POSTED: 15 OCTOBER 2011

Annabel Langbein, Free Range in the City 

Living in the city is no barrier to cooking and eating fresh, seasonal food — and bestselling author Annabel Langbein has written a new book to prove it.

Following the success of her 2010 book, Annabel Langbein The Free Range Cook, Annabel has created an exciting new book for publication in Australia by HarperCollins in November 2011.

Annabel Langbein Free Range in the City takes Annabel’s free range philosophy into a city environment and shows how easy it is to cook delicious seasonal meals wherever you live. 

Whereas The Free Range Cook was set in and around Annabel’s rustic holiday cabin on the shores of Lake Wanaka, Free Range in the City invites us inside her Auckland home, where she whips up quick, easy and delicious meals for family and friends.

‘Recognising that not everyone has the luxury of living in the country with a huge vegetable garden, I decided to make a new book about my life in the city,’ says Annabel. ‘Free Range in the City shows how easy it is to make fresh, seasonal food in the city, just like I do when I’m in Auckland. My free range philosophy and trademark stylish simplicity will help you create a sustainable lifestyle no matter where you live. By gathering friends and family around a table to enjoy meals you’ve put together with love, you weave a sense of celebration and community that takes you beyond the rush and busyness of city living.’

Free Range in the City contains more than 220 recipes, plus tips and advice for stress-free entertaining and menu plans to suit every occasion. Vibrant and modern in keeping with its urban theme, it is interactive with the annabel-langbein.com website, where you’ll find extra recipes, preparation plans and shopping lists.

Annabel Langbein is New Zealand’s leading celebrity cook, food writer and publisher, and the star of her own successful international television series, Annabel Langbein The Free Range Cook. The 13-part series was produced in association with TVNZ and distributed by international media giant Fremantle Media and has been sold into 79 territories around the world. The series recently aired on ABC1 in Australia. A second series is now in pre-production.

Annabel has self-published 18 cookbooks, which have won numerous international awards, been translated into multiple languages and sold close to two million copies throughout Europe, North America and Australasia.

The book that accompanied the first series of Annabel’s television series became a publishing phenomenon when it sold close to 150,000 copies in New Zealand alone in the eight months following its release in September 2010. It has since been published in Australia (by HarperCollins) and the UK (with Octopus) and will be released in France (with Larousse) in September 2011 under the title Annabel au Naturel.

Annabel has a Diploma of Horticulture from Lincoln University and grows much of her family’s fresh produce in extensive organic vegetable gardens at her Auckland home and the rustic cabin on the shores of scenic Lake Wanaka where The Free Range Cook was filmed.

Annabel is a member of the Sustainability Council of New Zealand and a passionate advocate for using the best seasonal ingredients as a means to cooking and eating well.

She believes in empowering people to make easy, delicious meals using fresh seasonal produce. ‘I love to cook,’ she says. ‘I’ve been involved with food all my life and writing and publishing cookbooks for the past 20 years. My very favourite thing is inspiring people with fun, easy-to-prepare recipes that will make them a star in their own kitchen!’

*Reproduced as per media release issued by Harper Collins.

Annabel Langbein, Free Range in the City

ISBN: 9780733330629

ABC Books, $49.99