Plant Chat: Annabel Langbein, The Free Range Cook

I’m thrilled to have Annabel Langbein on my blog today! Annabel is known as “The Free Range Cook”, and her TV series “Annabel Langbein: The Free Range Cook” is now on its third season. This series features tasty recipes inspired from all around the globe, and she has written multiple cookbooks including The Free Range Cook: Simple Pleasures and Annabel Langbein, The Free Range Cook.

Along with being an author and TV host, Annabel is a self-taught chef and plant-based enthusiast who has a love for all things tasty, natural, and homegrown. She has worked professionally in the kitchen for twenty years, and has learned that cooking with good quality ingredients and confidence are the keys to cooking success. All of her recipes are thoroughly and professionally tested in her kitchen to ensure you get stress-free, foolproof results. Annabel loves to share her knowledge, skills and experience so that cooking can be more rewarding and fun. Don’t forget to follow Annabel on Facebook and Twitter   to get more cooking inspiration.

Congratulations on winning the Viewer’s Choice Award for Best Home Chef in a Series at the Taste Awards! Can you tell us a little bit about your experience winning this recognition? 

It is tremendously exciting and gratifying to be recognized in this way so soon after launching my TV series in the USA last October. The series was also nominated as a finalist in the categories of Best Green or Organic Program, Best Travel Program and Best Food Travel Series, which is a fantastic validation to the whole team who worked with me to create it. And I think that’s the essence of things for me – I have this big vision and am surrounded by truly wonderful people who are helping me to realize it. It makes me feel so proud.

What was your culinary inspiration that set you on this path? 

My mother always said that I was born with a wooden spoon in my hand, but even though I always loved to cook it wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I realized that food could be a career path. When I started it wasn’t the fashionable profession it is now. Coming as I did from an academic family I had just never envisaged that you could build an exciting career around food. But gradually I realized that wherever I went I was always cooking. After being on the road travelling around South America for about a year I settled down in a little village in Brazil and all I wanted to do was cook. I am sure my housemates (all Argentinians) must have thought I was mad, but cooking has always been the way I have centered myself. One day they asked me if I could make croissants – I phoned my mother and asked her how and she did these beautiful drawings that showed the process and sent them to me. Before long I had people knocking on the door wanting to buy them. So I started my first business in Búzios, Brazil, making croissants and that was the beginning really – that was my realization that I could do something I loved and make a living out of it.

What is your personal eating philosophy? 

My husband Ted always says: “Eat food, not barcodes”, and that pretty much sums it up for me. Eat as close to nature as you can, and for me now I like to eat food that I have grown myself as much of the time as I can, and if not that then to know who has grown it and that they have cared about it. I think it’s so important to eat fresh seasonal food with lots of variety. Here in New Zealand we can access such good produce and we have this global pantry of flavors at our fingertips so it’s really easy to transform everyday ingredients into interesting dishes and meals.

What is a typical day like for you? 

I don’t think I have a typical day really – or I have a variety of typical days depending on the different things happening in my life. If we’re in production for a TV show then it’s into make-up early then on set for a long day before stumbling into bed – hopefully after a walk or a swim or some yoga at the end of the day to clear my head and get my body moving. If I’m in Wanaka and not filming I’m usually writing or recipe testing so I’m up and down to the garden seeing what’s ready and thinking about how I might use it, and then in the kitchen and on the computer. We travel about four months a year and so that’s another rhythm of adventures and discovery.

What have you learned about the food system and the community when it comes to healthful, satisfying eating? 

I feel lucky to live in a small community with an active local farmers’ market and an ethos that supports fresh seasonal food. It’s easy to access fresh seasonal ingredients in Wanaka, which is at the foot of the Southern Alps in New Zealand’s South Island, and people tend to be very sociable. We often have people over for dinner or get invited out to friends’ places and it’s this sociability around food that makes the whole eating experience so nourishing – it’s the chance to share ideas and a good conversation around the table.

What messages are important for you to communicate? 

You can do it! If you can learn to ride a bike or knit you can cook. It’s fun and when you cook you can bring people together and it’s such an easy way to build a good life. There aren’t any big hurdles or high bars to get over, it’s just food, not rocket science. And nature is where it all starts.

What was it like to have your TV show, The Free Range Cook, come to life? 

It has been very thrilling to create the series, and I have learnt so much along the way… learning to present and know the mechanics of filming, understanding the storytelling process and most of all working with a team of talented professionals. You realize everyone has their job and they’re all there to support you and your vision. It’s incredibly validating. It’s also a LOT of hard work!

Do you have any of your favorite tips you can share for getting back to a respectful, harmonious way of eating? 

I think making the time in your day to engage with cooking – even if it’s only 15 or 20 minutes – and then sit down to eat together and share a meal and a conversation, are such simple things we can do to anchor our lives and create a sense of belonging and usefulness. Often daily life can be so demanding and with so many pressures it’s easy to lose hold of the fact that THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Cooking brings you back into the moment and makes you be present, and in a way it’s almost meditative like that – you can chill out. Instead of opening packets and cans and rushing to gobble something down on the run, buy something seasonal and fresh – it could be a pumpkin or some swiss chard or tomatoes – and then build a dish or a meal around that and sit and share it round the table. In such a simple way you get a sense of connection to nature and the world around you. It’s easy to forget that we humans also come out of nature and that’s why we have such a profound response to it! My mother always taught us the idea that everything you eat, or might want to eat, comes out of nature. It might take weeks, months or even years before it’s harvested and so when you cook you are sort of honoring nature and that process. And then when you share a meal together – no matter how simple – you’re celebrating how nature has gone to such lengths to provide us with these amazing resources. The least we can do is honor that by preparing them with a little care and then enjoying them.

Do you have a favorite plant-based recipe you would like to share with us? 

I have so many… my favorite thing is to just head to my garden and see what’s ripe and ready right now and then work out how I want to cook it. I often make a fresh herb oil by puréeing arugula or watercress or parsley with a little oil and a pinch of salt and use this as a dressing or garnish or to spoon over a salad. I tend to eat very much by the seasons so depending on what’s ripe and ready I will make something delicious with it! Currently it’s autumn here and I’m loving a mix of fresh corn lightly cooked and sliced off the cob, mixed with halved homegrown cherry tomatoes, chunks of just-ripe avocado and a little very finely sliced red onion – all drizzled with the aforementioned herb oil. It’s just so simple and so good and sings of summer! Check out some of my favorite recipes here.

Please tell us about any new projects you have coming up, and what you are excited about now. 

For me, my work is like the best form of play. I always wake up excited about what’s next. We are working on some new projects around how we can bring our work and ideas to people in non-English-speaking countries (my series goes out to 93 countries now, which is so exciting). I also have some new publishing projects on the go (each one is like a new baby) and also more filming of new projects. It’s always busy and there is always another mountain to climb – but I always enjoy the view from the top!

Annabel’s TV series Annabel Langbein The Free Range Cook: Simple Pleasures is screening now on PBS. The accompanying book, containing all the recipes from the series, is available on Amazon.

You can preview the series here, and you can find the PBS screening schedule here.

To find out more about Annabel and enjoy hundreds of free recipes visit her website at www.annabel-langbein.com.