Pretoria - The Van der Wat sisters, the second- and third-placed MasterChef contestants of the 2013 season, are two smart cookies.
They’re also hugely likeable and have managed their career in the same professional manner they did the competition.
They know about brand marketing and how important all these things are, but they’ve not lost a gram of their authenticity.
It’s obvious I’m charmed. They simply seem too perfect to be liked but, when you meet them, sit back and chat, they’re the real deal.
That’s also what I thought about their book when I paged through it in a bookstore. I had no intention of writing about yet another cookery book by some or other competition winner but the way Two: Seline and Leandri (Struik Lifestyle) has been put together with great imagination and innovation by these two young bright sparks, changed my mind…
Seline is an engineer but has moved her full-time attention and energy to her catering business which specialises in private gigs, special events, pop-up restaurants, demos and food writing.
She also got married these past few months and is embarking on this latest journey with huge excitement.
Leandri has also had a huge life change, completing the first part of her studies, her Master’s degree in chemistry, and has decided to start work rather than throw herself into a PhD which she is intent on doing later.
Her career has not taken a food route but has gone in the biomedical direction.
But she hasn’t forsaken her passion as this book, and her directorship in Roast Republic coffee, one of the loves of her life, show.
When the pair started out after the competition concluded, while both were still studying at the University of Pretoria, they were handled as a commodity, a package.
“It was difficult,” says Seline, because they are two people and their lives are not that intertwined. But because they think on their feet, know what and how they want to run their lives, they managed to control this peculiarity and it has finally worked out.
They’re much more in control of how they want it done. That’s clear when you look at the cookbook, which is so smart.
Anyone writing about food or books knows that cookery books in this country are popular, and around the festive time of year when people are buying gifts, anything to do with food and wine proliferates. So you had better come up with something special.
These two young chefs come from a generation who talk about – rather than make – food.
Yet they grew up in a home where they were encouraged to cook and especially to experiment, which is how their flops grew into successes and why both of them fared so well in that particular MasterChef season.
They both speak about being influenced by Richard Carstens from Tokara in Stellenbosch (he is also the chef who had a huge impact on Reuben Riffel).
He invited the two girls to spend time with him on the beautiful estate to experience his kitchen.
“He focused our attention on ingredients,” says Seline.
And they both agree that he probably was the one looming largest in their mind when thinking, making and writing their cookbook.
Food is the passion of both women, but they approach it slightly differently.
Talking about supper that particular night, Seline and her husband were thinking of dumplings, which they’d buy and then personalise with a broth, while Leandri was to go for something more simple.
They both agree, however, that it is much easier, healthier and cost-effective to make your own food.
While their contemporaries don’t cook, they’re much more informed about food than past generations.
“They will talk about sustainable fish and organic products,” says Seline.
When it came to their own book, they decided to work together – separately. That’s what makes this such a clever idea.
They took one item and then would both do their version on that.
Each section features two recipes (hence the title as well as the play on their particular status), using similar ingredients to develop two distinctly different dishes. One is simpler and easier and requires much less effort, which makes it invariably perfect for everyday eating, while the other is more complex, using tougher techniques.
Check out their book. There’s a charm, a creativity and a contemporary edge that give it visibility in today’s overpopulated cookery book landscape.
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