In this recording, Alison Holst is interviewed by Jim Sullivan for the 1985 TVNZ Oral History Project.
She talks about her career in broadcasting, from 1960 to 1980, with particular focus on her work as a television cooking personality.
Alison begins describing perspectives on cooking among New Zealand women in the 1960s. She says television chef Graeme Kerr's flamboyant approach to cooking was something of a revolution and many women thought he wasn't taking it seriously.
Television approached the Department of Home Science at Otago University where she was lecturing, looking for someone who could offer an alternative approach to Kerr's.
She describes the challenges of composing and filming the pilot television programme of her new cooking show. She shares the technical difficulties of creating the show and the repetitious nature of the filming.
Alison talks about the use of television as a teaching medium, her interest in using it to teach simple recipes and her relationship with the crew. She recalls being approached about writing a cook book and live cooking demonstrations to raise funds and giving cooking advice. She explains the difficult dynamics of working with difficult people in the studio and modern difficulties to create a cooking series today and the restrictions of small budgets and time restraints.
Finally she discusses the consistency of the format of her programme and what the opportunities she has been given have meant to her.