Marie Claire - Luscious

A CONVERSATION WITH MICHELE CRANSTON – FOOD EDITOR FOR MAIRE CLAIRE AUSTRALIA

Interview by Tara Lee




Luscious: Simply Delicious Food takes readers on a journey to an imagined food paradise.
Michele Cranston continues the
marie claire celebration of fresh food in a new cookbook filled with simple recipes that embody the flavours of a tropical island adventure. The following excerpts are taken from a conversation with Cranston during her recent visit to Vancouver to promote her book. Here she talks about the creative process of creating a cookbook and the dynamic food scene in Australia.




CityFood: You have been the food editor for marie claire Australia since 2000. How did you first start out in the food industry?


Michele Cranston: I've been a chef for 15 years and I initially got into the profession in order to pay my way through university. I was a perpetual student studying art and art history, and was really interested in that for a while. Then I went overseas and when I came back to Australia in 1990, I wanted to bring those two aspects -- the art side and the food side -- together. So I started to do freelance work for magazines, and out of that, I became the food editor of marie claire.



CF: Luscious is the fifth cookbook that you have authored for marie Claire. What is the food philosophy behind the marie Claire cookbooks?


MC: The marie claire cookbooks are all about simple food. They are aimed at the kind of people who don’t feel that confident about cooking and who also prefer a simpler approach to food. Luscious is one of four book that we have planned around the theme of a journey. This one is all about the tropical islands, but it is still about using fresh and simple ingredients.



CF: Does Luscious talk to a particular type of reader? For example, the same young woman who reads marie claire magazine, or does the cookbook transcend gender and age?


MC: When I am writing, I tend to think of young professionals or Mums at home. But in the end, the cookbook appeals to a broad spectrum of people. The magazine is really aimed at younger girls so it focuses on quite a different market. Cookbook readers are surprisingly diverse. So if they are not also fashion magazine readers they can get confused. I have had some guy say: “So you’re Marie Claire.