Nic’s Cookbook wins international award

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-580" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;07&sol;Nics&lowbar;Cookbook&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Nics Cookbook" width&equals;"200" height&equals;"150" &sol;>Written by ten-year-old Nicholas Brockelbank&comma; Nic&&num;8217&semi;s Cookbook&comma; won the Best Fundraising&comma; Charity and Community Cookbook category of the strongly contested Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for the Pacific region&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nic&&num;8217&semi;s Cookbook was the New Zealand winner in two categories announced December 2012&colon; the Best Fundraising&comma; Charity and Community Cookbook and the Best Children and Family Cookbook&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Previous New Zealand recipients of awards have included Annabel Langbein&comma; Brett McGregor and Jo Seagar&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nic lives with muscular dystrophy and is the 2012–2013 ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association &lpar;MDA&rpar;&period; He and Scholastic NZ are donating half of the royalties from sales of this book to the MDA&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nic started cooking at eight years old when one of his teachers suggested it might help with his schoolwork&period; He has since shown significant improvements in reading&comma; spelling and maths&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nic&&num;8217&semi;s Cookbook was born from Nic creating his own &&num;8216&semi;cookbooks&&num;8217&semi;&comma; which were photocopied booklets of his favourite recipes that he sold to family and friends to raise money for charities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In 2011&comma; he went on to win the TVNZ Good Morning Kids&&num;8217&semi; Cook Off with his Chicken and Broccoli Pasta recipe&comma; which features in the cookbook&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since the publication of his book in October 2012&comma; Nic has held a sell-out book launch&comma; made guest appearances on TVNZ Saturday Breakfast&comma; What Now and Attitude TV&comma; and done Whitcoulls in-store cooking demonstrations&comma; assisted by celebrity chefs Simon Gault and Brett McGregor&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nic&&num;8217&semi;s Cookbook has been a regular feature in the top-10 NZ children&&num;8217&semi;s bestseller list&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;