Little bit of cooking, sewing, baking and entertaining

Colour My World.Complete finishing course for young adults. Compiled by Nelun de Thabrew Wickremesinghe. Sarasavi Publishers. Rs. 1250.

Gone are the days when girls were packed off to finishing schools. Young women of today are more often keen on furthering their professional careers and gathering academic points than learning the essential skills of home-making much to the despair of their mothers and grandmothers.

For those to whom cooking, sewing, baking and indeed the finer points of entertaining are a world apart, comes this useful book which can help solve many a worrying question from which wine to serve with shell fish or the perfect menu for a BBQ. Compiler Nelun Wickremesinghe is fond of quoting the words of her mother “No woman is a woman unless she can cook, sew and keep a neat and comfortable home” and this book dedicated to the women in her life, her mother, sisters and aunts provides chunks of information on a variety of subjects related to this theme.

Different chapters take you through a whole gamut of home-making skills and know-how. From the standard information like weights and measures, methods of cooking to table arrangements, napkin folding, cheeses, wines, baking and cake decorating, the book goes to include other topics like beauty culture, personal image, fabric painting and even a guide to basic computer knowledge and use as well as first aid and a guide to letter writing. It is nothing short of comprehensive.

The beauty of the book is that Nelun Wickremesinghe has enlisted a number of qualified personalities as contributors. There’s Vindya Ratnavibushana, Executive Housekeeper of the Cinnamon Grand telling you how to keep your home neat and tidy, Chris Bevis Earnest, Banquet Operations Manager of the Colombo Hilton advising you on table arrangements, mind you the different settings for breakfast, tea or table d’hote settings and introducing the different types of cheeses from Gruyere to Gouda, Ramani Fernando guiding you on make-up and many others, their contributions, all clearly written and easily followed.

The book will not only be an absorbing read but an invaluable guide for the young bride setting up her home, the housewife who has to rustle up quick meals and entertain with flair or even those interested in learning new skills. While there are many specialized books on wines and entertaining, rarely do we come across a volume that packs in so much information, that too from a local perspective.