A word from Beverley Sutherland Smith

I actually did a lucky dip because I was uninspired, but then I thought before I did a post on my lucky dip I would continue my 'A Word from' series with something from the author of my lucky dip book - Beverley Sutherland Smith.

Beverley Sutherland Smith is an Australian, nay Melburnian even, cook who is somewhat out of favour these days for some reason. Indeed I doubt that many young cooks these days have heard of her. When I was a middle-aged cook doing lots of executive dinner parties and dinner parties for friends I discovered her books and made lots and lots of things from them. For her recipes work. My favourite was probably A Taste in Time because all the recipes were simple and quickly made but delicious and different. However, I think over time her most used book for me has been a more recent one called A Seasonal Kitchen inspired by her home vegetable garden. It's one of my very favourite cookbooks from my entire collection. And here she is shown in her garden. I believe it's a bit of a show garden but I have never been. I do know somebody who did one of her cooking classes though - she used to run these.

I have checked the introductions to all of her books to see if she had words of wisdom to offer, but I have to say that mostly her introductions are purely explanatory on the way that particular book has been put together. Nevertheless I found a couple of passages that I hope convey some of her approach to food.

"The longer I work with food the more important I find it is to be true to your own personal style and beliefs. It may be in the way you cut or trim the ingredients, or the way you care about freshness and quality, or in voicing your own opinion as to how to achieve results in particular dishes." The Complete Beverley Sutherland Smith Cookbook

"Being a passionate cook it never occurred to me when I planted the first vegetables for my kitchen that I should keep them tucked out of sight. Little feathery lettuces or tall cos are just as pretty in a border as a small plant, while carrots have interesting tops that, if I didn't pull them, would form big white clumps I could pick and put into a big jug on the table. The early dusk light glancing off the reddish leaves of the ballerina crab apples made everyone stop, and something as common as dill had seedheads that gave beds a soft, golden yellow in late summer. ...

I have changed the way I cook by living with the seasons, creating zucchini dishes as the plants scramble to overtake the garden, making tomato pickles, relishes and sauces when the bushes grow too many to eat raw; picking beans like tiny green twigs for summer salads and planting vegetables not available in the shops.

I still cannot decide if vegetables that are grown at home taste so much better than anything you can buy, even at the best markets, because they are different varieties, or because they are just so fresh. They do taste wonderful, sweet and intense; perhaps they don't look as perfect, but I believe that natural flavour is the most important ingredient for anyone who loves food." The Seasonal Kitchen

She does talk about not being able to grow some vegetables, but I have to confess I am a shocking gardener anyway and then when I have to compete with possums, and various kinds of birds, I become a total failure. So I have more or less given up trying to grow vegetables. But I do grow some herbs and I do have some silver beet. That's pretty weed like. Zucchini too. The vegetables I buy in the market may not be quite as good, but they are pretty good, so that's what I do. And she is right about one thing - keep to what is seasonal and it will be good - and cheap too. Like blueberries this year.