Grandma’s cookbook ‘Oma’s Indische Keukengeheimen‘ (Dutch for Grandma’s Indies Kitchen Secrets) will be on display as part of Museum of the Netherlands, to be set up in the Rotterdam Kunsthal. This honor has been bestowed on her for her influence on Dutch cuisine – presented during this new weekly TV show, which premiered Wednesday 16th of December on MAX on NPO1 channel.
If we had to capture the Netherlands in one exhibition, what should we see there? In Museum of the Netherlands (Museum van Nederland), led by presenters Dione de Graaff and Diederik Ebbinge, a team of experts selects objects that tell something about Dutch history, culture, national character, traditions and customs that together form Museum of the Netherlands.
Dutch people come to Soestdijk palace to offer things for Museum of the Netherlands to be set up in the Rotterdam Kunsthal. It became a kind of historical ‘Between Art and Kitsch’ (like BBC TV Show ‘Fake or Fortune’).
As I was unable to attend in person due to pandemic travel restrictions, I asked my Oma Keasberry’s nephew Hugh Keasberry to argue for inclusion of her cookbook ‘Oma’s Indies Kitchen Secrets’. Oma Keasberry is considered to have been of great influence putting this cuisine on the map in the Netherlands. Expert Janny van der Heijden* added a special story about cultural exchange in the Dutch colonial past. She also mentioned the successful assimilation of Dutch people who arrived from the former Dutch East Indies in the Netherlands and their influence on Dutch culinary.
Janny van der Heijden is the Netherlands’ most famous culinary publicist and jury member for the ‘Heel Holland Bakt ‘ program (like the Great British Bake Off). She wrote and edited dozens of cookbooks, was editor-in-chief and had a daily column in a large number of newspapers for nearly three decades. Janny calls herself “a foodie with a great love for culinary history”.
The first book authored by my grandmother was titled ‘Oma’s Indische Keukengeheimen’ – published in 1976. For the second edition the publisher changed the book cover art, took out the color pictures and changed the title to ‘Oma Keasberry’s Indische Keukengeheimen’. Her book has been out of print for nearly 20 years. As a tribute to my grandmother, mother and the Indo Dutch cuisine, I authored my first book in 2012 and second one in 2014. In my new book ‘Alle Indische Keukengeheimen’, published in the Netherlands in 2019, I share my grandma’s, my mother’s and my own new recipes. It also contains the story of Oma Keasberry and the history of our Indo-Dutch food culture. Fun fact is that I was also on MAX TV back in 2012.
