There’s no nonsense about Judith Tabron. Starting in the restaurant industry as a 16-year-old apprentice, she worked her way up to become the co-owner of Soul, an acclaimed, successful bar and bistro situated at the Viaduct Harbour in Auckland. On stage at last year’s Savour New Zealand – she co-presented Greg Malouf‘s class on Middle Eastern Magic – her straight talking, take-no-prisoners attitude was very refreshing. She is, as she says herself, a leader rather than a follower, and her interest in new trends and different cuisines came through strongly at the symposium as it does in this, her first cookbook.
It might be a bit after the date but I don’t think it’s too late to offer my congratulations on hearing the news that New Zealand’s Cuisine magazine has been judged Best Food Magazine in the World at the Gourmet Voice Festival in Cannes at the end of January.
Even though I came late to the month-long challenge – think last week! – I’ve really enjoyed having to focus on Eating Locally. New Zealand, and especially Canterbury, is a particularly good place to be doing this.
New Zealand baker Dean Brettschneider was one of the people that I encountered at the recent Savour New Zealand in Christchurch. Together with Lorraine Jacobs, a Cuisine food editor, he has recently published Taste, the third in a series of quality books on baking. At Savour New Zealand, when not signing stacks of Taste and his other books, he gave an eagerly anticipated class called Kneading the Dough in which he made a loaf of my favourite sourdough bread.
One of the chefs that I talked to during Savour New Zealand was the innovative and influential Greg Malouf. An Australian of Lebanese descent, Greg has taken Lebanese food out of the souvlaki take-away...
Earlier today I discovered that Patricia Wells, the American-born Paris and Provence dweller, has won a James Beard award, in the International category, for her Provence Cookbook.
There’s no nonsense about Judith Tabron. Starting in the restaurant industry as a 16-year-old apprentice, she worked her way up to become the co-owner of Soul, an acclaimed, successful bar and bistro situated at the Viaduct Harbour in Auckland. On stage at last year’s Savour New Zealand – she co-presented Greg Malouf‘s class on Middle Eastern Magic – her straight talking, take-no-prisoners attitude was very refreshing. She is, as she says herself, a leader rather than a follower, and her interest in new trends and different cuisines came through strongly at the symposium as it does in this, her first cookbook.
It might be a bit after the date but I don’t think it’s too late to offer my congratulations on hearing the news that New Zealand’s 
