Sri Owen (born 31 March 1935) is a cooking teacher and food writer. She is the author of the first English-language recipe book dedicated to the food of Indonesia, and is recognised as a leading authority on Indonesian cuisine[1]. She lives in London.
Early life
Owen was born in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra, on 31 March 1935, the eldest of six children, all girls. Her parents worked as teachers, and the family lived briefly in Jakarta, before settling in Magelang, Central Java in 1949.[2] Sri continued her education in Yogyakarta and studied English Literature at Gadjah Mada University. After graduating, she taught at the university and became head of the university library and it was there in 1961 that she met Roger Owen, a British Oxford University graduate, who lectured in history in Indonesia for three years. Sri and Roger married in 1962.
Career
After accompanying her husband back to London in 1963, Sri worked as a translator, broadcaster and producer for the BBC Far Eastern Service. In 1984, Roger and Sri moved with their two sons to Wimbledon Village , where Sri sold Indonesian dishes and snacks from a shop on the High Street.
Her first cookbook, The Home Book Of Indonesian Cookery was published by Faber in 1976, and brought together family recipes handed down by her grandmother and carefully recorded by her mother. Owen went on to write more than a dozen books on the food of Indonesia and other Asian countries. The Rice Book was selected by Observer Food Monthly as one of its top 50 cookbooks of all time [3]. Owen's most recent book, Sri Owen’s Indonesian Food, is an autobiographical celebration of the cooking of the country of her birth. In addition to he writing, Owen has run cookery demonstrations, workshops and courses across the globe, and has appeared on BBC TV with chefs including Raymond Blanc.
