Nic’s Cookbook wins international award

Written by ten-year-old Nicholas Brockelbank, Nic’s Cookbook, won the Best Fundraising, Charity and Community Cookbook category of the strongly contested Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for the Pacific region.

Nic’s Cookbook was the New Zealand winner in two categories announced December 2012: the Best Fundraising, Charity and Community Cookbook and the Best Children and Family Cookbook.

Previous New Zealand recipients of awards have included Annabel Langbein, Brett McGregor and Jo Seagar.

Nic lives with muscular dystrophy and is the 2012–2013 ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). He and Scholastic NZ are donating half of the royalties from sales of this book to the MDA.

Nic started cooking at eight years old when one of his teachers suggested it might help with his schoolwork. He has since shown significant improvements in reading, spelling and maths.

Nic’s Cookbook was born from Nic creating his own ‘cookbooks’, which were photocopied booklets of his favourite recipes that he sold to family and friends to raise money for charities.

In 2011, he went on to win the TVNZ Good Morning Kids’ Cook Off with his Chicken and Broccoli Pasta recipe, which features in the cookbook.

Since the publication of his book in October 2012, Nic has held a sell-out book launch, made guest appearances on TVNZ Saturday Breakfast, What Now and Attitude TV, and done Whitcoulls in-store cooking demonstrations, assisted by celebrity chefs Simon Gault and Brett McGregor.

Nic’s Cookbook has been a regular feature in the top-10 NZ children’s bestseller list.