Cappuccino in hand I sat at the cafe with Kate from our office talking fundraising. I talk fundraising a lot. How do we not when there are so many children out there that need help? We're not going to feed and clothe and care for kids without cash. This day we began talking about a cookbook for Orphans Aid International, everyone loves food! With a growing support base to draw from, we were sure we could pull together a great book. The name came to us a week or so later and the wheels were in motion. Kate did a great job of compiling the book and spent many volunteer hours pulling it together. I shot an email off to John Key our Prime Minister and next thing we even had his favorite family recipe. We were on a roll. We dedicated the cookbook to a young girl who had arrived at Casa Kiwi ( our home for abandoned children) in Romania October 2010. She has since been adopted to a very suitable family. The strange thing was the book was printed as I was taking leave to write my Rescue book, so I had little time to promote our fundraising "Help the World Cookbook" But a month or so later after selling our cookbook on-line through our website. I had an email that first I thought was spam. It was Edouard Cointreau emailing me to see if we would like to exhibit our cookbook at the Paris Cookbook Fair. Not sure of the validity of the email I made some phone calls, one of which was to Edouard who was in Hong Kong. Yes it was valid and a warm invitation was extended to me to go to Paris. One thing led to another and next thing I had some wonderful supporters even paying for my travel costs! I would travel from Paris on to the Ukraine afterwards and meet up with our orphanage workers.
A few days before leaving for Paris the devastating earthquake of Feb 22nd hit Christchurch.
It was unbelievable, we quickly launched an appeal and began making plans to assist. I sent an email to The Paris Cookbook Fair, could they assist in some way ? Christchurch needed our help.
Once in Paris I navigated my way around the underground and came up a few short blocks from the Eiffel tower there I met with Thierry Bertman, who proceeded to tell me they wanted to produce a book as a fundraiser for Christchurch.
The next week at the Fair I spent my days speaking with Celebrity Chefs and cook book authors, running around with Thierry to gather content and support for our book. The wheels were in motion. Evert Kornmayer would kindly publish the book in Germany.
Fast forwarding a year the book is complete. Of course a lot more has happened in between but the 7th March at the opening party of the Paris Cookbook Fair 2012 a book will be launched with recipes from the wonderful people I met a year ago and the proceeds, yes they're earmarked for Christchurch.
I can't wait to lay my hands on a copy. They'll be available in Paris and Europe before NZ.
Christchurch has a huge journey ahead of her and this book has a small but important part to play. Every contribution will help rebuild.
Looking foreword to having the new charity cookbook in one hand and a cappuccino in the other.
Thanks to everyone who has helped bring this together. | 
