Kitchen Spy: Stephanie Alexander

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This was published 11 years ago

Kitchen Spy: Stephanie Alexander

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Food hero Stephanie Alexander takes us on a tour of her home kitchen in Hawthorn, Melbourne.

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Stephanie Alexander rose to prominence as a restaurateur in Melbourne in the 1970s,'80s and '90s.Credit:Eddie Jim

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She now has a presence in thousands of home kitchens around Australia. More than 500,000 sales of ground-breaking 'The Cook's Companion' helped her establish the Kitchen Garden Foundation.Credit:Domino Postiglione

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The foundation educates Australian school children about growing, harvesting and preparing fruit and vegetables.Credit:Rob Gunstone

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Stephanie Alexander: "A home kitchen should be a place you enjoy being in. For me that means that many of my treasured plates, cups and odd bits and pieces are on display, rather than buried in cupboards."Credit:Eddie Jim

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"Most have a story to tell. I love a colourful world, so there is no white in my kitchen." (Pictured, Alexander's French copper jam pot.)Credit:Eddie Jim

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Sentimental: "My mother's Spode English bone china. She saved up for this and purchased it at the Primrose Pottery Shop... Whenever I have lots of people over the Spode comes out."Credit:Eddie Jim

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"My beautiful tablecloths; they are a great thing to bring back from travels. Many of them are from France ... They've been washed hundreds of times and never seem to shrink or fade."Credit:Eddie Jim

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My tool kit: "My couscoussier (above) and my copper jam pot."Credit:Eddie Jim

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"My alabaster mortar, which I found in a second-hand store in the south-west of France. I had a woodturner make the pestle when I returned home."Credit:Eddie Jim

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Most memorable meal? "I have a bulging file of menues from all over Australia and the world spanning 30 years. How could I choose just one (meal)?"Credit:Eddie Jim

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My pantry: "Romanella butter beans and chickpeas, Maggie Beer's vino cotto, Nolans Road extra-virgin olive oil, Vegemite, canned tomatoes."Credit:Eddie Jim

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"Meals I have remembered as stunning have tended to be based around outstanding ingredients .. are often deceptively simple; but the flavour has been paramount."Credit:Eddie Jim

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To drink: "Two glasses of wine with dinner (aromatic whites, medium-bodied reds). No cabernet or Barossa shiraz (known as ice-pick reds for the headaches they give me)."Credit:Eddie Jim

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"In my garden now I'm harvesting Tuscan kale, silverbeet, leaf chicory and the last of the sprouting broccoli."Credit:Eddie Jim

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"I have five John Downie crabapple trees. Last year these exquisitely beautiful, evil parrots took a bite out of every (apple). It was hard to hate them. They were so beautiful."Credit:Eddie Jim

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Books: "I do have a collection of cookbooks with several hundred titles that I enjoy browsing through with no particular thought in mind, or to check various versions of something I want to try."Credit:Eddie Jim

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"The natural world is my major inspiration. A walk through a vegetable garden, or a good market has my mind immediately teeming with possibilities of things to cook."Credit:Eddie Jim

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Kitchen Garden Foundation: "I visit schools ... about once a week. Often they'll give me a gift, which might be packet of seeds they've harvested ...Credit:Eddie Jim

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"... some preserves, dried fruit, or I'll get a lovely card (from the students)."Credit:Eddie Jim EJZ