Kitchen Superheroes: Aniko Takacs
Many people out there don’t know it yet, but the World is full of kitchen superheroes. People dedicated to their hobbies and passion for cooking. The World deserves to know how amazing these people are. In our Kitchen Superheroes series, we sit down with some of these kitchen superheroes to find out more about their stories.
Today’s kitchen superhero is Aniko Takacs, the author of the food blog Multiculti Kitchen, where we are encouraged to linger for a while while Aniko nourishes us with her fabulous seasonal recipes.
Here’s what Aniko has to say about her:
I’m from... Hungary. I was born at the countryside then lived in Budapest, cultural centre of Eastern Europe. We have moved to England two years ago with my family.
When I’m not blogging, I’m... with my family. I have two little adorable boys who are always in trouble :-) We like to travel around UK and Western Europe, too. Not only my husband but my sons are also interested in exploring new dishes and flavours in different cuisines. They inspire me tremendously. I even try to keep update myself in my profession, too as I haven't been working as a pharmacist since my oldest boy was born. So I'm really happy when I have some slots to read the latest articles about new medicines, especially in cancer treatment.
I started Multiculti Kitchen because... I wanted to document my recipes and share it with my friends. But I a few months later I realised that the recipes alone are not enough any more. I started to take more and more attractive food photos, and developed my photo equipments, photo programs, and my skills as well. I participated in a professional Food Styling and Photography Workshop by Meeta Wolff, the author of What's for Lunch, Honey blog and several online courses. I'm still in learning phase and I'm absolutely convinced it's a never ending story in my life.
My favourite recipe is... tea smoked duck breast. It's quite special, and it takes plenty hours in the kitchen to make, but absolutely worth it. My suggestion is to do it outside otherwise you can easily burn the whole house and smell the smoke for ages.
Cooking inspires me to... create. Creativity is one of my strengths and I always think of how I could give a twist to a classic dish. I love to experiment with new ingredients and match them with regular flavours.
The best food photography tip I've learned in the past year... light is everything and your best friend! But before taking any single shots, you have to get to know your camera properly. That's crucial, so if you have read the manual once that's not enough. You have to know well all the buttons on your camera how they work, what they do.
A cookbook that changed my life... Sunday Lunch by Gordon Ramsey. I love his creativity and passion in the kitchen even though his attitude and temperament would be quite different to mine. His achievement is incredible and his work, to my mind, is the exception rather than the rule here in UK, where it can appear that a lot of people are too busy to acquire the skills of cooking. So I never assume that something I would consider to be an everyday recipe such as a roast potato dish would necessarily be self-evident for beginner cooks. But with time everyone can gain confidence around the kitchen, taking more risks and becoming more adventurous.
Follow Aniko on Facebook, Pinterest and visit her blog.