Warm and fuzzy love sandwiches at Plett Food and Film Festival

Food is evocative of memories, it is the one thing that universally connects people to one another.

And for some people, food is their primary love language.

My mother was not affectionate, she had a sharp tongue and the only way she could express love was through food and some signature recipes such as lamb shanks that slowly cooked for hours in the oven or an oxtail simmered into fall-off-the-bone deliciousness many hours later.

When my sister and I were children. if it rained, or was freezing cold for that matter, she didn’t necessarily fetch us from school or worry about us walking in the rain, but when we got home there would be a pot of chicken soup ready for us ... and sometimes a freshly baked cake.

When we were sick, she made buttery marmite toast that she cut into fingers.

I once bunked school and went horse riding.

Of course, it would be the one time I had to fall and break my arm.

I can remember she gave me a tight ‘klap’ (in those days parents did this) but then she made me soup.

Sometimes the simplest food speaks the strongest love language of all.

An example is soft fresh white bread dressed with butter and peanut butter!

There are many of us who still mourn the demise of anchovy paste which provided a whole other sort of emotional support — and imagine a world without Marmite or Bovril on toast.

All these memories came to mind recently at one of the annual Plett Food & Film Festival events where well-known chef and restaurateur Karen Dudley did her thing with love sandwiches again.

Dudley returned to this year’s fest, now in its 10th year, having first wooed an audience at the inception of this festival in 2013.

In partnership with Plett’s newest restaurant, ZOOX in the Crags, this year’s cinema and compelling food pairing was a treat for the senses.

First Dudley did her thing and then the Academy Award-winning film, Cinema Paradiso, was screened.

Crispy pizzas kept flowing from the kitchen, the movie projected onto a big screen was as touching as when it was released (a life-affirming ode to the power of youth, nostalgia and the way movies used to be) — and then some opera featuring Plett baritone Mike Bhayibhile capped the evening just perfectly.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dudley was forced to close her restaurant, The Kitchen in Woodstock, and many tears flowed from customers.

This was something of an iconic restaurant to Capetonians, a happy and regular meeting point, but it also saw its share of star-studded customers like Michelle Obama who dined there in 2011.

Since the restaurant closed, Dudley has been creating menus for other SA restaurants, she was also a judge for the 2022 Eat Out Woolworths awards.

Dudley decided that the special food connection didn’t have to reside in brick and mortar — and that her way of moving on would be in the form of a cookbook called Onwards.

In the book, Dudley weaves a compelling narrative of how this time changed her life and her perception of the world around her.

Onwards is an inspiring book about the way forward out of bleak circumstances.

Most of all, it’s about wholesome, nourishing and indulgent recipes with hope and happiness the seasoning sprinkled throughout.

Some of the chapters include; ‘help with letting go, salads I would have made at The Kitchen, the solace of vegetables, I make lunch for my sweetheart now, curiosity and hunger, earrings and lipstick for Instagram and the peace of toast.’

Dudley travelled from Gauteng on the day of this event laden with home-made goodies and condiments and though her flight was not able to land on time because of inclement weather, she made it on time laden with her giant cooler box.

Dudley had the audience salivating as she talked about the humble sandwich and demonstrated how to put one together in such a way that it turns from a humble thing into a masterpiece.

She holds a panini in hand, scoops out the bread bit in the middle to make more room for the filling and goes on to build a masterpiece all the while holding the sandwich in one hand and filling it with the other.

“I don’t put it down because it’s all about loving this sandwich and the person it’s going to,” she says just before pressing both sides together in her hand (to make it flatter so that you can actually take a bite of it).

She believes in lashings of good quality mayonnaise!

I make lunch for my sweetheart now, is a chapter that really warmed my heart.

Dudley discusses how during the Covid-19 pandemic her partner started working from home and she got to make him lunch, not ‘that nasty pie from the garage near his office.”

“Love is about sharing and appreciating little moments.

“It is about service, steadfastness and cherishing.

“We had a new appreciation for this little time together ... and I got to make something nice for him in the middle of the day.”

I have always been a fan of sandwiches, but now I look at the humble bread offering I won’t ever just throw it together again.

I will treat it like an artist’s palette, the metaphorical canvas, on which to create some sort of magic.

Find Dudley’s book in all major bookstores or online. She is happy to sign copies of her book and can be found on Karen@karendudley.co.za.

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