Stephanie Alexander - The Making Of A Food Lover

In her long-awaited cookbook Home, Stephanie Alexander shares essays and dishes that are the bedrock of her repertoire. It is a celebration of a life spent exploring the sensual and social delights of food with recipes that will be cooked, shared and talked about for years.

I have been asked over and over again what made me follow the path I have taken. Why did I become a food writer and a restaurant owner–chef after training as a librarian? And nowadays the questions continue with wondering why I have concerned myself so deeply with the food lives of children.

My mother was the primary influence. From my very early years I knew that food choices mattered to my mother. She and my father both enjoyed reminiscing about their first shared travel experiences. They had met on board a Japanese ship in 1939, and as children in the early 1950s my sister and I were fascinated by these holiday snaps of our kimono-clad parents kneeling on cushions on board ship, manipulating chopsticks with what looked like practised ease. In their long, happy life together my parents loved to share the table. In the 1950s various European friends would arrive bearing edible gifts. Sometimes we got to taste a walnut cake or a roll made with ground poppy seeds, and, on one memorable occasion when I was eight years old, my first oyster! Mum collected pretty plates that she loved to use. She gathered small posies of herbs and flowers to decorate the table. The fresh bread rolls were homemade. The linen placemats were embroidered by her. There was always wine served and, as the glasses were filled, if we remained very quiet we got to stay up late and hear more and more stories.