Culinary Samplings

New Zealander Sam McFarren has lived in Brentwood, Tennessee for the past four years; she is profiled by the local newspaper The Tennessean in an article in which she talks about the differences between New Zealand and American cooking. McFarren says she makes adjustments to recipes because either she can’t find the ingredients or they don’t measure up to what she’s accustomed to. McFarren entertains mostly in the summer since they have a pool and the weather is more akin to the Southern California-like latitudes of northern New Zealand from which she hails. “We hibernate in the winter. We’re definitely summer people. We have a lot of barbecues; I love summer food. I make a lot of mini burgers for poolside entertaining. In New Zealand, we put a fried egg on our burger, but I don’t do that here,” she said. Included in the article are McFarren’s recipes for shepherd’s pie, cheese scones and pavlova.