There are no mistakes in cooking, says Evita Bezuidenhout today in a cooking demonstration at the Cape Town Book Fair. Every mistake is "just another recipe."

Evita was chatting about food and politics as chef Logan Coath from Webersburg prepared a pork roast from her new book Kossie Sikelela. She emphasised that many of the recipes were those of a friend, not her own, as she had been too busy "babysitting for President Zuma" recently, to do much cooking.

Visitors to the Cape Town Book Fair were queuing up long before lunch time on Saturday morning, tempted by the smells coming from the Pick n Pay chef's theatre, where Evita and others gave demonstrations.

First, the "huiskok" of Afrikaans radio station RSG, Errieda du Toit, treated visitors to a food demonstration, sprinkled with humour. "Some ingredients together are like a symphonic orchestra, while others are more like a Friday night jol," she said. 

Later Tina Bester showed visitors how to prepare meals from her new book, Comfort. On the menu was smoorsnoek, served with crusty bread and an asparagus, avocado and goat's cheese salad.

About the salad, Katinka van Niekerk, who was responsible for the wine and food pairing, said: "Here you have every ingredient that cries for only one wine - a sauvignon blanc."

Katinka said the old rule of pairing white wine with white meats and red wine with red meats was "passé".  She recommended a shiraz to go with the smoky taste of the snoek.

Evita's book contains cooking by Malay, Afrikaans and English dishes, "even though English cooking is a contradiction in terms," she said.

"Of course, I started cooking years ago, and Pik Botha said I was the best cook in the National Party, and I should use my cooking to make friends. I said, ‘We've got no friends.' Our best friend was Cuba, a little island near America, like England is a little island near Europe.

"I made babotie for Castro. He was on the way to Pretoria to taste my waterbloometjie bredie but he veered left, like all the Communists, and ended up in Angola."

There are no mistakes in cooking," she said. "If you make a mistake, it's a new recipe," she said. "Of course, malva pudding was a mistake - it sticks your false teeth together. I serviced it to the ANC and it stuck their teeth together, so they couldn't talk for two years."

Issued on behalf of the Cape Town Book Fair by HWB Communications

For queries contact:

Claudia Kaiser

Director Cape Town Book Fair

Email: Claudia@capetownbookfair.co.za

Sadika Ahmed

Sales and Exhibitions Manager

Telephone: +27 21 418 5493

Jo-Anne Smetherham

HWB Communications

Email: jo@hwb.co.za

Telephone: 084 254 1616