| Charmaine Solomon, one of Australia's best-known cooks, has been married to Reuben, a noted jazz musician, for over 40 years. Ironically, when they first met in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), neither Charmaine nor Reuben cooked. She fell in love with a wonderful clarinettist and he with a pretty young journalist. Living in a part of the world where even middle class families had a cook and nanny at the very least, there was little need to learn how to cook or run a house. On emigrating to Australia with a young family, that was all to change. Charmaine learned to cook out of necessity as a young mother in a strange new country. She won a bake-off in 1964, and soon afterwards was invited by Margaret Fulton to join Woman's Day as a food writer. And so began her illustrious career. Today Charmaine Solomon is recognised around the world as a cookery writer. She is much loved for her ability to explain and demystify, and the depth of her knowledge, especially of Asian cuisines, is highly respected. Her best-selling Complete Asian Cookbook, first published in 1976, is a classic and appears in numerous languages. |
