Julia & Adelbert Marmite

So, I started reading "The Marmite’s Travel Log" and it’s quite mind-blowing! Mr & Mrs Marmite were, in fact, Adelbert and Julia Marmite; they were born and lived in Hungary, in the Transylvania region and they spent over 30 years traveling the world. They started their travels in 1889! I mean, try to imagine what it might have been like to travel so extensively in 1889?!

Flipping through the pages, I learned that the book is a collection of anecdotes and descriptions of meetings and experiences, for every country they came through. It seems Adelbert was the one doing the bulk of the writing but, Julia did the illustrations, judging by the "J.M." often found under these drawings. That said, I think Adelbert also had excellent drawing skills because some of them are clearly from another hand.

Julia’s passion in life, however, seems to have been plant-based food; there are dozens of recipes in the book, including ingredients and instructions! OK, I will admit that it isn’t exactly a "precise tool"; quite a few ingredients are not what we’d call them these days, nor in this part of the world. Cooking methods are equally not what we might recognise as familiar… The handwriting is also not always very legible or the ink has washed out over time. The most amazing passages though, are those where they describe their interactions with the locals, where they explain that they don’t eat animal, purely for the love of animals. Wow! This is 1889, if it needs reminding!

They also comment on the fact that many of the people they come across actually ate very little meat and they had no issues finding the foods they wanted. Once again, this is back when there were no supermarkets stacked full of with processed foods.

I have to say that diving into this travel journal has been a bit serendipitous for me… There is so much tenderness, love and joie-de-vivre in these drawings and writings. I don’t quite know where all this will lead but, it’s crystal clear to me that "The Marmite’s Travel Log" has changed my life and, I’m convinced it will affect my future too.

Some of you know that I’ve been working on a new project for the past few months: online vegan cooking classes. No YouTube videos to follow along to… No, my idea is to have real-time Zoom classes; everybody in their own kitchen, yet preparing meals together. I’ll be working with other vegan chefs and I’m hoping the website will be up by the end of May.

I had a name for the project, a domain name and a logo; the website was almost ready to launch… But, hey… meeting Julia and Adelbert Marmite kind of threw a spanner in the works. I’ve decided to pay homage to them and deviate from my original course: a new name, a new logo, a new lay-out… I’m still tweaking a few details but I will most certainly be keeping you all in the loop.