“Completely unlike anything I have ever read … This is a book for reading, for rereading, for sharing with others, and a book which should give us all cause to rejoice.”
Leslie Swartz, Professor of Psychology, University of Stellenbosch

“It is not about making a living, but about the bread of life … about friendship, partnership and caring.”
Peter Veldsman(renowned chef and writer)

“The very best SA bread book in print, and now in both languages.”
Niel Jonker, artist, baker and bread oven builder

Interview and review by Janet van Eeden for Litnet

“Hester se brood is the most delicious book to come across my desk in a long time. Not since Chocolat have my taste buds been so aroused while reading. Hester van der Walt has written an apparently simple book about bread. Delicate pencil drawings share space with recipes for bread and Hester’s musings about her life in McGregor with her partner, Lies Hoogendoorn.

On the surface it’s about her sudden change of career when she gives up a mundane but safe office job to take a path which is less certain in its outcomes. Her decision to search for the perfect ciabatta recipe leads her to explore baking, yeast, ovens and the ancient craft of bread-making. To Hester, the art of making beautiful bread becomes a path towards leading a life of fulfilment instead of merely living a life of survival. In her book Hester reveals to the reader how the slow art of baking led her to realise that all the moments of life should be treated with equal reverence. After reading this book we, too, realise that in the specific lies the universal, in the ordinary lies the breathtaking moment we are all searching for. The book, like bread-making itself, becomes a meditation on the quality of our own lives.”

Whole review by Leslie Swartz

Hester se brood tells the story of how with time, attention to detail and dedication to craft, it is possible to create something wonderful and delicious from the simplest and cheapest of ingredients. This beautifully illustrated and produced book tells the reader how to make bread in an old-fashioned way. It is a story of the magic of taste, the mystery (the alchemy, even) of yeast, the joy of producing and eating something which is utterly delectable.

Though the book does indeed give us recipes, and though it tells the reader how to make bread, this is much more than a recipe book. There is a parallel between the magic of Hester’s bread, which comes from the simplicity of yeast and flour, and the gift that is Hester se brood. This is a book written with exquisite simplicity and directness, yet yielding a treasure for all readers, including those who have no interest in bread at all. We are told the story not only of bread-baking, but also of the choices we make in life, the impact of brave and at times frightening decisions on how we can shape what we do and who we are. This is a book about the reward of risks. We learn, in the quietest and almost austere way, of the choices the author Hester van der Walt and her partner Lies Hoogendoorn have made, of the value for them and for all of us of a slow, examined and thoughtful life. Hoogendoorn’s charming illustrations add to the text, and help us in the process of wondering and thinking.

The book looks both backward and forward in time, and is at once utterly in line with tradition and convention and completely original. Van der Walt joins a long and prestigious genealogy of writer-cooks, and recalls the work of C Louis Leipoldt and Marthinus Versfeld, but makes it clear in her own modest way that the way in which she has chosen to live her life and to think about it is also a testament to her faith in originality, in making her own way. Unlike many contemporary writers she does not lampoon or pooh-pooh what has gone before. On the contrary, she does something much more profound, which is to show how even in an unconventional life, a life far from the mainstream, we can only gain by learning from the best of what has gone before.

The book, therefore, seems at once utterly and comfortingly familiar, and completely unlike anything I have ever read. To read it, to savour the purity of language as Van der Walt savours in the purity of the taste of the bread she loves so much, is to experience a rare treat, and an honour. This is a book for reading, for rereading, for sharing with others, and a book which should give us all cause to rejoice.