A fabulous five page feature in May's Garden & Home

A little while ago a multi-talented and extremely stylish friend who happens to love food, steered a journalist friend of hers my way.  And so, via Morne (many thanks Morne) I met Gill Cullinan.  She arranged to come and meet me and my family for a laid back brunch, bringing along a very talented photographer, Henrique Wilding.  Turns out, we’d met Henrique years before when we helped her out with another shoot she was doing when we were still at Groot Constantia.  Also turns out, they are two extremely nice ladies.

Cheese and pesto muffins, and artichoke flan

Actually, nice is such a tepid word.  They were fantastic.  They may have got more than they bargained for with my noisy (and as Gill puts it: ‘boisterous’ family ), but they showed no fear , and so, like most of our family gatherings we all wound up in the kitchen, all talking at once, screeching with laughter, tripping over dogs, salivating over fresh cheese muffins and artichoke flan,  and generally getting on like a house on fire.

gravadlax on molasses seed loaf, and honeybaked granola

I don’t know how Gill did it, but she managed to get almost everything we said in passing, down verbatim, and weave it into a beautiful story that really shows the importance of family to me and my food style.  And as for Henrique, I will be forever grateful to her for making my food look so scrumptiously good and also for making me look much better than I did in real life that morning.  (I have decided I’m all for airbrushing, because let’s face it, if you’re going to get snapped for posterity, you may as well look good).

Thanks ladies, it was great fun, and thanks to my mom, my sister Kalli, who helped with the styling, and my daughter Dakota & puppy, Jedi, who helped with the eating.

The five page feature is out now, in May’s South African Garden & Home magazine, so pick one up if you are in SA or check out their website. 

Oh, and the cherry on the top:  Yesterday morning I had a call from a Mr Taylor, owner of a guest house on the Garden Route.  Mr Taylor was making the cheese muffins from our recipe in the magazine and just wanted to double check that the amounts printed were correct.  They are, and I hope your muffins came out beautifully Mr Taylor.  Mine came out of the oven about 15 minutes after your call, and were delicious.  It really is one of my favourite recipes.

Kassia & Figg on the Deco Taste page

…and of course, my mom.  Because the deli is both mine and my mom’s.  But wait!  Let me start at the beginning. 

The wildly talented and extremely astute, not to mention gorgeous Louise McCann, features editor at South African Elle Deco, has included our deli, Kassia & Figg, in her Deco Taste page of the May issue of Elle Deco. 

So there we are, with a lovely piece entitled Village Charm, all about our fab breakfasts and passion for real food.  With a picture by yours truly which is just making me drool.  Not because I’m such a good photographer, but because it is a platter full of fresh strawberry cream puffs, full of sunshine and happiness, which I made for the deli in December when strawberries where in full season.

Today is a rainy, purply grey day and on the deli menu are freerange beef burgers and chunky tomato soup with organic sourdough toast.  Not a strawberry cream puff in sight.  But somewhere out there strawberries are in season, so I include a link to my strawberry cream puff recipe, along with encouragement to go forth and bake, and send me the pics to prove it!

And for those of you in South Africa, why don’t you pick up the May issue of Elle Deco and check it out.  Or check out their blog.  I thouroughly recommend it as a magazine with exceedingly good taste.