The dish: NZ gets the cake and the cooks

Chocolate berry slice

Tick health
We're in the middle of Heart Week and the Heart Foundation is urging New Zealanders to choose heart healthy food. Forget the cream and check out the recipes from Real Food, the foundation's new cookbook by Loukie Werle. This is available online from www.heartfoundation.org.nz (link below), with sales proceeds going to help the charity's life-saving work. We specially like the chocolate berry slice (left). Sounds lethal but the total fat content is 6.1g with only 1.3g of saturated fat.

Chef's cavalcade
For next month's big gathering of chefs from around the globe, the unique flavours of the Pacific region will, not surprisingly, be centre-stage. The World Association of Cooks Societies annual congress is being held in Auckland from March 12-16, and organisers are keen that guests get a taste of the best this part of the world has to offer, including gourmet hangi. Join in the fun and enjoy workshops, presentations, dinners and social events. Registration closes soon and may be made online at www.wacscongress2006.com (link below).

Top names attending include international chefs Martin Yan, author of Yan Can Cook, and Australian Scott Webster, who has worked at The Savoy in London and the Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles. They will line up with New Zealanders including Peter Gordon, Simon Gault and Geoff Scott.