| Alison Holst | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1938 |
| Known for | Food writer Television chef |
Dame Alison Margaret Holst, DNZM, CBE, QSM (born 1938) is a best-selling New Zealand food writer and television chef. Her first television programme premiered in 1965. The following year she published the first of around 90 cookbooks. Since then the cookbooks have collectively sold more than four and a half million copies, and she has appeared on numerous other television and radio shows as well as writing newspaper columns and magazine articles.
She describes the style of food in most of her books as 'everyday food' and the recipes are generally written for home cooks and intended to be easy and reasonably cheap to make, as well as nutritious. Since 1994 she has marketed a brand of bulk wholefoods under the name 'Alison's Choice' through the Foodstuffs supermarket company.
Holst graduated from the University of Otago then a constituent college of the University of New Zealand with a Bachelor of Home Science and subsequently spent a year at Teachers' College. She then began lecturing in the Foods Department at the School of Home Science before starting her television career. In 1983 she was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for services to the community and in 1987 was made a Commander of the British Empire for services to Home Science, and in 1997 was given an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Otago.
In recent years she has co-written several cookbooks with her son Simon.
In the 31 December 2010 New Year Honours, she was made Dame Companion in the New Zealand Order of Merit.[1] In November 2010 she appeared on Radio New Zealand's afternoon programme to deny rumours that she had been asked to be the next Governor General of New Zealand.[2]