Woolworths Taste – November-December 2021
English | 182 pages | pdf | 158.24 MBSOME OF MY FONDEST CHRISTMAS MEMORIES are of the themed shop-window displays my mother used to create for my parents’ interiors business when I was a child.
The mall always awarded a prize for the best window and my mom won it several times. One year, the theme was the 12 Days of Christmas and I remember how she stayed up into the night illustrating each day’s gifts with cut-outs of hens and swans and dancing ladies.
Then she had a large cut-out tree made, complete with partridge, and hung 12 golden pears from its branches. A sign in the window said that if a child passed the shop and happened to see a pear “fall” off the tree, they could come in and claim a Christmas prize. (Great marketing, right?)
So, a few months back, when Abi said: “I was thinking of doing a sweet story around the 12 days of Christmas this year…” I felt as though I was walking past that long-ago window and had just seen a golden pear fall.
And then, on the day of the shoot, when I saw Abi’s beautiful creations, it occurred to me that what they needed, what they deserved, was that little bit of extra magic. Which is how my mom came out of retirement for a week in October and gave me a joyful piece of my childhood back, just when I needed it the most (p 20). Christmas issues are like groundhog day in food-mag land, it’s not easy to do the same thing over and over and still deliver that extra magic. Because there must always be gammon, gravy, duck-fat roast potatoes and Jamie Oliver (p 134) – but we raise you Mogau Seshoene (p 155) and Ottolenghi (p 144)! There should also be at least two more roast birds, lamb, oxtail and veg options in equal quantities.
People expect a vast number of desserts, cakes, biscuits, tarts and trifles, and all of this has to make sense in the middle of a South African summer when people are stretched in every possible way and may not feel like cooking at all.
If you’re wondering how we do this, year after year, even in the toughest of times, this story might explain it.
A few months ago, I entered TASTE into the prestigious New York Folio Awards. Knowing what I do about each of their individual challenges this past year, I thought we might have a shot at winning team of the year.
Turns out I was right.
For every issue we have put out remotely since May 2020 (15), for the 1 000+ recipes uploaded to taste.co.za,
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