Cook and Enjoy It

Lore & Background

Ina de Villiers self-published Kook en Geniet in 1951 after South African publishers showed indifference. The book became a cornerstone of South African food culture. The English edition, Cook and Enjoy It, was published by the Central News Agency in 1961, and from 1972 by Human & Rousseau after the Central News Agency withdrew from publishing. In 1990 Human & Rousseau obtained rights to the Afrikaans edition, leading to a completely revised edition in 1992 with a new appearance for both languages, incorporating modern appliances like microwaves and food processors while retaining the original's more than 700 recipes and basic cooking principles. Some recipes were newly tested and rewritten in an easy-to-follow style, with a few edited or replaced to preserve the spirit and essence of the original.

Reader's Guide

Cook and Enjoy It and its Afrikaans counterpart, Kook en Geniet, hold a unique place in South African culinary history as the definitive representation of authentic South African food culture and heritage. The book's journey from a privately published volume in 1951 to a bestseller exceeding a million copies in both languages by the time of the author's death in 2010 underscores its enduring cultural significance. The 1992 revised edition modernized recipes for contemporary kitchens while maintaining the character of the original 700-plus recipes. The 2009 edition, overseen by the author's daughter Eunice van der Berg, returned to a format more in line with the original while incorporating a modern approach, and truncated the English title to Cook and Enjoy. The book's legacy is reflected in its massive sales—over half a million Afrikaans copies by 2005—and its role in preserving and transmitting South African culinary traditions across generations.

Did You Know?

• Kook en Geniet was originally published by Ina de Villiers in her private capacity in 1951 after South African publishers expressed indifference.
• In 2009, a new edition was published with a truncated English title: Cook and Enjoy.
• By 2005, over half a million Afrikaans copies had been sold, and sales in both languages far exceeded a million copies by the time of the author's death.

Roots in the Land: Indigenous Culinary Heritage

South African cuisine's deepest roots stretch back to the Khoisan peoples, who sustained themselves by foraging more than three hundred species of edible wild plants across the landscape. The San, in particular, relied on a varied diet of tortoises, crayfish, coconuts, and squash, while also developing sophisticated techniques for preserving meat. The arrival of Bantu-speaking pastoralists from north-east Africa, beginning around 200 AD, transformed the food landscape by introducing domestic cattle and cultivated grain crops. This convergence allowed Bantu communities to supplement Khoisan preservation methods with fresh meat available on demand, while also building an extensive repertoire of dishes from sorghum, millet, fermented milk, and roasted or stewed meats. Over time, maize—a Central American crop—gradually displaced sorghum as the staple grain, though red sorghum (mabele) and cocoyam (madumbe) remain widely cultivated in both traditional settlements and urban markets. The rooibos shrub legume, long foraged by the Khoisan, continues to shape the nation's culinary identity to this day.

Fire and Flesh: The Braai Tradition

Meat sits at the very heart of South African culinary identity, a legacy that traces back to the moment Bantu pastoralists introduced domestic cattle to the region and the Khoisan peoples refined their ancient methods of meat preservation. From that intersection emerged two of the nation's most beloved food traditions: the braai and biltong. The braai is far more than a cooking method—it is a social ritual in which South Africans of all backgrounds gather around an open flame to grill meat, transforming a simple meal into a communal celebration. Biltong, a dried and spiced meat snack, carries forward the practical wisdom of preserving protein for long stretches between fresh kills. Together, these traditions reflect a cuisine that is fundamentally meat-based, where the act of cooking over fire and the craft of curing and seasoning have become inseparable from national identity. Whether in a rural homestead or a city backyard, the sizzle of meat over coals remains the defining sound of South African table culture.

A Tapestry of Arrivals: Colonial and Diasporic Layers

The 17th century marked a turning point as Dutch and British settlers carried their own foodways into South Africa, setting in motion centuries of culinary cross-pollination. The Cape Malay community forged a distinctive diasporic cuisine rooted largely in Southeast Asian traditions, while Afrikaner voortrekkers pushing further inland blended Dutch, Khoisan, Cape Malay, and Bantu cooking practices to suit their nomadic existence. French Huguenot refugees who settled in Franschhoek played a pivotal role in establishing the country's viticultural industry. Under British colonial rule, waves of Asian immigrants—many arriving as indentured laborers in the 19th century—brought a rich vocabulary of spices, seasonings, and dishes that became historically associated with KwaZulu-Natal. Indian South African cooking, once regionally concentrated, has since spread across the entire country and is now embraced by all ethnic groups. Each wave of arrival added a new thread to an already complex culinary fabric, ensuring that South African food remains a living record of migration, adaptation, and cultural exchange.

Fermented, Shared, Sustained: Beer, Milk, and the Shebeen

Long before European contact, beer brewed from local grains—especially sorghum—was woven into the fabric of indigenous South African life. It was unfiltered, cloudy, and low in alcohol, yet it served as a nutritional lifeline, providing vitamins that grain-heavy diets often lacked. Beer featured so prominently in social life that it became central to ceremonies like betrothals and weddings, where one family would ceremoniously pour for the other. As mining drew black South Africans into cities under the migrant labour system, women followed and began brewing beer for the predominantly single male workforce. That tradition endures today in shebeens—informal township bars typically owned by women known as shebeen queens. Similarly, milk and its fermented forms have been dietary pillars for centuries; cows were highly prized, and a calabash of cool sour milk was the traditional greeting in any village. The Sotho-Tswana proverb 'cattle beget children' captures the deep link between dairy, fertility, and community. During apartheid, shebeens became vital non-formal community centers, and after the end of apartheid, South African cuisine entered a renaissance with growing global visibility.

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