Sri Lankan-born foodie Charmain Solomon reflects on key moments in her life

Charmaine Solomon reflects on key moments in her life

Food, glorious foodwriter

My parents divorced in 1938 when I was eight. I ran away with my mother to Rangoon to stay with her family, who were very strict. It made me a scared and worried child.

A year later, back in Colombo, I bumped into my father’s sisters on a bus and I pretended I didn’t know who they were. That moment gave me a great sense of guilt. My aunts had drummed into me that all liars would be cast into hellfire so I thought, “Oh, I’m for it now.”

Mum put me in a convent as a boarder. On the way there we had a small prang. I started crying and Mum handed me her handkerchief, which had lavender on it. Even today, the scent of lavender always makes me sad. It reminds me of unhappy times.

At 19 I got a job as a reporter on the Ceylon Daily News. One day the women’s page editor said she wanted me to do a cookery column. I said, “But I can’t cook!” and she replied, “Well, you’d better learn then.” So I started a food column called Oceans of Notions. It was very popular.

The first time my husband Reuben asked me to marry him, I said, “Thank you very much but I’m not in love with you.” And I had no sooner shut my mouth than I thought, “What have I done? Life is going to be so dull without him.” Thankfully, he asked me again.

We married on June 5, 1956, which was a very tumultuous day in Sri Lanka. A controversial language bill was discussed in Parliament and sparked riots – Reuben was two hours late for the ceremony. But it was the happiest day of my life. It was my fate.

In 1959, we arrived in Australia. This was during the time of the White Australia Policy, which meant you had to have predominantly European blood but, because of my Dutch ancestry (and the Dutch burgher union’s carefully kept records), we were able to come.

Reuben got a job playing clarinet at a restaurant at night but I didn’t feel very secure alone in the suburbs with two young children. I think we had a possum in the roof and I thought it was a burglar. I was too scared to sleep until Reuben came home, so I cooked.

In 1964 I entered the Woman’s Day Butter White Wings Bake Off and came second in the whole of Australia. Later, I got a call from the magazine’s food editor Margaret Fulton, offering me a job in her department. I thought all my Christmases had come at once.

One day, Margaret Fulton’s publisher came in and said, “Can you do a South-East Asian cookbook for us?” I said, “No, no, that would be getting ahead of myself.” But Margaret insisted and gave me the confidence that I could do it. The rest is history.

Ten days after our second grandchild, Elana, was born with spina bifida, I sat in the hospital with her in my arms all night. She needed a big operation to make sure she didn’t have hydrocephalus. It was good to feel I was doing something to help my daughter, Debbie.

Reuben has been on chemo since February but thankfully he’s been getting better and better. It’s a miracle. Maybe God knows I couldn’t manage without him/