Inge Starr learned how to cook on the fly.

Born in Solingen, Germany, Starr moved to England when she was 23 and began to look for work.

“I applied with an agency for a job as a cook, and I’d never cooked before. They handed me a cookbook, and that’s how I learned,” says Starr, who has lived in Lawrence since 1969.

She took a position working for an American woman from Chicago and her English husband in Weybridge, in the Surrey region near London. Her employers were surprised to hear that their newly-hired cook knew nothing about preparing food. But Starr used a cookbook and figured it out.

“It’s easy to do, if you follow instructions. And English cooking is not brain surgery. I learned to cook prime rib, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Believe it or not, it turned out fine,” she says.

Starr has come a long way in the kitchen since then. These days she is well known, among her friends and fellow church members, for her culinary skills.

But English cooking is no longer her specialty. It’s her German dishes that are the real crowd pleasers.

Starr, who retired after 27 years of working at Kansas University’s computer center and later Watson Library, churns many delights out of her small kitchen: warm German potato salad, sauerkraut with grated apples and bits of smoky bacon, bratwurst simmered in beer and then broiled or grilled, and rich fruit tortes.

“It’s hearty, but I don’t think it’s elegant. But it’s good,” Starr says.

The annual Oompahfest Family Fun Festival will feature German food such as, from left, potato salad, cherry torte, sauerkraut and bratwurst.

Her talents will be on display at the third annual Oompahfest Family Fun Festival, which will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at South Park, 12th and Massachusetts streets.

The event, sponsored by Immanuel Lutheran Church and the University Student Center, will showcase authentic German dishes, music and folk dancing.

On the menu will be Starr’s German potato salad — which is spectacular — and her sauerkraut. There also will be grilled bratwurst, bierocks and homemade desserts donated by members of Immanuel Lutheran Church. Participants would do well to sample Starr’s contributions to the event.

“Her cooking is exceptional,” says Tricia Masenthin, an Immanuel member who’s doing publicity for the festival. “She puts her heart into it, and you can tell.”

Five meals per day

Germans appreciate good food, and they love to eat.

Inge Starr dishes up sauerkraut at her Lawrence home. She is helping prepare German food for the annual Oompahfest Family Fun Festival. The event, which benefits Immanuel Lutheran Church, is Saturday at South Park.

Starr, who moved to the United States in 1956, recalls the typical, German eating schedule she was accustomed to while growing up. They used to eat five times a day.

“About 7 or 8 o’clock in the morning, you’d have your breakfast: oatmeal, bread, butter and a little bit of cheese. At 10 o’clock, you’d have sandwiches. About 12 or 1 o’clock, you’d have your lunch: potatoes, vegetables, some kind of meat,” Starr says.

“At four o’clock you had your afternoon coffee. You had cake, you had torte. Then about 7 or 8 o’clock, you had supper: cold cuts and potato salad or fried potatoes; buckwheat pancakes with pieces of bacon.”

Wait. There’s more.

“At 10 o’clock, you’d have a slice of bread, cold cuts and a cookie, maybe. We always had butter on our bread. We liked butter. And some people used goose fat,” she recalls.

“Even when I was in England, I still had five meals (a day). When I came to America, I thought they were going to starve me to death.”

Starr lived in Germany during World War II, and those were much leaner times.

“At the end, we were hungry. The rations got smaller and smaller. My mother had a little garden, so we had some vegetables. We had a chicken, so we had eggs. We ate horsemeat,” she says.

“We were allowed one pound of meat, or two pounds of horsemeat. It was stringy, but it made good sauerbraten (a marinated roast).”

Oh, and they ate a lot of turnips, using them to make “potato” pancakes.

“Ick,” Star says, making a face. To this day, she can’t stand turnips.

‘Whatever the boys want’

These days, Starr enjoys cooking German dishes for her friends. She makes foods such as sauerkraut studded with potatoes and navy beans, or rouladen — beef roll-ups stuffed with mustard, bacon, diced onions and pickles.

Her other specialties are weinerschnitzel, which is pork or veal pounded thin, dredged in flour and seasoned bread crumbs and browned in butter or oil; and sauerbraten, a beef roast marinated for 24 to 48 hours in vinegar, wine, bay leaf, peppercorns, lemons and cloves.

Her own favorite German dishes are the ones that come from Bavaria, in the southern part of the country: liver dumpling soup and spaetzle, a kind of pasta dish.

“I love herring, too. I eat it with potato salad or German bread,” Starr says.

She doesn’t often prepare German dishes for her sons, Kenneth, 45, and John, 40, both of whom live in Lawrence. Her husband of 34 years, Merle, died in 1991.

“I like Mexican and Italian food — whatever the boys want. They are very picky eaters. John likes spaghetti, tacos and stuff like that,” she says.

Still, Starr thinks there’s nothing quite like sitting down to enjoy a hearty German meal.

“It sticks to your ribs,” Starr adds.