Sri Owen (born 31 March 1935) is an Indonesian cooking teacher and food writer, based in London for most of her life. She is the author of the first English-language recipe book dedicated to the food of Indonesia, and is recognised as a leading authority on

Indonesian cuisine Indonesian cuisine is a collection of various regional culinary traditions by various ethnic groups that formed in the archipelagic nation of Indonesia. There are a wide variety of recipes and cuisines in part because Indonesia is composed ...

Early life

Owen was born in

Padang Panjang Padang Panjang (sometimes written as Padangpanjang, and spelt as Padang Pandjang in the Dutch East Indies era, , Jawi: ), is a city located at in the highlands of West Sumatra, around 80 Km inland from the provincial capital Padang. It sits on ...

, West Sumatra, in what was then the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

, on 31 March 1935. She was born to a Minangkabau family, in a town at the heart of that culture. She was the eldest of six children, all girls. Her childhood was disrupted by

Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies The Empire of Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of the war in September 1945. In May 1940, Germany German invasion of the Netherlands, occupied the Netherlands, and ma ...

; during World War II, millions of Indonesians died of famine, forced labour, and the disruption of society. Her parents worked as teachers, and the family lived briefly in Jakarta, before settling in

Magelang Magelang () is one of six cities in Central Java, the Central Java Province of Indonesia that are administratively independent of the regencies in which they lie geographically. Each of these cities is governed by a mayor rather than a Subdivi ...

, Central Java in 1949. Sri continued her education in

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta is the capital city of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by Hamengkubuwono, a monarchy, Yogyakarta is regarded as an importan ...

and studied English Literature at

Gadjah Mada University Gadjah Mada University (; , abbreviated as UGM) is a public research university located in Sleman, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Officially founded on 19 December 1949, Gadjah Mada University is one of the oldest and largest institut ...

. After graduating, she taught at the university and became head of its library; it was there in 1961 that she met Roger Owen, a British Oxford University graduate, who lectured in history in Indonesia for three years. Sri and Roger married in 1962.

Career

After accompanying her husband back to London in 1963, Sri worked as a translator, broadcaster and producer for the BBC Far Eastern Service for almost 20 years. In 1984, Roger and Sri moved with their two sons to Wimbledon Village, where Sri sold Indonesian dishes and snacks from a shop on the High Street. Her first cookbook, ''The Home Book Of Indonesian Cookery,'' was published by Faber in 1976, and brought together family recipes handed down by her grandmother and carefully recorded by her mother. Owen went on to write more than a dozen books on the food of Indonesia and other Asian countries. A significant mentor was Alan Davidson, author of ''

The Oxford Companion to Food ''The Oxford Companion to Food'' is an encyclopedia about food. It was edited by Alan Davidson and published by Oxford University Press in 1999. It was also issued in softcover under the name ''The Penguin Companion to Food''. The second and t ...

'', to whom she eventually dedicated her 15th book, ''Sri Owen’s Indonesian Food.'' He influenced her thinking about "foodways"—the ever-evolving totality "of all the food habits in a community or culture". She argues that ''

rendang Rendang is a fried meat or dry curry made of meat stewed in coconut milk and spices, widely popular across Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, where each version is considered local cuisine. It refers to both a cooking m ...

'', recognised by the Indonesian state as one of the five national dishes, is a Minangkabau dish. In addition to her writing, Owen has run cookery demonstrations, workshops and courses across the globe, and has appeared on BBC TV with chefs including

Raymond Blanc Raymond Blanc OBE (born 19 November 1949) is a French chef. Blanc is the chef at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, a hotel-restaurant in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, England. The restaurant has two Michelin stars and scored 9/10 in the ''Good Food Guid ...

Recognition

''The Rice Book'' was selected by

Bee Wilson Beatrice Dorothy "Bee" Wilson is a British food writer and journalist. She writes the "Table Talk" column for ''The Wall Street Journal'', and is also a campaigner for food education through the charity TastEd. Early life and education Beatri ...

of the ''

Observer Food Monthly ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' as one of the magazine's top 50 cookbooks of all time. Owen's most recent book, ''Sri Owen’s Indonesian Food'', is an autobiographical celebration of the cooking of the country of her birth. Melissa Clark of the ''New York Times'' quotes Paul Levy, chairman emeritus of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, siting Owen's food scholarship within the tradition of culinary writers who also opened up to the English-speaking world then-novel cuisines like

Elizabeth David Elizabeth David ( Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and books about Europea ...

(Mediterranean cuisine),

Jane Grigson Jane Grigson (born Heather Mabel Jane McIntire; 13 March 1928 – 12 March 1990) was an English cookery writer. In the latter part of the 20th century she was the author of the food column for ''The Observer'' and wrote numerous books about Eu ...

(European cooking, and traditional British dishes),

Claudia Roden Claudia Roden (née Douek; born 1936) is an Egyptian-born British cookbook writer and cultural anthropologist of Sephardi/ Mizrahi descent. She is best known as the author of Middle Eastern cookbooks including ''A Book of Middle Eastern Food'' ...

(Middle Eastern food), and

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (Birth name#Maiden and married names, née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American pu ...

(classical French cuisine). Sri Owen has been described by ''

Nikkei Asia ''Nikkei Asia'', known as ''Nikkei Asian Review'' between 2013 and 2020, is a major Japan-based English-language weekly news magazine focused on the Asian continent, although it also covers broader international developments. It is headquartere ...

'' as "the Indonesian food writer credited with introducing her country's cuisine to the world". She mentored young chef and writer Lara Lee, who also wishes "to share the wonderful cuisine of Indonesia with the world". The ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' calls her "an obvious authority on Indonesian cooking" Mayukh Sen described Sri Owen simply as "The Woman Who Changed the Way We Think About Indonesian Food".

Bibliography

* ''The Home Book Of Indonesia Cookery'' (1976) * ''Indonesian Food and Cookery'' (1980) * ''Indonesian and Thai Cookery'' (1988) * ''Exotic Feasts'' (1991) * ''Indonesian Regional Food and Cookery'' (1994) * ''The Rice Book'' (1993) * ''Healthy Thai Cooking'' (1997) * ''The Classic Asian Cookbook'' (1998) * ''Noodles: The New Way'' (2000) * ''New Wave Asian'' (2002) * ''Sri Owen's Indonesian Food'' (2008)

Awards

* ''Indonesian Food and Cookery'' received the Langhe Ceretto Prize and was shortlisted for the 1995 Julia Child award. * ''The Rice Book'' won the Andre Simon Memorial Award in 1993. * Sri Owen received the Lifetime Achievement Award in June 2017 from the Guild of Food Writers in London.

References

External links

Official website

Online editions of cookbooks
{{Authority control Indonesian writers 1935 births British writers Indonesian cuisine People from London Indonesian emigrants to the United Kingdom Indonesian expatriates in the United Kingdom Indonesian chefs 21st-century Indonesian people Minangkabau diaspora Living people British cookbook writers People from Padang Panjang Cooking educators