‘This book would not have been written...’

This old line has never been truer than in this case. I couldn’t have done it without my friend Roberta.

I first met Roberta Muir and Franz Scheurer when they came to MG Garage for a meal. They became our most regular customers and they had a good reason: they associated their romance with visits to our restaurant. Roberta got so enthusiastic about the food that she was constantly telling me I had to put together a book so that she could cook all her favourite dishes at home.

I never wanted to write a book. I still don’t! I had contributed so many recipes over the years to other people’s books and to magazines that I had no particular desire to write a book of my own. One day, Julie Gibbs at Penguin asked me to write a book, and from then on, if any other publisher asked me to write one, I’d say I’d already promised Julie. I repeated this line so often that in the end I believed it myself, but it was Roberta’s persuasion that really convinced me. Poor girl, she had no idea how hard it would be to get into my dyslexic mind and extract every thought! But she did, and so this book is now written. And the first person I have to thank one more time is my dear friend Roberta.