Annabel Langbein

Food writer Annabel Langbein has been made an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit (ONZM) for her services as a food writer in the Queen’s Birthday 2018 Honours List.

Annabel has a holiday home in Dublin Bay where she spends as much time as she can. "I just love it down here,” she told the Wanaka App last year.

Annabel has self-published 25 cookbooks and starred in three seasons of the internationally successful cooking programme ‘Annabel Langbein: The Free Range Cook’, which has screened in 94 countries.

After an early career as a food columnist, Annabel was food writer for Cuisine for 11 years and later food editor for Grace magazine. In 1988 she self-published her first book of recipes, ‘Annabel Langbein’s Cookbook’, and has since risen to become one of New Zealand’s highest selling authors of all time. Her 1997 book ‘The best of Annabel Langbein’ has sold more than half a million copies internationally and her books have topped NZ best seller lists.

Overall, she has sold more than two million books through her self publishing imprint, Annabel Langbein Media. In 1991 she established the Culinary Institute of New Zealand, a specialist food marketing consultancy through which she has undertaken marketing and media campaigns for food manufacturers, retailers, and exporters.

Annabel has promoted New Zealand food overseas as an ambassador for Trade NZ. She was a director of Kapiti Cheeses for seven years, and is a member of the Sustainability Council of NZ.  

Annabel is a firm believer in enjoying home-grown, home-cooked food with friends and family.

"It connects us, even if only in a small way, to the rhythms of nature. Wandering around my garden at the end of a busy day to find something to serve for our evening meal is incredibly satisfying. So, too, is the daily ritual of setting the table, lighting some candles and sitting down together to enjoy simple, freshly cooked food.” Anyone familiar with her television series will have seen Annabel’s Dublin Bay garden on the show.

Although she has spent 20 plus years working professionally in a kitchen, Annabel is very much a self-taught cook. She learned a lot from her mother Anne, a home science university graduate, and her father Fred, who took great pride in his large vegetable garden.

"I never formally learned to cook (aside from a couple of residential courses at the Culinary Institute of America in upstate New York), choosing instead to study horticulture at Lincoln University in New Zealand. Understanding how plants grow is incredibly useful when it comes to cooking.”

Annabel’s honour comes in a list which makes the Topp twins Dames Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, and former Prime Minister Bill English a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

The New Zealand Royal Honours system provides a way for New Zealand to thank and congratulate people who have served their communities and to recognise people's achievements.

PHOTO: tvnz.co.nz