Jackie Cameron - Baking with Jackie Cameron

Dedication

To my parents, John and Mauveen Cameron, my sister Sheldeen, and other members of my family who have supported me with love and guidance over the years. They backed me through the trying times of opening the internationally-recognised Jackie Cameron School of Food & Wine in 2015. In the same year, Elaine Boshoff and I put this cookbook together and my unwavering gratitude goes also to Elaine, who has taken every step of the way with me.

I hope you will enjoy this book. Its filled with treasured family recipes, and Im happy to be able to share them, and my love of baking, with you.

Published in 2016 by Penguin Books
(an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd)
Company Reg. No. 1953/000441/07
The Estuaries, 4 Oxbow Crescent, Century Avenue, Century City 7441, Cape Town, South Africa
PO Box 1144, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa

www.penguinbooks.co.za
www.randomstruik.co.za

First published in 2016 by Penguin Books
Copyright in published edition: Penguin Random House South Africa 2016
Copyright in text: Jackie Cameron 2016
Copyright in photographs: Penguin Random House South Africa 2016

ISBN 978-148590-015-3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, digital, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and the copyright holders.

Publisher: Linda de Villiers
Managing editor: Cecilia Barfield
Design manager: Beverley Dodd
Designer: Helen Henn
Editor: Gill Gordon
Proofreader: Bronwen Maynier
Photographer: Myburgh du Plessis
Food stylist: Brita du Plessis
Stylists assistant: Andrea Maskew

Jackie Cameron is a remarkable chef. During the twelve years she spent at KwaZulu-Natals premier country hotel, Hartford House, she won numerous local and international awards. Over the past decade, her subtle and sophisticated fine dining work has been central to South Africas emerging epicurean identity. She has long understood and incorporated high-skill international culinary trends into her brave, profoundly personal and regionally rooted cooking style. In her new role as chef-patronne of the Jackie Cameron School of Food and Wine she is passing her delicious blend of classical training, dedication to detail, and bold innovation on to the next generation of professional chefs.

All of the above is important, but it is ultimately only a small part of what makes Jackie such an exciting culinary presence. We live in a world where the fashion for food has terrified many ordinary people out of cooking. Where once we cooked for love and sustenance, the food media increasingly promotes cooking as performance with all the pomp and puffery that accompanies such an approach.

Even the well-established cookbook genre of star chefs cooking at home is almost always detached from reality. Often such tomes seem downright ungrateful and ungracious in their failure to acknowledge the efforts of the millions of mothers and grandmothers who came before. What makes Jackie special is her profound recognition of the almost-apostolic succession of cooks who, through the ages, have passed their heritage of recipes and techniques. Jackie is intensely in touch with her links to her own past. She values the collective culinary inheritance of home cooking. Her grandmother to mother to sister or daughter approach is everywhere apparent. She generously invites us into the ordinary, daily delights of who she is, where she comes from and what she has learnt along the way.

Jackies personal confidence around cooking, plus her ability to combine past, present and future in each delicious offering, ensures that although her recipes are grounded in technique, she is always innovative. Under her generous guidance, the everyday is revealed as extraordinary.

Anna Trapido

Author of Hunger for Freedom: the story of food in the life of Nelson Mandela

For me, baking begins with my childhood memories of a pantry filled with homemade baked goodies. As children, my sister and I werent familiar with bought snacks or sweets because if we wanted something, we had to make it ourselves. As a result, we could whip up a cake in minutes! My introduction to bread making was at the age of three. I can still remember the dough-filled tin covered with a damp cloth, and the smell of the yeast as the bread proved. It was a real farmhouse loaf and it still features as Jacquelines White Bread in my mothers well-worn handwritten recipe book. When I first kneaded bread, I was a just tiny tot, standing on a chair, barely able to reach the kitchen counter. Granny Dot used to encourage me, saying get your back into it. From right back then, its always been about doing things properly. Both my grandmothers loved to cook, and were good at it. Granny Kay would spoil us with the very best Yorkshire pudding. Ive since discovered that her version was world class, because Ive yet to taste a recipe that compares with her creation.

As a school girl, I made a variation of choux pastry for an external verifier who moderated our practical exam. I still glow with pride when I think back to the first compliment about my cooking from an outsider. She suggested that the only place for me was Christina Martins School of Food and Wine. I was elated, and I did end up training there. At the time it was considered one of the best culinary courses in the world.

When I employ new chefs, I insist on them spending many hours in the pastry section of the kitchen. This tests their commitment, precision, determination, staying power, dedication and an appreciation of the final product. Working in the pastry section sifts out the good from the average and I dont want short cuts taken in any section of my kitchen.

Love, care and patience are essential requirements for any baker. In my career as a chef, Ive had plenty of practise in baking and confectionary, and there are many things I still have to learn, but I know that if I cook with these key ingredients things will turn out alright in the end. If some of your efforts dont work out quite right the first time, dont become despondent. Baking is part science, part art and it takes time to master all the skills required. Always test recipes before cooking for guests, and remember that cooking times and temperatures are just a guideline. You need to spend time with your oven to fully understand how it works; this is one relationship worth cultivating!

I hope this collection of some of my favourite cakes, puddings, pies and desserts will encourage you to develop your own love of baking, and persuade you to attempt new dishes. Youll find straightforward recipes to share with family and friends, and challenging recipes to impress your guests. But regardless of whether you are baking a simple batch of biscuits or whipping up a culinary masterpiece, I wish you much happiness in your kitchen.