Furstenburg has been a real joy,” writes Coxwell. “She’s adventurous, willing to try new things, and has a remarkable and discerning palate.” Judging by her book, Fresh Happy Tasty (HarperCollins, R325), these words describe Coxwell too. Her book is subtitled An

Adventure in 100 Recipes and includes Middle Eastern watermelon salad, roast chicken stuffed with fennel, potatoes, bacon and apricots, and Israeli couscous with shrimp and zucchini.

This is world food that combines flavours from dozens of destinations, but it is home food too, the kind that makes you think seafaring American billionaires might be quite normal after all. —

Sue de Groot HarperCollins is giving away three copies of ‘Fresh Happy Tasty’. To enter, tell us the name of the Joburg hotel restaurant run by David Higgs. E-mail your answer, name, phone number and delivery address (not PO Box) to food@sundaytimes.co.za with COXWELL as the subject. One entry per person please. Entries close at noon on Tuesday September 10.