If you’ve ever read an online recipe, watched a cooking show, flipped through a cookbook or read a food magazine, chances are you already know Julie Jansen’s work.
You may not know her name, however – that’s because Julie, a professional recipe writer and food stylist, has spent her career behind the scenes, perfecting the art of making food look and taste sensational.
A university degree in applied science, majoring in food styling and recipe development, landed Julie her first job with a cooking show on Channel 9 in Melbourne, styling food and writing recipes for celebrity chef Geoff Jantz.
So began her career in the food industry, from recipe writing and testing for some of the country’s biggest food organisations, such as Taste.com and Dairy Australia, to working with celebrity cook Nigella Lawson in London.
Now, her own name is coming to the fore with the publication of a cookbook co-authored with her son, Ethan Jansen.
Ethan, 15, already knows his way extremely well around the kitchen, is a dab hand with a chef’s knife and a very willing taste-tester.
Their book, The Shared Apron: Everyday Cooking For Teens, is full of nourishing, user-friendly and practical recipes.
Proudly produced and printed on the Sunshine Coast, it’s aimed at inspiring teenagers and families to get into the kitchen.
The book is in fact Julie’s second; her first book, Apricots and Apron Strings, was inspired by her childhood spent growing up on a stone fruit orchard in rural Victoria.
Now living on the Sunshine Coast and inspired by a shared love of cooking and creating, Julie and Ethan realised there was a lack of suitable cookbooks for the teenage market.
“I think at that age, we’ve got a captive audience of young people that are so excited about food, and they love to eat,” Julie tells salt.
“So, we set off on this journey to write a book of all the things that we love to cook at home and that Ethan loves to eat and put them into a really easy-to-use book that is targeted at the teens but is also user-friendly for families.
“It’s an everyday cookbook that even slightly younger kids could use or first-time cooks, or as a beginner tool for people learning the basics. It has a bit about knife skills and different techniques at the start, just to give you that introduction to cooking.
“The recipes are really nourishing, using lots of fruit and vegetables and protein, and trying to give a nice rounding of recipes for kids to try that are sweet and savoury.”
The 66 recipes – including beef and bean burrito bowls, Mexican black bean burgers, chicken parmigiana, one-pot butter chicken and rustic apple raspberry pie, to name just a few – took about two years to fine-tune, Julie says.
“We just wanted it to be absolutely foolproof and as succinct as possible with a sensible ingredient list, so you’re not spending all day running around finding the ingredients,” she adds.
Though it’s hard to choose a favourite, she says the fried rice is one of Ethan’s go-to dishes and one that Julie describes as a good “core recipe” with ingredients that can be easily substituted for what is on hand.
“They can swap out the protein for whatever they want to use; they can swap out the veggies.
“And in the recipes, we’ve talked about just how you can interchange things,” she says.
The recipes have also been tested and rated by Ethan according to different categories, including which ones are his favourites, which ones are vegetarian, and each dish’s level of difficulty.
“Some recipes are super-fast and easy, and some are very hands-on, with a bit more work, so he went through and rated them like that,” Julie says.
While cooking and eating nutritious food has obvious advantages for teenagers’ health and wellbeing, Julie strongly believes there are other benefits to be had by getting teens and their families into the kitchen – including fostering family connections.
Work commitments and busy lifestyles mean takeaway and pre-prepared food has become the norm for many families, leaving little time to cook and eat meals together.
“It’s about just creating that positive culture of sharing food and connecting at home with family and friends,” Julie tells salt.
“I think now is the time to really get back and focus on that and keep that as the core.
“And that creates memories for us too; those positive experiences become memories.
“I know there are a lot of people who think that it is a real chore to do those basic things because people are working so hard having careers and everything; there are lots of reasons why,” she says.
“But I think that just flows through then to children often having that same approach and just feeling like they want shortcuts, and it’s normal to do takeaway or to do boxes of food.”
Julie also believes there’s much to be gained by taking kids shopping or going to the market and getting things from the source rather than buying pre-prepared meals.
According to Julie, research shows that the earlier kids start cooking, the more benefits in later life.
She says it has been proven that nutritional outcomes and nutritional wellbeing are far greater if kids are cooking from an early age and are involved with cooking because they will make better food choices in their adult lives.
“I think it’s a really great way to reconnect with your kids too, because they are so involved with social media, and as teenagers, their friends become paramount.
“I think it’s one way we can kind of draw them back in and get a bit of quality time with them in the kitchen.
“And if it’s feeding them and filling their tummy – they’re always hungry – it’s time well spent doing that. There are so many pluses.”
The Shared Apron: Everyday Cooking For Teens is available at thesharedapron.com.au and also at selected bookstores, homewares shops and food outlets. Visit the website for your closest local supplier.