Kate Liquorish

Kate Liquorish – actress, writer and food blogger, celebrates “fabulous food and the joy it brings; about eating it, cooking it and sharing it…”

I started blogging in 2010. I’ve always loved cooking and began working as a caterer; people would often ask for my recipes but I’d never taken the time to write them down. One day a friend convinced me to start…

The biggest reward about blogging is without a doubt when someone tells me that they tried one of my recipes and it was amazing or that I inspired them to get cooking; it’s the most wonderful feeling. It’s been a process of teaching myself  through trial and error – I learnt about photography online and got inspiration from magazines like F&HE. Dedication is essential but, as with any passion, finding the time to dedicate comes naturally.

My mother and father are both fantastic cooks and they inspired the little chefs in my brother and me. Obsessed with BBC’s Ready, Steady, Cook, I would get home from school, open the fridge and set myself the challenge of making something from whatever was there.

My parents are British and emigrated here just before I was born. My surname is real – its origins can be traced to France. ‘Liquorish’ comes from the word ‘liquoriste’, which means taster/seller of liquor. I just love it because it gives me an excuse to drink more wine!

The dish that most says ‘nostalgia’ is my dad’s lamb stew; he would spend hours making it, sharing equal quantities of wine between the stew and himself while telling us magnificent stories about his childhood. It was always delicious and even better the next day.

A hilarious kitchen disaster that happened to me was the tale of the chocolate nemesis (testament to why you should never trust any old recipe off the internet). Basically it’s a flourless chocolate cake that can be amazing if cooked right, but the recipe I found gave me the wrong cooking time. The cake formed a crust on the top just like it was supposed to, but it wasn’t cooked underneath. I tried to flip it out onto a plate and both the kitchen and I were covered in a runny chocolate mess. I served wine for dessert instead.

The celebrity I’d most like to invite to dinner is Anthony Hopkins. I’ve always loved him as an actor and he seems like the kind of man who’d have wonderful stories to tell and be up for a good laugh. I’d start with an Ottolenghi-style salad: punchy flavours using seasonal fare. For the main I’d make use of the gorgeous red meat we have in this country and pay tribute to Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs) with an excellent steak tartare (with a nice Chianti, of course). And to finish: a good old tarte Tatin.

My most treasured holiday memory involved sharing a Szechuan hot pot with my boyfriend and his best friends after their wedding in Beijing – drinking beer out of quarts and stuffing our faces with astonishing flavours in a restaurant down an alleyway that I would never be able to find again.

Check out Kate’s blog at undomestiKATEd.blogspot.com/.

SOURCES
Deborah da Silva