Welcome to my food journal, sharing Waikato stories about eating out, and in, and about the people who grow and make great comestibles and plan terrific food events in this region.
About me: I was raised on a Cambridge sheep and cattle farm, in the foothills of Mt Maungatautari, and my family ate local – meat, fruit and vegetables from our own land – long before this became a thing. I trained as a journalist and have been a story-teller all my working life, a former features editor and features writer for the Waikato Times in Hamilton. I’m proud of the Waikato’s culinary charms and have been writing about its chefs, eateries and food producers for more years than you can poke a spatula at. I’m a three-time winner of Foodwriters New Zealand’s Culinary Quill Award for Journalism, a supporter of the Waikato Food Inc promotion team and the Mighty Local campaign, and I freelance for the excellent Waikato & Bay Plenty Nourish magazine, and various other publications.
I love cooking and I like to know where my food comes from. It’s probably my farm girl heritage but I’m a bit obsessed with eating local. While I’m not much chop as a gardener, there are many other ways of eating local than growing your own. You seek out the butchers, bakers, milk vendors, orchardists, vegetable gardeners, cheese-makers, condiment-makers and market stall-holders who grow, make, or source their ingredients regionally. They become your friends as well as your favourite producers.
There is a three-pronged effect: eating local is easier on the environment, it bolsters the regional economy, and it is damn good food. It tastes better.
Our producers, restaurants and cafes need our support more than ever in these challenging post-Covid times. So I’ll be writing about some of them here, with new posts landing each Friday.
Happy eating, Denise