Linda Duncan has just launched the third volume of her cookbook series The World's Easiest Recipes. Photo / Rachel Canning
Linda Duncan has just launched the third volume of her cookbook series The World's Easiest Recipes. Photo / Rachel Canning
A Taupō cookbook writer is a big fan of cooking by trial and error.
Linda Duncan has just launched the third volume of The World's Easiest Recipes. To date, she has sold over 60,000 recipe books that simplify baking and meal preparation.
Her recipes are designed to take the stress out of cooking and are ideal for beginner cooks or those who are "over" cooking.
"I want people, regardless of experience, to produce a meal that is easily achievable, economical, tasty, and above all, stress-free."
Linda says each recipe takes 15 minutes or less hands-on prep time, with just a couple of simple steps, and all of the ingredients are standard pantry or fridge staples.
Linda Duncan has just launched the third volume of her cookbook series The World's Easiest Recipes. Photo / Rachel Canning
"As an accountant, I have learnt the value of money and how the decisions we make on a daily basis impact us financially for the rest of our lives. Food can be one of our biggest expenses so it's important to keep a constant eye on this."
Linda says modern cooks lack confidence and in one generation have lost the essential culinary art of trial and error.
She says the lack of culinary skills among Kiwis is contributing to growing levels of food wastage, as many are unable to creatively utilise individual items that are left in the pantry.
Linda says the takeaways, meal kits and competitive cooking shows has led to a generation who are incapable of cooking a meal from memory, or creating something of their own from what's in the fridge or cupboard.
She says recipes can be incredibly detailed and says no one wants to be reading a huge section of text while standing over a stovetop at the end of a long day.
"A reliance on detailed recipes leaves little room for flair or experimentation it is this 'trial and error' with culinary successes and failures that helps develop a cook's confidence."
Linda says families are busy, often one person does the cooking, and uses meal kits, takeaways or pre-packaged foods. She says this leaves no time to teach kids how to make a meal from scratch or to learn basic cooking skills.
"Just one generation ago our parents could look in the fridge and pull a meal together with a few leftovers or a couple of products pulled from the pantry. I am aware that there are many people out there who are incapable of doing this.
"This more frugal approach to cooking came from baby boomers whose parents had lived through wartime food shortages and taught them to waste nothing.
"Boomers' parents often grew their own fruit and vegetables, made sauces from scratch, baked their own treats, preserved spoiling fruit or made it into jams or chutneys and less premium cuts of meat and even offal was cooked regularly."
Duncan says she is often alarmed at the sheer amount of food wasted and says using simpler recipes which are often handed down through families and cooking with what you can find at home can go a long way to saving money.
The World's Easiest Recipes volume three, RRP $29.99, is self-published by Linda at Harvey Publishing and can be bought online at www.twer.co.nz. and in-store at Paper Plus Taupō, Collaboration on Te Heuheu St, and at Paetiki Lotto Magazines and Post.
One lucky reader has the chance to win a copy of Linda Duncan's latest recipe book, The World's Easiest Recipes volume three. Photo / Supplied
