More than 50 Chatsford retirement village residents gathered at the community centre yesterday, eagerly awaiting morning tea with the star of Kiwi Kitchen.
Resident Ivy Gore (95) won the right to host her own banquet with the chef as part of a supermarket promotion, only to turn it down and be awarded a morning tea instead.
Frost on the roads and unfamiliarity with the Mosgiel street system caused the former Dunedin man to arrive just before noon, complete with six large chocolate cakes and his personal collection of tea towels.
Lamenting "the Jimmy's Pie shop" wasn't open when he passed through Roxburgh on his trip to Mosgiel, Mr Till entertained the audience with his nostalgic tales of Kiwi cooking, such as sultanas in mince "which looked like lumps of snot".
He said it was a shame cooking appeared to have skipped a generation and it was increasingly common for children to come home to the sight of their parents phoning the takeaway rather than the "smell of a home-cooked meal".
Helping parents with cooking and chores prepared children well for the future, he said.
"I think we have been sold a pup with all this convenience food."
Even the convenience of the dishwasher has led to the demise of the tea towel, meaning it was unlikely the Government would ever use the "humble tea towel" to inform the public again, as they did with the introduction of decimal currency.
"Change is not always for the better."
Mr Till spent Saturday hosting a banquet for New World's Taste of Summer prizewinner, Dawn Archer (42), of Cromwell, and 20 family and friends.
"It was marvellous," she said.
