What dishes do you think you are best at?
In terms of eating, I favour pretty simple and quick dishes, and am best at stove-top and very simple oven cooking. The simpler the process, the easier it is fro me to be creative with flavor and texture, such as a citrus duck breast salad I designed recently. The simplicity of a duck Magret, allowed me to play around with a range of citrus flavours I know to go with duck, but also those that challenged the jus and resulted in a grapefruit/lime marmalade I hadn’t envisioned till the reduction was done. But during lockdown, I have been challenging myself to try more elaborate stews, casseroles and even baking, of which I’m neither a fan, nor am I proficient in.
Favourite breakfast meal to cook?
Weekend breakfasts are ideal, when there’s no rush before the show, and I’m not facing awkward timing after the show. In that regard, the lazy mid-morning to mid-afternoon brunch is almost always a variation of anyway-you-want-them eggs. Spanish omelets are the easiest way to tackle leftovers and vegetables on the brink; egg salads are quick and delicious when made the proper way, not our mothers’ way: medium boiled with a wide range of crisp greens (broccoli, asparagus, rocket, baby spinach and of course avocado), salmon scrambles on toast, and my Lockdown-acquired skill of traditional poached eggs.
Who’s inspiring you on Instagram (chef’s and regular people who have used the lockdown to embrace their inner Top Chef).
There’s no shortage of inspiring cooking content from most of us on lockdown, but I have had the most fun learning from chefs who have been sharing their secrets from home while their restaurants have been closed. I’ve been singing and cooking for years, and always posted the dishes under the hashtag #CrooningContessa. But because the food itself is usually so simple, and of course, we have nothing but time on our hands, filming and posting the process has been that much more fun!
I learned the simplicity of poaching from La Tete’s chef-patron Giles Edwards, for example, and it’s always so much fun when he joins my live stream to guide me through the new skills: like my first flambé! Ginger Blossom Consulting’s chef Evan Coosner was the reason for posting one of my Crooning Contessa processes for the first time – he shares simple dishes to make with food in the home! I would definitely love to do a session with The Silo’s Executive Chef, Veronica Canha-Hibbert, soon! Her chicken korma was so sublime, she inspired me to my own garam masala, from scratch. Otherwise, besides my own treats, my friends send me recipes, or I try to revisit a dish my mother once made – but I ultimately put my personal stamp on any ideas I’m inspired by.
On the home front – can you tell me why / how it came to be that you name your homes? Why Vermont?
My home space is my sanctuary, and I name every home I live in, driven by the feeling the sanctuary gives me, and how it fits in at a point in my life. Previous homes I’ve lived in have been called Manhattan, The White House and Zamunda – either because of the design or special impact – but I mostly move into them with a particular purpose. The White House for example, was not just a very white, well-lit and decorated house, it came at a time that my career was more aggressively at the frontlines of advisory to government departments and official institutions, when I was always on a plane to a different African country, Washington DC or London almost every month; and when many parts of my life resembled Olivia Pope’s (from the hit show Scandal). Moving from there to Zamunda (from a favourite film, Coming to America), my little secluded kingdom in Mouille Point with gorgeous views of Greenpoint Country Club’s lush gardens and Signal Hill; and on to my current home, Vermont, has been a deliberate process of emphasising different priorities. In the show, Scandal, Olivia will always wear the “white hat” of governance over the machinations of the White House, but always longed for a simpler life in Vermont, a bigger more homely home where she focuses on family and “makes jam now”. Exactly the same for me: I continue advisory work, I still wear the white hat, but at a pace more liveable, and with room for my jams – or crooning contessing.
