Award-winning cookbook author Natalie Oldfield to be guest judge on MasterChef New Zealand

Natalie Oldfield, author of Gran’s Kitchen, Gran’s Family Table, Dulcie May Kitchen: Everyday, and Gran’s Sweet Pantry, is to feature on MasterChef New Zealand.

On this week’s episode, which will air on TV One on Sunday, 7 April at 7.30 pm, Natalie will be a guest judge alongside the formidable judging panel of three of New Zealand’s top chefs: Simon Gault, Ray McVinnie and Josh Emett.

In this episode, Natalie sets the 10 remaining contestants the task of baking her much-loved Hot Water Sponge, as featured in Gran’s Sweet Pantry.

In a later episode, Natalie is invited back by the judges to teach a baking master class, in which a few lucky contestants are able to garner some knowledge from this award-winning baker.

Natalie opened her food store, Dulcie May Kitchen, in Mt Eden in 2009 as a tribute to her grandmother, Dulcie May Booker.  In the year of its opening, Dulcie May Kitchen won Best Cake Shop in Metro magazine and in 2010 was voted one of the Top 50 Cafés.

Gran’s Sweet Pantry is a collection of the best recipes from Dulcie May, beautifully reproduced and laden with gorgeous images.

Natalie’s debut cookbook, Gran’s Kitchen, sold more than 15,000 copies in New Zealand alone, won the Gourmand Book Award in Europe for best local cuisine in New Zealand and is published in Australia and Great Britain.  Her follow-up title, Gran’s Family Table, also won a Gourmand Cookbook Award in 2011

MasterChef New Zealand is the search to find our country’s best amateur cook. Over a period of 17 weeks, the contestants compete in a series of intense cooking challenges to find New Zealand's next MasterChef.