At Home With… Liz Oldfield

The owner of Auckland kitchenware store Milly’s Kitchen Shop on her (now not-so-secret) book addiction and what she’s missing most.

Who’s in your isolation bubble?

Husband Carey and a reluctant 23-year-old son, Nick.

Any projects for the remaining weeks of lockdown?

Milly’s have a new website in the wings so we’ll be spending time grooming that ready for launch.

I haven’t been able to attend the international trade shows I normally would this year so I’ll be combing the web and trade mags and talking to our current overseas suppliers, looking for fabulous new products to bring home to Kiwi cooks for the Milly’s catalogue.

Plus I have a massive list of recipes I’ve been wishing I had the time to cook – well, I now have time in spades!

 What’s on your reading/podcast/movie list?

Podcasts I regularly listen to:

Bon Appétit out of New York, of course!
Home Cooking from Samin Nosrat, author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (one of my fave cookbooks ever)
And both the BBC World Service food podcasts: The Food Programme and The Food Chain
The Daily from the New York Times
And, lastly, my guilty pleasure: India Hicks and Lady P, fabulous stories of the life of Lady Pamela (India Hicks’ 90-year-old mother), daughter of Earl and Lady Mountbatten, lady-in-waiting to the Queen, cousin to Prince Philip – a glamorous life indeed.

Movies? Not so much. But I do love a good British crime drama. Unorthodox on Netflix was outstanding, and Tin Star on Lightbox (Tim Roth is unbelievably good). And you always have me at Grace and Frankie (Netflix).

As for books, I’ve just finished Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. Currently reading Educated by Tara Westover (recommended by Kimiora, Milly’s online manager, who I’m in a reading group of two with), and One More Croissant for the Road, Felicity Cloake. Plus there’s a heap of recipe books currently not available in New Zealand that I (secretly) ordered on Book Depository and which I have delivered to work so as not to alert ‘him indoors’ that my addiction is definitely not under control.

 What’s in your larder? Do you have like 20 cans of chickpeas and 1 carrot or are you pretty sorted?

I am definitely in the sorted camp (I always am). The freezer is stocked with vac-packed three-person portions of chicken, salmon, beef, dumplings, etc. I have fresh pasta and noodles, cheeses, fruit and salad stuff plus the usual canned tomatoes, stock, condiments and pastes, etc and, yes, a few cans of chickpeas. Plus a Vegepod for fresh herbs. And chocolate! No carrots – can’t stand them.

 What are you glad/regretting you stocked up on?

I resisted the urge to stock up – apart from three bags of macaroni elbows I doubt will ever see the light of day. I haven’t the faintest idea where I was heading with this. Didn’t stock up on loo paper on principle (which I regretted it as it was the first thing we ran out of).

Who’s doing the cooking?

Mostly me (as I love it and I want to get lots of inspiration for Milly’s new Food Lover’s Facebook page). Carey always does breakfast. Nick has been threatening to do a slow-cooked barbecue brisket – have yet to see it.

What’s the first thing you’ll do when isolation ends (apart from catching up with friends of course)?

I will be delighted to get back to work! I really miss the team and the hustle and bustle of the shop.

* The photograph was taken before lockdown.