8:20am Saturday 13th March 2010
KIM McCosker arrives like a whirlwind – and never lets up. The Australian mum-of-three was in York to promote her new cookbook, 4 Ingredients.
We had agreed to meet at Waterstone’s ahead of a book signing. But within minutes of her arrival – replete with a tray of cakes and cookies rustled up from her recipe book – we were in the street, trying to find her “driver” so she could make a radio appearance at the other side of the city.
Playing the Good Samaritan – and mindful that I still needed an interview – I offered directions, and jumped in the back seat beside the fizzy, petite, blonde.
At BBC Radio York, Kim doesn’t take off her coat, but heads straight to the kitchen to “throw together” a dip as a surprise for the presenter, Elly Fiorentini. Cracking jests with producer Jules, Kim chops up an apple and mixes a tub of sour cream with cinnamon and brown sugar.
“It tastes like liquid doughnuts,” drools Kim. I sneak a dollop: it does.
The five-minute interview stretches to 20 as Kim wins over Elly with her 100-mile-an-hour chat and infectious Aussie charm. Her story is pretty captivating too.
Back in the car, heading back into town, Kim tells me how she and fellow Oz mum and friend Rachael Bermingham became a publishing sensation in their homeland when they self-published 4 Ingredients – and it went on to outsell rival offerings by Gordon, Nigella and Jamie. The USP of the book is that each recipe features no more than four ingredients – most of them store-cupboard staples.
“No publisher took our call,” says Kim. “We were just two mums from the suburbs; no one had ever heard of us. But we knew we were on to something. Everywhere we went, we asked people for recipes. When we told them about the book, they said they’d buy it. In the pit of our guts we knew we were on to a good thing.”
The two mums invested about £15,000 of their own cash into the book – and have never looked back. More than one million copies have been sold and Kim and Rachael now have their own TV show as well as cookware range. You can even get 4 Ingredients as an iPod app – useful, adds Kim, when you are in the supermarket and need to check a recipe.
The idea for the book came from Kim. She says: “I’d had the idea for ages; I got it when I moved out of home and went to university and used to ring mum and ask: ‘how do you make that apricot chicken?’ and she’d say ‘it’s really easy, it’s only got four ingredients’.”
Over the years, Kim amassed scores of easy-peasy recipes – which were perfect for her busy family life.
“I love eating,” states Kim. “I just hate cooking, it’s such a chore and I wanted to learn to do it easily.”
There are more than 340 recipes in the cookbook, covering everything from tea-time treats and quick teas for kids to dishes suitable for a dinner party.
“On our website we show how you can cook a three-course meal for £4 a head,” says Kim. “For the entré, have salmon and asparagus soup, then chicken pie or beef Wellington and for dessert, roasted honey pears with honey cream.”
To prove the point that cooking with less still tastes good, Kim arms herself with a tray of goods when she meets the public.
In York, on offer was fruit cake (made with dried fruit, flour and fruit juice) and peanut cookies from peanut butter, brown sugar, egg and cinnamon.
“There are so many things you can make that are so full of flavour with a few ingredients,” insists Kim. However, there is a golden rule. “When using fewer ingredients, one has to pack a punch.”
Besides it being easier, cooking with fewer ingredients has other bonuses too, adds Kim: “It stands to reason that if you use fewer ingredients, it costs less – and there is less washing up.”
•4 Ingredients, £8.99, out now. Find out more – and check out great recipe ideas – at www.4ingredients.co.uk
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