At home with Nadine Abensur

During a casual conversation about vintage clothing, Nadine Abensur declares: "Oh, that is my real passion - beautiful, collectable clothing." It's a surprising revelation from an accomplished cook who is famous for promoting vegetarian food.

Not so long ago, Nadine was impressing the likes of Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox and Hugh Grant with her catering. She once baked a creamy sponge cake for Margaret Thatcher that fed 300 of the Iron Lady's second-best friends, and has even made egg sandwiches for the Prince of Wales.

"It was the opening of his Youth Trust in Oxford," Nadine recalls. "His press office toid me I could make whatever I wanted for everyone else, but for Prince Charles I had to make butterless egg mayonnaise sandwiches. So, while there was sushi and tempura vegetables and canapes and tarts for the guests, for him there were egg sandwiches. Apparently, this was always the case when he went to functions - he demanded that he have his own personal sandwiches made."

Nadine became well known in Britain as the face of Cranks - a restaurant chain that took vegetarian food out of the hippy, brown rice box and placed it lightly on the table of the modern zeitgeist. As the company's food director, she wrote four books, and is now working on her first Australian-based vegetarian book. Food, it would seem, is this French Moroccan woman's raison d'etre. Well, oui, until someone mentions a renovating project and Nadine, almost bursting with enthusiasm, breaks in: "That is another one of my passions," Not to mention her six-year old son, Noah - she's pretty keen on him as well!

more...

Extracts from article and photo reprinted with permission from the InsideOut magazine (April 2004 issue)

home | vegetarian recipes | recipe books | cookery classes | about nadine | links | site map