I am looking out my window at the huge Christmas tree that has just burst into brilliant red bloom – our wonderful NZ Pohutukawa tree – a true sign that summer is here. Pohutukawa are our coastal guardians and the red flower symbolises bravery, strength and resilience.  So having complained non-stop about the horrible weather in Auckland we are now finally happy in the heat and sunshine and girding our loins for the holiday season.

I'm back in Auckland hosting my Supper Club on Wednesday evenings and Saturday lunchtimes on the floating terrace. Nobody ever wants to leave the table after a cooking class because it is the centre of the universe, the place where we share stories and memories, drink wine and laugh. The childhood table is where we learn to socialise and communicate. My plates are very colourful and rustic – can’t bear white plates – and the tablecloths and napkins are flamboyant. 

Puglia covered us all in sunshine, beauty and good vibes. We devoured polpette (tiny deep fried meatballs), foccaccia, bombette (finely sliced pork shoulder, stuffed with coppa and caciocavallo cheese, rolled up and fried), orecchiette pasta and raw gamberro rosso (pink prawns) with just olive oil and salt. The wine has very sexy names like susumaniello, primitivo and negroamaro and we did lots of tastings in the interests of research. Our wonderful group were up for everything.

Having recently completed a Basque and an Uzès tour a week apart, I can report that lying on the floor in my house for a week does wonders for recuperation. Firstly it straightens your back out, secondly it allows you to spot the cobwebs and thirdly it gets rid of the alcohol in your system because you can't sip gin while supine.

Exciting to be back in Marrakech again – sizzling with colour, drama and enough sugared sweets to put everyone into a diabetic coma. My tour group were perfectly wonderful, throwing themselves into every spicy cooking lesson, every bottomless glass of mint tea offered and all opportunities to dance and sing with the locals.

I finally got back to India after four years. Four long years of no outrageous colour, no henna painted hands, no heart-stopping rickshaw rides and no excuses for a party every day. There are so many festivals, religious celebrations and special days in India, they seem to be constantly celebrating. During my second tour we were in Jaipur for Holi – the festival of lights, colours and flowers celebrating the triumph of good over evil.

Happy Christmas Gastronomads! I am in residence in Auckland writing and hosting the Supper Club chez moi till I leave for the other half of my life in the South of France at the beginning of May 2024. The exception is the month of March when I will be in India hosting two shopping/textile tours. I know!! Can't wait to be in the land of the best architecture, the best interior decor, the best textiles, the best fashion and the nicest people. 

Next year's tours are filling up like a glass of rosé on a hot day – but there are still a few places on my Marrakech tour in May, the Uzès tour in June and my new Portugal tour in September, (which I did for the first time this year). On all these adventures we do lots of walking and it can be hot so gastronomads need to be reasonably fit with no mobility issues.

The Puglia tour was smashing - it's hard to go wrong in Italy I have to say. We ate more pasta, bread, seafood, cappocollo and burrata than we thought was humanly possible. We drank lots of Susumaniello, Primitivo & Negroamaro wine and our tour manager Max dragged willing participants out for post prandial amaro liqueur every night starting from the cheapest to the most expensive. 

The Uzès tour was wonderful and bursting with sunshine, rosé, slightly unusual food like rabbit with anchovies and artichokes, roasted pigeon, roasted goat and salt cured duck, provencal cooking lessons and a big shopping hit at Les Indiennes traditional Camarguaise clothing shop in Nimes. Suddenly everyone came over all flowery gardienne (cowboy) shirts, frilly dresses, block printed linen, espadrilles and paisley scarves.

The Basque Country is a secret land of rugged mountains and wild beaches on the Atlantic coast. The Basques say “Asko dakin/k/zu, bizitzen baldin badakin/k/zu… You know much, if you know how to live".  Basque is the oldest, weirdest language in Europe and no-one knows where it comes from, so it's just as well they also speak Spanish on the Spanish side and French on the French side.

After four long years, I finally got a tour off to Marrakech, joined by a gorgeous group and new adorable manager. Much was lost in those years but you would never know anything had happened because Marrakech is absolutely pumping. My Marrakech tour is always rather emotional because everything is so intense there – loud, crowded, colourful, in your face, challenging, exciting and addictive.

I have news. Please sit down and crack open the whiskey. We're going to India. FINALLY. Three and half long years of missing the colour, the madness, my friends & colleagues, the hand woven cotton, the smiles and just the whole hot pink spice saga. My new India tour is a 9 night luxury shopping adventure, 4 – 13 March 2024. 

The Supper Club continues apace in my central Auckland apartment with the pointy terrace. The apartment said to me, 'gosh it's a bit warm in here', so a flash aircon is now installed. The terrace said to me, 'gosh I can't see anything down here at the pointy end', so I dragged my Sharon Finn chandelier out of storage and now when you drink your rosé you are sparkled upon.

It seems that everyone is wide awake again and going out, having fun and reconnecting. At home in Auckland you may wish to come and connect on my floating sky terrace at my Supper Club on Wednesday evenings and Saturday lunchtimes. Places are all booked up for October and November but I have some spaces in December.

I only hosted two gastronomic tours this year but they were both wowzers. I have just returned from picturesque, passionate, proud Puglia in the heel of Italy. It was sentimental for me because I hadn't seen my friends and colleagues for a few years and it ended up being sentimental for the gastronomads as well because they knew nothing about Puglia and fell hopelessly in love with it.

My first Uzès tour in ten years was a wild success – it was hot but you know, we managed with lots of rosé and buckets of ice. We had a wonderful group who were helplessly enchanted by gorgeous Uzès itself, loved Hotel Entraigues in the centre of town and started shopping one minute after they arrived.

I'm very happy to announce the BIG news on the culinary tours front. I am hosting two tours this year – Uzès in July which is full and Puglia at the end of August which has 4 places left. Puglia is right down in the south of Italy in the heel. In late August it will be hot but not overwhelming. It's famous for gorgeous beaches, Baroque cities, white washed villages, organic masserias (farmhouses) and very sweet people.

I hope everyone had a restorative and luminous holiday season as we did in Auckland. The inevitable arrival of omicron has put a slight spanner in the works but my classes, events and travels are still going ahead at this stage. It's been such a pleasure cooking and eating summer food like sweetcorn, Jersey Benne potatoes, artichokes, heritage tomatoes and super fresh fish from the fish market. I've also loved welcoming my Supper Club students in my home, who sometimes come bearing flowers and cakes for me.