Many years ago, I fan girl'd Annie Smithers at the Delicious Produce Awards. Picture a short girl, wearing ridiculously high shoes, clod hoppering at speed through the canape waiters to accost Annie whilst she was quietly standing in the corner with another chef - actively trying to avoid people.
Usually I am the epitome of 'trying to play it cool to the point of being a dickhead' when I see a celebrity. I pretend they're not there even when they obviously are. I do this because I don't really know how to act, don't really care most of the time and really cringe when I see other people publicly spew enthusiastic love and weird adoration all over a most likely mediocre human they've never met.
That attitude has, however, gone out the window on a number of occasions- namely with Annie and also with Maggie Beer. Apologies to Annie and Maggie and anyone who had to witness those rather embarrassing effusive declarations of infatuation.
Annie has been called 'the anti celebrity chef' and seemed genuinely confused (in retrospect probably horrified) while I rambled on, explaining to her how much I adored her first book "Annie's Garden to Table". Written as a garden diary with recipes included, I was enamoured reading the trials and tribulations of setting up a market garden.
Many years and two books later, I'm still fan girling, although thankfully this time with a bit more decorum in the comfort of my lounge room.
Annie's latest book "Recipe for a kinder life" is a wholesome and humbly written book that includes stories about gardening, life at Du Fermier, Babbington Park and mistakes made in the past. There are some beautiful recipes split into sections like 'Recipes from the productive garden' (Gnocchi parisienne with roasted pumpkin and sage butter is on the list this week) and Buildings - which has foundational recipes (I learned my cream to egg ratio for Quiche is way way off and have already corrected the error of my ways resulting in a much superior quiche).
As my cook book collection is nearing an untenable amount of books, I'm having to be more discerning about which books might be donated for the next school fete and which take pride of place - all three of Annie's are in the latter category.
Sometimes it's nice to read something really nice. Just nourishing and lovely and the literary equivalent of a cup of homegrown peppermint tea on a rainy Sunday. This is that book. If you're even marginally interested in being a better human through growing and cooking beautiful food, this book is definitely worth adding to your collection.
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