HBRW - 2024 Food From the Heart

Meet two chefs who pour their love of family and culture into their food and serve us up cookbooks that are as much recipes for living fully as they are for eating well. Modern Chinese is the outstanding debut cookbook by Sam Low, winner of 2022 NZ Masterchef, and The Laden Table is the latest from Ashia Ismail-Singer, who knows how to endlessly surprise and delight diners. They are in conversation with dedicated foodie, Lizzie Russell.

Sam Low:

Sam Low was born in Fiji and grew up around food. His parents owned a noodle factory and, after they moved to NZ when Sam was eight, they ran a dairy and a takeaway outlet in Auckland, where they sold Polynesian and Chinese food. Sam was drawn to the food and coffee scene, winning the NZ Barista Championship in 2016 and the NZ Latte Art Championship in both 2013 and 2015.

Sam won MasterChef NZ in 2022, with his seafood dessert earning a perfect score of 10 out of 10 from all three judges. He's an award-winning barista and latte art champion as well as a popular Instagram personality, going viral for re-plating quarantine room service. Sam is passionate about modern Chinese gastronomy, focused on honouring traditional cuisine through an immigrant diasporic lens. Sam lives in Auckland.

Ashia Ismail-Singer:

Ashia Ismail-Singer is of Memon heritage, from the Gujarat region of India. She was raised in Malawi and the UK and now lives in New Zealand. One of four sisters, food has always played a big part in her life and she believes it is one of life’s simplest and greatest pleasures. Ashia was taught to cook by her mother, learning the traditional Indian way—without shortcuts. But she has since simplified and adapted recipes, combining influences from other countries she lived in or visited. She is a regular contributor to several food and lifestyle magazines. Ashia lives in Auckland with her family.

Chair: Lizzie Russell

Lizzie Russell works as BayBuzz magazine’s assistant editor and runs Tennyson Gallery in Napier. She also co-ordinates Pecha Kucha Hawke’s Bay and the biennial Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition. Lizzie holds an MA in Creative Writing from Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters.

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