Our book Volcanic Kitchens, a compilation of photographs of our area, local people, recipes from local identities (both famous and infamous), art and anecdotal is progressing well. Thank you to everyone who has so far submitted their recipes and ideas. We have received a great variation of recipes from an old family Rice Salad recipe to Chicken Vindoloo and a Pakistan Curry – a true representation of what we eat and enjoy in our homes.

Thank you to Dame Susan Devoy and to June Grant who have both said they will submit something and to Charles Royal who sent in a trout recipe last week. Author Tessa Duder has agreed to write a brief history of her relative Camille Malfroy, well known engineer and local politician.

Today we spent time with Iri Te Kowahi and the whanau down at Tunohopu Marae where Iri was in charge of catering for 200 plus people attending a fundraiser for Kingi Biddle and his family to go to Las Vegas. Kingi will represent New Zealand in the World Toastmaster Competition and we wish him all the best. This a slick, well oiled operation, everyone knew what to do, the delicious looking and smelling food was prepared and the dining room set up without fuss. Thank you to Turia for organising it and for everyone being so patient despite having Gerhard’s camera in their faces! We got some great images, thank you.

I have had a few people say to me that they don’t have any recipes that are theirs. Recipes are made to be shared and exchanged, there is no copyright on a recipe, anyone can copy and distribute. What we want are the recipe’s that you enjoy cooking, if you wish to acknowledge where you got the recipe from or any changes you have made to the original we will be happy to include that information.

I have been trying to contact the following people who grew up in Rotorua and have left, if you know them or have better contact details than I have please let me know or encourage them to join us; Buck Shelford, Teresa Gattung, Tim Beveridge, Elisabeth Marvelly, Tem Morrison, Cliff Curtis. These are some of the more well known names but we wish to include anyone and everyone who would like to participate. Do you know someone from our Polynesian community? We also need a good Boil Up recipe.

The idea for the book is also to raise funds for organisations within our community, if you are involved in or know of a group that are trying to raise funds please get in contact with us.

Deadline for recipes is end of August, so please get cracking!

Looking forward to hearing from you all

Kind Regards

Henri & Gerhard Egger