I was born in West Papua, Indonesia, grew up in the Netherlands and live in California. All my life I’ve been a dancer, teacher, performer, art lover and nature lover. Being a dancer means eating responsible and healthy. With hours of rehearsals and training, there is not much time to eat. When I was young I would eat a big meal late at night. In the long run it made me have stomach ache so I switched to eating small amounts during the day. A lunch snack and a dinner snack for instance.
I am not a chef. My cooking experience comes from being in the kitchen with my mom watching her make a variety of dishes. I started to remember the measurements and the order of tasks for each recipe. Later I cooked her dishes all by myself.
I love cooking because I come from a big family and family gatherings were common. My family is Indo and we feel connected with each other through food. The rijsttafel, a series of special Indonesian dishes was usually served. Sometimes with longtong, sometimes with nasi kuning. I have 7 sisters and we all learned how to cook this delicious food.
Since we lived in the Netherlands my mother would make Dutch food at least three times during the week. Dutch dishes are matched with the cold rainy weather we often had and those hot split peas soups or hutspots were a hearty welcome after a long day at school.
When I moved to the United States I disliked mostly all the food. I was not a hamburger lover. I did not like junk food. and I did not like the pre prepped foods from grocery stores such as Cosco.
I would hang out in vegan places and hipster cafes. I would try to find Dutch or French restaurants just because I was so homesick for European food.
Alas, I discovered the diversity of cultures in California with each of them eating their own food. I tried Mexican food, Indian food, Tai food, Vietnamese food, Brazilian food, Soul food and more.
It was a culinary adventure. Sooner or later I started to learn how to cook these dishes. After a while I created my own style.
Foremost what I like and appreciate is, that none of these foreign dishes are made from frozen pre-prepped ingredients. They are made from scratch just like how my mom used to make everything from scratch.
In addition, I noticed that these different cultures pick their produce carefully. Meaning, fresh from the farm or organic. Or from specialty stores that carry ingredients from their country.
So this has been my goal and still is. Eat beautiful delicious food, tasty food, made from scratch and made with organic and quality produce. Set the table, even if it is for yourself and enjoy each bite.
I have cooked many dishes, with different budgets, and came up with a series of recipes that are not too time consuming, not too hard on the budget, works with what’s available and are delicious and special. That is what I call extraordinary!
Tedje’s Bio
Profesional dancer, studied and performed in Amsterdam, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Digital designer, web designer.
Dance teacher, Fitness professional, Senior fitness exercise specialist.
NOTES:
Rijsttafel translates to rice table where different special Indonesian dishes are served.
Longtong is an Indonesian dish made of compressed rice in the form of a cylinder wrapped inside a banana leaf or if the leaf is not available saran wrap.
Nasi kuning is yellow rice cooked with coconut milk and turmeric.
See some of Tedje’s recipes below:
