We asked Lauraine Jacobs, contributing editor to our World edition, to answer the Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery Questionnaire. There are only two rules – you have to tell the Truth, and do it with Love (with apologies to Marcel Proust).

Lauraine Jacobs, a past president of the Food Writers New Zealand, is the food columnist for the New Zealand Listener magazine, an internationally respected food and wine writer and author/editor of ten books.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Cooking at my bench top with my three-year-old grandson Teddy – he dons on an apron and says, “I’m a restaurant man!”

What is the purest thing you have ever tasted? Fresh kina, (New Zealand sea urchin) broken open on the seashore and eaten raw, right there.

What is the best thing you can do with your hands? Wave!

What do you love most about what you do? I am passionate about recording the stories of good farmers and artisan food producers.

What do you consider the most overrated ingredient? Sundried tomatoes.

What’s the best thing you’ve ever been taught? To be constantly curious.

Is there anything you don’t particularly care to eat? The allium family, including garlic, do not like me, sadly.

When was the last time you ate out, and where? A superbly orchestrated collaborative dinner on Friday evening at O’Connell St Bistro, where Bradley Hornby and Liz Buttimore of Arbour (a TL&CC entry) brought a bevvy of regional Marlborough artisan produce and producers to cook with Chef Mark Southon.

What are your favourite books or cookbooks? Dan Barber’s The Third Plate, and The Cooks Companion by Stephanie Alexander, which might be the closest thing to a food bible.

What do you make from scratch? Everything.

What are the qualities you most admire in others? Honesty and generosity.

Can you tell us something we don’t know about you? I have never been in my husband’s fishing boat, even though it is named after me.

If you could eat only one thing today, what would it be? A fresh sourdough loaf with butter.

What do you see when you think of the cuisine of your own country? Fresh, natural ingredients that have more flavour than any other food on earth.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse? “Delicious”.

Which talent would you most like to have? I wish I could speak Te Reo – the language of New Zealand’s indigenous Māori people.

Do you have a motto or mantra? “If it is simple to make, it will be simple to eat” – and everyone loves that.