Sri Owen | |
|---|---|
 Sri Owen at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 2012 | |
| Born | 1935 (age 88–89) |
| Occupation(s) | Cookbook writer and culinary teacher |
| Spouse | Roger Owen (died 2021) |
| Website | http://www.sriowen.com/ |
Sri Owen (born 31 March 1935) is an Indonesian cooking teacher and food writer, based in London for most of her life. She is the author of the first English-language recipe book dedicated to the food of Indonesia, and is recognised as a leading authority on Indonesian cuisine. [1]
Owen was born in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra, in what was then the Dutch East Indies, on 31 March 1935. She was born to a Minangkabau family, [2] in a town at the heart of that culture. She was the eldest of six children, all girls.
Her childhood was disrupted by Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies; during World War II, millions of Indonesians died of famine, forced labour, and the disruption of society. [3] Her parents worked as teachers, and the family lived briefly in Jakarta, before settling in Magelang, Central Java in 1949. [4] Sri continued her education in Yogyakarta and studied English Literature at Gadjah Mada University. After graduating, she taught at the university and became head of its library; it was there in 1961 that she met Roger Owen, a British Oxford University graduate, who lectured in history in Indonesia for three years. Sri and Roger married in 1962.
After accompanying her husband back to London in 1963, Sri worked as a translator, broadcaster and producer for the BBC Far Eastern Service for almost 20 years. [5] In 1984, Roger and Sri moved with their two sons to Wimbledon Village, where Sri sold Indonesian dishes and snacks from a shop on the High Street.
Her first cookbook, The Home Book Of Indonesian Cookery, was published by Faber in 1976, and brought together family recipes handed down by her grandmother and carefully recorded by her mother. Owen went on to write more than a dozen books on the food of Indonesia and other Asian countries. A significant mentor was Alan Davidson, author of The Oxford Companion to Food , to whom she eventually dedicated her 15th book, Sri Owen’s Indonesian Food. He influenced her thinking about "foodways"—the ever-evolving totality "of all the food habits in a community or culture". [6] She argues that rendang , recognised by the Indonesian state as one of the five national dishes, is a Minangkabau dish. [7]
In addition to her writing, Owen has run cookery demonstrations, workshops and courses across the globe, and has appeared on BBC TV with chefs including Raymond Blanc.
The Rice Book was selected by Bee Wilson of the Observer Food Monthly as one of the magazine's top 50 cookbooks of all time. [8] Owen's most recent book, Sri Owen’s Indonesian Food, is an autobiographical celebration of the cooking of the country of her birth.
Melissa Clark of the New York Times quotes Paul Levy, chairman emeritus of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, siting Owen's food scholarship within the tradition of culinary writers who also opened up to the English-speaking world then-novel cuisines like Elizabeth David (Mediterranean cuisine), Jane Grigson (European cooking, and traditional British dishes), Claudia Roden (Middle Eastern food), and Julia Child (classical French cuisine). [9]
Sri Owen has been described by Nikkei Asia as "the Indonesian food writer credited with introducing her country's cuisine to the world". [10] She mentored young chef and writer Lara Lee, [11] who also wishes "to share the wonderful cuisine of Indonesia with the world". [12] The San Francisco Chronicle calls her "an obvious authority on Indonesian cooking" [13] Mayukh Sen described Sri Owen simply as "The Woman Who Changed the Way We Think About Indonesian Food". [14]
A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe.
A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes.
Indonesian cuisine is a collection of various regional culinary traditions that formed in the archipelagic nation of Indonesia. There are a wide variety of recipes and cuisines in part because Indonesia is composed of approximately 6,000 populated islands of the total 17,508 in the world's largest archipelago, with more than 1,300 ethnic groups.
Malay cuisine is the traditional food of the ethnic Malays of Southeast Asia, residing in modern-day Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Southern Thailand and the Philippines as well as Cocos Islands, Christmas Island, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
Rendang is a Minangkabau dish. It is a rich meat-based dish that is slow-cooked, braised in coconut milk, and seasoned with herb and spice mixture over a period of several hours. As the liquids evaporate, the meat turns dark brown and tender, caramelizing and infusing it with rich flavours.
Nasi goreng is a Southeast Asian fried rice dish, usually cooked with pieces of meat and vegetables. One of Indonesia's national dishes, it is also eaten in Malay-speaking communities in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, and has gained popularity in Sri Lanka through migrations from the Indonesian Archipelago, in countries like Suriname via Indonesian immigrant communities, and in the Netherlands through its colonial ties with Indonesia. Nasi goreng is distinguished from other Asian fried rice preparations by its distinct smoky aroma, and caramelised yet savoury undertones of flavour. There is no single defined recipe for nasi goreng, and its composition and preparation varies greatly from household to household.
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Claudia Roden is an Egyptian-born British cookbook writer and cultural anthropologist of Sephardi/Mizrahi descent. She is best known as the author of Middle Eastern cookbooks including A Book of Middle Eastern Food, The New Book of Middle Eastern Food and Arabesque—Sumptuous Food from Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon.
Padang dish or Minangkabau dish is the cuisine of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It is among the most popular cuisines in Maritime Southeast Asia. It is known across Indonesia as Masakan Padang after Padang, the capital city of Western Sumatra province. It is served in restaurants mostly owned by perantauan (migrating) Minangkabau people in Indonesian cities. Padang food is ubiquitous in Indonesian cities and is popular in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.
Fuchsia Charlotte Dunlop is an English writer and cook who specialises in Chinese cuisine, especially Sichuan cuisine. She is the author of seven books, including the autobiographical Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper (2008). According to Julia Moskin in The New York Times, Dunlop "has done more to explain real Chinese cooking to non-Chinese cooks than anyone".
Klepon or kelepon also known outside Java as onde-onde and Buah Melaka, is a snack of sweet rice cake balls filled with molten palm sugar and coated in grated coconut. Of Javanese origin, the green-coloured glutinous rice balls are one of the popular traditional kue in Indonesian cuisine.
Corinne Trang is an author of Asian-themed cookbooks.
Asam pedas is a Maritime Southeast Asian sour and spicy fish stew dish. Asam pedas is believed to come from Minangkabau cuisine of West Sumatra, Indonesia and has spread throughout to the islands of Sumatra, Borneo and the Malay Peninsula.
Gulai is a class of spicy and rich stew commonly found in Malay Archipelago. The main ingredients of the dish are usually poultry, goat meat, beef, mutton, various kinds of offal, fish, and seafood, as well as vegetables such as cassava leaves, unripe jackfruit, and banana stem.
Irene Kuo, née Irene Hsingnee Yuan, was the author of The Key to Chinese Cooking and an influential popularizer of Chinese cuisine in the United States and the West during the 1960s and 1970s. Her appearances on American talk-shows such as Johnny Carson's and Joan Rivers', as well as her successful restaurants, were instrumental in her popularization and education efforts.
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Indian Indonesian cuisine is characterized by the mixture of Indian cuisine with local Indonesian-style. This cuisine consists of adaptations of authentic dishes from India, as well as original creations inspired by the diverse food culture of Indonesia. Indian influence can be observed in Indonesia as early as the 4th century. Following the spread of Islam to Indonesia and trading, Muslim Indian as well as Arab influences made their way into Indonesian cuisine. Examples include Indian biryani, murtabak, curry and paratha that influenced Acehnese, Minangkabau, Malay, Palembangese, Betawi and Javanese cuisine.
Nasi kari is an Indonesian rice dish from Acehnese, Minangkabau and Malay as well as Javanese cuisine. This rice dish is popular in Sumatra and Java, Indonesia.
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