Journalist, media host and food critic Jesse Mulligan interviews journalist, literary editor and anti-food-snobbery advocate Steve Braunias about his book, The Man Who Ate Lincoln Road. 

In 2016, Braunias set himself a challenge: to eat at, and write about, every fast food  outlet on Henderson’s Lincoln Road. Once the centre of the West Auckland wine industry, Lincoln Road has changed vertiginously through the decades, mirroring wider social changes across New Zealand. So who served the best food? Who served the worst? Is the rise of fast food a sign of society’s fall? What does it all mean? What did Braunias learn, if anything, from his quixotic endeavour?

Asked by Mulligan why he did this project [and wrote the book], Braunias described it as “a book about West Auckland…Henderson’s the best!” and called the project a “revelation of the goodness of people”. In the course of his dining, and this interview, the author reveals his fondness for the characters he meets along the way and his sadness at the urban homogenisation of Henderson.

Braunias describes the idea for the project as “blazingly original”, even though he paid for all the food himself.

Steve Braunias works as a journalist and columnist and books editor. He is the author of ten books, including Scene of the Crime,  How to Watch a Bird, and Madmen.

Jesse Mulligan hosts the daily afternoon show on RNZ National, before biking up to TV3 where he presents The Project each night at 7pm. He's also a restaurant critic, with a column in the New Zealand Herald’s Viva, in which he reviews Auckland's newest restaurants. 

Mulligan’s  reviews don't often cross over with Steve Braunias's list of eateries on Lincoln Road, although the two men both dined (separately) at one restaurant and came away with very different accounts of the experience.