Who is CookSister?

WHO ARE YOU?

I am a thirtysomething, born and bred South African who grew up, was educated and had worked quite happily in Port Elizabeth all her life.  That is, until fate intervened and I followed my husband who wanted to fulfil a dream of working abroad.  We came with the intention of staying a year.  It’s now 7.5 years later and we are still here.  What can I say – all plans are fluid.

WHERE ARE YOU?

Since 2000 (or 2002, depending how you calculate!) I have been living in London.  And I must say that, despite missing home, I love the old place dearly.  It really is the centre of the world in terms of travel, culture – and of course, food!

HOW DID YOU GET HERE?

Back at the end of the last century, I had a beautiful townhouse in the same suburb as my brother, my parents and my two best friends.  I had a job teaching law at the local technical university, which I adored.  And I had just met Nick.  Life was perfect.  Then Nick decided that what he really wanted to do was to work in England for a year and hey, that sounded really exciting.  So I took a sabbatical and off we went and lo, it was good!  The year was packed with travel and shows and all the variety that living in London provides and by January 2001 I was back home in SA to return to work and plan our April wedding.  Nick was to follow in a couple of months. 

But alas, it was not to be.  He was offered a promotion on condition that he stayed with the company - and he accepted. So there we were, on different continents (and none too pleased about it, I can assure you, especially from my side!).  The wedding went ahead as planned in April and it was absolutely perfect - a picnic on rolling lawns and a ceremony in a poolside gazebo.  And a week after the honeymooon, Nick was back in London and I was back home.  OK, so why didn't I just go back to the UK?  Because by this stage I had borrowed so much leave that I would have to PAY my employer to let me resign... Plus my mother was not well and I wanted to spend more time with her.  Oh yes, and the fact that I was allegedly working on a PhD (don't ask and I won't have to kill you). 

So this merry Dance of the Two Continents continued from April 2001 until September 2002 when I could finally afford to resign.  Left my lovely job of 8 years and my sunny office and sent all my beautiful things to storage and rented out my beloved townhouse (yes, there were rivers of tears and lots of Tourettes-like swearing), said goodbye to family and friends and arrived back in the UK in September 2002, apparently with amoebic dysentery or something similar (but that's a whole other story!).

One of the big questions everyone asks me is whether we will ever go back to South Africa.  HELL, YES!!!  We are temporary expats, not emigrants from SA, and we are not running away from the “new” government - nobody seems to consider that the experience of living and working in one of the world's great cities is good enough reason to leave home.

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Question is more what haven’t I done!  I am a trained criminal advocate and have defended many people on trial for murder, back when South Africa still handed out the death penalty.  I lectured commercial law to non-legal students for eight of the happiest years of my career.  I moonlighted at a friend’s software company as a proposals writer and legal advisor.  I temped as a PA at a Large Soft-drink Company when we first came to London – crazy but very happy times.  And for the past five years I have worked in law firms in a knowledge management role.

So before you ask, no, I don’t have any connection to the food industry.  And I certainly don’t want to open my own restaurant ;-)

WHY BLOGGING?

Because living here meant leaving behind so many of the things that made me happy (my family, my childhood friends, my job, the sunshine...), I started investigating other things that made me happy that could be done here.  Hence my burgeoning interest in writing, cooking, travel and photography.  And the one thing that can meld them all together… blogging!

WHY FOOD?

This blog grew out of a weekly newsletter that I sent home to family and friends (until this blog ate up all my spare time and I had to stop!).  The comment that I heard most frequently from them was that my food descriptions had them drooling on their keyboards.  When I discovered blogging and started considering my own blog, I realised pretty quickly that I only liked blogs with a theme – and food was the obvious theme.  Food forms the backdrop to all the milestones in our lives – a wedding breakfast, a graduation dinner, a farewell cocktail party.  It ties us to our past and our family with cords that can’t be broken.  And even in a foreign land, you can recreate the favourite tastes of your childhood and take comfort from them.

ANY FOOD PHILOSOPHY?

My earliest inspiration was my mom – she was an enthusiastic cook all her life and I learned to cook by helping her to make fudge and coconut ice and cornflake clusters as a child.  That said, she was not obsessive about food and we ate well but not exotically.  My mom was a professor of radiography and did not have much time to make chi-chi dishes in the kitchen.  From her I learned that it’s OK to use shortcuts sometimes, provided you jazz it up a little, and that life is usually too short to hold down a job and bake your own bread regularly ;-)  But she never stinted on ingredients or on restaurants, and I once declared as a teenager that our family’s only two extravagances were holidays and food – nothing’s changed. 

In my own kitchen I try not to obsess too much about anything:  not too overboard on low fat or seasonal or organic or whatever the fad of the day is.  I will buy organic where it really makes a difference; and I will buy produce in season mainly because it just tastes better.  I also don’t see why I must buy apples from the USA when we grow perfectly good apples here.  And as far as cooking goes, I have realised that I will never be naturally inclined to make a Gordon Ramsay style dish with all its components and beautiful plating.  I am far more of the Nigel Slater, real food school of thought – why faff with individually plated things when a rosemary roast leg of lamb can be brought to the table with just as much praise and less fuss? 

I have also finally realised what my mom meant when she said:  “Cooking a fancy meal for 6 people once a month is a breeze compared to feeding your family a nutritious, balanced meal every night - and not bore them out of their minds.”

DO YOU HAVE A POLICY ON REVIEWING RESTAURANTS?

Not as such:  I simply write up where I’ve been.  As I pay for all my own meals and don’t get paid for my reviews, I can’t afford to visit a place three times before I review it, so mostly you get a first impression of a place.  Anybody who has read one of my reviews will know that it is more of a detailed narrative than a review, and I tend to err on the side of kindness rather than unkindness.  I want you to live the moment with me, not take my word as The Ultimate Truth.  Am I qualified?  Well, I’m not applying for a job, am I?  I have eaten in restaurants around the world for the better part of 30 years – I think that gives me some basis for making comparative judgements. 

DO YOU HAVE A POLICY ON COMMENTING?

As a general rule, I don’t interfere with comments, other than to remove anything spam-related or that is obviously a punt for some commercial enterprise.  I welcome discussion in the comments and you can say what you like, but if you make a snotty remark, don’t be surprised if you get a snotty response!  Also please bear in mind that this is my cyber home.  I wouldn’t tolerate people coming into my house and being rude to me, and I won’t tolerate it here.  Play nice.  And don’t even think of saying anything racist, sexist, insulting of a particular religion or otherwise inflammatory - I will remove it so fast it will make your head spin.  This is a food blog, not a soapbox for people with an axe to grind.

CAN WE SEND YOU STUFF TO REVIEW?

Of course you can.  I’m more than happy to try out stuff, read books or whatever.  But I reserve the right NOT to write about stuff you send me as well.  As long as we are clear on that, send away.  But understand that if I do review your product I will say what I think, not what you want me to say.

CAN WE ASK YOU TO LINK TO OUR SITE?

As above – you can ask but I reserve the right to say no.  I generally prefer to find blogs on my own rather than have them thrust at me, and I am hugely unlikely ever to add a link to a commercial enterprise of any sort just because they asked me to.  And no, it’s not going to help to say “but we’ve already added a link to your site” or address me as “buddy”.

CAN WE USE YOUR WRITING/PHOTOS?

Everything on this site (except where I have specified otherwise) is mine – all text and all photos.  It is licensed under a Creative Commons license, meaning that you may reproduce it provided that you clearly attribute it to me and link back to this site.  And it’s always politer to ask first, especially if there is any sort of commercial angle to your site.  If anybody is going to make money out of the fruits of my labours, I’m hoping it will be me!  On that topic, if you like my writing or photographs so much that you would like me to commission me to write or photograph something for you, please get in touch - I am always open to offers.

HOW CAN WE GET HOLD OF YOU?

If you haven’t already found it elsewhere, my e-mail address is jeanne AT 501 DOT co DOT za.  I look forward to hearing from you :)