Lois Daish really should be a household name in New Zealand.
Those who know and love her recipes already appreciate her brilliance. We’re part of a secret, delicious club and we want more members.
My mum has a scrapbook of cut-out pages of her Listener food columns. Some of my favourite dishes of my childhood are recipes of Lois’ made my mum, and later by me as my interest in food and cooking grew.
Through reading and making Lois’ recipes I am struck by how contemporary they are, and how modern the style of writing is. Good Food could have been written and published this decade, rather than the 1980s. Yet Lois Daish is not a familiar name for many and I strongly believe that should change. Frustratingly, Lois’ books are out of print and it would be an extremely fortunate day if you found one in a second-hand store (if you do – buy it immediately). This indicates to me that Lois’ books are still much-loved and much-used in many households. These are books that will fall open on favourite recipes, and whose pages that are splattered and marked by slightly grubby fingers.
Through this blog, I will cook my way through a selection of Lois’ recipes from her books including Good Food, Dinner at Home and A Good Year, as well as from her Listener columns. I will also talk to some of the cooks and foodies for whom Lois has been an important source of recipes, learning, and inspiration and find out which Lois recipes they continue to make.
LOIS & ME 
So pleased to have found this site. I am staying in London and wanted to make the Number Nine loaf for my family. I put the title in Google with Lois Daish and up it came. I first met Lois doing a demo at a Book Sellers Conference in Christchurch. Glenis☺
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Lovely to hear from you, Glenis and I’m so glad you came across Lois & Me! The No. 9 loaf is a goody isn’t it – no other loaf comes close
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I love Lois Daish’s recipes and after our second house move in 2 years I could no longer find my folder of Lois’ recipes ripped from The Listener. So I’m very happy to find your blog. Thanks for the recipes!
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That’s so lovely to hear, Maia! Let me know if there are any recipes you’re particularly missing and I’ll see if I can find them. I know how precious Lois recipe folders are – fingers crossed yours will turn up!
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Hi I have two, fortunately, “Fuss free food for two”, “A Good Year” and another recipe from a Kilburnie School Fundraising recipe book back in the 1970s when I was living in Moxham Avenue above Police Station. . I have always admired her and like many old Mums have pages torn from the Listener held together with a clothes peg! I must admit my venture into making qunce paste is not for the faint hearted. It was like cooking a volcano!! It was like dodging a fumerol with exploding hot quince. The end result was great though. I am so glad to hear you are custodian of her wonderful recipes. Wish you every success in your website and do give my regards to Ms Daish and tell her how much we appreciate her. Kind regards.
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Hi Anne! Thank you for your lovely message, which I’ve passed onto Lois as well. So great to hear from a fellow Lois fan – there’s a strong contingent of us out there! Frances
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Oh, what serendipity, what a treasure to stumble upon this little virtual shrine to our most undersung hero. I am so grateful for the work you’ve done here to make the great Lois’s work much more readily available. I prowl the aisles of second hand bookshops and book fairs but no cigar thus far. Thank you again!!
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Thank you! Glad you found and appreciate Lois & Me! PS. Have you tried setting up a saved search on Trade Me for her books?
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Genius. Now why didn’t I think of that?! Thank you!
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Two words – wanaka gingernuts… Oh yeah, braemar fruitcake. Four words. Brilliant.
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