Eight years after publishing their award winning and best selling first Volcanic Kitchens, Gerhard and Henrietta return with a sequel – a further collection of recipes, stories and photographs!
Volcanic Kitchens celebrates Rotorua’s community spirit, history, landscape and environment.
Volcanic Kitchens is packed with 165 family favourite recipes, local stories and photography by Gerhard. Like its predecessor, Volcanic Kitchens is raising funds for the Rotorua Community Hospice. All featured recipes have been submitted by people who live or have previously lived in Rotorua.
“We believe food plays an essential role in our community; it brings us together, shapes our memories and empowers us. Regardless of ethnicity, age or gender – people connect over food. Food so often creates the link which binds communities together, and sharing your meal or offering food to others is seen as a welcoming and comforting gesture. It is also a way of sharing your heritage and culture,” they write.
Clearly, this foodie couple know the unique specialties of their local area. Together, they share local stories of a diverse community who love to cook and share food.
Written prior to COVID-19, connecting communities has never been more important and a renewed desire for home cooking completes the culinary journey.
"For us it's a story that starts with the community contributing and finishes by the community benefiting from it at the other end too," they said on the recent announcement as finalists in the 2020 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
Volcanic Kitchens is a delightful blend of food and culture. If you love local storytelling through food, this is the book for you! If you have ever visited Rotorua or would like to know more about the region, it will inspire you.
Chef and photographer, Gerhard and Henrietta Egger have lived in Rotorua since 1993. Preview Volcanic Kitchens here.
Reviewer: Andrea Molloy