Charmian Smith

Three very different world premieres in one night is an invigorating start to the Royal New Zealand Ballet's 60th anniversary celebrations. Charmian Smith talks to the choreographers of Made to Move.

John Buck was in Dunedin last week showing his Te Mata wines at Wine Freedom in Water St.

Afife Harris, from Lebanon, shows how to make mujadara, a rice, lentil and onion vegetarian dish.

Alternative white varietals, such as arneis, grüner veltliner, chenin blanc and gewurztraminer, can offer exciting drinking, and many go well with food.

Pinot noir can be light and peppery or rich and oaky, and both styles can be attractive, but it's always best when the fruit, oak, acidity and tannins are in balance.

Fire juggling, spectacular effects, steampunk, music, Faust selling his soul, and the lure of seven deadly sins take place among the atmospheric 19th-century steam machinery at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum next week. Charmian Smith talks to Keir Russell and Jonathan Cweorth about their show for the Dunedin Fringe Festival.

Newspaper is a wonderfully versatile material for an artist to use - and it's free, Marion Wassenaar says.

A ballet background doesn't often lead to dancing in the air or hanging from strips of fabric, but that's one of Rochelle Brophy's specialties. Charmian Smith reports.

Once a year, during Dunedin iD Fashion week, people get to think of Dunedin as something other than penguins and tartan, Tim Pollock, of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, says.

While the summer weather lasts, chilled rosés and bubbles can be refreshing drinking - justthe thing to relax with on a warm evening or over a lazy lunch.

The latest Masterchef NZ winner, Chelsea Winter's cookbook At My Table (Random House) is out. The recipes, she says, are ones which have fond memories attached to them and ones she has cooked countless times, some being passed down through generations.

Clothes are more than just a covering. They can evoke emotions of all kinds according to Fortune Theatre artistic director Lara Macgregor. Charmian Smith reports.

The day we came home from India we sat down in the sun on the deck with a good bottle of sauvignon blanc - one of the Villa Maria reserves. It epitomised the bright sunlight and the purity and freshness of New Zealand after eight weeks of noise, crowds, heat, dirt and dust.

In real life we face stressful cooking situations - hard up, hungry, in a hurry, haven't been able to get the supermarket, or when unexpected vegetarians or visitors arrive - rather than leisurely planning our meals as most gorgeous cookbooks would have us believe. British-Bengali foodwriter Rejina Sabur-Cross comes up with practical, imaginative solutions to these problems in her funky Gastrogeek (Kyle Books).

Vanessa Gordon shows how to make steak Diane and orange and ricotta cake.

''The Liquid Dossier'', the result of Nick Austin's year as Francis Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago, opens at the Hocken Library on Saturday. Charmian Smith talks to the 2012 fellow about his work and his forthcoming exhibition.

Abdul Mannan, from Bangladesh, shows how to make chicken korma and egg bhuna.

Most good red wines mellow and integrate with a year or two's bottle age as this tasting demonstrates. However, aeration may help soften the rough edges in a young fresh wine. Try glugging the wine into a jug and then back into the bottle if you can't wait.