"Rather Face Hundred Women Than Two Hungry Men"

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 46, 24 May 1935, Page 56

"Rather Face Hundred Women Than Two Hungry Men"

Miss Cecil Whitcombe, Well-Known Instructor ‘In Cooking, Writes For "Radio Record".

"To go from a crowded demonstration hall to the quiet seclusion of 2 bachelor brother’s home in Auckland. has been my lot since I left Christehurch., You would imagine that I would make short work of cooking for one; ou the contrary, my experiences have been Gonfined to women, and it really was quite laughable when I found myself in the kitchen cooking and serving my first dinner to a critical males My knees shook and. I was in a state of "nerves," more especially when quite unexpectedly a friend walked in with him! I thought I would rather face a hundred women than those two men. However, I battled through. I grew" quite fast at planning and _ serving these little meals. When more than usually successful my brother would

say, "let’s write so and so, and give him a rabbit pie?’ or some other dish that had taken his fancy. We had some very prolific passion fruit vines, and from them'I evolved a passion fruit cream which received several "encores." , ~ A guava tree next received my at-’ tention, and I made some _ capital guava jelly, to serve as a garnish with roast rabbit, ete. A friend wanted: to know what next I was going. to make from the estate. Though-I have in my time tried all classes of cookery, yet still in my opinion, plain and simple dishes rank. first. But I like then perfectly cooked and served. So much depends on the making up of a menu, with due regard to the season, what’s in your garden. the market, ete. It is quite.a good plan to keep a regular notebook of recipes for the different seasons of the

year, then you: can quickly refer- to them in the making up-of.your menu 100 per cent..and if. the notebook od | kept up-to-date and fresh recipes added from time to time, there is never:any ' chance of one’s meals becoming monotonous. "Variety is the spice of life"; a nourishing attractive meal is more. than a welcome to a tired husband. I think it is Lady Gertrude Gekyll who says in the preface to her cookery: book that women should confine their attention less to the spreading of nets and more to the making of cages, , Cooking is not the’ drudgery it 18° supposed to be if an intelligent interest _ is taken in it. There should be method and order in the kitchen: ant one should see that there'is'a govod supply of the necessary utensils. I have been in a great many kitchens; too often I found it extremely difficult to cook. One cannot make "bricks" With straw. There should be in ever ¥ kitchen a set of . scales’ (for correct weighing), several basins," large.. and small, a roll of cooking paper, a pair of scissors, different sizes in .eake tins. cutters, ete. -It- is:-not economy-~ to put a. smal] mixture in a large, tin, and. in most ‘shops nowadays there.is 3. splendid assortment of kitchen ware to be had very cheaply. The kitchen to my mind is a temple: Let us see that it is beautifully kept and simply furnished, a: eredit' to its presiding genius-the Woman: in the Home. ‘ bose