Eat Your Words: The New Zealand Symposium of Food Writing and Content is a festival within the festival, dedicated to cookbook authors, food writers, food commentators, and food content creators who have something to say about food.

You’ll hear from well-known New Zealand authors, some new emerging talent as well as a few of our mates from over the ditch. Attend a single session, multiple sessions, or enjoy a whole day of foodie immersion. After hearing from your favourites, Moore Wilson's will be on hand selling cookbooks, and the authors will be available for signings.

Door sales will be available if the session is not sold out prior. 

Eat Your Words is presented by Kenwood and is supported by Mövenpick Hotel Wellington, Moore Wilson's and Official Media Partner, Cuisine.

Buy a ticket and WIN a Kenwood mixer https://www.kenwoodworld.com/en-nz/titanium-chef-patissier-xl-kwl90-004si/p/KWL90.004SI

Click here for more Visa Wellington On A Plate

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Session One: On Eating Meat 

Matthew Evans is a Tasmanian food writer, television broadcaster and chef who lives and works on Fat Pig Farm, a soil-to-stomach regenerative farm and restaurant.Matthew is the author of over a dozen books on food, including On Eating Meat, and his latest cookbook, the updated and revised The Real Food Companion. Join Matthew as he discusses his advocacy for open, fair, accountable food and farming systems.

MODERATOR
Cuisine Editor, Kelli Brett

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Session Two: Panel - Modern Aotearoa Kai

Kārena and Kasey were the winners of Masterchef in 2014, and have since travelled to over 50 destinations across the globe learning about food and culture.They have also self-published two award-winning cookbooks For the Love of... and Hungry 

Naomi Toilalo is known on Instagram as baker extraordinaire @whanaukai. In 2017, Naomi was runner-up in TVNZ’s Great Kiwi Bake Off. Naomi also works for Māori Television as a presenter, actor and director, where she is able to channel her love for te reo Māori. 

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Session Three: Panel - How the Past is Influencing Our Emerging Kiwi Kai 

Lois Daish is recognised for her work as the New Zealand Listener food columnist for over 20 years as well as well-known Wellington restaurateur and the author of four recipe books. Lois’ work in the culinary arts has influenced generations of amateur and professional cooks.

David Veart is a freelance writer, trained archeologist and historian whose first book First Catch Your Weka: a story of New Zealand cooking tells the story of the elements that made New Zealand cooking distinctive and reveals how our cuisine and culture have changed. Analysing over 150 years of recipes, his study chronicles the culinary history of New Zealand, looking at curious dishes such as boiled calf's head, to more traditional homemade jams. 

Joe McLeod is an experienced Executive Chef with over 50 years in the hospitality services industry. He maintains a strong connection to traditional Māori culinary arts, and is passionate about sharing his skills, experiences and knowledge in all facets of Māori and mainstream contemporary culinary arts.

MODERATOR
Lauraine Jacobs

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Session Four: Panel - Telling Stories of Culture & Heritage Through Food & Travel Writing 

Ben Groundwater is a Sydney-based writer, columnist, author, blogger and broadcaster who specialises in food and travel. He writes weekly for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, contributes to a range of international food and travel media, hosts Australia’s most popular travel podcast, Flight of Fancy, and is the author of five books. Ben’s most recent book is Ultimate Food and Drink: Australia, a guide to the best restaurants, cellar doors, breweries and distilleries in Australia’s premier wine regions. He’s also just released Neon Lights in Tokyo, a guide to eating and travelling in Japan’s capital. Ben has twice been named the Australian Society of Travel Writers’ Travel Writer of the Year. He has visited more than 100 countries, and still occasionally gets lost.

+ A new special guest to be announced.

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Session Five: Panel - Town & Country - Living The Dream Through Food 

Philippa Cameron is the station cook at her husband’s family farm in the Waitaki Valley, Ōtemātātā Station. Philippa's first book, A High Country Life captures a glimpse of each season on the 40,000 hectare property along with simple recipes that she uses regularly to fuel staff. Her second book, Winter Warmers, which has more recipes, alongside tales from past employees is due out April 2023. 

Nici Wickes is a trained chef, and  successful freelance food writer and food stylist. Her creative food content has graced many of New Zealand’s magazines over the last decade. It is Nici’s belief that anyone can make a truly heroic dish and that the health of Aotearoa rests on our ability to be able to cook, eat and enjoy good, honest, real food and to teach our children to do the same.

Polly Markus launched her Instagram account Miss Polly’s Kitchen in March of 2020 as a place to share recipes with those closest to her. Away from life’s normal routine during Covid-19, she had more time to start creating and sharing recipes. It just so happened that everyone else had turned to cooking too, leading to incredible channel growth and the release of her first book.

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Session Six: The Making Of The Farm 

Renowned celebrity chef, entrepreneur and author, Nadia Lim is a strong advocate for creating healthy and nutritious recipes using unprocessed and natural ingredients. A passion which ultimately led her and her husband, Carlos Bagrie, to become two of the co-founders of My Food Bag, using Nadia’s background as a clinical dietitian and Carlos’ success in branding and marketing. 

Being a farm-boy from Southland, Carlos was keen to demonstrate how food can be grown at scale ethically, sustainably and profitably drawing Nadia and Carlos to the South and becoming the owners (and Carlos as farmer) of the Royalburn Station in Arrowtown. All of which you can watch unfold on the hit TV series Nadia's Farm, where Carlos dives deep into what it takes to run two large Central Otago stations, whilst expanding his and Nadia’s latest genuine farm-to-plate venture.

MODERATOR
Cuisine Editor, Kelli Brett

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Session Seven: Panel - For The Love Of Vege

Rosa and Margo Flanagan, A.K.A. the Two Raw Sisters, are four-time best-selling authors on a mission to inspire, motivate and educate people on the benefits of everyday whole, unprocessed and raw ingredients. The passionate cooks share their love for healthy eating and how it has helped them to overcome serious health challenges along the way.

Emma Galloway is the bestselling author of three cookbooks. A former chef, photographer and creator of the award-winning food blog My Darling Lemon Thyme. She was the recipient of the Tui Flower Award for Best Recipe Writing at the 2019 NZ Food Media Awards. Her latest cookbook My Darling Lemon Thyme, Every Day was released in April 2021.

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Session Eight: Panel - Is The Cookbook Dead?

Sam Low is a hospitality professional, content creator and brand ambassador. Fijian-born Chinese, raised in New Zealand, and a member of the LGBTQ community, he works with brands and projects that are willing to champion diversity and that connect with his contemporary audience. Sam is a Chinese gastronomy enthusiast, a global competing barista champion and coffee educator, gaining the titles of the 2016 NZ Barista Champion and is a two-time NZ latte art champion ranking 6th in the world at one point. Sam was crowned Winner of MasterChef™ New Zealand 2022 and is currently working on his first cookbook.

Erin Clarkson is a baking blogger and recipe developer, who trained as a geologist but later found herself in the world of food. She currently lives in Wellington after having spent the last seven years in New York. Her website 'Cloudy Kitchen' is dedicated to highly accurate and repeatable recipes, baking by weight, and breaking down complicated recipes into detailed steps that everyone can achieve. Erin’s recipes focus on her years living in the US, re-works of classic New Zealand recipes, and often a mixture of both.

Christall Lowe is an award-winning, seasoned creative, and as a self confessed “serial entrepreneur” for over 25 years she has established a career as a food writer, food stylist and food photographer.
Described as a “great raconteur”, Christall loves to weave stories in both visual and narrative form, and in 2022 was awarded the NZ Food Photographer of the Year. More recently her stunning, photojournalistic cookbook “Kai” was long-listed for the Ockham NZ Book Awards, and shortlisted for the NZ Booklovers Awards.

MODERATOR
Author and Visa Wellington On a Plate Head of Programming and Events, Beth Brash