English Version | Roe of hope

In her own words, Sophie Roe is a chef, food and feelings lady, trauma-informed and welfare advocate. In our own words, Sophia Roe is all that and more. A more that includes being a beacon of hope, optimism and love. Inside and outside of the kitchen. 

© Photography by Wini Lao. Courtesy of Sophia Roe.
© Photography by Wini Lao. Courtesy of Sophia Roe.

What are your earliest memories of cooking?

Probably doing like cheese on toast for my mom, and pancakes. I remember there was like a little stool situation and I would stand up at the stool. I was just learning to read and I remember there being a “Joy of Cooking” book in my house. Everybody had one of those in their house back then and I would just kind of try to understand a recipe. My mom had me pretty young and she would have friends over, and I would just be stuck watching like, you know, public television, and there would be some random “Great Chefs of the World” show on. I just became fascinated with cooking, the alchemy of it. I just thought it was so cool to start out with flour and end up with cake. I just thought that was the coolest thing. And so, to find out that I had a cookbook in the house, when you're just starting to read, you're going through that cookbook and figuring out what to do. I remember going to school and asking my teacher what does it mean when it says a cup of something like. I didn't understand what a cup measurement was. Or six grams of something, I didn't understand it. My first memories of cooking are pretty young, I would say like six or seven.

You have been a chef for more than 12 years and you have done a lot of work in the cooking world, from restaurants to being a private chef and catering. Did those experiences help shape the work you do today?

Absolutely. All of them are sort of levies of one industry. All of that is an umbrella of you just taking care of people and feeding people. It’s a service thing. I think that's because I've had a really hard upbringing, and this idea of taking care, I've always wanted to do that. And there are a million reasons to be a chef, right? I can't speak for all chefs, but I can say that for me the biggest element is that take away, that empty plate. That's really it for me. If I make something and there’s a belly full, an empty plate, good conversation happening, that means I did my job. And so, the margin for success for me is pretty high. As long as there’s an empty plate, bellies are full, people are happy, I was successful today. And I think that's a huge integer for how I treat all aspects of my life. The small things are big victories for me. It's crazy to think I've been doing this for over a decade, but I have, and I carry all that with me.

Do you have an ingredient or recipe that is particularly special?

I have tons of those. First off, I love to pickle things. I love pickling. I think it's such an incredible way to take an ingredient that maybe you would have thrown away, or something that is about to go bad, and create a whole new flavor with it. So, for me, that's my favorite. I am the queen of buying things in excess just so that I know I can pickle it. And people are just pickling cucumbers or carrots. I pickle everything, citrus, fruit, everything. It's just one of my favorite ways to elevate food and make food taste more palatable. And it gets forgotten about because we want creamy, we want fat, we want mouthfeel, but we forget about sharpness and what acid can do for our palates and also for flavor. So, I love vinegar, I love capers and pickles and mustard and just all those kinds of salty, sour things. I love them.