Emeritus Professor Helen Leach, of Dunedin, ONZM, for services to culinary anthropology
Helen Leach is an authority on culinary anthropology and has conducted research into the history of New Zealand, the archaeology and anthropology of Oceanic culture, and the social history and anthropology of horticultural practices. She has lectured at the University of Otago’s Department of Anthropology since 1969, is the author of 22 books, and has contributed more than 40 chapters to other publications. She completed a ten-year research project into the material culture of cooking among New Zealanders across the past two centuries, collecting and cataloguing more than 2,000 cookbooks in the process. Professor Leach’s critically acclaimed books include ‘1,000 Years of Gardening in New Zealand’, ‘The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand’s Culinary History’ and ‘Kitchens: The New Zealand Kitchen in the 20th Century’.