A love for spices
Bettina Matthaei
Neat and tidy is the kitchen. And instead of a lush, oriental world of magic, Bettina Matthaei offers meticulously stocked cookbooks, various mortars and grinders, measuring cups and tiny measuring spoons. And a wooden shelf full of brown jars stuck with self-printed labels: orange peel. Pimento. Cayenne. Cardamom ... And here are fantastic spice mixtures? "Sensuality starts when you open a glass," says Bettina Matthaei. In fact: Try the "Persian rose spice" once, and harem ladies are already dancing in their heads! "Spices totally inspire me, I often dream of it, and it may be that I'm in the kitchen the next day trying out a new mix."
The graphic artist and author has, as long as she can remember, a strong nose for scents and aromas. First spice mixtures were created to spice up simple, fast recipes exciting. "I think millions of women like me: job, family, little time to cook, but great desire for really good food." Initially, Bettina Matthaei gave away her spice mixtures only as a circle of friends. Soon, however, the friends of the friends wanted to know where to buy these spices: The idea for an online spice shipment was there.
And when Bettina Matthaei now roasts and grinds her spices, the whole apartment smells like an oriental bazaar. Then she combines orange peel with mint or pink pepper berries, with cinnamon and cardamom - and can already imagine in the mind exactly how it will taste. She calls this "virtual cooking," and that often starts with the spices. Despite all the appetite for inventing new spice compositions, Bettina Matthaei, who has been producing cartoons for children for years, does not want to challenge the cooking professionals. But continue to develop cookbooks: with Libra, kitchen clock and her calendar, in which she notes how many grams of which ingredient and how long in the saucepan. "Creativity," she says, accounts for five percent. "The rest is craft."
Spices to order
You can order the spice mixtures online at www.1001gewuerze.de. Four spice blends of about 30-40 g of your choice cost including packaging and shipping 13 €. All ten mixtures are available at a special price of 24.90 euros.
