The library subscribes to these pay-for sites that you can search for information
The food we love – the tastes of New Zealanders
Contemporary Kiwi food combines its largely British heritage with a lively exploration of European, Asian and Pacific influences. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the Cuisine magazine and website.
Other favourite contemporary sources include:
- Foodlovers.co.nz - recipes, feature articles, links to food producers and markets and lots of other information for New Zealand foodies
- Food in a Minute - recipe database from the popular New Zealand TV slot
- Alison Holst - the doyenne of Kiwi home cooking
We recommend: New Zealand Food and Wine Resources
Our online resources:
- Our localeye Christchurch and Canterbury Eating Out and Food and Wine Lovers guides
- Search our CINCH Christchurch communities directory for local food, wine and cookery groups.
Search our catalogue:
Some good wine magazines you can borrow from the library:
Historical Overview
No Pavlova Please; Images of food in 20th century New Zealand from the Nzhistory.net web site gives an overview, with great illustrations, of some of the key elements of Kiwi food in the 20th century. The site includes a useful list of resources, some of the best of which are:
- Burton, David, Two Hundred Years of New Zealand Food and Cookery, A.H. and A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1982
- Simpson, Tony, A Distant Feast: The Origins of New Zealand's Cuisine, Godwit, Auckland, 1999
- Brewis, Jill, Colonial Fare: in which we learn of the amazing fortune and fate of pioneering women who ventured from their kitchens at home to embark upon a new life in the unknown territory of New Zealand
- An online version of the 1914 edition of the third (1914) edition of the iconic Edmonds Cookery Book (the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre).
Aunt Daisy
No mention of food and cookery in New Zealand is complete without the radio personality Aunt Daisy. Maud Basham ,“Aunt Daisy”, was a favourite radio personality who took to the airwaves in the 1930s and continued in her inimitable style until 1963. Her show included recipes and household hints which were reproduced in cookbooks. Born in London, Aunt Daisy moved to Taranaki when she was 12. Puke Ariki has a useful online biography, as does the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.
Pavlova
The pavlova is a Kiwi food icon, whose origins are hotly debated between Australia and New Zealand. The idea of a large cake sized meringue filled with fruit and cream appears in a 1926 cookbook – Futter’s Home Cookery for New Zealand but it is simply called Meringue Cake. The famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova visited New Zealand in 1926. Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand gives a little background on this as does an article in Wikipedia.
History and debates aside there are many variations on the Pavlova recipe. Nola (who is over 60 and of the generation that perfected Pavlovas) has her recipe online, and Otorahanga’s Kiwianatown website also offers a Pavlova recipe.
Roast Lamb
Roast lamb is considered traditional Kiwi fare. Top chef Simon Gault offers some advice on the best way to cook lamb and the good folks in Otorohanga offer a Jo Seagar recipe – the garlic is non traditional, but a tasty way to eat lamb.
A nation of coffee lovers
A newer phenomenon is the pride and high expectations Kiwis have of coffee made in their local cafes. The Daily Grind: the history of Wellington café culture 1920-2000 gives a history of the development of the coffee drinking culture in Wellington, which is mirrored in cities around the country. Coffee culture in Christchurch features a lively central city café scene and a number of excellent suburban cafes as well as several coffee roasting firms.
Wild Food
Māori and later Captain Cook pioneered the traditional wild food of New Zealand when they released pigs into New Zealand. Later settlers brought deer, goats, trout, salmon, rabbits, hares and game birds for their sport and in the democratic spirit of the new country, anyone could hunt. These days many of these animals have come to be considered as pests but the sport and traditions of wild food still live on.
There is an annual wild food challenge for restaurants, the famous annual West Coast Wildfoods Festival at Hokitika and a ongoing culture of hunting and fishing.
Beer and Wine
Captain Cook brewed the first beer in New Zealand – probably using Rimu, Kahikatea, and Matai and calling it spruce beer. These days the major breweries which dominated beer supplies in the C19th and 20th have been joined by a lively bunch of small breweries.
Wine has also challenged the dominant beer culture since the 1970s and many regions of New Zealand have been economically invigorated by the development of the wine industry and the attendant food culture and tourism – olives, saffron, truffles and much more.
Some good websites for New Zealand wine information and reviews.
- Wine of the Week - New Zealand wine site maintained by wine writer and judge Sue Courtney
- New Zealand Wine - NZ wine and grape industry. News, wineries, wine styles and regions. Events, education, statistics and export information. From New Zealand Winegrowers, Wine Institute of New Zealand and New Zealand Grape Growers Council.
- TiZ Wine - National wine site which can be searched by region. Winemakers, accommodation, restaurants listed.
- Cuisine - Descriptions of wineries and regular wine reviews.
You can study winemaking at Christchurch Polytechnic and Lincoln University. The New Zealand School of Food and Wine offers a professional sommelier course and also part time wine appreciation courses. Some Christchurch high schools have wine appreciation night classes
Māori Food
Māori food uses the traditional plants, animals and seafood of Aotearoa. Introduced animals and plants are given their own particular twist with traditional Māori cooking method of the hangi. Kinaki Wild Herbs, the website of chef Charles Royal includes information and recipes for Māori food.
