Sri Owen, a Sumatra-raised food writer living in London "who brokered her homesickness for her native cuisine into a prolific career as a cookbook author credited with popularizing Indonesian delicacies in the English-speaking world," died October 4, the New York Times reported. She was 90.
Owen published 10 books, starting with The Home Book of Indonesian Cookery (1976), a groundbreaking work that "brought to light a national cuisine that was little known in the Western world, weaving myriad recipes into a memoir format that also traces the swirl of cultural influences--Chinese, Indian, Spanish, Arabic and others--that shaped the Indonesian palate," the Times wrote.
The Rice Book (1993) explored the historical legacies of the grain, as well as its myths and legends, while offering more than 250 recipes from many countries. The Observer ranked The Rice Book #19 on its list of the 50 best cookbooks of all time. Her other cookbooks include Healthy Thai Cooking (1997), Noodles the New Way (2000), and New Wave Asian (2002). In 2017, the Guild of Food Writers honored her with its lifetime achievement award.
Owen moved from Sumatra to Britain in 1964 with her English husband, Roger Owen. A Jane Austen fan and self-described Anglophile, she later said she had been eager to move, but soon began to yearn for the foods she had grown up with. "When I arrived in London, Indonesian food was not known at all," Owen said in an interview with the Times in 2020. "I started cooking Indonesian food because I wanted to eat my own home cooking. The flavors of Indonesian food are difficult to leave behind."
A literary agent friend of her husband who had dined in the Owen home helped arrange a deal for The Home Book of Indonesian Cookery with Faber & Faber.
In 1984, Owen opened an Indonesian food shop on the ground floor of the family home, naming it Mustika Rasa, roughly, "jewel of flavor," which sold its wares at Harrods, the Times noted, adding that by her later years, she "had no shortage of Indonesian restaurants to choose from in London. But there was little point in asking her for recommendations. As she put it to Food52, 'I find I can cook better than any of the average eating places.' "