July 23 Ballito Umhlanga

Filled to the brim with pages upon pages of mouthwatering
meals and delectable, celebratory dishes, Gather
is not just an ordinary recipe book. It is a gorgeous labour
of love, carefully curated by a team of St Anne’s College old
girls, all of whom live on the North Coast.
Their aim? To inspire both the experienced and the home
cook by sharing easy-to-follow, exciting recipes and raise
funds for bursaries that will allow other girls to join the St
Anne’s family.
Spearheaded by Ballito mother, passionate
foodie and caterer, Theresa Rattray, Gather
comprises 62 recipes - all of which were
submitted by old girls and tried and tested
by Theresa herself.
“Food is my love language. I love feeding
people and I love feeding myself,” she
laughs. “I came up with the idea of doing
the cookbook while chatting to a friend at
an old girls' reunion. I have done a St Anne’s
recipe book before, about 10 years ago, but
I did that one on my own, even funding it
myself. This time I wanted to do it properly
with the right team to make it really special,”
she says.
St Anne’s Old Girls Cookbook
Gather
After approaching the St Anne’s Old Girls Guild, who agreed
to support and fund the project, Theresa set about putting
together her 'dream team'.
Each bringing their own incredible skill sets and expertise
to the project, Theresa managed to commission three other
old girls to help her create the recipe book - Emily Allan
(who works alongside her photographer husband Chris),
successful food stylist and one half of the 'Delish Sisters' duo,
Becs Woodcock and designer Annabelle Armstrong.
Passionate about food her entire life, Theresa (a former farm
girl from Mooi River and mother of four girls), has been a
caterer, cooking teacher and café owner. Nothing brings her
more joy than having her family around the table, cooking
and eating together.
“We decided to centre the theme of the recipes in the book
around celebrations and 'celebratory food' - basically what
people enjoy eating when they gather with family and
friends around a table. We sent out emails
to all the old girls and got about 120 recipe
submissions.”
Theresa sifted through them and tested the
recipes, before whittling it down to the final
62 that would make it into the book. “I had to
cook every single recipe that is in the book
twice - once to test it and then again when we
photographed the dishes.”
Theresa and the gang set aside a week
in January to do the cooking, styling and
shooting and her home at Umhlali Country
Club was transformed into a 'studio'.
“It ended up being the hottest week of
the year and my aircon broke down,” she
laughs. “It took us six days to shoot all 62
recipes. I cooked, Becs styled and Emily and Chris took the
photographs.”
Although it was hard work, Theresa says, it was loads of
fun. “And we ate like kings for the entire week! Of course,
we had a few mishaps here and there - like the braided
cinnamon bread that came out looking like a monster and
had to be redone a few times - but it worked because we all
respected each other's skill sets and didn't intervene with
one another's roles.”
A fun, behind-the-scenes moment captured during ‘shoot week’ with Becs Woodcock, Theresa Rattray and Philly Hill.
July 2023 Get It • Ballito • Umdloti • Umhlanga 23