I asked Julie some questions.
You have written 15 cookbooks.
How do you come up with fresh ideas?I'm always inspired by fresh produce, whether it is picking something from the garden or calling in to the farmers' markets at the weekend. A change of season is also good - by the end of winter I'm over pork belly and beef cheeks and ready to embrace asparagus, artichokes and strawberries. But come next autumn, I'll want those warming dishes again that fill the kitchen with lovely aromas.
There's always a little tweak you can make to a much-loved recipe to give it another run but, sometimes, ideas just come together in your head, or materialise when you are cooking.
What is the trend in food now?
Growing your own vegetables. Keeping chickens. Eating "local" - as in being a locavore. Matching beers to food. Cutting back on sugar. Raw foodists. And some products like coconut oil, vanilla dust, herb flowers.
Do you get sick of cooking?
No, never. Hunger motivates me to cook, and that comes around every morning and every evening, so I pretty well want to cook every day. But I like making things for people. If I'm tired I'll do something quick with eggs.
Who inspired your love of food and cooking?
My mother. She was always happy in the kitchen and I liked being in there with her because she would sneak me titbits. Some smells, like sliced granny smith apples sprinkled with sugar, take me right back to my mother's side. She prepared the apples while finishing the pastry for an apple pie. No one else I know makes a pie like this, and when I do it, I'm just back in her kitchen pinching sugared apple slices off the chopping board. She was a great baker and filled the tins twice a week with gorgeous concoctions.
What was the first thing you cooked?
Toasted sandwiches! But they were BLTswith everything bar the kitchen sink in them. We didn't have avocados but we had heaps of salady things from the garden and brilliant tomatoes. I used to load them up with spring onions, cucumber, beetroot and really gorgeous ham my father used to cook, and to order, as not everyone liked the same combination. I used to make the sandwiches for everyone while they watched rugby and serve them at halftime to a rapturous response. I progressed from there.
If you had to choose just six ingredients to make a dish what would they be and what would you make?
A roast chicken, gorgeously golden, the meat falling off thebone, then potatoes somehow or the other, preferably golden and crunchy, and a salad from the garden with a garlicky vinaigrette. So a free-range chicken, cooked with butter, and white wine or verjuice, potatoes, salad, extra virgin olive oil, garlic ... that's more than six, but you get the idea.
What's your favourite meal?
Probably the above. Whatever itis, it's got to have potatoes. I'ma sucker for them. But it could be a freshly-caught fish steamed or barbecued with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and chilli, or any of a dozen or more of the recipes in my latest book.
If you could take anyone in the world out for dinner who would it be?
Well, Sean Penn would probably get my heart racing.
