Kiwi cuisine queen Sue's sweet taste of success
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ|Christmas 2021
Sue Fleischl’s journey to culinary excellence was a colourful one, with the Great Kiwi Bake Off judge becoming a solo mum and battling cancer while building her empire.
JUDY BAILEY
Kiwi cuisine queen Sue's sweet taste of success

Sue Fleischl is one of the unsung legends of the New Zealand culinary scene. These days, you may recognise her as one of the judges on TVNZ 1’s popular series The Great Kiwi Bake Off, but the Savoy-trained chef has done much to revolutionise the nation’s concept of food.

An elegant, outgoing woman, she is, by her own admission, a classic type-A personality. Common traits for these individuals include a strong character, the need to operate at speed, impatience, competitiveness and high achievement. Sue has needed all those characteristics to survive and thrive in the demanding world of professional cuisine.

She was born in Napier, the daughterof an Austrian refugee. Peter Fleischl and his wife Charmian were both doctors, with Sue the youngest of their five children. Charmian died when Sue was just five years old. Her mother had time, though, to make sure that there was someone there to help her husband with her young family, asking his practice nurse Jeannie Barret to step in. Jeannie had previously owned a kindergarten and Charmian thought she would be good with children. And so it proved to be. Jeannie became, says Sue, like a second mother.

“Dad loved food. He had a very productive garden – we grew avocados, figs and guavas, and picked our own olives. It was very different to the norm in Napier. We ate what is now known as a Mediterranean diet.”

Esta historia es de la edición Christmas 2021 de Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición Christmas 2021 de Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY NZVer todo
PRETTY WOMAN
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

PRETTY WOMAN

Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.

time-read
3 minutos  |
July 2024
Hitting a nerve
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Hitting a nerve

Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.

time-read
5 minutos  |
July 2024
The unseen Rovals
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

The unseen Rovals

Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.

time-read
2 minutos  |
July 2024
Great read
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Great read

In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.

time-read
2 minutos  |
July 2024
Winter dinner winners
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Winter dinner winners

Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.

time-read
3 minutos  |
July 2024
Winter baking with apples and pears
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Winter baking with apples and pears

Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.

time-read
7 minutos  |
July 2024
The wines and lines mums
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

The wines and lines mums

Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
July 2024
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE

Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.

time-read
7 minutos  |
July 2024
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN

When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.

time-read
8 minutos  |
July 2024
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START

Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.

time-read
5 minutos  |
July 2024