Alice Zaslavsky's new book proves anyone can cook

Since food personality Alice Zaslavsky – also known as Alice in Frames – has been in charge of choosing the eatery for this interview, I head through the doors of what looks like the beautiful restaurant on the street where we’ve arranged to meet. No Alice.

It turns out that one should not presume to know what a foodie really likes, since her chosen cafe does not have the pretty wrought iron exterior or the complicated ingredient menu of the other spot. Rather, Zaslavsky’s favourite has an easygoing, unpretentious, buzzy vibe – much like the writer-broadcaster herself.

She’s so approachable that I’m not surprised when she says that people approach her all the time – not because they recognise her from her MasterChef  TV contestant days or when she interviewed Nigella Lawson (who called her “a force of nature”) on stage, but rather because they think they went to school with her. Recently, when someone realised it was her at the airport, they exclaimed, “I love you!” Zaslavsky’s response? “‘The feeling is mutual!’ Because I genuinely do love connecting with people.”

Right now, that’s literally what she is doing – thanks to one new cookbook on the shelves (The Joy of Better Cooking) and another being newly released in North America (In Praise of Veg). Each book bursts with colour and personality, much like the award-winning author, with accessibility being the key to the inside recipes.

The Joy of Better Cooking came about “because people often said to me, ‘I wouldn’t consider myself a good cook’. It’s like, why? What are the limiting beliefs that you’ve set on yourself? So, the book [aims] to fill in whatever gaps there are in your knowledge and experience.”

Easy-peasy recipes – such as the wet-fry mushroom noodles – come with comprehensive instructions (“plonk all of the mushrooms into your wok”), plus plenty of extra notes and photos to guide the way.

Zaslavsky was immersed in food culture at a young age: before emigrating to Australia with her parents and brother from Georgia (then part of the Soviet Union) when she was six, her birthplace was “on the crossroads of Russia, Asia and Turkey, [so] it was very much on the spice trail, with that East and West influence”.

Another influence came early on because by moving to Australia, she learned first-hand how important language is, setting her up for a career that includes much writing. “If you’re a natural communicator, then to have that taken away from you is something you feel so deeply.” Being bilingual would provide an advantage: “I break down English words in my head, to their suffixes and prefixes and roots. It makes it really playful.”

When she wasn’t in the school library learning how to speak English, food became the way she connected to other Aussie kids.

“I would get extra snacks at the supermarket to befriend people through my play lunch. I always saw it as a connector. I’m a very gregarious person who likes to make friends, so with the language taken away, it was like, ‘how else can I connect?’ So I would pick the most appealing foods to my friends, buying Dunkeroos and Nutella dip.”

Although she started teaching, she found herself gravitating to food as part of an inventive approach to the classroom. Several people suggested she audition for MasterChef’s fourth season, and as a natural performer – in year 12, she topped the state in drama, receiving a premier’s award – it was a no-brainer. She might not have known where it would lead, but she is not someone who thinks small.

“I’m a really strong believer in the power of manifestation and asking for what you want – not in a ‘woo-woo’ way, but in a ‘write it down and move towards doing the things you need to do’ way. A lot of people say they want to do something but very few people actually go ahead and do it.”

It’s a lesson she has learned from her parents, both academics who came to Australia using a loan. “My mum wrote her PhD with my brother on her lap. So, while [my parents] never sat me down and said, ‘Alice – the world is your oyster,’ they showed it to me in so many different ways. They taught me that you only get one life, and you’ve got to grasp it.”

Work is a family affair since Zaslavsky’s husband, Nick, manages Phenomenom, a food education program that she created. Their daughter Hazel is three and a half “and like two and a half kids”, who can converse with her mother in Russian. (In Praise of Veg is dedicated to “the nut”, but that’s a reference to Hazel, not the food.)

On top of that load, Zaslavsky has another belt notch, hosting ABC Radio Melbourne’s Saturday Breakfast program, not to mention other radio and TV stints. “I’ve always been extremely high energy,” she says as she explains that when she can’t sleep, she catches up on her international work in a different time zone.

If there is a key to her success, it is not just her aptitude but her attitude. “Sometimes opportunities pass me by, and then I realise that that door wasn’t mine to go through. And that there’s something else around the corner.”

She’s one step up from a glass-half-full person – “I see it as full: half water, half air and that’s just the way I am. And part of the reason why I have been able to persevere is because I choose not to believe that there are things standing in my way. If there’s something in my way, I just go a different way.”

Accomplished as she is, there are still lessons she needs to learn. “I am learning to be patient. I am definitely impatient. It’s like, ‘what else can I squeeze out of this day? What else can I do if I’ve got an hour free?’ I’m probably not going to be twiddling my thumbs.”