Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
In the past two decades, cuisine and culinary history have attracted increasing attention. Recipes are both sensitive markers of the socio-economic conditions of their times and written representations of a culture's culinary repertoire. Yet, despite the vast number of cookbooks that survive, they have not been the primary focus of research projects. Acknowledgement of their potential contribution to our understanding of culinary history has been slow. From Kai to Kiwi Kitchen is a first in its field. This book opens with the three lectures presented by Helen Leach at Canterbury University in 2008, and also broadcast on New Zealand's National Radio. The second part of the book is comprised of essays by a number of contributors from a major research project that looked at Kiwi cookbooks, supported by the Marsden Fund. The essays explore several themes in New Zealand's food history, including the adaptation of British and Maori culinary traditions in the 19th century and the fate of the
About the Author
Helen Leach is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Otago. Her most recent book, The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand's Culinary History, was a finalist in the Montana Book Awards in 2009. She has also written two books on garden history, co-authored nine others, and published over 60 articles in journals worldwide.