Pair’s double life laid bare on the cuisine and home front, writes Diane de Beer
If there's one thing authors (among others) Hardy Olivier and Louis Jansen van Vuuren know how to do, it’s to live and tell their own story – majestically.
Story of a House (Fables and Feasts from La Creuzette) is a beautiful set of books that embraces and flow from the house the couple bought when they settled in France more than a decade ago.
And because it is a guesthouse, this isn’t only a telling of their particular tale, but also a recipe book on the five seasons in their lives.
That’s correct, five, because they have also bought a home on the West Coast which adds the additional season to their lives and the book.
Apart from the almost 90 new recipes in the primary book, there is an additional “crookbook” in which the two hosts share their easy shortcut recipes and tips – “how to conjure and connive when immediate action is needed”, they explain.
What further embroiders their story is that Olivier used to be a banker, while Jansen van Vuuren is an artist of note.
It took 15 years to restore the impressive Château de la Creuzette in what they describe as “la France profonde” (the heartland) to her former glory. When they bought the house, they had to remove many layers of paint and well-meaning restoration to get to the home they had envisioned when buying the property.
But once they got that right, the guests, initially mainly from South Africa and France, started streaming in for food, art, garden or literature holidays which have been developed following demand.
Tapestries, one of Olivier’s fascinations, will also pop into the schedule soon because there are some particularly great examples in this area.
On the cookery front, Olivier is the one who spends more time in the kitchen but they usually have chefs visiting from around the world with the focus on South Africa and France – and this is where they have sharpened their skills.
Van Vuuren is also a good cook but the two never share a cooking space because their methods are different, he says, with a twinkle in his eye.
Following the success of a first book about this French lifestyle, Festive France, the new one was conceived when they met two South African photographers who were keen to participate.
This happened while they were in their West Coast home and, before they could blink, they had started cooking and snapping photos.
This is often how their innovation and ingenuity evolves.
When it was time to determine recipes to include in their latest storybook, they focused on the latest additions to their kitchen. It is about food that can be recreated at home. It is also about the styling and look but, more importantly, the taste.
France, especially, is a country that cooks strictly and almost fanatically according to seasonal produce. The rest of the world has followed suit because it makes such sense and delivers on taste. “We were not led by rules,” notes Olivier. If they had four good crab recipes, they would include them.
It wasn’t so much about variety as lifestyle. It’s also about delivering the best.
“It’s always the prettiest and the best,” he says.
Glancing through the recipes, they confirm this isn’t a traditional book – it’s about their favourite food, things they like and those that tick all the boxes with guests.
Apart from their creativity, they also have the advantage of turning to the best of the best in their home and adopted country.
They describe their food as French classically inspired with a South African twist. “French food is much richer,” explains Van Vuuren. “They use more herbs and fewer spices, and they eat their fish rawer than we do at home.”
Because food plays such a large role in their lives, experimentation, having fun in the kitchen, is all part of their lives.
“I would, for example, take a traditional clafoutis, give it a twist, turn from sweet to savoury, which results in a most unusual tomato clafoutis,” says Olivier.
Because they spend time on the West Coast, a mincemeat bobotie will change protein and become a mussel bobotie.
They’re inspired by their experience and the lives they live, which translates into this book set, which is available in Afrikaans and English.
As excited as they are about the gourmet recipes, they are also thrilled by the additional book of crook recipes, or short cuts, which they hope to develop next year into a more expansive addition to their repertoire.
We all know those family secrets that help us along in the kitchen, the way to do something that might appear difficult but is quite simple if you know how.
That is where the emphasis for this one lies. That, as well as simple tricks to apply in any kitchen.
The duo realised that many people are intimidated when dealing with food. They also know this is unnecessary and that’s where this short cut idea came from.
The response to the collection has been huge. And, in typical fashion so part of their modus operandi, they have had fun at their launches, raffling a small painting by Van Vuuren of their home to everyone buying a book, and gifting a trip to their French paradise to one of the buyers of multiple books.
As soon as they’ve finished with one project, their heads turn to another and they rattle through a few with Van Vuuren seemingly heading in a new direction with his paintings.
It’s how these creative souls evolve. With life at their fingertips, they’re always looking at what is out there, how they can include their lifestyle in the way they present themselves – all the while having a good time.
In the current style of popular cookbooks and similar to their previous effort, this isn’t just about the food, it is also the story of the house as they reach back in time, not only to reinvent what is to become their home and recapture its former glory, but also to give context to their lives.
It is a glorious escape into another world with fabulous food to give it a practical edge.
Come inside, they say, the doors are open…
* The Story of a House by Louis Jansen van Vuuren and Hardy Olivier is published by Quivertree