Robin Sieger Blog

I have five sisters and a mother who is a wizard in the kitchen. Therefore I grew up watching my Mom cook, and usually due to my excellent willingness to assist when she baked a cake I got to lick the bowl.

When I went to university I had a very limited repertoire of dishes I could cook; the usual Macaroni Cheese, Spaghetti Bolognese, and that faithful Chilli Con Carne. In the second week of my first term at university my classmate Jim invited two young ladies to his place for supper. I was also invited and immediately decided that modesty has no place when there were young girls in need of being impressed. As to the question of what should we cook, I adopted the pose of a Masterchef and gave an Oliver Hardy-ese attempt at false modesty as I announced "Oh, how about Spaghetti or maybe a little Chilli Con Carne?" I stood casually awaiting his praise at my Renaissance man like gifts in the kitchen area.

He, however looked disappointed, feigned deafness and said "I think chicken breasts stuffed with wild mushrooms and served on roast vegetables, as the main course and maybe a lemon tart for dessert". This was particularly galling for me as Jim was in the University first team for every sport he played, and just at the point where I thought I had found something that I could be better than him at, he casually demonstrates (with much humility I may add) that in the kitchen he was the real deal. To make matters worse he had no sisters and spent minimal time in the kitchen at home.

It turns out that a year earlier he had fallen deeply in love for the first time in his life, and in the process of wooing the fair maiden, to unlock the key to her heart, and as he had no money to take her to a fancy restaurant, he decided to cook her a meal. No ordinary meal, but the ‘the food of love’ he told me so he did, just that. they fell in love and all was well.

Now before you ask how he goes from teenager without a clue to the great chef, let me tell you, it was my first question too. He told me his secret, he read a book!

In fact what he said was, "if you can read you can cook".

I guess we can all read a book and learn something new, and being driven by love is certainly going to help you stick at it, especially when you have no alternative, due to lack of funds. Thirty years later Jim is still my best friend, and still a great cook, I am pleased to say that along the way I read a few books too.

We've got to keep learning or we just end up repeating, nothing wrong with that if you like the same old…same old. But if you want to grow personally and professionally, increase your knowledge, and try something new, then take a tip from Jim read a book.

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