I was working at Associated Magazines when I heard that Woolworths was launching TASTE magazine.
Then I heard that Phillippa Cheifitz would be the first food editor. This was a surprise because, at the time, Phillippa was food editor at both Femina and House & Leisure. Then I became editor of House & Leisure, worked alongside her and I understood. Not to have Phillippa Cheifitz be part of the launch of “the best food magazine in the world”, would be inconceivable. And to lose her to another publishing house was equally unthinkable. Which is how she became one of the most prolific food editors in South Africa.
Aside from her much-loved recipes, Phillippa’s special talent is creating perfectly crafted menus. This is a skill I only came to appreciate after discovering Alice Waters, Suzanne Goin and David Tanis (to name a few) and their simple, but magical menus for Chez Panisse. While writing this, I came across a menu I kept from the launch of one of Phillipa’s many cookbooks, The Supper Club in 2015. It read: green vegetable-and-buttermilk terrine with anchovy dressing; poached tuna medallions with a herb crust and sweet potatoes; baby leaf salad; olive oil sponge cake with seasonal fruit. I’d eaten at celebrated chef Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc in Napa earlier that year, and the meal was startlingly similar, and honestly, just as good.
Phillippa grew up in a traditional Jewish household, the granddaughter of eastern European immigrants. She switched careers from psychology to food early on,
