PM's Thai dish in cookbook

If you want to eat like the Prime Minister you are in luck, one of his favourite dishes features in a cookbook developed by three Marton school students.

As well as John Key's Thai Beef Salad, Notes from the Kitchen - a collection of recipes from Nga Tawa also includes offerings from Judy Bailey and Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell.

The book is the brainchild of three Nga Tawa Diocesan School students in their bid for the Young Enterprise Project this year. While they were unable to get the book finished for the project, they were still pleased with their efforts.

Georgia Proude, Harriet Lambert and Bridget Grimes put hours into the book asking family, friends, old girls and well-known people for their special recipes.

Georgia said recipes came flooding in and it had been a huge job collating them all. The girls said there were 38 recipes in the 100-page book, which were all carefully selected.

Judy Bailey's recipes included Spicy Yoghurt and Spicy Beetroot Soup, while Caroline Evers-Swindell sent in a recipe for Tortilla Snacks, and Georgina submitted a recipe for Beef and Avocado Salad.

Determined to make the book particularly memorable, Georgia spent her summer holidays at home in Ohakune cooking all the recipes while her mother, Sarah Proude, photographed each dish.

"Our vision was to produce a cookbook with a little bit of grit and we believe we have achieved this," the trio said.

They were pleased with the way the book looked and were happy to report it was selling well.

The contents include baking, light meals, mains, desserts and miscellaneous recipes, all tried and savoured.

Since working on it, Bridget has left school and is training to be a chef.