It’s a funny business, experiencing revelations that eventually spur one to create a book. There I was pacing the kitchen of my Wellington home a few years back, fretting over what to rustle up for some dinner guests, when the heavens lit up and the countdown began for a new cookbook that comes out this week.
Not having prepared a meal for these particular visitors before, I thought it may be better to go with something from our part of the world rather than the colourful Middle Eastern fare I’m rather partial to making. But where could I find some decent recipes to choose from?
I decided to check out the RNZ website for candidates. After all, our public broadcaster has been at it for quite a while now, hasn’t it? Well, yes, it has, with rather more to show for the effort than I supposed: 3000 recipes. And virtually anybody worth mentioning in the food biz seemed to be among the contributors.
I was immediately struck by their gastronomic quality, but also the quantity. Who could possibly wade through it all? When I tapped in “fish”, for instance, the ocean of
