KEY POINTS:
Marie Claire's star cook Michele Cranston chortles at the suggestion that all celebrity chefs work in expansive test kitchens, minions hovering with bowls of freshly plucked herbs.
"I spent the first four years devising my recipes in a kitchen you could barely swing a cat in."
With typical
Aussie frankness, Cranston reveals her latest book Seasonal Kitchen, a weighty tome by publishing giant Murdoch Books, was also created at her Sydney home. We have a bigger kitchen now, but it's still about making my recipes accessible to people. Creating the recipes at home keeps it a bit real."
Cranston says the seasonal theme evolved from the public's growing awareness of organics, farmers' markets and disenchantment with imported supermarket foods.
"So I decided to follow Mother Nature and concentrate on food available at a given time," she says on the line from Sydney.
As the book's introduction states, "We should revel in fruit and vegetables that are newly harvested, as they hold the flavours that best suit each season. And when raw ingredients are freshly plucked from the earth and tree, they require very little work to turn them into great food."
It's a book designed for year-round consumption, the recipes moving from summer's poached tomato salad to winter's velvet pork belly.
In 2000, Cranston took over from Donna Hay as Marie Claire's food editor in Australia. One critic remarked at the time, "Hay is a hard act to follow".
But fans and critics weren't disappointed with the change of guard.
Cranston's first book under the Marie Claire banner was Food and Drink, and she's since produced a further six titles.
If healthy book sales worldwide are any indication, Cranston has successfully carried the mantle of great food, presented simply but with no compromise on flavour.
Although she gave up her Marie Claire magazine column last year, she will continue to publish books under the iconic banner, for which she receives royalty fees.
Cranston grew up surrounded by abundant country gardens and well-stocked pantries, and as a student worked in a variety of Sydney restaurants. In 1992, she worked for fellow Aussie chef Bill Granger at his newly-opened bills restaurant, famed for its real food and signature eggy dishes.
"I'm now just coming around to eating scrambled eggs again," laughs Cranston.
She later took up a position as head chef with a London production catering company, working with for the glitterati and cognoscenti including Wallpaper*'s founding editor Tyler Brule.
"I'd arrive on the doorstep with all the food, and Tyler would fall out of a taxi, just returned from some exotic location and ready to host a huge dinner party.
"You never knew who would walk through the door."
Submitting her first recipe to Marie Claire, Cranston says the editor scolded her for including too many ingredients.
"People want simplicity but I'm wary of making it too simple. It's important for people to stretch their culinary wings."
Unlike publicity-brazen Hay, Cranston has always remained under the culinary radar, despite her mane's trademark streak, and has no desire to create a culinary empire.
A celebrated chef who is perfectly happy creating and testing out the recipes at home, which she shares with her husband, 11-year-old stepson and 4-year-old son.
A graduate of Sydney College of the Arts, there's no doubt Cranston's clever eye has influenced the Marie Claire look for the better.
"I always start my books with a strong vision. I first construct the pages in my head before I put anything on paper. I think about the colour and texture. Then I start sketching it out. I've almost drawn the entire book before I start."
Each book takes six months to complete, from initial sketches to final photography.
For Seasonal Food, she worked closely with photographer Gorta Yuuki and food stylist Christine Rudolph - "it's a very collaborative process".
The recipes still bear the Marie Claire hallmark; they are simple but with enough to interest the novice and experienced cook. They also reveal the chef's remarkable understanding of taste dynamics.
"I must say I love the whole seasonal nature of food ... how the vinegars and olive oils of summer dressing are slowly replaced by the heavy spices and filling grains of winter."
Still, a top cook always benefits from a few home truths.
"My boys still love a good helping of sausages and mash."
