The Kaitangata-born-and-bred farm girl did not grow up in a foodie family in the modern sense but was always in the kitchen preparing meals to help her mother.
"It was very traditional, roast on Saturday, cold meat and salad on Sunday. Every night was prescribed."
After completing a postgraduate history and English degree and teaching qualifications in Dunedin, she travelled to the United Kingdom, via an overland route through Africa.
Near the end of that trip she was treated to a meat dish seasoned just with pepper — lots of it — and realised condiments were good.
At a restaurant, Twin Brothers, in Notting Hill, London, she discovered steamed vegetables were delicious when they had not been overcooked.
"That really sparked my interest."
She began delving into other cuisines and never stopped.
"I can’t paint, I can’t sing, but I love to be in the kitchen ... Food back then on the farm to now, I would say there has been a sea change.
"All over New Zealand we now have all these fabulous cafes and wonderful food. You don’t have to go far to find a meal that excites you. But in those days, there was nothing like that. Just meat and three vege," she said.
Mrs Bishop has been a school teacher, operated catering companies, raised four children, written food columns and articles for magazines and newspapers and published eight food books.
She also writes fiction, with several short stories published in Takahe and Landfall.
One, The Dream, was longlisted last year for the Katherine Mansfield Sparkling Prose award.
Her kitchen and her garden are her happy places.
She grows many of her own herbs in raised beds, tucking rocket and Eygptian onions among the roses and perennials.
Tomatoes grow in bags so they can be moved around the house, following the sun.
Her passion for food writing evolved about 30 years ago, during a two and-a-half-year period living in Raratonga.
She met Cook Islands vegetarian restaurateur Sue Carruthers, and together they decided to write a book, Vegetarian Adventure.
More books soon followed, including best-sellers Vital and The Virtual Cafe.
Mrs Bishop wrote her first edition of Relish in 2013 and the new edition published this year is double the size, with double the recipes.
Earlier recipes have been trialled, tested and updated, and sugar cut back where possible.
Mrs Bishop’s goals include introducing the New Zealand palate to a wider range of herbs and spices now available from around the world.
Zatar, with its thyme-like herb flavour, and sumac, a salty lemon ingredient, are two of her go-to favourites at the moment.
She sprinkles zatar on salmon or sourdough bread and sumac on chicken.
"I never intended to write another coo book but I have enjoyed this one very much. It is not straight chutneys and pickles. It has got a lot of other stuff in it. And it has toum. That’s something I can keep banging on about for days," she said of a simple, traditional Lebanese sauce made from garlic, salt, lemon juice and oil.
She makes double batches of it and eats it for breakfast, on her favourite Vogel’s toast along with avocado, a poached egg and a dash of fermented Korean kimchi made from cabbage, green apple and ginger.
Because it is courgette season, she is slathering them with toum too.
After visiting and holidaying in Wānaka for many years, Mrs Bishop and her husband, retired Waikato University Emeritus Professor of Maori Education, Russell Bishop, moved permanently to the resort six years ago.
The couple are in "rude good health", but a decade ago both faced serious health challenges.
They are cancer survivors and their story of hope has been shared in Mrs Bishop’s 2016 memoir Double Whammy.
"We are both now OK. Not only that, but Russell has walked the Camino Trail [in Spain] four times. I have done two. Only, the last time he went, he got Covid and was too sick to finish.
"It is wonderful [doing the Camino]. Your ordinary worries — you just don’t have them any more. You don’t get phonecalls, and all the other people you meet are doing it too, for all sorts of reasons."
Mrs Bishop recently heard from Batemans she had sold over 1000 copies of Relish in New Zealand and the book is now heading for distribution in Australia.
"I thought, it can’t just be my friends buying it. I haven’t got 1000 friends. It is very nice. I am glad they are getting out there. I wanted to write an accessible book," she said.
Relish is stocked in Wānaka by Paper Plus and Next Chapter.
