Modern Museum

Modern Museum Publishing a.k.a. Pub is the lifestyle publishing wing of Modern Museum Communications; a Durban advertising agency specialising in blue-chip retail. Modern Museum was founded in 1999 by Jenny Bennett (Operations Director) and Neil Roake (Creative Director), who between them run the company which is not, it must often be stressed to puzzled callers, an actual museum.

As director of ad agency Modern Museum; co-owner of The Space; cook; global gourmet and ex House & Leisure food editor, it's no surprise Neil Roake launched a publishing company that would allow him to put all these roles into the mix. The result? An instant success for local publishing, when Life's a Beach Cottage, Pub's debut title, won Best Barbeque and Outdoor Cookery Book in the World, at the Gourmand Awards (think Oscars for cookery), held at London's Olympia on the 13th April 2008.

Life's brought together lavish yet easy to prepare al fresco recipes, larger-than-life photography by Sean Laurenz and an unpretentious, conversational tone. It encapsulates the kind of seaside experience most people find themselves longing for, while reading the latest throat-tightening economic report.

USA retailer ANTHROPOLOGIE placed orders the book, which has also won awards locally for Best Barbecue Book, Best Cookbook Cover and Best Cookbook Design.Life has since been followed by a top-selling sequel, as well as On the Rocks, a coastal-themed cocktail book that has won best South African Photography Cookbook (Gourmand). So what comes next?