When Elza van den Heever recently wrapped her run as Salome at the Metropolitan Opera, she bid adieu for the moment to New York City and to a storage unit she’s rented for the past 10 years to house her baking equipment. Now, singing the role of Elettra in San Francisco Opera’s new production of Mozart’s Idomeneo (which plays at the War Memorial Opera House through June 25), she’s returned to the Bay Area … with a chef’s knife and a very good nonstick pan packed in her suitcase.
“You never know what you will find in rental apartments,” van den Heever said in an interview with SF Classical Voice. For the dramatic soprano, cooking is the “ultimate love language.”
During performances, van den Heever’s culinary routine doesn’t shift much. She shops regularly and cooks on rehearsal days. She starts every morning to go with kefir, blueberries, and the “holy trio” of hemp hearts, chia seeds, and flax seeds. Before performances, she makes chicken and rice. “If I don’t have my chicken and rice, I don’t think I can perform,” she said. The soprano sticks with what works. “That just means a lot of fiber and carbs and protein before I sing.”
As a teenager, van den Heever considered going to culinary school. She learned how to cook by observing her mother, whose oxtails and basmati rice the soprano still craves whenever she returns to her native South Africa. She remembers preparing her first solo dinner at age 8; by the time she was in high school, she was making dinner regularly for her family. Though the teenage van den Heever ultimately chose to attend a music conservatory, her passion for cooking has remained steadfast.
During the lull of the COVID-19 pandemic, she decided to hone her baking skills. A mille-crêpes cake led to a croquembouche, then croissants and a series of Barbie cakes, modeled after opera divas such as Maria Callas and Pretty Yende, complete with flouncy fondant skirts.
For the Met’s annual holiday bake-off in 2024, van den Heever won best in show for a banana and peanut praline cake inspired by Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous 2019 conceptual art piece Comedian — a banana duct-taped to a wall. The soprano’s hyper-realistic cakes have included, among other designs, a butter yellow backpack emblazoned with the word “diva.”
Baking is not so different from opera, according to van den Heever. Problem-solving is required in both, as is commitment. Some of the soprano’s cakes have taken 30 to 40 hours to complete. She can become so engrossed in what she’s baking, she said, that she forgets to eat and after two days starts to shake, with tears and exhaustion then following.
“It’s like I have to reach that moment and break through that barrier,” said van den Heever. “I don’t consciously think to myself, ‘Oh, I enjoy problem-solving,’ because I don’t. I enjoy the struggle subconsciously, and then once I barrel through it and find my way, there’s such a satisfaction.”
She does most of her cake baking at home in France, but she’s often away. When she’s back, she delights in cooking themed dinners for groups of friends, crafting hand-painted menus as well as numerous dishes. The preparations can take up to five days but result in evenings that become shared memories.
The soprano rarely eats out, preferring to cook for herself and especially for her wife Isabelle, something van den Heever began chronicling in New York in an Instagram series called “Dinner for Isa.” Fresh pasta and ravioli are favorites.
“She knows the longer it takes, the happier I am,” the soprano said.
