Breakfast with Richard Till opens Booksellers NZ conference

Richard Till (pictured left) isn't really a morning person - but he still got up early to open the Booksellers conference for an audience of around 50 early risers.

While the audience ate a breakfast buffet of muffins, pastries, fruit and fresh coffee, Richard took us through the best and worst of New Zealand cookery books - a short history of ourselves through food.

Lamenting the demise of cooking skills 'these days' he said he regretted that cookbooks today needed lengthy recipes because people now lack the basic cooking skills that were once passed down through the generations.

And what about all those glossy cookbook photos? Tim Skinner (Capital Books) said from the audience that he never manages to make creations that match the photos and Richard too - he's a fan of the small text-only books of old where people made food that looked the way they wanted it too - not some prescribed model. 'None of that squeezie bottle bullshit' for this cook.

Richard's from Christchurch - "what would you put in your earthquake kit now?" he was asked. Coffee - "your addictions don't go away just because of an earthquake", cans of pulses, water, rice, just stuff that keeps well.

Richard of course has another cookbook coming out this year; Leftover Gourmet will include recipes to 'expand people's reportoire of what they can cook when they've arrived home, have leftovers in the fridge and can't really be bothered cooking but the kids are screaming for food anyway.'

Richard Till's new book Leftover Gourmet (HarperCollins) will be published in November.

Richard Till was introduced and thanked by Booksellers NZ Board member Peter Scott.