Julie Le Clerc

Julie Le Clerc is a New Zealand food writer, chef, caterer, restaurateur and a presenter on TV food shows.

Le Clerc grew up in the Auckland suburb of Westmere. Her mother Loraine made and iced cakes for sale, and Le Clerc showed an early interest in food. After some years travelling overseas and exploring new cuisines, Le Clerc returned to Auckland and took lessons at the Cordon Bleu school in Parnell. She was soon asked to teach at the institute, and she also opened a catering company.

Le Clerc opened her first cafe with her sister Helen, called Byzantium, and located on Auckland's Ponsonby Road. Her second cafe was the Garnet Road Food Store, in the Kingsland/Westmere area, where she employed fellow chef and caterer Sue Fleischl. She then left the cafe business to work on developing recipes and writing cookbooks. She writes for the New Zealand Woman's Weekly, Next magazine, has her own magazine, and has published 14 cookbooks. She has also presented TV3's cooking show Cafe Secrets. Le Clerc holds cooking shows and demonstrations throughout New Zealand, particularly with The Food Show, which is an annual event staged in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

In 2016, Le Clerc spent three months in India as a consulting chef to The Lodhi Hotel, New Delhi. The same year, she opened a fresh food market store in Kohimarama.

Awards and recognition

In 2005, Le Clerc's book Made in Morocco: A Journey of Exotic Tastes and Places won the Readers' Choice Award at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. In 2007, her book Taking Tea in the Medina won both Book of the Year at the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers Culinary Quill Awards, and Best Soft Cover Recipe Book at the World Food Media Awards.

In 2014, Hot Pink Spice Saga, which Le Clerc co-wrote with Peta Mathias, was shortlisted in the Best in the World for Indian Cookery category at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.