It’s a telling sign that one of the most precious items handed down from generation to generation in Nici Wickes’ family is not an expensive antique or a piece of jewellery, but a dog-eared and food-splattered cookbook dating back to the 1940s. The food writer – and New Zealand Woman’s Weekly’s new food editor – has inherited her love of cooking from her mum Carole Wickes, who in turn got her passion for food from her mother Jessie Tittleton.
Their Aunt Daisy Cookbook with Household Hints is now a Wickes’ heirloom, and it, along with an equally battered Edmonds Cookery Book, is a symbol of what an important part food plays in their family’s life and history. “Shame it’s so disgusting,” says Carole, thumbing through the Aunt Daisy book. “It’s covered in food.”
“You could probably eat off of that for a week!” jokes Nici. “But it does sum up what our family is about… eating!”
Just about every one of Nici’s childhood memories has something to do with food, or if it doesn’t to start with it, food will come into it somehow. At one stage, Nici, the middle of five sisters, recalls, “We were a great sporting family. We spent our life at the tennis court, we played hockey, we swam… and afterwards we’d be so hungry. We’d come home and Mum would have been baking, so there was all this lovely food to eat!”
Nici is excited about sharing her mum Carole’s recipes in a new column for the Weekly.
Carole laughs as she recalls how she used to keep a diary whenever the family travelled anywhere so she could recall details from the trip. “It would be full of what we ate,” she chuckles. “The kids used to say, ‘What about the churches and the art galleries?’ I would say, ‘Oh, yes, those were good’ but it was the food that I wanted to remember. And when the girls were growing up, we always went to cafés and restaurants, not to be flash, but because we would get inspiration from eating out.”
Nici, who is in her 40s, is at her parents’ Auckland home, reminiscing about the old days and tucking into a homemade tomato and mustard tart, and freshly baked meringues. Nici beams as she talks about her delight in taking on the Weekly’s food editor role. “It is such a privilege,” she says. “I grew up with the Weekly, and I’m thrilled to have the chance to reach so many people through the magazine. I hope to give people lots of inspiration, but also confidence in the kitchen.”
That’s something Nici has never lacked, and she gives credit to her mother and grandmother. She’s even persuaded Carole (76) to contribute to her food pages via a new column called Mum’s Kitchen, which is going to feature some of Carole’s tried-and-true recipes. “My mum is so amazing with food – I learned so much from her,” she says.
“Actually, I’ve learned a lot from Nici,” chips in Carole. “She’s so good at trying new blends of ingredients, whereas I might not think to do that. She’ll do something and I will think, ‘Shivers, how did she know that would work?’ I thought I knew everything, but obviously I don’t!”
That’s something Nici has never lacked, and she gives credit to her mother and grandmother. She’s even persuaded Carole (76) to contribute to her food pages via a new column called Mum’s Kitchen, which is going to feature some of Carole’s tried-and-true recipes. “My mum is so amazing with food – I learned so much from her,” she says.
“Actually, I’ve learned a lot from Nici,” chips in Carole. “She’s so good at trying new blends of ingredients, whereas I might not think to do that. She’ll do something and I will think, ‘Shivers, how did she know that would work?’ I thought I knew everything, but obviously I don’t!”
That last sentence elicits plenty of laughter from mother and daughter, who are enjoying working together. However, Carole says writing recipes is difficult for her because she belongs to the “this and that” school of cooking. “I don’t follow recipes strictly,” she admits. “I might use them as a guideline but I just throw in a bit of this and that as I go along. That’s why it has been so hard for me to write down the recipes I make.”
Dog-eared and covered in food splatters, mum Carole’s copy of the Edmonds Cookery Book and Aunt Daisy Cookbook have played a big part in Nici’s life.
Nici adds, “For the Weekly column, I’ve been in the kitchen with Mum as she cooks, recording what she does and trying to work out how much of ‘this and that’ she uses. It is not an exact science, I can tell you! I’ve learned my own slapdash habits from my mum,” continues Nici. “I think it is important not to worry about things being perfect. It doesn’t matter if the top of the cake is crinkled or the roast is a bit burnt around the edges. What matters is being easy to make using the ingredients you have in the kitchen or can easily buy from the supermarket. I’m not into fancy ingredients or gadgets. I like food that is simple to do and tastes good.”
Carole remembers her mother, Jessie, cooking big smorgasbord lunches on a Sunday, including sweet and sour pork, lamb curry, oyster vol au vents and trifle. “In a lot of ways, she was ahead of her time,” says Carole. “She was always on the lookout for new things.”
“So were you,” says Nici. “Remember the first time you brought avocados home? We ate them hard, we cooked them… we had no idea but we loved to experiment.”
Nici’s dad Bruce would also contribute – he travelled a lot due to his work as a computer consultant and would come home with recipes for “exotic” foods like hash browns. He also once brought an ice-cream maker home after a trip to the US, which was a huge source of excitement among the girls.
Nici hopes her own recipes will motivate readers to get creative in the kitchen – and inspire a new generation of family cooks.
Carole says she would use Nici and her sisters Jenni, Susie, Chrissy and Katie as unpaid kitchen hands, sending them to the kitchen to make food like crêpes if she had a dinner party planned. “Luckily, they all love food and they’re all good cooks. They would fight over who got to cook. Ironically, when they were small, it was Nici who was the worst eater – she was fussy.”
“I pretty much grew out of that!” laughs Nici.
The love of food has also been passed on to the next generation – Nici’s niece Harriet is already accomplished in the kitchen at 12. “Mum would have Harriet baking with her from the age of three, and there’d be a mess everywhere. But it was worth it – Harriet loves it. She made an amazing cake for her brother George’s birthday, and last night she made pasta.”
Nici would love it if her cooking pages motivated Weekly readers to not only be inspired to cook themselves, but pass it on to their family. “It doesn’t have to be a chore. It can be easy and enjoyable if you just know how. And what a wonderful legacy to be able to pass on to your kids.”
