Book deal for Raglan chef
Former Raglan chef and food blogger Emma Galloway visited Wintec’s Rotokauri campus to demonstrate recipes and talk to students about her book deal and career.
Lifelong vegetarians and predominantly gluten and dairy-free diets are not common among chefs, but a Wintec cookery graduate’s success proves they are appreciated.
Perth-based Emma Galloway graduated in 2000 and is now a popular food blogger with a cookbook deal and recipes published on Oprah.
During a visit to her home town of Raglan, Galloway found time to revisit Wintec’s Rotokauri campus.
On Thursday afternoon, she demonstrated two recipes and discussed her career, her blog (My Darling Lemon Thyme), and her book.
Galloway joined the blogging trend in July 2010 on friends’ advice, and after being inspired by Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbook.
“At one stage I thought maybe I was the only food blogger in New Zealand.”
But she wanted more than a blog.
Since making “yuck” custard squares with a friend at age 10, she harboured a dream to publish a cookbook.
She tried realising that dream, and spent a year being turned down by New Zealand and Australian publishers.
Soon after, a Harper Collins New Zealand representative who had seen the blog approached her.
“I didn’t have to convince them of anything, because they were already convinced.”
The recipes in the book will be vegetarian, gluten-free, with just a little bit of dairy, but marketing will not focus on this.
“I don’t want it to be an allergy-free book.
“I don’t want it to be scary. I want people to actually make the recipes.”
The recipes will be new – even for Lemon Thyme fans. “I never put any of my really precious recipes on the blog,” Galloway said.
Despite having her recipes published in Nourish magazine and on Fox News and Oprah websites, Galloway remains modest.
“This [demonstration] has become bigger than I expected,” she told the crowd of 50 plus.
While baking chocolate biscuits – containing three different kinds of flour – and making almond milk, Galloway chatted about her philosophy on food, and her path to writing a cookbook.
“We eat with the seasons… I like to call my food real.”
Faced with limited options she makes most of her family’s food from scratch. “When I first started eating [gluten-free] there was just… tasteless, cardboard products. I’m a chef; I don’t like boring food.”
Galloway’s book is due for release in March 2014, and she hinted at “something else very exciting” in the pipeline.
