Our friends at the Culinary Historians of Southern California have alerted us to the following events in September and October:
Mark your calendars for the Culinary Historians of Southern California's upcoming programs. Monthly programs are held at the Los Angeles Central Library in the Mark Taper Auditorium and are free of charge.
Saturday, September 10, 2005, at 10:30 am
Malaysian Cooking, including Nonya Cuisine, presented by Carol Selva Rajah
Carol Selva Rajah, talented chef, cookbook author, and teacher, has studied the cultural and cooking traditions of the many different national culinary styles of Asia.
Carol writes for Australian Gourmet Traveller, The Sydney Morning Herald's Good Living Magazine, The Canberra Times, and The Straits Times in Malaysia. She writes reviews for The Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Guide and Sydney Eats, and is on the judging panel for the Restaurant and Catering Association. Carol also sits on the board of the New South Wales Food and Wine Tourism Action Committee for Tourism New South Wales.
Saturday, October 15, 2005, at 10:30 am
Luigi Ballerini, “The Renaissance and the Modern: The Art of Eating Well in Italy�
More about Carol Selva Rajah:
In addition to the accomplishments noted above, Carol has written nine cookbooks. Her coffee table books on Asian and South East Asian cuisine were distributed internationally in the US, the UK, and Australia. In October 2003, Carol's book The Food of India (co-written with Priya Wickramasinghe in London) won the gold award for the Best Hard Cover Recipe Book 2002-2003, at the Jacob’s Creek World Food Media Awards in Adelaide. She has also authored the Essential Guide to Buying and Using Authentic Asian Ingredients, an invaluable reference for chefs and writers all over Australia.
Her Malaysian Asian Microwave Cookbook led to a television series that ran for seven years on Malaysian and Singapore TV. Her recent books, Celebrity Barbecues (Times Cavendish, SE Asia and Australia) and Sensational Seafood were released in January 2004.
Carol consults for major Australian companies, advising on product formulations, pastes, and sauces. She is currently working with Lion Nathan Australia on a national marketing campaign to develop a consciousness of beer’s natural pairing with spicy Asian food.
Carol was the first Australian woman invited to cook at the James Beard Foundation in New York. Last year she was Guest Chef on the QE2's voyage around Australia, where she was the first Asian Guest Chef to cook spicy Asian food, using authentic Asian produce. Not only did the passengers love it, but so did the QE2's sous chefs, many of whom are Goan, Thai or Malaysian.
Carol presented a Master Class at the Brisbane Hilton, with Charmaine Solomon, along with a group of eminent chefs and wine experts in 2003, and was guest speaker at the international conference, “Tasting Australia� in Adelaide, 2003.
In Sydney, Carol has trained mature chefs and young apprentices in the fine art of the flavours of Asia. She is regarded by many in her profession as one of Australia’s foremost food educators. She also conducts cooking classes at the Sydney Seafood School; The Cooking Co-ordinates, Canberra; and Kleenmaid Kitchen Facilities, Drummoyne. With her daughter, Anushiya, Carol holds private classes at her test kitchen in Sydney.
Carol created “Day Trips in Asia� tours to Cabramatta and Yagoona. She organizes and conducts culinary tours to food destinations in Australia and overseas. She has won awards for these tours from Tourism NSW and the Office of Western Sydney. In 2000, she was awarded the prestigious Jaguar Gourmet Traveller Award for Excellence in Gastronomic Travel.
Carol is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (a US based professional food organization), the Food Media Club, the International Slow Food Movement, and the Culinary Tourism Advisory Committee. She has also served on the steering Committee for NSW TAFE Vocational Training Order.
Carol has been involved with many events and festivals including: the Feast of Sydney (in the year leading up to the Olympics), the Courier Kemeny Food festival at Randwick Racecourse, The World's Longest Buffet, and the Batavia Dinners at the Sydney Maritime Museum.