PLATE ACCOMPLI

IT COULD BE SAID THAT local chef and cookbook author Marlene van der Westhuizen lives a charmed life, dividing her time between her home in Green Point, Cape Town, and the house in the medieval town of Charroux in rural France where she hosts her cooking courses. Yet the reality is more grit than glamour, she says. The reality is one of a committed cook who has spent “entirely too much time on planes and trains” in order to share her passion for food and her unwavering belief in doing things well. The latter, as it turns out, was also the impetus for her latest cookbook.

Plate is your eighth cookbook, after kicking off with Delectable in 2006. What was your motivation in writing it?

I think there is such a mixed bag of cookbooks out there that it can be quite unnerving for people, so I wanted to write something that could serve as a go-to cookbook, something you can depend on entirely. The type of book in which you’ll find the right recipe each time you pick it up, whether it’s a simple meal for the kids, something for the family, a fancy dinner, or just a braai – whatever the occasion, you’ll find a delicious recipe that just works. This is not something I just whipped out of my back pocket; I did