Sri Owen | |
|---|---|
 Owen in 2012 | |
| Born | (1935-03-31)31 March 1935 Padang Panjang, Sumatra's West Coast Residency, Dutch East Indies |
| Died | 4 October 2025(2025-10-04) (aged 90) London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Cookbook writer and culinary teacher |
| Spouse | Roger Owen (died 2021) |
| Website | http://www.sriowen.com/ |
Sri Owen (31 March 1935 – 4 October 2025) was an Indonesian cooking teacher andfood writer, based in London for most of her life. She was the author of the first English-language recipe book dedicated to the food of Indonesia, and is recognised as a leading authority onIndonesian cuisine.[1]
Owen was born inPadang Panjang, West Sumatra, in what was then theDutch East Indies, on 31 March 1935. She was born to aMinangkabau family,[2] in a town at the heart ofthat culture. She was the eldest of six children, all girls.
Her childhood was disrupted byJapanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies; during World War II, millions of Indonesians died of famine, forced labour, and the disruption of society.[3] Her parents worked as teachers, and the family lived briefly in Jakarta, before settling inMagelang, Central Java in 1949.[4] Sri continued her education inYogyakarta and studied English Literature atGadjah Mada University. After graduating, she taught at the university and became head of its library; it was there in 1961 that she met Roger Owen, a British Oxford University graduate, who lectured in history in Indonesia for three years. Sri and Roger married in 1962.
After accompanying her husband back to London in 1963, Sri worked as a translator, broadcaster and producer for theBBC Far Eastern Service for almost 20 years.[5] In 1984, Roger and Sri moved with their two sons toWimbledon Village, where Sri sold Indonesian dishes and snacks from a shop on the High Street.
Her first cookbook,The Home Book Of Indonesian Cookery, was published by Faber in 1976, and brought together family recipes handed down by her grandmother and carefully recorded by her mother. Owen went on to write more than a dozen books on the food of Indonesia and other Asian countries. A significant mentor wasAlan Davidson, author ofThe Oxford Companion to Food, to whom she eventually dedicated her 15th book,Sri Owen’s Indonesian Food. He influenced her thinking about "foodways"—the ever-evolving totality "of all the food habits in a community or culture".[6] She argues thatrendang, recognised by the Indonesian state as one ofthe five national dishes, is aMinangkabau dish.[7]
In addition to her writing, Owen has run cookery demonstrations, workshops and courses across the globe, and has appeared on BBC TV with chefs includingRaymond Blanc.
Owen died in London on 4 October 2025, at the age of 90.[8][9]
The Rice Book was selected byBee Wilson of theObserver Food Monthly as one of the magazine's top 50 cookbooks of all time.[10] Owen's most recent book,Sri Owen’s Indonesian Food, is an autobiographical celebration of the cooking of the country of her birth.
Melissa Clark of theNew York Times quotesPaul Levy, chairman emeritus of theOxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, siting Owen's food scholarship within the tradition of culinary writers who also opened up to the English-speaking world then-novel cuisines likeElizabeth David (Mediterranean cuisine),Jane Grigson (European cooking, and traditional British dishes),Claudia Roden (Middle Eastern food), andJulia Child (classical French cuisine).[11]
Sri Owen has been described byNikkei Asia as "the Indonesian food writer credited with introducing her country's cuisine to the world".[12] She mentored young chef and writer Lara Lee,[13] who also wishes "to share the wonderful cuisine of Indonesia with the world".[14] TheSan Francisco Chronicle calls her "an obvious authority on Indonesian cooking"[15]Mayukh Sen described Sri Owen simply as "The Woman Who Changed the Way We Think About Indonesian Food".[16]
