This is Alison Holst’s 100th book but it is not a cookbook. She has written her memoirs. Her down to earth style made me think of the phrase: “an ordinary person doing extraordinary things” but I am not sure that is true. I think her matter of fact delivery and lack of obvious ego mask the fact that she is a genuinely extraordinary person who has achieved quite extraordinary things in her life and exerted considerable influence on the cooking, eating and domestic habits of a nation for forty five years. I credit her with our decision to buy a deep freeze in early seventies when they were still very new. She taught us how to get the best out of microwaves, slow cookers and bread makers. She expanded the repertoire of flavours and dishes at the most basic, domestic level. She has tirelessly championed the cause of learning kitchen fundamentals and making nutritionally-sound family meals the glue that holds family together. One cannot describe those as the achievements of an ordinary person.
Her memoirs record an early life circumscribed by the social and economic conditions of the time, although the outstanding success of all three Payne daughters suggests a somewhat richer and more aspirational upbringing than was usual. There is an interesting thread of social history weaving through this book, giving a context to everyday life from about 1890 (when the author’s grandmother set sail for NZ) to 2011.
The lack of emotion and the understatement gloss over the remarkable personal achievements of managing a demanding career involving extensive travel both domestically and overseas and a very public persona when it was still early days for women to continue careers into their married lives. Not only that, but she had a husband with a demanding career and two children. To hold all that together and to maintain a stable home life which still endures to this day must have taken both stamina and skill well beyond the norm. It may fall to a biographer to record the greater picture of the achievements of this remarkable but modest woman.
Lest readers feel short-changed, there is a small section at the end of the book with the author’s 17 all time favourite recipes. It includes the best ever Christmas cake (in my opinion) – one rich in mango, papaya and pineapple where the mix contains as much ground almond as flour. I have been making Anne’s Oaty Pancakes for two decades without realising it was a Holst recipe but this was the first time I tried Cinnamon Oysters.
A Home-grown Cook. The Dame Alison Holst Story by Alison Holst with Barbara Larson (Hyndman; ISBN: 1 877382 67 1) reviewed by Abbie Jury.
