Catching up with a travelling pantry

To be absolutely cliché, The Travelling Pantry is a wonderful food journey.  http://thetravellingpantry.com/

Katie Bonken has created a beautiful site. The photography is definitely center stage, but it leads into delicious dishes.  She describes the origins of her blog in her About section: “The name has derived from the fact I think that good ingredients should be ‘well travelled’ meaning they can complement or camouflage into any type of cuisine from anywhere in the world. I am also a collector of most ‘kitcheny’ things and small animal figures (the animal army). Since I have been interested in food photography and styling, my seemingly pointless (but intriguing) collection now serves a great purpose in cohesion with my cooking and food styling, the animals, maybe less so. The collection will travel with me, wherever I go – there it will be – ‘The Travelling Pantry’.”

This site isn’t one to glance through idly to pick up a quick recipe for a last-minute dish. I’m sure there is one there, but the site is like a multi-course meal that needs to be savored. The pictures are truly luscious, and for me, the dark background for the photos and text brings an exotic and stay for a while mood. If it wasn’t in the A.M., I would pour myself a glass of nice red wine and enjoy consuming the flavors of this site and the wine.

I love the text and narration as well. It is a nice balance of how to and personal commentary. As with the most recent post Spiced Cauliflower Torchietti with Chilli, Tomato and Bacon,  Ms. Bonken starts with an explanation of the food and how cauliflower has mustard oils and how that can break down when cooking and the smell, then we have,  “My mum would eloquently call it ‘farty food’ as she does Mexican and lamb…..but let’s not even go there…..” And it is like we are in a one on one conversation, laugh, sip some wine, and go back to cooking. http://thetravellingpantry.com/2014/05/29/spiced-cauliflower-torchietti-with-chilli-tomato-and-bacon/

To me, the text is really about the love of food. The care that goes into the descriptions about the food, how to cook the food, the textures and tastes is engaging.  Ms. Bonken has a contagious excitement about what she is cooking and the site burst with this excitement.

Ms. Bonken covers on her site: Home (which is a an art food gallery), Breakfast, Starter, Main Course, Side Dish, and finally Dessert. Each page starts with her beautiful photography and leads into her world of food.

Like I said before, this is not a quick glance over type of site, but I don’t think you’ll want to do a quick once over. Although it is called The Travelling Pantry, you’ll want to stay or maybe I should say, follow along for the entire journey.

Passion that is barely contained by the photos and food is best described by Katie Bonken herself: “Now in Melbourne we rent our little house equipped with kitchen and even a small courtyard that houses all our herbs – the herb jungle. Here was where my passion for cooking and photography really ignited and now I just can’t get enough! Some people may call me a feeder and this is partly true, only because food to me is a way of showing love and care.”