Off topic.... when one runs a blog you encounter many special people, the following is just one of those who I consider a dear friend although I have never had the opportunity to meet.... Heidi's life experiences are a testament to the resilience and determination of the human spirit.... please indulge me and if admin wishes to delete I will understand.
This is an email that I received this morning.....
Dear friends and family,4
Having sorted out some problems with last year's Chilli festival after I took it back over, we are having it at the same place - Eddie Mac's Victoria Park Sports Club, South End, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. We are now better prepared and organized for that venue
This year's beneficiary will go to a shelter for Abused, Battered Women and Girls.
Although I cannot divulge the name of the shelter for the safety of the abused, I can, however, give you the registration number for tax deduction purposes.
Reg No 004-615 NPO FR 09 900 572 0004
Dates: 28th & 29th March 2015 9:00 am - 5:00
We would appreciate all the attendance and support from all of you and your friends. Love Heidi
VENDORS - the application forms are now available - email heidemarievos707@gmail.com for application forms and costs - phone +27 (0)84 719 8855
Banking details
H.Vos Chilli Festival
Nedbank, Ring Road, Greenacres, Port Elizabeth, S.A.
Branch Code 198765
Acct: 1025913396
Donors and Sponsors will graciously be accepted
Prizes will always be welcomed.
Thank you,
Heidemarie Vos
Author "Chilli South Africa" and other books
+27 (0)41-373-4116
BIOGRAPHY Heidemarie “Heidi” Vos
.
August 22, 2011 at 9:39am
Heidi sums her life up thus far as being an adventure, a continuous learning experience, and a lesson in survival woven into an intricate tapestry of the unusual.
Heidi was born in the small town of Dučhove, now in Czech Republic, in 1943. After her parents’ death in 1945 and amid all the confusion of war’s end she was unwittingly left abandoned in a refugee camp. She was finally found and rescued from the camp by a relative, but the area had already become East Germany. She was smuggled into West Germany under furniture on a freight train in 1946 and then grew up in rural Bavaria. She attended basic 8 years schooling, and later was sent to get a convent Home Economic education until she immigrated at 14 to the USA. She continued with that focus at Parsippany High School, New Jersey, where she graduated in 1962.
Her work in the catering and hospitality industry included summer work in the Catskill Mountain resorts, in N.Y. State during her High School years and after graduation, still with limited English she worked fulltime at the New Orleans Playboy Club as a Playboy Bunny; and years later at La Louisianne Restaurant in New Orleans, aside of doing private catering for special occasions. She modeled and appeared on several runways for clothing and in several local New Orleans T.V. commercials about buying food. She studied radio broadcasting and received her FCC license in 1965 and in addition became a US citizen the same year.
Her favorite day-off hobby was to re-create famous dinners eaten out in New Orleans, and her actual first ever commissioned dinner, her public cooking debut for a private gathering in New Orleans in 1965 was to entertain famous bandleader and xylophonist Lionel Hampton.
Heidi married a linguist seaman and moved to England. She attended a nearby college and finally studied for her own Seamanship papers. Her husband at the time worked for a private charter shipping line in various capacities and Heidi joined him traveling the world for about 8 years. During this time she became quite familiar with a lot of different cultures and their food.
Divorced, Heidi returned to the US and settled in Florida. After 1 year and totally by chance she ran into an “old” South African seafaring colleague from her London days. She married him in 1977 and shortly after they moved to the Washington, D.C. area.
Aside of a normal 9-5-weekday job, Heidi loved entertaining and started catering for private functions, mainly weddings on weekends and also became a certified florist. Living in McLean, Virginia, her client list included quite a few from ‘Who’s Who’. She found herself doing flowers for Ethel Kennedy one day and next catering for Prince and Princess Alexis Obolensky the next.
Through her work, Heidi became personal friends with an eclectic international set of people. These friendships gave her an intimate knowledge about Russian food and customs. Aside of that, Heidi hosted 3 foreign graduate students, a year at a time, expanding her own horizon into Chinese, Indian and Persian cuisines and cultures, this in addition to the 42 countries she had already traveled to.
She moved to South Africa in 1991 with her husband Alan Vos. Her passionate dedication to food possessed her into taking 200+ cookbooks along, plus herbs and spices because she figured she would not be able to get some of the things for years in South Africa. She was right!
Since living in South Africa, Heidi has been written up in several papers for her unusual home made purple and black pasta and she herself became more and more popular. She has authored her own cookbook “Chilli South Africa”, and wrote 2 commissioned cookbooks for ‘Fruit and
Veg City’, a green grocery chain based in South Africa. These glossy covered works are part of their “Fresh” series. Her works for them are entitled “Taste the World” and “Seasons”. She is noted as the author of both these made to order books.
After receiving a lot of press for her homemade purple and black pasta, which she sold to specialty shops in Port Elizabeth, she founded the ‘International Gourmet at Home Club’ in 1993, with clubs now also in Cape Town, Brazil, Germany, New Zealand and England aside of Port Elizabeth. She wrote, edited and published a quarterly newsletter that included all the recipes the Port Elizabeth Group used. It was very successful, but the newsletter was put on the back burner when Heidi began to write books.
She further founded the Algoa Bay Chilli Society in 2003 after her book “Chilli South Africa” was released and recently changed the Society’s name to the South African Chilli Society & Festival. Heidi hosts the annual Chilli Festival at Port Elizabeth, Nelson Mandela Bay for charity and she showcases local chefs through competition and judging, hot Latin dancing, music, art and general entrepreneurial talents all in connection with cooking chilli spiced food, the chilli and its history. All festivals have been well attended and have grown in popularity and into a multi-cultural event.
Heidi’s recipes from her book “Chilli South Africa” were featured in “Food and Home”, “Essential”, “Good Taste” and “Clicks Club Card” national magazines and most recently she herself was featured in ‘Sunshine Coast Living”. Aside of having numerous newspaper articles written about her and her book, she also appeared on Radio AlgoaFM with Charl Leslie and BayFM Radio with Jay on their food talk segment; and she was interviewed on the SABC Radio international program “Woman’s World” regarding her unusual pasta and her inaugural Gourmet at Home Club Dinner, teasing the taste buds with Moroccan food back in 1993. She further appeared on South African National TV SABC2 “Morning Live” with Vuyo regarding her book and the first chilli festival. She is listed on Google and under her name and book title.
Her latest completed manuscript “Passion of a Foodie” - A Kitchen Companion” takes anyone from being an amateur to professional cook. It is the most comprehensive, user-friendly, world wide up-to-date culinary data gathered with a wealth of recipes and explanations of international terms cross-referenced and this is what makes this book unique.
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