I’ve always loved the word foodie. It says so much in just one word – passion, curiosity, joy. And yes, I proudly count myself among them. After all, I am The Infatuated Foodie. So, with my circle of food loving friends growing, I figured it time to meet them, and so it’s my pleasure to introduce Meet the Foodies.
Foodies are more than just people who love to eat. We are cooks, People who spend a lifetime learning about food, seeking out recipes, spices, experiences and stories. We cook not just to fill a plate, but to nourish: ourselves, our families, our friends.
The image below, taken when my granddaughter Ava was just two years old, is of us baking an Orange Poppyseed Cake.
We cooked in my temporary kitchen, where memories started to be made, and we still love cooking together.
And she still licks the bowl.
Our kitchens are built from memory and thrive with a purpose, often shaped by what we were taught by our mothers, grandmothers, fathers, and grandfathers. The legacy of food runs deep – recipes passed down, flour-dusted notebooks, smells that evoke personal stories.
While some food lovers go on to train professionally, many of us are simply guided by instinct and love – learning through trial and taste. We’re not on television, we don’t have a team of testers or a shelf full of cookbooks with our names on the spines. But what we do have is heart – and plenty of it.
We are people who find joy in pulling together a meal from the last odds and ends in the fridge. We grow herbs on the windowsill, bake from scratch, and find satisfaction in seeing someone take that first bite and … conversation stops.
Oh my word, this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten!
… is the sound of music to our ears.
Some of us lean toward creating elaborate feasts, others enjoy slow braised dishes borne of necessity and rich with deeply developed flavours. Still others seek fresh fresh-picked simplicity or hot hot spices.
But what connects us all is a quiet devotion to food, sharing, exploring and discovering.
Food, Memory, and Home
My own love of food began with the smells of my own Mum’s kitchen.
As a child and into my teenage years, I often guessed what was for dinner as I walked down our street, with the smell of good cooking greeting me as I neared our path. Mum was an wonderful cook. Saturdays were sweet with the smell of biscuits in the oven; weeknights were warmed by roasts, casseroles, and sauces, smooth as silk and stirred with patience. Her meals were nourishing, generous and always comforting.
One favourite stays with me today: poached chicken with fluffy mashed potatoes, fresh steamed veg, and a silky béchamel (we called it white sauce), infused green from curly parsley picked from the garden. It’s a go-to comfort food all these years later.
Freedom in the Kitchen
Okay, while I wasn’t allowed to do much cooking at home growing up, when I left home at sixteen, the kitchen became my classroom. In a share house with a few equally fresh-out-of-home teenagers, I started experimenting with what little we had – an electric frypan, a few old pots – and somehow made meals that my friends liked. It wasn’t fancy, but it was full of soul and a fair amount of creativity and imagination too.
Now, Let’s Meet the Foodies
My upcoming new blog series features foodies. The quiet food lovers who make magic at home. Who cook with feeling. Who stir love into every pot and feed others from a place of love.
These aren’t celebrity chefs or television stars. Some share their offerings on social media, some don’t. They’re your neighbour, your cousin, your colleague who brings the best leftovers. Everyday cooks with extraordinary stories of how food has shaped them, connected them, nourished them and their communities.
These are the real foodies of the world – and I can’t wait for you to meet them.
Stay tuned – the first Meet the Foodies article is coming soon.
