Playing to a near-full Bannockburn Hall, Te Radar romps through the history of Kiwi cookbooks and eating habits. “I’m not a chef, barely a cook,” he confesses, “but I love books and I love food.”

Cookbooks can be read as other literary genres, he claims, as he serves up various examples of Kiwi “culinary lunacy” on his large slide screen – to intrigue us and as a warning.

Historically New Zealanders were apparently among the world’s biggest meat-eaters, as one Lady Barker wrote – a fact which no doubt led to Mary Scott’s book, A Change from Mutton. But Food Detective Te Radar was not to be fooled: he soon realised the hidden truths about colonial drumstick, colonial goose and poor man’s goose.

When Graham Kerr arrived in New Zealand he scoffed at our eating habits: we were a “pav and sav” nation. Te Radar shows us his own version of a “savlova”.

And so the lunacy continues. Te Radar informs as he entertaines, paying homage to the best and laughing at the rest. A favourite with the audience is Hilda Philips’ Recipes with Canned Foods are Interesting.

Aunt Daisy of “Good Morning” fame was on the radio for thirty years and besides her recipes, she also offered handy hints, such as how to keep flies away from your meat safe. Te Radar shares her surprisingly ingenious solution.

A half-time shared Kiwi supper adds to the conviviality of the evening and prepares us well for the second half of the show, where culinary icons, such as Alison Holst, Hudson and Halls, and last but not least, Trouper Cooper are variously toasted and roasted.

If you have not already seen this show, please go. Te Radar is funny, well-informed and warm-hearted. His affection for his subject reminds us all of family dishes and recipes from days gone by.  

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Award-winning New Zealand comedian Te Radar brings a bevy of vintage recipes—horrifying, fascinating, often gelatinous—to the Dunedin Arts Festival in Te Radar’s CookBookery! – written by Ruth Spencer and Te Radar, and performed by Te Radar. The cavernous Mayfair Theatre was packed: the audience eager for a trip down memory lane of Aotearoa’s most baffling twentieth-century recipes from the likes of Graham Kerr, Alison Holst, and Aunt Daisy.

Te Radar is a frenetic gremlin (that’s a compliment), appearing on stage in a floral blazer and jeans with a fevered enthusiasm that quickly infects the audience. Clicker in hand, he leads us through a presentation of unfortunately real recipes, from tongue jelly to effervescing gruel to a muttduckon (my proprietary monicker for the horrifying duck-mutton hybrid he presented to us).

Part history lesson, all comedy, the show is expertly researched; Te Radar’s array of primary sources would leave a graduate student jealous. The absurdity of the vintage recipes and photos leaves no doubt about why he decided to stage this comedy show. One has to imagine bored 1950s housewives on amphetamines were behind many of the inventive recipes. Occasionally, Te Radar shares photos and videos from his own adventures cooking these dishes—a highlight that emphasizes his dedication to the subject matter.

Although the show runs for two hours, it’s expertly paced. Te Radar transitions seamlessly between different eras and themes, always catching the audience by surprise with wonderful callbacks (mutton, more mutton, sometimes jelly, and always brains). The audience remained engaged the entire show, laughing constantly and gasping and cringing at the more unsavory concoctions. There was a bit of an issue with the sound mixing: Te Radar sounded quite loud and a bit tinny, but I quickly forgot about it as he treated us to a slideshow of Hot Bread Men. 

As Te Radar shares, he loves food, and he loves books—and both were clear in this clever, colourful comedy show. Many audience members seemed of an era to recognize the cooks Te Radar discusses. Regardless, this American thoroughly enjoyed the show without knowing the particularities of 1950s Kiwi cuisine (today, I learned about cheerio sausages—I was happier when I thought those were strawberries on the pavlova). That is to say, this is a show that everyone will enjoy, but best to eat dinner beforehand.

Bonus: Woodland Eggs sponsored the performance, so each audience member left with half a dozen eggs.

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Cookbookery is a relaxed and jolly hour of entertainment taking us through the highlights of Te Radar’s vast collection of Kiwi cookbooks, liberally seasoned with a bit of history, drama, horror and plenty of humour.  

The open-air Medici Court is a lovely venue in the Hamilton Gardens. A small amphitheatre set below an ivy-covered balcony in the Italian Gardens and connected by a tunnel, much favoured by our host who makes at least three ‘gladiator style’ entrances.

We start slowly as Te Radar encourages us to just linger for a few more people to pop in, and budge up a bit to make space for the latecomers. There’s no rush, it’s a lovely evening in the gardens and the advice to “chat among yourselves” is easy enough.

Te Radar makes you feel like you’re just settling in to hear a few yarns with a mate. He’s a skilled recounter who has built a career being relatable to a wide audience. There are not many people who can bridge the city/country divide wearing a natty floral blazer while simultaneously extolling the virtues of farming, but he can.

The show is full of enthusiasm and love for the history of food in Aotearoa and recipe books in particular. It seems no op shop in the land has been safe from his fervent rummaging as he sources historical, instructional tomes full of culinary delights, comprehensive contents pages and well-staged photos.

Cookbookery covers some of the earliest published recipe books with ingredients now so unpalatable to the modern diner that audible groans are a feature of the audience response. Fancy some sieved brains or a snapper juice soup? No, neither do we.

It traverses through recipe books and menus comprised entirely of mutton, leading us to the heady days of 1980s microwave cookbooks, filled with “crimes against food”. On the way he highlights celebrities like Des Britten, Tui Flower, Jan Bilton, Alison Holst, Aunt Daisy, Hudson and Halls – and adds a couple of new favourite identities.

There’s some innovation as well, as Te Radar proposes a new dish to really up the ante on Kiwi cuisine (no spoilers here, but I’m sure you’ll be as thrilled as we all were with its potential).

There are also attempts to recreate some of the more bonkers dishes proposed by chefs. Fair to say some of these are works of quiet desperation as the cooks attempt to incorporate sponsors’ ingredients into something new. Take for example this somewhat resigned title: “Recipes With Canned Foods Are Interesting”. How many ways can you rework a tin of spaghetti? Turns out, quite a few. Would we eat them? No, we would not. 

Cookbookery is a lot of fun, you’re in the company of a capable and clever host and among the many laughs, there’s a tonne of interesting social history. Te Radar has a wider point to make, and it’s that we appreciate, enjoy and cook the wonderful food produced in this country. I couldn’t agree more. Mutton it is!

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We are welcomed into the Classic Comedy Club by celestial voices which is a surprise in this environment.

An excellent female choir organised by Te Radars wife, sits above us and are a delight but are soon drowned out by the chatter of the full house audience.

On the Comedy Club artists page, Te Radar is described as an award-winning satirist, documentary maker, writer, stage and screen director, terrible gardener, failed war correspondent and amateur historian.

Based on the content of this show, he certainly is not an amateur historian.

For two hours he regales us with the history of cooking books written in and for New Zealand and its gullible book buying public.

With great relish, he leads us through the myriad of these moments in time and place which should be read like any great novel.

Te Radar’s CookBookery is the name of the show, but it could also be called ‘Culinary Lunacy!’

Te Radar is an extremely polished storyteller and with non-stop patter and humour, he gives us a huge amount of information about these books from the first ones written in the 1880s right up to the 1980s.

As all the familiar writers’ names come up, we get murmurs of recognition and gasps of delight at the total bonkers things that some of these people were advising us to create and eat.

My favourite from the show is an Aunt Daisy recipe for swan. Te Radar calls it not so much a recipe, more an exercise in surrealism. Brilliant.

Alison Holst’s name gets a round of applause as does the much-loved Edmonds Cookbook, first published in 1910, which we learn is a history of the ways New Zealanders eating habits have changed over the decades. I was pleased to learn that, back in the day, an Edmonds Cookbook was sent to every newly married couple and that the chapter on ‘Food for Invalids’ had quietly disappeared.

The audience loved this show and all its madness. I mean, who grates a banana? Who wants to make ‘Cabbage – Cum – Carrot?’ Who wants to make imitation cherries from carrots and raspberry jelly?

We do, apparently.

A joyous ride of a show through our peculiar New Zealand history, something that Te Radar has done with our history before and, hopefully, will many times in the future.

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Many New Zealanders might agree that although our cuisine of the last 100 years wasn’t the fanciest in the world, we certainly made up for it in tenacity.

Te Radar has been developing this show in shorter styles, with the premiere of the two-hour version getting a genuine endorsement from the Nelson Theatre Royal audience. The stage is simple with a classic 1980s cookbook on a pedestal and a pull up screen, giving a retro vibe of the classic slide night. From the moment Te Radar appears, he radiates warmth and enthusiasm, and it’s very clear that he really knows his stuff when it comes to New Zealand cookbooks, as a longtime collector, experimenter and taster.

The format of the show is simple – Te Radar is our guide through New Zealand cookbooks, highlighting their wonders and absurdities. The screen is a never-ending parade of glorious photography, improbable dishes, helpful serving suggestions and unwilling models. Te Radar is in his element, with a well-written storyline that drives the show, a rhythm that keeps the audience enthralled, and the confidence to veer off-script to cater to reactions and interjections.

The show looks at cookbooks through the 20^th century, exposing their many foibles, indulgences, and downright optimism. Tired of eating mutton three times a day? Try Colonial Goose. Run out of butter? Reach for the codfat. Need some cherries? Well, go to the show for the most ingenious solution imaginable. It seems that New Zealanders have a real knack for disguising foods as other foods.

All the well-known experts are referenced – Aunt Daisy, Graham Kerr, Alison Holst and Hudson and Halls – and the phenomena that is Edmonds, and Te Radar has some clear favourites amongst the lesser-known cooks, and this is where his knowledge really shines.

The beauty of putting the recipes on screen, is that the audience can read the ingredients and instructions alongside Te Radar’s commentary – it really heightens the collective enjoyment, and encourages the laughter and chorus of “oh no’s!”

Te Radar’s Cookbookery! is the perfect recipe for a night out – lots of laughs, loads of eyeopeners on taste and presentation, some frank advice on what to avoid in the kitchen, and the reassurance that we’ve come a long way in our kiwi culinary adventures.

It’s a cracker of a show. Go for the cherries, stay for the carrots.

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