Nelson food writer builds on blog success with 2016 calendar

Nelson food writer builds on blog success with delicious 2016 calendar

Popular Nelson chef, food writer and cooking tutor Nicola Galloway is going professional and nationwide with her second food calendar, after last year’s sell-out success.

“Last year I self-published the calendar and it sold out in Nelson shops and online, but this time I’ve had an offer to publish it from Potton and Burton who will be distributing it nationwide. They published my earlier recipe books and have just been named New Zealand’s top publisher so I’m very thrilled to have them on board.”

Nicola trained as a chef but found the hours didn’t work well when she started a family.

“We’ve got a big garden and I’m really keen on fresh food that’s seasonal and local,” she says. “My first book developed from that and was about simple healthy food for young children.”

Mika is now five and Teo is three, and they are still the tasting panel for Nicola’s recipes, which have made her an online success. She has 10,000 followers on social media, and her blog, Homegrown Kitchen, is read by over 5,000 people every week.

The 2016 Homegrown Kitchen calendar is now on sale, and features all new recipes, but they draw on the same inspiration – food that is seasonal and fresh.

“If I go to the Farmers’ Market and come home with beetroot or fennel, I’ll start thinking about a meal around that, where many people would start with protein as the basis for a meal,” she says. “I do have meat and fish recipes but there are really delicious vegetarian main dishes like my caramelised beetroot tarte tartin, which is flipped out for serving, just like the traditional apple version.”

Not only does Nicola create all her own recipes, she styles them and takes the photos. For the calendar her sister Anna has done the graphic design.

“I started to take photos for my blog and I wanted them to be really good so I worked at it and now have hundreds of styling props, a lot of them from the recycling centre, so I can create a style for each dish,” she says. “I’m now doing food styling commercially.”

Creating dishes and photographing brings a lot of creative satisfaction, which is one of the big drivers of the career Nicola has developed for herself. She also loves the online sense of community that comes from sharing food ideas with people all around the world.

“I love eating with the seasons and sharing recipes for simple homemade food,” she says. “The calendar is something tangible for people who follow Homegrown Kitchen to have on their wall and to give to their friends as a gift.”

The Homegrown Kitchen calendar costs $20 and is available online at www.homegrown-kitchen.co.nz and selected retail outlets throughout New Zealand.

ENDS

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