Recently I moved from my home of 30 years in to a brand new apartment, so it’s fitting that my digital home now has a fresh new look, too.

Together with the team at Gozer Studio, I have tried to create a space that reflects my passions in words and pictures. Many of the photos that appear on the website were taken in the lush edible garden that I tended for decades in my previous home. These photos will serve as a connection between the past and the future.

I hope you enjoy the update. Please take a look around and tell me what you think. Here are some of the new features you can explore:

Seasonal Menus

One of my favourite tasks during my restaurant years was crafting a new menu.

I did this seasonally and tried to tantalize diners at the prospect of what was to come, by including a little bit of information about each dish, rather than a list of ingredients.

The crafting of a meal that offered experiences of places visited, flavours tasted, people met, and that was satisfying as well as interesting was a regular task I never tired of. In fact, I miss it.

So I have created a new online project, called Seasonal Menus: an evolving collection of menus I have devised to inspire your meals at home.

As always, each menu will offer balance, surprise and pleasure. They will be appropriate to the season with the recipes mostly found in The Cook’s Companion, book or App. Now and then I will add a new idea and its recipe will be added to the website.

Take a look at the first three menus here: Winter warmers, Le Cassoulet and Winter is citrus time.

 

Recipe library

I have been asked over and over to include some recipes on the website.

I always say that I do not have favourites, but even so there are dishes that I find I cook often and which are always well-received by family and friends. I have decided to make a selection of these available in my recipe library, mostly taken from the Cook’s Companion App.

You’ll find the first 27 or so recipes here, with more to come each season.

Why not cook a Silverbeet and Potato Torte, or my family Pavlova.

 

The Cook’s Companion App

My App now has a newly updated information page with an easy-to-access FAQ, information on how to gift the App, plus some lovely feedback from users and reviewers.

Over the last few weeks I have added many extra food pictures to the App, including Quince and browned butter tart, Leek and goat cheese tart and Tomato Tarte Tatin (usually made with puff pastry but I do not like waste and I still had shortcrust leftover!)

If you have not yet had the pleasure of using the Cook’s Companion App, click here to read about its features and download the preview version for free.

I hope you enjoy the new website. Happy cooking!