Shopping around in markets not only gets me some new goodies but many stories. Beijing is filled with inspirational people and I was lucky enough to meet two of these inspirational ladies at the last Yosemite chic market. These two mothers, who met each other over a year ago, both have a very similar dream: to create a cookbook. Now Beijing is filled with opportunities and great adventures move very fast.

Within a year, Sandrine Delabriere and Stella Chan Marinaro have created and published a Mediterranean cookbook. Beijing is the place to make friends fast and get businesses started. I am meeting many trailing spouses who are doing amazing things in this city and they are an inspiration for many of us.

Stella Chan Marinaro and Sandrine Delabriere

The book by Delabriere, a French expat, has over 80 recipes from all over the Mediterranean region, from Spain to the Middle East. The recipes are reviewed and commented by Chan Marinaro, a nutritionist. The Mediterranean diet is considered one of the healthiest in the world, and also one of the most delicious and honest cuisines. The ingredients are all found in Beijing making it a perfect Holiday gift for any lover of cooking and delicious food. The book costs RMB 250 and 10 percents of the sales are given to World Vision, a charity for children.

These books can be found online and in-store at Juice by Melissa and iOrganics or in the QR codes below.

Photos: Courtesy of the creators of the cookbook

When I lived in Texas and went to culinary school, I accumulated around 40 cookbooks. It was my pride till I had to move back to Europe. I could not take all my cookbooks. After taking only three books back, I started my collection growing again since then, but I am very selective of what cookbooks I buy. We are travelers and cookbooks need to move with us from country to country.

One cookbook I have had my eyes on, even before it got written is A Little Taste of Home, a cookbook created by the parent association of the British School of Beijing Sanlitun (BSB Sanlitun). One of the parents of the association informed me about the book. It was still in the planning stages at the time, but she got me excited. Her chef husband would be helping with the cookbook, so naturally I knew it would be something amazing that I would want to have in my bookcase.

A Little Taste of Home is a cookbook created with recipes from parents and students of the school; showcasing home cooking, bringing us back to our roots, and showing off culinary delights. The parent association is not doing things by half measures – they got a photographer and chef to help create the beautiful book, and the pages look good enough to eat. The preview pages shown in this blog post are work in progress and are draft layouts, but give a image of what the cookbook will feel like.

“The cookbook is a great way for the BSB Sanlitun community to share their tried and true family recipes, showcasing them in a beautiful publication,” according to Grace Walter, a member of the very creative and passionate volunteer parents of the school. The cookbook will raise money for the charity Migrant Children Foundation (MCF), and will be launched at the school charity picnic on Sunday, June 11 from 3 to 6.30 pm, which will be open to the BSB community and friends. The book will cost RMB 150 and will be available at the reception of BSB Sanlitun. I for one, am excited at the prospect of adding this book to my collection, and supporting MCF by cooking some delicious culinary delights.

Picture credits: Elva Wu and Rodney Looi Keng Mun

Graphic designer credits: Diana Guzijan

What happens when kids and cupcake making combine? The answer is awesome fun, as happened during a recent cupcake decorating class put on by the Migrant Children’s Foundation (MCF), parent and student volunteers, and members of the Parent Association at British School of Beijing Sanlitun (BSB, Sanlitun).

beijingkids was present at the session, which included 20 migrant children supported by MCF. At first, the kids were shy but smiling during an English tutorial session. But when a box was brought into the classroom, containing 70 cupcakes to be decorated, the pupils became excited!

The kids’ writing seats were transformed into a makeshift decorating table which had colorful candies and chocolates, gummy worms, and yummy icing waiting for kids’ creativity to just erupt. And in just 30 minutes, more than half of the cupcakes had been decorated, some with lovely designs, others just waiting to be eaten.

Lorna Snuggs, curriculum and volunteer coordinator at MCF, said the photographs taken during the cupcake design class would be included in a grand charity cookbook, set to be published in June. And that cookbook rang a bell, as last February we featured a wife who had been working on the project. Monica Howes said in Food for Thought that she is helping 12 other members of the BSB Sanlitun Parent Association in listing over 130 family-friendly recipes which are favorites with both parents and kids. The proceeds, she told us, will go to MCF.

Grace Walter, project manager of the charity cookbook, said the idea for the project came in September 2016, and after two months, they received about a hundred recipes from parents, students, teachers, and MCF staff. “Since then, we have been in the process of editing, proofreading, cooking, styling, and photographing the recipes and [designing]the graphics [for the cookbook],” she added. The cookbook isn’t just your ordinary recipe book, as Walter told us it will include different sections, from entrees, light bites, and afternoon tea, to main courses and desserts.

The cookbook committee is composed of a group of 10 volunteer parents from different professions while most of the recipes were made by an executive chef at a hotel. “[The project is] a way for the school community to share their favorite recipes and see them captured into a beautiful publication that we can all take away with us, as well as to raise funds for the charity we support, MCF. Of course, we really have all the parents, kids, and teachers to thank for giving us their own favorite recipes to make this cookbook possible,” Walter said.

We really can’t wait for the charity cookbook to be published! Stay tuned as MCF will release more information about the project in the coming days.

Photos courtesy of BSB, Sanlitun Parent Association

More stories by this author here.
Email: andypenafuerte@beijing-kids.com
Instagram: @coolkidandy