Discover the voices of Indonesian writers through curated stories and insights that bring their works to the world.

Sri Owen, food writer who introduced Indonesian cuisine to Britain in the 1970s

Sri Owen, who has died aged 90, was an authority on Indonesian food, and was widely credited with introducing the country’s cuisine to the English-speaking world.

Like the Italian-born food writer Anna del Conte, Sri Owen honed her talent while attempting to recreate the flavours of her birth country ​within the confines of an English kitchen. Unable to source many of the ingredients available in Indonesia, she became expert at making canny substitutions (macadamia nuts instead of candlenuts, for example).

Her first book, The Home Book of Indonesian Cookery (1976), was a recipe book with the structure of a memoir, and brought together family recipes handed down from her grandmother. The audience for such a book was tiny, but it brought her to the attention of Alan Davidson, the British diplomat and food writer. Through him she was introduced to various luminaries of the food world, including Jane Grigson and Claudia Roden, and Davidson encouraged her to embark on a career as a full-time food writer. By 1988 The Observer was describing her as Britain’s “leading South-east Asian foodie”.

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