Dame Alison here for centenary events

One of the University of Otago School of Home Science's best-known graduates is returning to Dunedin today for events marking the department's centenary.

Food writer and chef Dame Alison Holst, who was also a food lecturer in the department before beginning her television career in the 1960s, will join about 440 alumni, former staff and guests gathering for a reunion and conference.

Among the reunion activities are a cocktail party tonight, a traditional afternoon tea, tours of the present-day Consumer and Applied Sciences Department, a church service and a market day featuring the food and craft products of graduates and other Dunedin producers.

The conference, which begins on Monday, will cover a wide range of topics including preservation science, nutrition, producing biodiesel from tallow, the history of cheese-making, enhancing world food supplies, obesity in the 20th century and designing the perfect sock.

Keynote speakers include Dame Alison, British Olympic team nutritionist Jeni Pearce and Dr Kathleen Robinette from the United States Air Force Research Laboratory.

Five women enrolled in home science in its inaugural year in 1911.

Under the heading of home economics, they studied subjects such as household chemistry, food preparation, nutrition and dietetics, domestic hygiene, textiles, needlework and sanitation.

By 1925, a masters degree was available, with institutional management and dietetics programmes introduced in the 1930s.

More than 10,000 people, almost all of them women, had graduated over the past century, consumer and applied sciences programme director Dr Cheryl Wilson said yesterday.