Eat, drink and be merry

 
With the warmer weather upon us, New Zealand loved foodie, Julie Biuso, has released Julie Biuso at Home. Her 16th cookbook is packed with delicious recipes to see you through a season of eating, drinking and being merry.

We asked Julie what pick from the massive 270 recipes she’ll be indulging in this summer…
“It’s hard to choose between late summer laksa which pushes all the buttons when you’re hot, sticky and a bit tetchy – it’s so fragrant and bursts with flavour that it can’t help but cheer you up. Or my go-to fast pasta dish of roasted tomatoes (I do a stack at a time so they’re on hand to help pull fast meals together), garlic, capers, olives, rocket and feta. Sometimes I add tuna so it’s kind of like a pasta Niçoise - pretty much all from the pantry and garden.”

Where other foodies have failed, Julie has moved from success to success since first entering the Cordon Bleu School of Cookery in London in 1976. The key to her achievement, although unplanned, has been establishing her name and brand in a congested industry.

“I never planned on becoming well-known, it’s just part of the job and I accept it,” Julie says. “Some people, in every industry I think, are motivated by becoming famous. It’s a very different perspective. Fame is fickle. Always presenting your best work, never letting people down or taking shortcuts, keeping your integrity intact by not taking every buck you’re offered – all these things build trust in a brand, and treating people with respect and showing charity to others, are the things that last.
“Of course you need to be astute. You can’t sit back on your laurels basking in any recently bestowed honour. Acting quickly on a hunch has paid off many-a-time for me. Projecting where I want to be in 2-3 years’ time has also proved to be a valuable exercise. But if your brand doesn’t have strength, clarity and trust, you are pretty stuffed.”

With nearly four decades of food experience under her belt and having made the Biuso name synonymous with delicious cuisine, has Julie thought about who will carry on the business in the event that she hangs up her chef’s hat?
“Both my son, Luca, and daughter, Ilaria, have worked with me over the years on various projects and at events. Ilaria assisted me for a couple of years on my cooking classes while finishing her art history degree. She’s an inventive cook with tastes quite different to mine and she’s definitely got a cookbook in her, but in her own time. Luca now definitely prefers to be on the receiving end of my work!
“Luca fully understands the importance of the brand and his role in helping maintain its success. Ilaria is still grappling with it – a well-known unique surname can sometimes be a hindrance!”
As well as her children, there are several key people her brand depends on to thrive and survive.
“My husband, Remo, has been an integral part of the Biuso brand from day one. He’s worked as everything from cook, shopper, food stylist, chauffeur, secretary, accountant, and business manager for more than 30 years. Out of the family circle I maintain long and trusting relationships with key people: the late Ray Richards was an incredible friend and mentor as well as being my literary agent for 27 years. He is irreplaceable. My book publisher, Belinda Cooke from New Holland is also a friend and an invaluable literary career advisor. It’s a tight circle, which includes a few close friends, but it’s all I need.”

In 2014, Julie’s goal is to grow her social media presence to promote her brand.
“Facebook is important and Twitter becoming more so. A website is vital. Both magazines I work for, Taste and Your Home & Garden, have their own websites and Twitter feeds so they help promote what I do in the magazines. New Holland promotes book news and events through their social media outlets. My regular Radio NZ broadcasts are on my site as podcasts, along with new videos. One of my recipe videos on You Tube has had close to 400,000 hits. I have spells of Tweeting, blogging and Facebooking, post heaps of pictures, write great content, then it’s as if I turn into a ludite for a week or two and I go off the radar.”

Julie is ever aware of the ease of access of recipes available on the internet. So how is this affecting her business model?
“As soon as you put anything out there on the net, someone else can grab it and present it as their own. You’ve got to accept it or you may as well hide under a rock. But there’s a big difference between grabbing a recipe off the net to using one from a book which has been checked and edited several times before printing. You’ve got to give a little away to attract business, but paid-for copy is still the most reliable.”

So is 16 the magic number? Will this be the author’s final cookbook?
“Writing is my love and I imagine I’ll keep on writing until I pop my clogs - but it is important to let a book have its life and not to crush sales by releasing another one too soon. So over Christmas I’ll reflect on the trajectory of Julie Biuso At Home, come up with new leads and promotional ideas and plan the year. At the same time I’ll begin shaping the essence of book number 17, the ‘what, why and how’…if you can’t answer those three questions early on in a project, you need to come up with something else.
“I’ll be doing a lot more teaching in 2014. I love communicating and get a real buzz when I see that people have learned something useful and are inspired to go home and cook some fabulous food. That’s my absolute main mission – to encourage everyone to cook from scratch with gorgeous fresh food, and so keep themselves healthier and happier.
 
I’ll also be doing more charity work for Totara Hospice. I lost one of my brothers this year to a brain tumour and it made me painfully aware of what an amazing job such organisations do.
To sum it up I would say that it will be a year of change, something I relish.”
 
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