Just like alocal
Catherine Smith on the Kiwis sharing their knowledge of foreign food destinations
Travelling foodies are the luckiest people in the world and people who make a living out of it even luckier. That would be Sydney- based Kiwis Leanne Kitchen and Antony Suvalko.
With two deeply researched cookbooks The Real Food Of China and East, Culinary Adventures in Southeast
Asia, ( plus a swag of solo books from Kitchen) already under their belt, the pair have launched Shanghai as the first of a series of food travel guides.
The pocket- sized book has already made the finals in the 2017 International Book Awards, and will be followed by guides to Ho Chi Min city and Penang later this year. Both of the authors are former chefs. Suvalko ran one of New Zealand’s first food websites, foodie. co. nz, while Kitchen writes for top food magazines including Vogue Entertaining + Travel, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Travel+ Leisure Australia and is a reviewer for Sydney’s Good Food Guide. A series of eat- like- a- local guides for Air New Zealand prompted the pair to launch their own publishing company, with the apt moniker Red Pork Press. Suvalko has no truck with online reviews by travellers who’ve visited a place for the first time. Instead, he and Kitchen make multiple month- or- more long trips to each city, immersing themselves with local food writers and cooks. “How can you trust someone who’s there for the first time ever? It’s too hit and miss and pretty risky,” he says. “The better way is to find people who are local, who live and breathe their food. Leanne’s been travelling to these places for 20 years, I’ve been going for 10; we have genuine networks you can rely on. We’re not sitting at our keyboards asking our friends on Facebook for suggestions.”
It doesn’t hurt that both take superb photos and eat ( and cook) everywhere themselves. They love that some of the places have been around 70 years or more, trusting they will still be around when the guides are updated every two or three years.
With local editors to check things like Mandarin spelling and directions, the guides are organised around defining dishes of the city and include insider walking, shopping, day tours and more so that visitors can hit the ground running.