Food professor and Pavlova author dies

Former University of Otago food anthropology professor emerita Helen Leach (ONZM) has died in Christchurch, aged 80.

She was appointed to the staff at Otago in 1972, and became the chair in anthropology in 2002.

Prof Leach studied food, eating, cooking, associated equipment and paraphernalia in New Zealand.

Her interests ranged from prehistoric horticulture and the evolution of human diet, to the history of cooking, the origins of recipes as well as the development of kitchens.

She is famed for writing a book about the origins of the Pavlova, entitled The Pavlova Story — A slice of New Zealand’s culinary history.

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2004, and was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018, for services to culinary anthropology.