Rolling pin

This rolling pin belonged to Tui Flower, food editor for the New Zealand Women’s Weekly from 1965 to 1984. It is an example of Cornishware, a popular brand of British ceramic kitchenware that has been imported to New Zealand since the 1930s. Featuring distinctive blue and white stripes reminiscent of the blue skies and white-crested waves of Cornwall (hence the name), Cornishware was imported to New Zealand from the 1930s and sold by department stores such as Smith and Caughey. It was advertised as being useful and inexpensive utility ware, appropriate for Tui’s commonsense approach to cooking.

Born in Matamata in 1925, Tui Flower grew up in a family that combined British food traditions with hints of the Mediterranean (her great-grandmother was Spanish). She began her formal culinary training at the Home Science School in Dunedin in the 1940s, after which she travelled to America and France to continue her education. When she returned to New Zealand she shared this international inspiration with her many readers, providing recipes ‘from there, made useable here’ (Flower 1968, 9).

As historian Helen Leach explains, internationalisation in the 1960s ‘brought some very striking changes to the culinary repertoire in New Zealand and Australia’ (Leach 2010, 63). The combined influence of New Zealanders returning from overseas and the arrival of new migrant groups changed our culinary expectations, and more than ever before home cooks were willing to embrace new techniques and ingredients. The rapid dissemination of recipes in magazines, newspapers and books provided plenty of ideas.

Tui’s first book, Tui Flower’s Cookbook (1968), devoted an entire section to recipes ‘from overseas,’ including dishes from Scandinavia, Germany, South America, Italy, Spain, the Middle East, and the Pacific Islands. She wrote in the introduction that ‘one of the most lasting memories of overseas travel for many a New Zealander is the food. To be able to turn on a meal that evokes such memories is something to be aimed at despite the frequent lack of authentic ingredients’ (107). This philosophy was also evident in her choice of recipes for the Women’s Weekly, although not everyone was pleased about the inclusion of ‘foreign muck’ in the test kitchen pages (Lynch 2002, 79). To ease the transition Tui renamed international recipes to make them more accessible, so Boeuf Bourguignon became Burgundy Beef and Coq au Vin became Chicken in Wine Casserole. Despite some initial reserve New Zealand cooks did gradually become accustomed to a wide range of new foods and flavours, and Tui Flower was one of a small number of food writers who guided them through those revolutionary changes.

References

• Burton, David. 1982. Two Hundred Years of New Zealand Food and Cookery. Wellington: A.H. and A.W. Reed.
• Cornishware Company. ‘About Us.' https://www.cornishware.co.uk/about-us
• Flower, Tui. 1968. Tui Flower’s Cookbook. Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed.
• Leach, Helen ed. 2010. From Kai to Kiwi Kitchen: New Zealand Culinary Traditions and Cookbooks. Dunedin: Otago University Press.
• Lynch, Jenny. 2002. New Zealand Woman’s Weekly: 70 Years. From Pavlovas to Prime Ministers. Auckland: Random House.
• Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 2020. ‘Dining Out.’ Food in the 20th Century. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/no-pavlova-please/dining-out
• Veart, David. 2008. First Catch your Weka: A Story of New Zealand Cooking. Auckland: Auckland University Press.