bucolic brain food at the writers festival

This was a special belly dedicated to a session on food writing at the Byron Bay Writers Festival.  The session was called “Eat me : writing food glorious food” – chaired by Joanna Savill, with authors Victoria Cosford ,Luke Nguyen, and Ramona Koval.

Giorgio Conte – Cannelloni

Joanna Savill

Joanna Savill is inaugural director of the Sydney International Food Festival. She presented one of the best ever food series on Australian TV – The Food Lovers’ Guide to Australia  – and she is co-editor of the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide. She also writes for many newspapers and magazines on food and hosts events like the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and a Taste of Slow.  And she laughs – a lot.  At least during this session, which was full of funny stories about childhood and families.  Audio of this and other sessions is being uploaded to the Byron Bay Writers Festival site.

All their books sound great, full of stories and a lot more than basic recipes.
Victoria Cosford :

Amore and Amaretti, Wakefield Press
a memoir of cooking and loving in Italy.

“Amore and Amaretti is a little different from the usual tale of people who travel aboard to find love and a      farmhouse that needs renovating in Tuscany or some other beautiful part of the world. For starters, it has great       descriptions of restaurant life and the dishes Cosford experiences – so enticingly described that you can           almost  taste them.”
Christine Salins  www.foodwinetravel.com.au

Ramona Koval :

Jewish Cooking Jewish Cooks
Published by New Holland

“Jewish Cooking Jewish Cooks is a collection of delicious, well loved, tried and true Jewish recipes from around the world            particularly Europe. It is also a collection of stories – all of which revolve, like much of Jewish life and tradition, around the subject of food.

From the most simple to the most celebratory of Jewish dishes, Ramona Koval presents a thriving, contemporary food culture founded on ancient tradition and laws that stretches beyond centuries and continents. Recipes range from latkes to lox, borscht, blintzes,  and kugel to cabbage rolls, and compote as well as many vegetarian dishes.”
http://www.jewishaustralia.com/jewishcooking.htm

Luke Nguyen :
Secrets Of The Red Lantern: Stories And Vietnamese Recipes From The Heart
by Mark Jensen, Pauline Nguyen and Luke Nguyen

“If this book may be classified as a food memoir, it also rises above genre by virtue of the elegant prose used to relate the moving story, as well as through the recipes that feel part of the creators’ hearts.  Either aspect of the book can stand alone: the saga of this family is compelling reading on its own, and the recipes (more than 275 of them) are all enticing. ”
Diana Farrell Serbe, here

The Songs of Sapa by  Luke Nguyen,  Murdoch Books

“As with many food tomes these days, this as much a travel book as a cookbook, each destination evoked by the dishes of the region…full of warmth and enthusiasm for the people, the food and the places. There’s also the occasional toe-curling account of experiences like swallowing whole a still-beating snake heart…”
Kerry Boyne, http://www.eatstreets.com.au/articles/book_reviews/the_songs_of_sapa

Thanks to the northern rivers writers centre for bringing all wonderful writers to town and allowing belly to record this session – thanks to sound guy Phil from SCU for his assistance – and if you’d like some more Monday 4 October Victoria Cosford is coming on belly with me to talk Italian food.  And thanks to Marina and Lesley at Red Ginger for the abacus won by lucky subscriber Jenny.

And to finish all those great stories about food and families, a refreshingly sour EDIBLE QUOTE by the wonderful American food writer M.F.K. Fisher, from ‘An alphabet of gourmets’.

“F is for family…

The cold truth is that family dinners are more often than not an ordeal of nervous indigestion, preceded by hidden resentment and ennui and accompanied by psychosomatic jitters.”

But hei, even that would make a good story.  If you have a good (or bad) food story to tell, get in touch with the bellysisters.  You don’t have to have written a book or a blog, but if you have, especially if it is something not for mainstream publication, we’d love to hear your stories and share your flavours with the bayfm listeners.
Sister Tess

Apricot Rail – Pouring milk out the window

d.i.g. – Hot cakes