PLANTS IN PARADISE

Former Durban creative (and one-time carnivore) Neil Roake and his daughter Jordan's epic travels led them to collaborate on the all veg cookbook Castaway. They shared their meat-free adventures on the Filipino island of Siargao with TASTE.

Neil Roake is a former Durban design legend - the Durban bit is critical to understanding Neil - and the founder of Modern Museum agency. He's also the original food nerd and has published several award-winning cookbooks, contributed food content to many South African magazines and produced ground-breaking advertising campaigns.

While he has sadly left SA for Amsterdam, Roake has always been the ultimate vagabond, finding inspiration in far-flung places, but always coming home to produce some of the most original work in his field. It is no surprise, then, that his latest production is Castaway, a book of crazy-delicious, meat-free recipes inspired by and shot while travelling with his daughter, Jordan, who co-authored the book.

TASTE chose to publish the chapter on Siargao, in the Phillippines, on the Roakes' own recommendation because they are clearly consummate storytellers and we believe people should be allowed to tell their own stories.

"Jordy grew up surrounded by foodies and creatives," says Neil, "namely our buddies, Greg and Roche Dry of EGG Designs. Our house was a constant flow of lunch parties that lingered into twinkling evenings, where Greg would turn the day's lunch into gourmet toasties for the kids.

"Almost every Saturday looked like this, as we cooked long-table meals. The kids always sat with us and shared the feast. Of course, they left the table early to run wild while the adults carried on adulting, returning only for those aforementioned toasties."

And in Jordan's words: "As more and more people discuss their early childhood memories in terms of food, I've realised that all the best stories come from the kids who just wanted 'normal' food in their lunch boxes, but were lucky enough to never experience that perception of normalcy.