Keeping it simple in the kitchen

Cindy Bunt finally realises the dream of launching her own cookbook

Homegrown produce and homemade food – that is Cindy Bunt’s passion and she has always been committed to sharing it with others. For the past few years she has been right on our doorstep so there has been no excuse not to take advantage of her knowledge by attending one of her classes at her Compton property at her Cooking and Gardening School – The Post and Rail.

Classes including sour dough bread making, the art of risotto and arancini, creating a stunning three course meal, pastry making, preserving, wood fired pizza, pasta making and gluten free baking have all been part of Cindy’s offering but the dream was always to also make her style of simple, delicious, homestyle cooking accessible all the time through the power of a cookbook Last November that dream was realised when 200 of her selfpublished debut cookbook Fall in Love with Preserving arrived at her door. She officially unveiled it at an author event at Mount Gambier City Hall last week, which included cooking demonstrations and preserves to taste, and is already on her second reprint.

“My lovely followers, the beautiful people in my community have responded so amazingly to it,” Cindy said.

She opted to start her foray into the world of creating cookbooks with preserving because it is so often considered a difficult, timeconsuming, old-fashioned art but that it can be quite simple and the product can then be used in multiple ways.

“There is a whole new wave of people interested in growing gardens but then the question is what do we do with the produce,” Cindy said. “This was a good opportunity to help people get started. You don’t need fancy equipment and it is a game changer when you’re cooking at home. You can add something you’ve preserved and it takes a dish to the next level. I am excited to have people taste different things. They don’t realise how many things you can preserve.”

Helping make this project possible was Cindy’s right hand woman Emma Chewter, who was a key driver in getting the project to fruition, joining the Post and Rail family 18 months ago.

“She’s really good at the things I’m not,” Cindy said. “I’ve been so lucky to find an amazing mentor, friend and co-worker with skills in admin and the other areas that are not my strengths. She set up the template and se worked together on the look and then I kind of left it to her while I made the preserves we didn’t have photos for. I was happy in the kitchen and she was happy on the computer.”

Having Emma on board was also critical when the project hit hurdles that could have derailed Cindy had she been flying solo.

“You hit a hurdle or two and you’ve just got to push past so you can get it done,” Cindy said. “I had dreamt about this for over 10 years and when you have a dream you have to push to achieve it. That’s the only way it becomes a reality.” Just like Cindy’s classes are so much more than cooking lessons – Fall in Love with Preserving is more than a recipe book.

“Each recipe has a back story or a fun story that it was based on,” Cindy said. “I want this book to bridge the gap between gardening and cookbooks. For example, so many recipes use say half a lemon – what on earth do you do with the rest of the tree full of lemons? Each recipe has a section to give you ideas on how it can be used and in what dishes it can be used.”

Cindy has also discovered people who, rather than having a garden and pursuing preserving, have found a passion for preserving and now want to start a garden. Cindy doesn’t care how people find their passion for both gardening and cooking – she just hopes they do and she is ready and waiting to provide the inspiration and the help.

That is why she has tried to make Fall in Love with Preserving a user-friendly publication mirroring the user-friendly ethos of her cooking classes.

“You want people to be able to incorporate what they learn into their own lifestyle,” Cindy said. “I don’t teach people the long way to do things, people don’t have time for that – I teach the easy version. People are amazed when you teach then cooking methods that allow them to do things quickly and easily. The classes are very hands on and everyone gets their hands dirty.”

Cindy has also tried to incorporate her personality in the book, using her own photographs and blending a mixture of stunning food photography, another skills she has developed over the journey, as well as candid shots.

“I wanted it to reflect my authentic self,” she said. “You can’t hold out for perfection and this book would never have been finished if I wasn’t prepared to just make sure it was something I was proud of.”

And speaking of things she’s proud of, the under construction cooking school connected to the shed in the potager garden nursery area will ensure she can not only continue her classes but instead of catering for 10 participants but up to 20 at any one time.

The ink on Fall in Love with Preserving is barely dry and Cindy is already well into the planning for a follow up cookbook sharing more of her simple, base recipes with food lovers everywhere.