A new evangelistic book featuring recipes by Sydney Anglican cordon bleu chef Rachel Billington reveals the increasing popularity of "foodie' events for women.
A Taste For Life, released this month and written by Lesley Ramsay, features Rachel Billington’s recipes sandwiched between the chapters.
Trained in England, Rachel Billington (pictured below with Lesley Ramsay, Christine Jensen and Christine Semple) now runs her own catering business in Sydney and is a member of St David's, Forestville.
Mrs Ramsay, also a popular speaker at women's evangelistic events throughout the Diocese, says she teamed up with Ms Billington as she was thinking of new forms of "writing in a way that non-Christians will understand and find appealing to read".
"I'd done a talk on Jesus being the bread of life for a number of food events that I'd spoken at," she recalls.
"Because I know women love cooking and cookery books, I thought ‘maybe I can combine that with something about cooking’."
Mrs Ramsay says the glossy colour book, which has been reviewed on sydneyanglicans.net by Robyn Powell, also reflects the timeless appeal of food for women of any age.
"Even though women are busy, they know good food when they see it " Donna Hay and Marie Claire books walk off the bookshelf, so someone must be buying them," she says.
"Women love having something cooked for them, they love finding out new ways of using food and seeing it demonstrated, so food is a wonderful strategy to use in evangelism.”
Another popular Sydney Anglican women’s speaker, Wendy Potts says she has also noticed a growth in food demonstration events for women.
While they are not a new phenomenon, Mrs Potts says their recent popularity is "specifically related to Rachel saying "here I am, use me!'".
"I haven't come across anyone else who is doing food demonstrations like she does. They have certainly been a helpful resource for churches and very popular " I've heard churches have sold out tickets in a couple of days,” she says.
"Over the past 10 years, the whole Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson thing has become a style that people are used to relating to and then we've jumped on that and used it ourselves."
Mrs Ramsay adds that food demonstration events are especially helpful for small churches with limited time resources.
“They really are so easy because Rachel brings the food and what she prepares in the demonstration you use in the supper afterwards, so it doesn’t involve a lot of setting up.”
Giving soul food away
As evangelism coordinator at All Saint’s Austinmer, Mrs Potts is enthusiastic about the potential A Taste for Life holds for women at her church as an "entry-level evangelistic tool".
"We were really impressed with how it was put together and the combination of elements done so professionally and the fact that it's appealing to the eye but it's also the concept of food for the body and food for the soul," she says.
"We can see that it will be a great tool for Christian women to be able to give away to their friends " we've done a number of events along the lines of food so I think it would be very useful for the future as well."
While churches may not be able to afford to give the books away, Mrs Ramsay hopes churches will order books in bulk so that women can buy copies from their parishes for $5.50 each.
"A greeting card costs $5, so you could put one of these in with a gift and just write something in the inside cover instead," she says.
"It's very easy to give away to family and friends, just to say, here's a little book about food, food for the body, food for the soul, it's got some great recipes in it, and hopefully you might enjoy reading it."
Food photography by Christine Semple.
