Shahnaz Ahsan’s long read “Sharing the family secrets”, in the Observer Food Monthly
What type of cook are you?
“There are two types of cook in this world; those who keep their recipes secret, and those who share with joyful abandon”.
So begins Shahnaz Ahsan’s long read “Sharing the family secrets”, in the Observer Food Monthly, in which she explores the pleasures and pitfalls of recipe exchange. Recipes change hands in many ways; the passing down from one generation to the next by word of mouth or simply cooking together; a friend’s interpretation of an admired dish and the multifarious ways we access print and video recipes today, be they yellowing cuttings from an ancient magazine or Youtube and Instagram.
The article is beautifully illustrated with Romas Foord’s photographs, including a beautiful shot of a prospector pan.
Whether you cook intuitively, throwing in a bit of this and a splash of that or meticulously, weighing every last gram and timing to the minute, this article will strike a chord.
