Signature at Wandsworth Common, a luxury care home in London, is celebrating the remarkable work of Sri Owen.

With the world celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women as part of International Women’s Day today (Tuesday 8th March), Signature at Wandsworth Common Resident Sri Owen continues to excel in multiple spheres.

From her early years living in what was the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, a career in food seemed on the cards from an early age for Sri as she took inspiration from her grandmother’s cooking.

For 40 years, she then worked as a professional chef travelling the world teaching chefs on her main specialty, Indonesian cuisine. In what was a very much a male-dominated profession, Sri went on to be a prolific author of Indonesian cookery books, first putting pen to paper in 1976, writing The Home Book Of Indonesian Cookery and also appearing on the BBC with chefs such as Raymond Blanc.

Her extraordinary career has even included a 20-year stint working as broadcaster, producer and translator for the BBC’s Indonesian Service.

At 86 years of age, she continues to be a highly-respected voice on south-east Asian cuisines, penning a further 14 books in English over the years. Such is her continued appeal, two publishers have now asked Sri’s help to reissue two of her books into second editions.

Those at Signature at Wandsworth Common are now able to enjoy Sri’s expertise, where she has carried out cooking demonstrations and on special occasions served up delicious dishes for some of her fellow residents.
Reflecting on her career Sri, who lived for many years in Wimbledon Village, spoke of her passion to help others and to contribute to life at the care home.

She said: “I still like to cook and teach cooking. I am happy to give instructions and advice and examples about Indonesian and other Asian countries food and cooking to chefs of Signature Homes if I am asked to.

“I always wanted to teach cooking at any establishment who would like to improve their cooking standard in cuisines that are not so familiar to every single chef.”
Helen Harkin, Client Liaison Manager at Signature at Wandsworth Common, described Sri as a ‘master at work’.

She said: “It’s an incredibly rare privilege to have an accomplished chef and food writer living with us.

“To watch Sri cook is to watch a master at work. Residents gather to watch the cooking and then we all sit together to eat the dish. It is really important for us help support our residents to retain independence.”

One of Sri’s classic books, The Rice Book, originally published by Doubleday in 1993, and won The Andre Simon Award of that year, is to be re-published as a second edition by Bloomsbury.