The world’s most elite chefs have won these awards: Jamie Oliver, Paul Hollywood, Michael Roux and, closer to home, Josh Emett, Nadia Lim and Michael Van de Elzen.

And now Waikato Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) has won two awards in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for its The Mighty Waikato Cookbook, which it created during COVID-19 lockdown to raise money to help put food on the table for the region’s most vulnerable.

The Mighty Cookbook has won awards for the categories of Food Books Fighting Covid and Sustainable Books and go on to compete for “Best in the World” in those categories at a ceremony in 2021. The Gourmand Awards have been compared to the “Oscars” for film.

Waikato CDEM group public information manager Nicola Chrisp says the awards certainly came as a surprise.

“It was definitely not an objective we set out to achieve when we embarked on this mission,” says Nicola.

“The cookbook came out of the Waikato region’s response to COVID-19 as a way to celebrate some of our favourite food establishments while they were forced to close and raise money to help pay for meals and food parcels for those who needed help. It also provided a way for people to help in the response; one of the most frequently asked questions through our social media channels. It was a fantastic community-led initiative - and I bet no one can say they’ve created an award-winning cookbook from scratch to design in two weeks flat.

“At a time when the country is facing the possibility of a resurgence of Covid-19, this is a nice reminder that many hands across many agencies have worked tirelessly keeping the welfare of our community at the heart of everything they do.”

More than 40 restaurants and cafes contributed recipes to the cookbook, and more than $10,000 was raised towards Momentum Waikato and Wise Group’s community kitchen. The large commercial kitchen set up at Claudelands Event Centre produced over 457,514 individual meals. The Claudelands report dashboard shows:

• 90,290 individuals served
• 62,042 frozen meals distributed to providers
• 8,110 food parcels distributed to providers
• 886 daily average for frozen meals
• 145 daily average for food parcels
• 10 weeks of operation.

Momentum Waikato chief executive Kelvyn Eglinton says funders in the Waikato came together immediately to help provide a one stop shop for the provision of food and winter essentials for vulnerable families and people.

“It was great seeing Waikato CDEM churn out that fundraising cookbook so quickly, and the many communities of the Waikato step up to play a role in providing a response or donating money or time. This generosity is a core value of the Waikato, and it’s been recognised in a fighting COVID category of a cookbook award. Who would have thought?”

Wise Group Operations Manager Erana Severne agrees that a collective effort was the “secret sauce” in delivering a successful local response during lockdown.

“Innovative projects, resources and tools were developed to benefit individuals, whānau, and the community. As we now face a possible resurgence of COVID-19 this powerful collective approach will be key in our ongoing work to support local people.”

The Mighty Waikato Cookbook can still be bought for a donation and downloaded at mightywaikatocookbook.co.nz. Donations are pay what you can, from as little as $5 to as much as you feel you can give.

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