{{short description|New Zealand food writer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2017}} {{Infobox person | name = Tui Flower | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|QSM|size=100%}} | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Lucy Tui Hampton Flower | birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|11|23|df=y}} | birth_place = Matamata, New Zealand | death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|08|15|1925|11|23|df=y}} | death_place = Auckland, New Zealand | spouse = {{marriage|Keith Thomas Aitken|1980|1985|end=d.}} | other_names = | occupation = Food writer | years_active = | known_for = Cookery editor of ''New Zealand Woman's Weekly'' | notable_works = }} '''Lucy Tui Hampton Aitken''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|QSM|size=85%}} ({{nee}} '''Flower''', 23 November 1925 – 15 August 2017), generally known as '''Tui Flower''', was a pioneering New Zealand food writer. She has been described as "New Zealand's Julia Child".<ref name="Stuff-obit">{{Cite web|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/food-news/95848952/great-new-zealand-food-influence-tui-flower-has-died|title=Great New Zealand food influence Tui Flower has died|last=Heaton|first=Thomas|date=2017-08-16|website=Stuff |access-date=2017-08-27|quote=I guess America had Julia Child, the UK had Fanny Craddock and we have Tui Flower.}}</ref>
==Early life and family== Born in Matamata on 23 November 1925, Flower was the daughter of Leonard Flower, a postmaster, and Constance Ruby Irene Flower (née Mincher).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/search/search?path=%2FqueryEntry.m%3Ftype%3Ddeaths |title=Death search: registration number 2017/23134 |website=Births, deaths & marriages online |publisher=Department of Internal Affairs |access-date=24 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19251127.2.2.2 | title=Births | date=27 December 1925 | work=New Zealand Herald | access-date=24 August 2017 | page=1}}</ref><ref name="Star 1984">{{cite news | title=Tui's turn to clear the table | date=4 April 1984 | work=Auckland Star | page=B1 | first=Anne | last=Fenwick}}</ref> She grew up in Matamata and Tauranga, and received her secondary education at Epsom Girls' Grammar School, where she was a boarder. In 1944, she went on to study at the University of Otago, obtaining a Diploma of Home Science.<ref name="Star 1984"/><ref name="NZ Herald 2017">{{cite news | url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11908782 | title=Tui Flower, inspirational cook and long-time food editor, dies | date=22 August 2017| work=New Zealand Herald | access-date=24 August 2017}}</ref><ref name="Interview">{{cite web |url=https://natlib.govt.nz/records/35861815 |title=Interview with Tui Flower |year=2010 |website=National Library of New Zealand |access-date=24 August 2017}}</ref>
==Career== After leaving Otago, Flower taught home science at Pukekohe High School.<ref name="ODT 2017"/> In 1951, she travelled to the United States, where she attended a number of Cordon Bleu courses.<ref name="Interview"/><ref name="ODT 2017">{{cite news | url=https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/food-wine/guided-home-cooks-through-revolutionary-change | title=Guided home cooks through revolutionary change | date=23 August 2017 | work=Otago Daily Times | access-date=26 August 2017 | first=Rebecca | last=Fox}}</ref> She was awarded a bursary to study at the École hôtelière de Paris in 1954–55, and was subsequently employed by Unilever in Wellington as a home economist.<ref name="Interview"/><ref name="Food writers 2016">{{cite web |url=http://foodwriters.org.nz/tui-flower-turns-90/ |title=Tui Flower turns 90 |date=11 March 2016 |website=Food writers in New Zealand |access-date=26 August 2017}}</ref> In her nine years at Unilever she worked initially on laundry and cleaning products and packaging, and later on frozen, dehydrated and canned foods.<ref name="Star 1984"/>
Visits to family in the United States exposed Flower to food journalism, and in 1965 she was appointed as the food editor of the ''New Zealand Woman's Weekly''.<ref name="Food writers 2016"/> She established New Zealand's first magazine-based test kitchen, using her scientific background for recipe testing and adapting traditional recipes for modern equipment and busy lives.<ref name="ODT 2017"/><ref name="Food writers 2016"/> Likened to the American food writer Julia Child,<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.nowtolove.co.nz/news/real-life/tui-flower-in-full-bloom-5738 | title=From the archives: Tui Flower in full bloom | date=30 May 2010 | work=New Zealand Woman's Weekly | access-date=27 August 2017}}</ref><ref name="Stuff-obit" /> Flower is credited with helping New Zealanders move away from their traditional meat, potato and vegetable dinner, and was among those who popularised ingredients perceived as exotic, such as garlic, capsicum and avocado.<ref name="NZ Herald 2017"/><ref name="ODT 2017"/><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/89841124/meat-and-three-veg-the-history-of-new-zealands-diet | title=Meat and three veg: the history of New Zealand's diet | date=13 March 2017 | work=Stuff | access-date=26 August 2017 | first1=Thomas | last1=Manch | first2=Rachel | last2=Clayton}}</ref> When Flower retired from her role at the ''New Zealand Woman's Weekly'', her test kitchen had a staff of nine.<ref name="Food writers 2016"/>
In addition to her regular food editorial column and recipes in the ''Woman's Weekly'', Flower contributed to the ''Auckland Star'' and the ''New Zealand Home Journal'', and wrote or edited a number of cookbooks.<ref name="Food writers 2016"/> In 1982, she established the Star–Woman's Weekly School of Cooking.<ref name="Star 1984"/> Flower was instrumental in the formation of the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers in 1988, and served as its inaugural chair.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://foodwriters.org.nz/the-guilds-beginnings/ |title=The guild's beginnings |year=2015 |publisher=Food Writers New Zealand |access-date=27 August 2017}}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1980, Flower married Keith Thomas Aitken, who was editor of the ''Auckland Star'' newspaper from 1977 until his retirement in 1983.<ref name="Star 1984"/><ref name="Star 1985">{{cite news | title=Former editor dies | date=28 February 1985 | work=Auckland Star | page=A6}}</ref> He died in February 1985.<ref name="Star 1985"/>
==Honours== In the 1983 New Year Honours, Flower was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for public services.<ref>{{London Gazette | issue=49214| date=31 December 1982 | page=49| supp=3}}</ref> She was also a life member of the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers.<ref name="Stuff-obit" />
==Later life and death== In her retirement, Flower lived in the Auckland suburb of Mount Eden, in a house that had been owned by her maternal grandparents.<ref name="Star 1984"/><ref name="Stuff-obit" /> She continued to write and edit cookbooks, and mentored many New Zealand food writers.<ref name="Food writers 2016"/> In 1998 she published her autobiography, ''Self-raising Flower''. She was still involved in the food industry in 2016, when she worked with Eggs Incorporated to promote World Egg Day.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11722297 | title=Tui Flower shares a slice of bacon and egg pie history | date=9 October 2016 | work=New Zealand Herald | access-date=27 August 2017}}</ref>
Flower died in Auckland on 15 August 2017.<ref name="Stuff-obit" /><ref>{{cite news | url=http://notices.nzherald.co.nz/obituaries/nzherald-nz/obituary.aspx?n=lucy-tui-hampton-aitken-flower&pid=186446639 | title=Tui Aitken death notice | date=23 August 2017 | work=New Zealand Herald | access-date=27 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/cuisine/96282893/doyenne-of-home-cookery-developed-kiwi-palate |title= Doyenne of home cookery developed Kiwi palate |publisher= Stuff (Fairfax) |date=2 September 2017}}</ref>
==Selected publications== * {{cite book | title=Tui Flower's cookbook | first=Tui | last=Flower | year=1968 | publisher=A.H. & A.W. Reed | location=Wellington }} * {{cite book | title=Tui Flower's modern hostess cook book | first=Tui | last=Flower | year=1972 | publisher=Reed | location=Wellington | isbn=0589007122}} * {{cite book | title=New Zealand Woman's Weekly favourite recipes | first=Tui | last=Flower | year=1976 | publisher=Paul Hamlyn | location=Auckland | isbn=0727100866}} * {{cite book | title=William tells about food | first1=Tui | last1=Flower | first2=Neil | last2=Lonsdale | year=1977 | publisher=Shortland | location=Auckland | isbn=0868670219}} * {{cite book | title=Fresh vegetable cooking | editor-first=Tui | editor-last=Flower | year=1979 | publisher=Shortland | location=Auckland }} * {{cite book | title=Make it with milk: eighteen prize-winning recipes to make the most of fresh milk | editor-first=Tui | editor-last=Flower | year=1981 | publisher=New Zealand Milk Promotion Council | location=Wellington }} * {{cite book | title=New Zealand woman's weekly cookbook | editor-first=Tui | editor-last=Flower | year=1984 | publisher=Shortland Rigby | location=Auckland | isbn=0868672009}} * {{cite book | title=Favourite meals | first=Tui | last=Flower | year=1985 | publisher=Shortland | location=Auckland | isbn=0868673218}} * {{cite book | title=Favourite preserves | first=Tui | last=Flower | year=1985 | publisher=Shortland | location=Auckland | isbn=086867320X}} * {{cite book | title=Lamb favourites | first=Tui | last=Flower | year=1985 | publisher=Shortland | location=Auckland | isbn=0868673196}} * {{cite book | title=New Zealand the beautiful cookbook | editor-first=Tui | editor-last=Flower | year=1990 | publisher=Weldon | location=Willoughby | isbn=1875410228}} * {{cite book | title=The cooks' collection: recipes from New Zealand's food writers | editor-first=Tui | editor-last=Flower | year=1996 | publisher=C.J. Publishers | location=Auckland | isbn=0908808577}} * {{cite book | title=Self-raising flower | first=Tui | last=Flower | year=1998 | publisher=Viking | location=Auckland | isbn=0670883654}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Flower, Tui}} Category:1925 births Category:2017 deaths Category:People from Matamata Category:People educated at Epsom Girls' Grammar School Category:University of Otago alumni Category:New Zealand schoolteachers Category:New Zealand cookbook writers Category:New Zealand women writers Category:Recipients of the Queen's Service Medal