For many of us, our cook books are too precious to be practical – observes Brent Meersman.
Pages get splattered and bubble, covers develop a film of grease, spines crack. One solution is to copy the recipes into your own book, the Moleskine Recipe Journal blank being my favourite because it has numbered pages and an index facility. But even those notebooks become too precious to risk in the mess of home economics.
The Nomu food company has come to the rescue with a neat box of cards.
Originally approached by Penguin to do a cookery book, the typically maverick (in the best sense of the word) Nomu decided instead to produce a box.
Launched in January this year, the sleek grey boxes were issued with eight recipes in each of six categories — starters, mains, sides, desserts, treats and basics, a handy conversion chart, and plenty of room for more recipes. There have subsequently been two series packs of eight recipes in each category. The first in February included a mystery card to collect and swap in order to enter a competition for a Smeg cooker, and the second series in April offered as a prize a Kitchen Aid mixer and accessories worth R16 000 (the competition is still open; the closing date is July 20).
The category dividers are colour coded but the individual recipe cards are not — so I keep “misplacing” or, you could say, customising my cards, especially between treats and desserts. Printed on durable, high-quality board (190mm x 130mm), it all works rather well.
It has been a hit with Nomu brand loyalists but booksellers don’t seem to know quite how to handle the Nomu Recipe Box, says Paul Raphaely, Nomu managing director.
Innovative marketing
As one would expect, each recipe includes the use of one or more Nomu products. The original recipes were created by company founder Tracy Foulkes. Subsequently, other chefs and local foodies created recipes for it. One can also subscribe to receive a free emailed monthly recipe card.
Nomu is known for its innovative marketing and bold, pristine packaging. Foulkes is the foodie, Raphaely the brand manager. Many South Africans are unaware that it is a South African company. The rather unusual, foreign-sounding name (one thinks of Japan or Scandinavia) dates back to Foulkes’s vegetarian days: “no moo” as in no cow. They now export to 38 countries.
The Nomu Recipe Box is available from the online store and from Le Creuset stores, Exclusive Books and YuppieChef
Full story by Brent Meersman vis Mail & Guardian
