Review: GIVE, by Allyson Gofton

In the early weeks following the birth of my daughter we received many lovely presents and flowers. The very best gift though was from a friend living nearby who would send a text in the morning before she left for work, saying that she would be leaving a food parcel on my doorstep in 20 minutes. Nothing has ever tasted as good as Ann’s muesli, zucchini pie or cake, all of which I could eat with one hand while juggling a small baby.

That kind of gifting is celebrated hard in Allyson Gofton’s new book, GIVE. She describes it as a 'passion project' that was inspired by watching a group of breast cancer survivors participating in a dragon boating event. GIVE is her way of ‘giving back’ by creating a collection of recipes designed to give away.

Certainly, the book itself would make a great gift. GIVE is beautiful to look at, with its pretty, ‘debossed’ cover and full-page photographs by Lottie Hedley. Its greatest strength, though, is Gofton’s experience. While a generation of New Zealanders might recall her as the person who brought potato pompoms or spaghetti pizza into their lives via the long-running ‘Food In A Minute’ series, she is a seriously skilled food writer. Gofton learned her trade working in the New Zealand Women' s Weekly test kitchen with legendary editor Tui Flower, who - while famously a stickler for accuracy - also had a keen understanding of her audience. In the decades since, Gofton has applied that same way of thinking to nearly 30 cookbooks, as well as magazine columns, TV appearances and radio slots. Her recipes are logical, well- written and they work.

That’s especially important in a book like GIVE, which is designed for the cook who wants to make lovely things for others. This kind of cooking can be high-stakes; there’s nothing worse than spending an afternoon in the kitchen - and a small fortune in ingredients - to find that it’s been a waste of both. There’s no risk of that here because Gofton’s recipes come with an inherent secret ingredient - trust. Recipes are arranged seasonally (good news, if you have a glut of feijoas, plums or quinces) and run the gamut from things you could tuck into a care package to dinners to deliver to someone’s door. There are the expected cakes and slices, pickles and jams, but nothing feels stale or boring thanks to some flavour tweaks or new treatments. (Before my review copy arrived I browsed through GIVE at a bookshop and felt so compelled to make the Coffee-Roasted Cashew Nuts that I nearly bought a copy on the spot.)

Each recipe is also packed with useful gems of information and advice to guarantee good results, such as how to choose the right sort of cooking apple, why to discard the oil after browning chicken and what to do to stop a cake batter from splitting. It’s the stuff you want someone to tell you before you embark on a new recipe (and the kind of information that gets passed on when recipes are shared verbally). I can only hope that she’s also run the rule over the 10 ‘celebrity’ recipes included in the book, which feel a bit unnecessary to me. Still, it’s all for a good cause: $30 from the sale of each book goes to Breast Cancer Cure, a charity supporting New Zealand-led breast cancer research.

At face value, GIVE is a recipe collection designed to help you do some good in the world. Gofton’s generosity in sharing what she knows might just make you a better cook while you’re at it.

Lucy Corry is a Wellington journalist and food writer.