A forager from way back, David Burton is also a food journalist for Cuisine magazine and the Dominion Post and a culinary historian (The Raj at Table, Faber & Faber, 1994, French Colonial Cookery, Faber, 2000, 200 Years of New Zealand Food and Cookery, Reed, 1983, Biography of a Local Palate, Four Winds Press, 2003).

His twenty-eight literary prizes include six book awards and ten Qantas Media Awards.