Season Of Change

Best-selling cookbook author Chelsea Winter has said goodbye to the stressful demands of the big city for peace and contentment at the beach. Zoe Walker Ahwa talks to the former MasterChef winner about the year’s physical and emotional changes and what’s on her plate for the holidays

- Zoe Walker Ahwa

It’s been a transformative year for Chelsea Winter, one of New Zealand’s best-selling cookbook authors and self-confessed ‘purveyor of deliciousness and everyday gangly blonde Kiwi’. Following the success of her cookbooks, the 34-year-old had begun to question what that all meant in the wider scheme of her everyday life. But was she truly content?

“Success isn’t measured by how busy you are; success is measured by how fulfilled you are – and there is a huge difference,” she reflects. “And I have learnt that actually, I can be fulfilled with just simple things, and a simple lifestyle. That’s been a huge lesson for me.”

So, in March, Chelsea decided to leave the busyness of Auckland and put down roots in Mount Maunganui; putting her Point Chevalier home on the market and, in “almost divine synchronicity”, sold it in four days and found a new place almost the same day she started looking.

“I needed a rest. I knew that if I kept pushing myself, I would burn out,” explains Chelsea, who also felt that, after achieving a certain level of success, she deserved a break. “All of a sudden, I realised that I wasn’t really happy living in Auckland any more. On paper everything was great – it was a nice house in a nice area – but I wasn’t feeling fulfilled.”

Making a move