Her mother baked. She watched.<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein, the free-range cook, loved watching her mother bake when she was a little girl. <\/p>\n
Long before television cameras or bestselling cookbooks, there was a little girl pressing mud into muffin tins, decorating her pies with flowers and berries picked from the garden.<\/p>\n
They weren\u2019t much good to eat. But they were beautiful to look at.<\/p>\n
Langbein, the self-styled free-range cook, would rather invite you into the kitchen than show it off.<\/p>\n
The bestselling author and television personality \u2013 who now calls the southwest of France home \u2013 has made a career of stripping away the fuss, making food that looks as though anyone could cook it.<\/p>\n
And, more importantly, making you want to.<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein’s 17th-century home near Bordeaux. <\/p>\n
Langbein and her husband, Ted Hewetson, have done what plenty of Kiwis dream about in the middle of winter.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve swapped the W\u0101naka winter for summer in the southwest of France, buying a rambling 17th-century farmhouse near Bergerac.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe looked at 84 houses, and we love this one,\u201d Langbein told the Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this building doesn\u2019t have foundations. It\u2019s built straight onto rock, limestone, so it breathes. We\u2019ve had so much dry weather that cracks have appeared in the walls \u2014 cracks so big you can slide your hand through them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite disconcerting because you look at them and think, \u2018Oh my goodness, is this thing actually going to fall?\u2019 Then you remember it\u2019s been standing here for more than 500 years, so hopefully not.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Surreal and apocalyptic\u2019: Langbein\u2019s sadness about nearby wildfire<\/p>\n
Sadly, many other homes of a similar vintage were destroyed in recent weeks by the wildfire that erupted during a heatwave about 120km around Bordeaux.<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein says the raging fires were 120km from her French farm house.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day the fires near Bordeaux broke out, our son Sean was flying in to visit from Berlin,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made the hour and 20-minute drive to pick him up. The streets were hazy and choked with smoke, and the ceaseless wail of fire truck sirens filled the air.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt surreal and apocalyptic. I learned later that two firemen had lost their lives fighting this blaze.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though we were about 120km from the actual fires, we woke to the acrid smell of smoke in the air. A thick pall of smoke hung around the house. You couldn\u2019t even see down into the valley; the smoke sat like a dense winter fog.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everything was unsettled and jittery, Langbein said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe roe deer who usually come to graze contentedly at our pond overflow were flighty and restless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein surveys the produce at a French market.<\/p>\n
The blaze near Bordeaux impacted about 42ha of land; the biggest wildfire in France since 1949.<\/p>\n
The fire \u2013 which continues to burn but is now contained \u2013 led to about 240,000 people being evacuated from their homes.<\/p>\n
Langbein says she\u2019s thankful the wildfires stopped short of her slice of French paradise; almost 20,000km from her previous W\u0101naka base.<\/p>\n
The less romantic side of the French dream includes plumbing woes, electrical nightmares and cars that break down only to languish for weeks in repair shops while everything \u2014 from spare parts to conversations \u2014 gets a little lost in translation.<\/p>\n
Langbein said she is enjoying cooking again after seven weeks without a kitchen.<\/p>\n
Her husband ripped out the kitchen and replaced it with, she says, the carcass of new drawers, shelves and a new oven.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pre-ordered everything six months ago. Ted was quite clever. He found an old kitchen bench, re-plumbed it and hooked up an old dishwasher, so at least we had running water.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe old oven was f***ed \u2014 it burnt everything. An electrician eventually got the stovetop going, so at least I could boil potatoes and put on a pot roast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to cook any more. If you put anything in the oven, it would incinerate it. It became hard work to put something on the table that you felt good about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein says she enjoys foraging for antiques to furnish her house at the Brocante French markets.<\/p>\n
The foraging has become more French.<\/p>\n
Instead of combing through the bush, Langbein prowls through the brocantes, emerging with China plates, paintings, furnishings and silverware \u2013 whatever catches her eye to fill her 17th-century, seven-bedroom house with objects that look as though they have always been part of the furniture.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny that we got rid of our old junk and replaced it with other people\u2019s junk; it\u2019s a great way of recycling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Langbein, now in her 60s, has just finished feeding friends: a shoulder of lamb, sausages, Romesco sauce, basil aioli, Greek salad, crispy roasted potatoes and wedges of chilled watermelon.<\/p>\n
Everything was sourced from neighbouring farms.<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein with her daughter Rose at French markets. Langbein says food should be fresh and uncomplicated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you cook, you bring people together; people are nourished on so many levels. It doesn\u2019t have to be complicated. You\u2019re creating a moment in someone\u2019s day where they can laugh and be present.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet the produce speak for itself. You\u2019re not running a restaurant. It\u2019s about uncomplicated food, cooked well, and great conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her husband Ted\u2019s advice for anyone lucky enough to find themselves at their table is simple: arrive hungry and have something to say.<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein with the late Sir Sam Neill; they joined forces about sustainability and opposed gold mining in Otago.<\/p>\n
Remembering Sir Sam Neill<\/p>\n
One conversation matters more than most.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the long one Langbein had been having with her late friend Sir Sam Neill about the future of Central Otago.<\/p>\n
Neill died on July 13, aged 78, after contracting pneumonia.<\/p>\n
Four years earlier he had been diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma; a rare blood cancer.<\/p>\n
The actor was a strong proponent for sustainability in New Zealand, supporting a number of environmental causes.<\/p>\n
The latter included opposing a proposed \u2013 and controversial \u2013 gold mine development in Central Otago.<\/p>\n
Neill and Langbein were both founding board members of the Sustainability Council of New Zealand; a group whose mission includes protecting and enhancing New Zealand\u2019s ecosystems.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur work was ensuring New Zealand maintains its GMO-free food producer status, which is under threat with the proposed new legislation,\u201d Langbein said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think some decisions are made with vested interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir Sam Neill and Annabel Langbein were both founding board members of the Sustainability Council of New Zealand. <\/p>\n
\u201cAlso, Sam was a high-profile opponent of Sanatana\u2019s mine project.\u201d<\/p>\n
So too is Langbein.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also put my name on the list of thousands of people opposing Australian mining company Sanatana\u2019s controversial fast-track gold mine in Central Otago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposed Bendigo-Ophir gold mine near Cromwell is among the highest-profile projects being considered under the Government\u2019s fast-track consenting regime.<\/p>\n
It has faced strong opposition from some locals and environmentalists.<\/p>\n
A decision on whether fast-track approval is granted could come by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
Before his death, Neill made a social media post where he described the proposed mine as a potential \u201cenvironmental catastrophe\u201d that could threaten \u201cCentral Otago\u2019s pristine landscapes\u201d.<\/p>\n
Langbein and Neill first met through mutual Queenstown connections.<\/p>\n
Neill also appeared in an episode of The Free Range Cook.<\/p>\n
Each summer, Langbein says, Neill would invite her to his farm to pick saffron, berries and pears \u2013 a small seasonal ritual that became part of their friendship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hugely shocked; you don\u2019t expect people like Sam to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every year, Annabel Langbein would pick saffron and pears at Sam Neill’s in Central Otago. <\/p>\n
Special times in the southwest of France<\/p>\n
It has been quite a summer for Langbein.<\/p>\n
As well as celebrating the purchase of her dream home in Europe, she opened her doors at her W\u0101naka home to host daughter Rose\u2019s wedding to her longtime partner.<\/p>\n
Rose, 32, and Hamish, 33, live in Lisbon, while Langbein\u2019s son, Sean, 34, is in London.<\/p>\n
In her current slice of French paradise, Langbein looks out her window and sees a Cezanne painting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe land folds and rolls into the valley. Pockets of forest. Fields of sunflowers. On the horizon, an inky blue sky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein says her view from her French house is like a Cezanne painting.<\/p>\n
She says Bordeaux has a smell all its own: freshly cut hay, Mara des Bois strawberries with their faint scent of violets, and white nectarines ripened in the sun.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no need for a vegetable garden,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe landscape provides its own offerings; on the table there\u2019s a huge bowl of white onions, nectarines, cherry tomatoes, enormous purple garlic, peppers \u2013 and in the fridge there are eggs and cucumbers. It has inspired me to cook again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Langbein says the quality comes at a price. A whole sea bass costs around \u20ac68 ($136), while an organic chicken is \u20ac45 ($90).<\/p>\n
Even corn is a luxury by everyday standards, at about $4 a cob.<\/p>\n
Langbein was born in Mangakino but grew up in Karori, Wellington, the youngest of three children.<\/p>\n
Timothy came first, then Prue.<\/p>\n
Her father, Fred, was an engineer who loved his garden and kept bees. Her mother, Anne, was a cook and artist and made pottery.<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein says that after her brother took his own life, she felt reckless and became a hippie. <\/p>\n
Her brother Tim sadly took his own life. He was 22. It was a loss that was hard for her to make sense of as a 14-year-old.<\/p>\n
Langbein left Wellington Girls\u2019 College after sixth form and went to Europe with her mother.<\/p>\n
By 16 she was living in a rundown farmhouse on the Whanganui River with her boyfriend. Off the grid. No running water. No electricity. They hunted and fished. Grew vegetables.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I was reckless when I was young because my brother took his own life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou felt nothing could hurt you. You did stupid things because you didn\u2019t value yourself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was an earnest hippie. We never took drugs. We did good work. We cleaned cemeteries and painted the marae. I turned to nature. It was incredibly healing. You can resolve a lot of things by being part of nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein lived near the Whanganui River without electricity and running water. <\/p>\n
Then Langbein worked as a possum trapper in Gisborne, where she met her husband, Ted Hewetson. They married in 1991.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we met, I told him we\u2019d never grow out of each other,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is incredibly bright, funny and curious \u2013 and he adores me. He can occasionally drive me mad, but he has always got my back. We still can\u2019t believe how happy we are together.\u201d<\/p>\n
While backpacking in South America, she ran her own bar in Brazil and made croissants.<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein with her husband Ted Hewetson. She says he is bright, funny and curious. <\/p>\n
In Buzios, a beach town in Brazil, Langbein discovered that all she really wanted to do was cook.<\/p>\n
Someone asked for croissants. She phoned her mother in New Zealand \u2013 an expensive call in those days \u2013 and learned to make them from hand-drawn instructions that arrived in the post. There was no butter, so she rendered her own lard.<\/p>\n
It was a revelation. The croissants paid for the next leg of the journey. She realised she didn\u2019t have to choose between making a living and doing what she loved.<\/p>\n
She could do both. And she could see the world while she was at it.<\/p>\n
Awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018, Langbein has never received formal chef training.<\/p>\n
She holds an honorary Diploma of Horticulture with Distinction from Lincoln University and completed a cooking course in New York.<\/p>\n
Over the years she has written 30 books, and her television series The Free-Range Cook has been broadcast in 90 countries.<\/p>\n
Annabel Langbein says she is more Julia Child than Nigella Lawson.<\/p>\n
Langbein says she is more Julia Child: adorable and quirky than Nigella Lawson and admires Jamie Oliver enormously.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been a voice for change. An advocate for healthy school lunches and empowering everybody with food that is easily accessible \u2013 not trendy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Langbein isn\u2019t convinced another book, or TV series featuring herself, are in the mix.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s content with 300,000 followers of her French life from afar, living it second-hand through her social media posts.<\/p>\n
Lately, though, another idea has begun to simmer: a cooking school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a pointy bottom \u2013 I\u2019m not good at doing nothing. Life is just warming up.\u201d<\/p>\n