My Weekend Table: Celebrating food from Aotearoa and beyond
Gretchen Lowe, Bateman, 2025
oven baked salmon
I like my fat cooking pot
I like my fat wild heart
Paula Green
from Cookhouse, Auckland University Press, 1997
Poetry Shelf is dedicated to celebrating poetry in Aotearoa – across regions, cultures, communities, age, form, subject matter. But every now and then I’m drawn to a local art exhibition or cookbook I have loved. Perhaps I might start adding the occasional album or three!
I often have an album or a poetry collection on replay, and that seems to be the same for cookbooks. Usually I dedicate a week to a particular cookbook, but My Weekend Table by Gretchen Lowe has been the go-to book on my kitchen table for a month. We share a love of similar ingredients and a desire to create simple meals that are absolutely tasty and nourishing. I was going to try a couple of recipes, photograph them, and then sing the book’s praises. But here it is . . . a fourth week and I am still cooking from it.
For me, poetry is all about connections, and cooking is just the same. There is aroha in the process, and there is aroha in the sharing. Over the past year I have been nourished by so many poetry collections published in Aotearoa, and here is a cookbook that strikes the right culinary notes for me. Connections on the plate, connections in your tastebuds, with your family around the table, with memory, with love.
Let me tempt you with a few things I’ve made: Hazelnut romesco sauce / pistachio and any greens pesto / buttery prawn, lemon and rosé pasta / blueberry and vanilla streusel muffins / cod, agria and tarragon croquettes / prawn, lemon and white bean hot pot / chicken and thyme meatballs (which I made into paprika and parmesan bake) / sausage, fennel and tomato pasta / garden greens, leek, ricotta galette with hazelnut crust / cheesy leek and spinach gratin / roast butternut and beetroot salad with orange whipped feta and hazelnuts / pear, raspberry and lemon syrup cake / sour cherry and dark chocolate oat cookies.
The book is gorgeously designed, with terrific photography. The recipes are easy to follow, easily adaptable to suit what is in your pantry, to whether you eat meat, and what is in your daily energy jar. And most importantly for me, starting points for your own tweaks and twists and creativity. I have made the lemon syrup coconut cake with various toppings. I have dolloped the pistachio garden-greens pesto on fish chunks in a Moroccan braise.
“I hope the pages in this book will inspire you to cook with passion, savour each bite and treasure moments spent around your weekend table.” Gretchen Lowe
Just when I needed it . . . this gorgeous book replenished my heart and my energy jar . . and has given my family much joy. Thank you.
Gretchen Lowe is a celebrated food writer, chef, food stylist and photographer whose work has graced New Zealand’s top TV and radio campaigns, cookbooks, food columns, and social media platforms. Renowned for her ability to craft mouthwatering dishes and bring them to life through stunning photography, Gretchen’s creations are as visually captivating as they are delicious. Her food creations span a range of New Zealand’s most iconic brands, including Fonterra, NZME, Pic’s Peanut Butter, Fisher & Paykel, and Annabel Langbein Media, alongside contributions to the NZ Herald and a popular segment with Jesse Mulligan on Radio New Zealand.
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