Durban - Billy Suter talks to award-winning Durban actress SHONA JOHNSON, star of B!#ch Stole My Doek, about her food and drink likes and dislikes, and what she gets up to in the kitchen.
What meal is your favourite and least favourite?
Sunday is my favourite day of the week, and Sunday lunch is my favourite meal. The family usually gets together and my mother cooks up a feast, leaving everyone swollen-bellied and oh, so happy.
Weekday breakfasts are my least favourite. Uneventful and uninspired – usually a quick cereal fix or a random fruit grabbed on my way out the door.
Your first food memory?
Baking Christmas cake with my beloved Ma Olive. She would make and decorate one for each member of our family, and all her grandchildren were summoned to the kitchen each year to mix ingredients with her. I cherish those memories with my granny.
As a child, did you develop a taste for unusual foods?
I used to call everyone “darrrrling” and drank lots of tea, but insisted on sipping tea from saucers instead of teacups. I think I had too many tea parties as a child because I don’t drink tea or coffee now.
The first thing you cooked?
Growing up, the kitchen was the busiest spot … laughing ladies and sweet scents and sounds dancing about.
Naturally, I was in there as soon as I could walk, and I remember rolling mini rotis with my tea sets as early as age three. Someone older would fry them and I would serve one to each member of the family.
Dish you cook most often?
I am famous for my garlic rolls. I make a mean garlic butter and smother rolls in a dangerously delicious cheese sauce. It’s only a starter, but I make it most often because it’s most requested.
What do you like and/or dislike about dinner parties?
I love dinner parties – my family and friends make great company and great food. But the cleaning up afterwards is not so great.
Biggest kitchen disaster?
I love reinventing dishes I discover while out and about. Last Christmas, I was inspired to bake a pecan pie for dessert.
While I marinated in family joy outside, my pie burnt. My sweet aunties tasted the black pie with ice-cream. Now that’s love!
Biggest culinary success?
It was cooking for my boyfriend, Gary, for the first time at my home two years ago. He assumed I could throw an outfit together, but never a meal. My garlic, lemon and herb-infused roasted veggies, bacon, cous-cous and feta lunch turned that beat around swiftly,
Mummy always said the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach!
How serious a wine fundi are you, and what is your favourite tipple?
Oh, I’m not that serious. As long as it is sweet and tasty, it is wine o’clock.
What kitchen utensils can you simply not live without?
Non-stick cooking utensils. Metal spoons scratching metal pots make me crazy.
A kitchen appliance you would love to have?
There was an incredibly chic, efficient, expensive, hand-held blender at Decorex this year. It was like a magic wand. I have got to have it!
Most kitsch kitchen item?
I have little utensil and Coke-shaped fridge magnets. They are so cute, man.
Some foods that you simply refuse to try?
Trotters and tripe. I can’t stomach the way they look or smell when boiling.
Fave Durban restaurant?
There’s something so enchanting about Market on Marriott Road. I love the set-up, service and vibe of the space, and I always order the sage-roasted butternut, bacon and pine nut cream penne. Yum.
What is your favourite cooking ingredient?
Garlic. I love Italian flavours and garlic makes me happy.
The most memorable meal you have eaten?
Most recently, I had a romantic date night at Umhlanga’s Green Mango – and it proved to be a taste adventure. From dumplings to prawn fried rice, divine duck and deep-fried ice-cream, every taste was sensational!
Who is your favourite celebrity cook?
I love Siba Mtongana. She is so warm and endearing, and her recipes are proudly South African.
The sexiest of foods?
Sushi is flipping sexy. All dressed up in different layers and with accessories. Unique taste and fun to eat. I love sushi!
What do you tip in restaurants?
Ten percent to 15 percent, depending on the service.
Have you/would you send a dish back at a restaurant if you were not happy?
Food must be enjoyed. I’d send a dish back if it was inedible.
Favourite fruit, veg, dessert and store-bought sweet?
Strawberries, mushrooms and anything nutty or chocolatey.
The Mercury