Allyson Gofton has been cooking and writing about food for New Zealanders for over 20 years. Starting her career as an apprentice chef in Tasmania, she moved into food writing as a home economist at the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly Test Kitchen. In the mid-80s she was assistant to internationally renowned celebrity chef, Graham Kerr, before heading up the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation. She then served a stint as an Account Manager in an advertising agency – in the days before an income could be earned from food writing alone. Becoming the Food Editor for NEXT Magazine, a position Allyson held for 17 years, was a career dream come true, and during this time Allyson became well-known throughout the country as the highly regarded presenter of the much-watched television Food in a Minute for 13 years.

Allyson now juggles motherhood of Jean-Luc 8 and Olive-Rose 4, with being Food Editor for New World’s real magazine, presenting food on NewstalkZB, and writing her successful and best-selling series of books (BAKE, COOK and SLOW ), the latest one, released this week, Country Calendar Cookbook, from which Allyson will cook at this year’s Food Show.

Allyson’s special interest lies in the communication of accurate food skills and knowledge to the target market – regardless of which market that is – and muses on why this is becoming a part of business and corporate advertising rather than through the home or school.