THE STORY OF KATIE SWIFT CORDIALS
Katie was raised in a family of matriarchs who made their careers in food.
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Both sides of the family cultivated the gentle traditions of gardening, cooking and a deeply held respect for food and produce.
While there are now more than a dozen flavours, Katie's original cordial recipe was based on one handed down to her by Patti. This recipe was for a classic lemon cordial, developed to make the most of abundant citrus seasons at Te Rama ever year.
A FAMILY RECIPE
From these happy years spent by Patti's side, Katie couldn't help but fall into a lifelong obsession with the making of delicious and beautiful food.
(See photos of Patti from her gloriously 1970's cookbook, Dining In & Dining Out In New Zealand)
One of these wonderful matriarchs, was Katie's Aunt Patti.
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Katie would spend her school holidays roaming the rolling hills of her Aunt and Uncle's property Te Rama, in Waikanae, New Zealand. (See pictures of complete childhood joy - playing with horses, donkeys ducks, cats, dogs)
​Katie’s Swift’s career in food began some time last century, as a cadet journalist at Woman’s Day Magazine, under the tutelage of the late, great Margaret Fulton OAM. After splitting her time between the magical test kitchen, and the not so magical kitchen-at-home-with-two-small-children, Katie started a catering business, so successful, it featured in Gourmet Traveller magazine.
(Heavy sigh, while we recall the golden era of Australian food magazines!)
Katie was eventually lured back to become the Food Editor of Interiors Magazine. There followed decade of developing recipes, cooking and styling for photography and building great relationships within the food industry.
Mad cooking skills, a unique food aesthetic and a new baby led to more career challenges; freelance food styling for editorial and advertising, magazine and television. Katie showed home cooks how to get that professional touch, just when MasterChef told us, “It has to be perfect. This is me on a plate!”
KATIE'S CAREER -
FOOOD EDITOR, FOOD STYLIST, CATERER
All throughout these years and long after Patti's life, Katie continued the tradition of making Lemon Cordial every year for her children.
Then, one day in 2012, Katie gave a bottle of her homemade Lemon Cordial to friends when they opened the much loved Cornersmith Cafe.......and thousands of bottles and sixteen flavours later, Katie Swift Cordials was born.
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A SMALL BUSINESS
It’s not Katie in a bottle, but it is handmade with locally sourced fruit, mostly from growers who are friends. And the three children are grown now and they occasionally help with the labelling, and always help with the tasting, in their clever mother’s very own test kitchen, at home in Marrickville.