Culinary History of Cookery

Followers of food and food writing have the chance to meet one of our most exciting culinary minds at a Book Council event in Wellington next week. Cookery aficionado, Alexa Johnston, will speak about the rich and tantalising world of New Zealand cookery at the Book Council’s Culinary History of Cookery event at Caffe L’affare on June 24. Alexa Johnston, speaking with host Laura Kroetsch, will shine a light on the inspiring world of New Zealand cuisine, including those heart-warming dishes we can’t live without.

Alexa Johnston is the author of two hugely successful cookbooks, Ladies, A Plate (Penguin, 2008) and A Second Helping (Penguin, 2009). New Zealand has a long track record of culinary innovation and success, and more quality cookery publications are released every year, as New Zealand readers stand behind their country’s culinary legacy, and just as significantly, its future.

Before taking up her current role as a freelance curator and writer, Alexa Johnston was curator at Auckland Art Gallery for 19 years. When asked about what she enjoyed most about working on her cookbooks she said, ‘I loved spending days in the kitchen trying out recipes, and not feeling as though I should be doing ‘real’ work; having lots of baking to give away to friends and family; building up my collection of community cookbooks and spending hours searching through them; setting up the photographs, and choosing plates and cloths from my cupboards for each image. There’s nothing I didn’t enjoy about it really!’

Laura Kroetsch is a long-time book reviewer, and she was the New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week 2010 festival programme manager. She will chair the session, and with Alexa Johnston examine and chart cookery in New Zealand up to the present day.

Be in quick and get your tickets as attendance is limited.

Tickets: $16.00, ($14.00 NZ Book Council members). Tickets available Monday 10 May from the Information desk, Central Library. For more information visit the Book Council website www.bookcouncil.org.nz.

Background:
Featuring both local and international writers, the New Zealand Book Council's Meet the Author events expose audiences throughout New Zealand to writers they have long admired, and others they may not have read yet. Meet the Author events have included writers such as: Alexander McCall Smith, Margaret Atwood, Jenny Pattrick, Fiona Kidman, Alice Sebold, Lloyd Jones, Colm Toibin and most recently an evening with Marina Lewycka.

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