Hot Pink Spice Saga - NZ's most colourful 2014 cookbook

An Indian Culinary Travelogue with Recipes

Peta Mathias and Julie Le Clerc

Random House - $49.99

Publication 7 November

Long-time friends Peta Mathias and Julie Le Clerc share a love of travel and a love of food. They both adore India — missing it when not there and always longing to return — so it seemed the perfect idea to combine their talents and expertise and put together a book on India, hence, Hot Pink Spice Saga was born.

Peta first visited India in 2005 while filming a documentary on tea and another one on spices. Subsequently, she now hosts one of her culinary tours in India, visiting Jaipur, Goa, Kolkata and Darjeeling. ‘In 2008 back I went to India to set up my first India tour, and I have visited every year since. India is a land of colour, noise, laughter, poverty, fabulous food and beautiful clothes,’ explains Peta.

Julie first ventured to India in 1984 at just twenty, travelling from Kathmandu to London through Nepal, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Greece and central Europe. Of all the countries she visited, India particularly captured her heart and imagination. As Julie explains, ‘My first visit to India was full of surprises. While I had prepared myself for some culture shock that goes hand in hand with visiting a developing country — and I did expect to see poverty and perhaps some disarray — I had not anticipated the accompanying charm and curiosity and radiant smiles of the people. Mostly I loved the hospitality, the colours, and the landscape, the exhilarating feeling of movement, and, of course, the wonderfully fragrant and delicious food.’

With their extensive knowledge  — and this, the perfect excuse to return to India — they put together a Indian culinary travelogue which showcases distinct regional traditions and shares stories of their travels and tales of this exotic country. 

In Hot Pink Spice Saga Peta share’s the enticing colour and aromas of India through entertaining stories. The book is peppered with wonderful recipes collected from locals during their travels, all of which have been tested and adapted with a New Zealand home cook in mind — so they’re accessible, as well as delicious!

The book is also jam-packed with beautiful photographs taken skilfully by Julie while on the road, ‘if we were in a dark hut making dhal she would just patiently take it outside, create props out of an old brick wall, grab someone’s shawl, sort out the light with an improvised flecky and carefully take a great photo,’ says Peta. ‘All this with children running around, fathers wanting to know what she was doing and me falling into the mud with the flecky.’

This is a totally irresistible combination of food, humour, travel, fun and friendship, conveyed through lively text and hundreds of amazing photographs.
It is the ultimate travelogue cookbook which will have you wanting to jump on the next plane to India!

About the authors:

Peta Mathias & Julia Le Clerc
Peta is a respected and prolific New Zealand chef, author and broadcaster, who builds on the culinary travel experience with her gastronomic tours in the South of France, Morocco, Spain, Italy, New Zealand and India. She hosted the prime time television series Taste New Zealand for 12 years and now has her own production company. And Julie is a former cafe owner and chef turned author, magazine food writer and stylist, TV cook and photographer. She also presented her popular Cafe Secrets cookery show for two seasons, is an award-winning author of 14 previous recipe books, and travels the world writing, learning and teaching about food.