Ponder well on this point: the pleasant hours of our life are all connected by a more or less tangible link, with some memory of the table. (Charles Pierre Monselet 1825 – 1888)
I was growing up, my beloved Aunty Ness always made a point of marking my birthday with her signature Orange Cake … the most amazing, thick, moist, heavily-iced cake adorned with jelly jubes that is implanted in my heart and memory as being a talisman of her unconditional love and affirmation. In a time of conflict and abuse, she was my safe place … my constant who got me through the horrors of early years. Her cake represented her love, her care and her knowing. I’ve come to understand that special foods can represent just this … they can embody the very best and most cherished of memories and trigger recollections of all that is good. Food can signify the bonds of heart and mind that no one can ever deny or take away.
My beloved Aunty Ness – who was an adopted ‘aunt’ and a God-given gift beyond the biological – was the most cherished soul who had travelled her own journey of adoption, hardship and survival. She had an unfathomable ‘knowing’ and a heart overwhelming with love. She was never able to have children and thus I became, in many ways, her ‘boy’. And she became my constant, my safe place, my treasured one.
Our most potent memories include the taste and smells of foods we enjoyed as a child in part because it reminds us of who fed us a meal. (Author Kilroy J. Oldster)
During and after the Second World War, Aunty Ness – who was the most phenomenal old-fashioned cook who created everything from scratch and mixed everything by hand – owned and operated tearooms called ‘The Daffodil’ in the seaside settlement of Southport in southeast Queensland. She was renowned for her specialty cakes and pastries and people would come from far and wide for her beautiful food fare. She created that unique experience of ‘a taste of home’ and that’s what she came to mean to me … a place of love, safety and home.
I remember her telling me of a Christmas cake order she once received. She was making festive cakes and puddings for the tearooms and special customer orders. Working late into the night and mixing everything by hand as she did, the ingredients were all combined and ready to go into tins and pans for the waiting ovens when she realised that, horror and horrors, the Bandaid she had been wearing was missing! These were the pre latex glove days of the post war years. And so, the perfectionist that she was, she had no choice but to throw out the entire batter for more than twenty cake creations and start again!
These are the unique memories that home-cooked recipes can trigger. Aunty Ness’s recipes and the memories of her cooking are so significant to me that, when I started serving tea, coffee and scones as well as light meals during the time I owned and operated the Rick Rutherford’s Country heritage store in the NSW Blue Mountains (from 2007 to 2018), I named the food enterprise ‘Nessie’s Daffodil Tearooms’ in tribute to my beloved benefactor and childhood protector.
Indeed, such is the significance that all sorts of foods, home-cooked recipes and the memories which they embody can have in our lives.
Food is a gift and should be treated reverentially, romanced, ritualised and seasoned with memory. (Novelist & author Chris Bohjalian)
Having recently launched my biography writing business ‘The Story of A Life’ (see website tab above), a collegue and I had a long discussion regarding the concept and all the wonderful opportunities that it embodies. During our analysis and the very essence of my work telling the life story of others (as I had done hundreds of times through the pages of Australian Country Collections and subsequently Rick Rutherford’s Country magazine) my friend suggested that, as an extension of the enterprise, I might consider also offering clients the opportunity of bringing together the collection of treasured family recipes, cuisines and tale of special celebrations which represent the story a unique part of one’s life, background and generational legacies … bringing them all together in a book that could be shared amongst family members, given as gifts and handed down through the years.
“What a grand idea” I proclaimed as I remembered that wonderful Orange Cake of my Aunty Ness and all the evocative memories of celebration and unconditional love that it embodied. If only I had been given the opportunity, many years ago, to record the recipe of the cake and her countless other culinary creations which have now been lost in time. If there was a record of their ingredients and making, especially if they were supported with pictures and even photos of the celebrations for which they were created, the book containing it all would assuredly be one of my most treasured possessions!
The sad story regarding my beloved Aunty Ness’s recipes and images of past celebrations revolves around the fact that the darling girl had a stroke in her later years, necessitating constant 24hour nursing care. When her husband – dear old Uncle John – died, she was left to the fate of a group of nurses, one or two of whom decided that ‘what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her’ and plundered so many of her possessions, right down to her recipe books and related imagery.
Thus I have become even more passionate about the concept of collecting and recording prized home recipes on behalf of other families and individuals to ensure that they will never be lost … so they can be shared in the here and now, and preserved for generations to come.
What keeps me motivated is not the food itself but all the bonds and memories the food represents. (Michael Chiarello 1962 – 2023)
As international celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal once proclaimed “food is as much about the moment, the occasion, the location and the company as it is about the taste.” Thus, the whole idea of my new ‘Recipe Recollections’ venture – as part of my ‘A Story of A Life’ business – is to recapture and preserve for clients those moments, the celebrations, the sharing and those who took part in each one’s family food story … bringing together the recipes, the ingredients, the techniques and the experiences of cooking and sharing for now and years to come.
Food brings people together on many different levels. It’s nourishment of the soul and body; it’s truly love. (Giada De Laurentiis (1970 – )
Indeed, the new ‘Recipe Recollections’ part of ‘The Story of A life’ section of Rick Rutherford’s Country is all about bringing together the memories of celebrations, the grouping together of recipes and the accumulation of all these in book form to share with family and friends.
The process of creating is all is so simple … as a client you will send me your recipes, photographs and images of the enjoyment of gathering and partaking and I will turn them all into a 64page book to distribute to all those you want to bless. The price for all the work includes writing, graphic design, proofing and checking, and ultimately the production and printing of ten copies of a 64page book to keep and to share with kindred souls. It’s a unique and deeply personal gift to hold on to
and to distribute … the perfect celebratory present for Christmas or that special family gathering which will touch another’s heart and evoke all those uniquely personal memories that will never be lost.
For more information and to secure this wonderful offer, click on the ‘Story of A Life’ button on the Menu tab above and scroll down to the ‘Recipe Recollections’ section to get the full low-down!
Until next time
Rick xxx