IN order to plug in her food processor, Wendy Hutton makes her way over wrenches and nets, then heaves herself on to a dock and prays no one needs the power outlet.
'My mortar and pestle is less trouble,' says Hutton, whose well-equipped kitchen happens to be the galley of a 13-metre tri-maran.
'I've got fresh water and salt water, a gas oven, two rings for the wok and a 'refrigerator' that requires me to dive in, head-first.' The petite New Zealander is the recipe-tester, food sleuth and culinary pulse-taker behind the Periplus World Cookbook series, that focus on Asia.
Hutton has edited all six books - on Bali, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Four more are due by December.
She tracks down recipes by inhaling the history, living in the country, travelling and coaching travel writers as their editor.
She follows writers to the destination in order to hone recipes from their sources. 'Each book has 60 recipes, each challenge is different,' she says. 'We mix the sources - home-cooks and hotel chefs, even hawkers. Home cooks always measure by saying 'as much as you need'. That's why I go.' The choice of recipes that survive her editing is strictly 'totally self-indulgent'. 'It's basically what I want to eat or what appeals to me,' she says.
