Author talk: An Evening with Alexa Johnston

Take a nostalgic journey through New Zealand’s baking traditions with award-winning author, historian and curator Alexa Johnston MNZM. Best known for Ladies, a Plate and its follow-up A Second Helping, Alexa has spent years uncovering the recipes and stories that once filled Kiwi cake tins and community tables. Drawing on handwritten recipes, old community cookbooks and the accumulated knowledge of generations of home bakers, her books have helped preserve favourites ranging from slices and sponge kisses to fudge, hokey pokey and other much-loved treats. In this special Auckland Heritage Festival talk, Alexa explores the history behind some of New Zealand’s most familiar baking, sharing stories about kai, home kitchens and the traditions that developed around food in Auckland and across the country. Alexa brings a historian’s eye to the subject as well as a lifelong love of baking. Before turning her attention to food writing, she spent 19 years as a curator at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and later curated Sir Edmund Hillary: Everest and Beyond for Auckland Museum. She has since written several books celebrating New Zealand’s culinary heritage and was also commissioned to completely revise the Edmonds Sure-to-Rise Cookery Book for its 2016 edition. A delicious look at the recipes, memories and everyday traditions that have helped shape New Zealand’s food story.