I've been an enthusiastic cook all my life. In the early days this manifested itself in my running a small catering business to help put myself through Varsity. After that I made cakes and slices for local delis in Auckland while my husband and I raised two beautiful daughters. In between baking and parenting I wrote the first of 14 cookbooks, the most successful of which was Mmm...Muffins . In about 2001 I decided to take a more hands-on approach and started a small business making hand-made gourmet products. I'm proud to say that my spiced figs are seen on international flights leaving New Zealand and in many fine restaurants and delicatessens throughout the country. My spiced figs and spiced plums have been seen on cheese boards in Singapore, Brazil and Hong Kong. I was one of the first individuals in New Zealand to have a Food Safety Programme operating from my home, and just love working from home in such a creative and satisfying business. I am an active member of the Canterbury branch of the NZ Chefs Association as well as a member of the NZ Guild of Food Writers. I act as a culinary consultant in a number of capacities including teaching, judging, recipe development and am a sometime food writer.

I love trying different recipes, creating my own variations and generally experimenting with food and making good things to eat. I get a little twitchy if I am away from the kitchen for more than a couple of days, holidays therefore must include self-catering facilities so we can try out the local foods.

I am a firm believer in making my products in small batches so as to keep the flavours real and the quality high. I am involved with everything I make and this enables me to personally inspect each and every jar of spiced figs, every fig and walnut log and all of my other products. It is important to me that the ingredients are top quality and I want the end product to look great too. I buy my walnuts from A Cracker of a Nut so I know they are always the freshest possible. You can taste the difference and if I couldn't get fresh nuts I'd rather not make the product: there would be no point in spending all that time and effort to turn out an inferior product. I buy imported dried figs when I would love to use local figs but no one produces them in the quantities I need, I have spoken with fig growers that have started recently and left my details so that when they can supply my requirements I'll buy from them. Until then I have a good relationship with importers who source top-grade figs and plums from overseas.

I enjoy talking with people about my products and get a lot of satisfaction knowing they like what they buy and that it adds something a little special to their meals.

— Shirley Bradstock