The warm and funny, ultra-approachable television and radio cooking personality, Annabelle is synonymous with good food and fun times in the kitchen. She believes that keeping food simple, ‘confidence building’ and delicious, mixed with plenty of tips, funny quips and great recipes make for good times for family and friends.
We spoke to Annabelle and asked her a few questions, especially for The Sisterhood!
Q: What do you love most about your job?
A: The great thing about my work is the variety. Every day is deliciously different. From testing recipes to cooking classes, to writing, to speaking to groups, TV, Radio and sitting in a board room helping with new products. It’s never dull!
Added to that is the opportunity to help and nurture people through the power of good food.
Sharing and encouraging the personal reward of preparing simple, local ingredients from your back yard and local market through to the joys of the table – sharing your day with a pot of something delicious and a glass of good wine and being with good friends or family .
Also another good thing – around the table everyone is equal!
Q: Who has inspired you?
A: My mother Jacqueline White was always preparing great food for the family and the joy of dinner shared is one of my happiest childhood memories – also, when I was 17 I went to live in Dover, Delaware and spent a year with an Italian-American family as an AFS scholar and their total obsession with wondrous new ingredients and the family dinner table added to this already firm commitment to the joys of good family dinners. Today I cook for Mum and Dad who live next door.
Q: What famous woman in history would you like to meet and why?
A: The list is so long….but in the more recent times I would love to have meet Nora Ephron who passed a few years back, way too early. She was the writer and the creative energy behind movies such as “Sleepless in Seattle” and “When Harry Met Sally “ and “You’ve Got Mail “. She loved great food, was incredibly talented and funny food writer as well as punchy writer on broader issues. When she was visiting her dying mother in the hospital her mother said to her “don’t be sad, it’s all good copy!”
That’s pure New York (my favourite city) on steroids and so open and honest.
Q: How do you stay positive during challenging times
A: Cooking has always been my go to – even as a child if someone in the family passed and I could see sadness – I would go to the kitchen and bake and cook. The simple positive joy of nurturing others, trying to be helpful and trying to make a difference. Not for praise but just being conscious of others’ needs.
Making people a little comforted in difficult times – same too today – like so many others – cooking, baking, filling the freezer somehow restores, reassures and gives confidence when you are surrounded by more challenging uncertain issues – and all the above is enhanced with a glass of wine!
