Mother’s Day celebrated Anneliese Breakfast Club meeting at Bedfordview’s Mercure Hotel

The Anneliese Breakfast Club hosted its monthly breakfast event at Bedfordview’s Mercure Hotel on 18 May to celebrate Mother’s Day.

To celebrate the day, the club members invited Portuguese chef, Mimi Jardin, to join the meeting and share her life’s work with the members. Founder Anneliese Plettenbacher said it was befitting to invite chef Jardin to share her life work as she has written three cookbooks.

The latest book from Jardin, My Portuguese Feast, was discussed in the breakfast club.

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“My cooking journey started by chance as I was a home economics teacher. As Portuguese, we love good food and I thought let me do home economic because at that time it was either you become a secretary or teacher, so I became a home economics teacher and I loved it,” shared Jardin.

She said she started her Portuguese cooking class as she received requests from others who wanted to learn from her.

Jardin said, “I started my classes at home. I was living in Kensington. We had a bar and I used that space to conduct my classes. The classes were a hit because it taught newlyweds and girls how to cook Portuguese food.”

Following this success, Jardin released her first book, Cooking the Portuguese way in South Africa, and it was a huge success.

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“My first book was well received because it had the exciting recipes that people loved,” she said.

Plettenbacher said it was lovely to have Jardin share her story.

“The club’s aim is also for the women to get together to raise funds and donations for charity. We collect clothes and baby jumpers and blankets to donate to the needy. We also raise funds for Little Eden and distribute baby donations to the Edenvale Hospital,” concluded Plettenbacher.

Edited by Stacey Woensdregt

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