Chef Jackie Cameron incorporates a sense of identity and place into cooking. JULIAN RICHFIELD interviewed her
Q. Your first book, Jackie Cameron Cooks at Home, was aimed at the home cook and offered guidance and recipes well within their capabilities. Your new book is Baking with Jackie Cameron. Now with the example of the popular baking-themed television programmes, should the reader feel at all intimidated by what is in your book?
A. Not at all. It follows a very similar theme to the first. It takes very common home-cooked baked items and adds a fresh spin to them. It is the go-to book for baked items.
I remember as a child us having about 10 recipes books whereby one book had a fabulous sponge recipe, another had a world-class quiche; this eliminates this confusion as where to find something. Often my sister and I would say let us cook, for instance, eclairs and because we didn’t do this every week it would take much time just finding the recipe. A slight frustration…
I strongly believe if a person is cooking better at home they will expect a better standard when they eat out at restaurants. I know that educating the home cook has a positive effect on restaurants and uplifting the standard in general. This knock-on effect will also happen in the baked goods outlets too.
Also, there are so many more home cooks than chefs and home cooks are responsible for what we see in our shops today. They have become more knowledgeable and this has resulted in greater quality and unusual items being available. A few years back we would never have found items like tofu or even sesame seed oil in our local grocery.
I also know home cooks are frustrated with buying cookbooks and the recipes not working – in my mind, there is no point putting out a recipe book if some of the recipes in it don’t work.
There is a true art in writing recipes. I have had a monthly column in The Witness newspaper for the last nine years in which I have included my number and e-mail address. I very quickly learnt exactly how detailed I needed to be to ensure 100 percent understanding; this has seen less questions being e-mailed to me. The reader will be able to find all the ingredients in my new book at their local grocery, nothing over the top.
Q. What age do you think a mother should introduce her child into participating in the cooking process and what do you think that introduction should be? And their introduction to baking?
A. I was cooking from before the age of three so as soon as a child shows interest, no matter how young they are, I do feel get them into the kitchen. Even if it is only stirring a pot or sieving flour.
A child normally likes sweet/baking items so I definitely feel something along those lines would be a good place to begin. My mom had written the date next to a recipe “Jacqueline’s White Bread”; it worked out that I was three at the time. Naturally I wasn’t making the bread by myself but I had been involved in the process.
Q. Does baking ask any different questions of a cook’s abilities as opposed to general cooking?
A. Baking, especially pastry and desserts, requires one to be precise and measure correctly. Not everybody takes to it.
Q. Could somebody who has never baked before use your book as their introduction to the art?
A. Of course, it is a very straightforward book and explains each step in detail.
Q. How has teaching and your post-Hartford House experience influenced your cooking and baking?
A. I mentioned my Witness column earlier. Also most on my staff have had an education of Standard 7 and 8, so teaching and clear understanding of recipes have always been key at getting a task done. I have learnt/reminded myself a huge deal over the last year here at my school, Jackie Cameron School of Food & Wine, when it comes to baking.
I don’t think the notes in the book would have been as detailed if it wasn’t for all the recent research I have done developing my course material for my students.
Q. Do you have more Jackie Cameron time now and what non-cooking things feed your soul?
A. I love it when people ask me this question. In the same year that I opened my school, we put a recipe book together with many other interesting and exciting projects I was involved in.
I am not embarrassed to say that I worked hard at Hartford (actually extremely hard) – still checked every plate of food from breakfast to lunch to dinner that went out, and I was just as passionate and obsessed that each guest had a lasting/memorable time right up until the day I left.
The school takes work to another level. I have my own business now; I have huge loans to pay off. I have staff that I am responsible for; there is truly no down-time. I’m working from on average 5am-11pm most days – straight through, no split shifts.
What is great though, if I have a private lunch function, I can wake at sparrows, get working, make up the hours and then still make the family occasion. So in that way I feel I have more balance as I am truly now the master of my own time.
Non-cooking things… mmm, what feeds my soul is time with friends and family around a kitchen or dining room table with a great meal and a delicious wine.