A thirty-something cooking enthusiast with a spatula in one hand and a sense of culinary wonder in the other. Growing up, I never learned to cook. A few years ago I decided to tackle it. I wanted a challenge, to push my boundaries and comfort zone and I got what I asked for! I also discovered that, contrary to my opinion, cooking wasn’t that difficult, as long as I had a good recipe with very good instructions. I had to eat my words.”

Meet Gen: one very passionate foodie, and awesome, cool South African and is one of my personal favourite blogging buddy from Eat,Play and Clove.

Yesterday, we hit our 6 months milestones for our Monthly Mystery Munchies collaboration and I thought that there’s no better way to celebrate this achievement other than giving Gen an exclusive interview for more insights into her life outside the blogosphere!

1. Tell us a little bit more about yourself..outside what you have written from your about page.

I studied Marketing & Business Management at university and my first full-time job was at an online trading company. Snooze. I then, after a few years, ended up (purely by chance) doing QA and testing for a company that builds and maintains websites. I was quite amazed at how much I loved my job. Being a perfectionist definitely helped! I never thought I would do anything IT-related but I was in my element! Another thing I never thought I would do: enjoy cooking! Those were two huge things that happened within the same year and those experiences really opened my mind (and stomach) to trying new things. It was pretty cool, unexpected and rewarding, and completely serendipitous.

2. What are your cooking inspirations? A famous chef, your mom, a cookbook or a blog…?

Honestly, I needed a hobby and wanted a challenge and in no way did I ever think I would succeed at cooking. There were no books or movies or TV shows that inspired me. I simply decided to challenge myself to do something I thought I couldn’t. However, I would say, in terms of people who influenced my cooking once I got started, my gran was a key inspiration. She was a master at the craft and my h appiest childhood memories are of all of us doing the traditional Sunday lunch roast at my grandparents’ house. She did very traditional meals, which were my focus for quite some time when I started cooking, and that provided a very solid basis. I’m definitely more adventurous though and like to push my boundaries.

In terms of chefs, although Gordon Ramsay looks like a bit of an ass and I don’t watch any of his TV shows, I really enjoy his recipes. Jamie Oliver is someone whose books I actually buy – a rare occurrence because I mostly Google recipes. You also can’t go wrong with Nigella and Ina Garten. (Ann: Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Nigella…my favourite inspiration too! That’s kindred spirit!)

3. What inspired you to start  your blog? And how did you end up with Eat, Play, Clove?

It’s pretty simple. I love cooking and I love talking and writing, so I decided to parlay them into a cooking blog. The reason I started my blog is because I sucked balls when I started cooking and I followed online recipes to a T, even better if they had pictures, so I thought I would share my recipes and take pictures of every step in case there are some newbs out there who need visual assistance!

4. Name your 3 favourite bloggers and can you explain why they are your favourites?

Three of my favourite bloggers are you (Ann: awwww! Thank you, Gen!), Sally’s Baking Addiction and Jane’s Patisserie. Yummly is a cool site too. I love learning and getting inspiration for new recipes. With yours, it’s so interesting to me to see how you incorporate the different cultures in cooking. It’s also enlightening learning about your culture, watching you find a balance between working your ass off, cooking, being a mom and wife, travelling AND blogging regularly. Wow, I’m tired just thinking about it.

Sally’s Baking Addiction – she makes the most amazing sweet stuff and  takes incredible photos, which is something I’m pretty useless at. I’ve recently discovered Jane’s Patisserie – that girl knows how to bake! Yummly has the yummiest recipes too. (Ann: I couldn’t agree more. Yummly is an awesome resource!)

5. What’s the one kitchen tool you cannot live without and what’s your biggest failure in the kitchen?

Oh, that is such a good question! My dishwasher is right up there. It saves so much time and I can do my nails and not have them chip from washing dishes (priorities!). My food processor is a thing of beauty and again, saves so much time and effort (I’m a bit lazy, I think you can see this). Also, my very sharp knife. I would almost rather have a good knife than a dishwasher. Almost.

My biggest failure was a roast lamb I made about 13 years ago. The Husband had a convection microwave when we met so I decided to do a roast and, instead of just cooking it in oven mode, I also microwaved it on high for about 1.5 hours. When I took it out, it was smoking and literally shattered. It was like a large piece of coal. He still rips me off about it to this day. At that point I decided I was terrib le at cooking (because I was!) so I had a mental block against it.

6. You have lived your life in South Africa, to most of us, it’s synonymous with “Safari” and nature”. What else are there, what’s unique about it, dos and don’t?

Apart from an abundance of mountains, deserts, oceans and wildlife, there is wine. Lots of wine. It’s an incredibly beautiful country packed with diversity. We’re pretty into mining here and export a lot of fruit. The sunsets are magnificent.

Do – go on safari, take the cable car up Table Mountain, visit our many beautiful beaches and explore our wine farms. Eat lots of fresh fish, steak and try the babotie – a traditional Cape Malay dish.

Don’t – drive around with your doors unlocked, feed the wild animals or expect a fast-paced life. We’re super chill in coastal towns and cities.

7. Cooking or baking? If there are 3 recipes from your blog you think readers should try, which would you recommend and why?

Crap. I’m very indecisive. I’m better at cooking but I love baking although I need to work on my presentation, but baby steps! Three recipes I recommend are:

Baked camembert in phyllo – cheese, butter and phyllo. H eaven! It’s an excellent starter and pretty easy to do.

Tomato bredie – it’s a traditional South African dish and you can use beef or lamb. You can make it the day before because it gets better the longer it stands, so it’s convenient too. It feeds quite a few people and it’s a one-dish meal.

Baked vanilla cheesecake or cupcakes, any kind, although red velvet is my favourite. The cheesecake is vanilla-y and I’m obsessed with vanilla and will find any excuse to use vanilla beans. The red velvet is a mild, incredibly smooth chocolate cupcake but with a hint of vanilla too, and my preference for any cupcake, regardless of flavour, is vanilla cream cheese frosting.

This month, Gen made such a delightful traditional South African stew called Waterblommetjie bredie (how is that pronounced again?!)  in response to this  October’s Monthly Mystery Munchies Challenge with  Stew and Beans  as the central theme. In her words: Don’t worry if you can’t pronounce it, it’s a South African stew with an Afrikaans name; literally translated it means ‘small water flower stew’. It’s indigenous to the Western Cape region of South Africa (proudly South African, proudly Capetonian) but if you’re not in South Africa, you can substitute the waterblommetjies with green beans, as that’s what they taste the most similar to.

I love it that she went traditional. Are you seeing that tender, succulent, falling off the bones meat in the picture? I bet they taste amazebeansilicious. The big, great question really is, where in the world can I get waterblommetjies?!!

Don’t forget to check out Gen’s recipe here and leave some comments for her, will ya!