Today on the show we are talking about food as a whole and the concept of food design with Jane Armour-Raudon. What is food design exactly? What do we mean when we say something we eat is sustainable? How can food design invigorate our relationship with the food we put into our mouth?  Lets chat with Jane the Food Smith and find out!

Welcome again to the Kiwi Foodcast. Today on the show we have Kevin Ngadisastra, one half of the duo behind the Popup that has been taking Wellington by storm, Townhouse Ramen. Kevin’s ramen journey began in 2016 with a trip to Japan. But he is actually a systems analyst by day and not a chef! How did Kevin’s love affair with ramen begin? Can you run a successful food business if you also work full time? How can YOU score a seat at one of his pop ups? Let’s chat to him and find out!

Julie Gillingham was a dental hygienist when she fell in love with the keto lifestyle. After giving birth to two children, she loved how keto made her feel. The sleep was better, she had more energy and of course, the weight loss was a bonus. She did miss eating ice cream though. And pizza!

"When my family was following keto strictly, we would have pizza once a week but could never find a pizza base that was both tasty and affordable." So she decided to try making them herself. Julie had hit on the right pain point because anyone doing keto knows that giving up bread is the hardest bit. Not because of its doughy goodness but rather because you need a 'base' for the food you cook or to mop up that curry.

Julie eventually traded in her mask and scrubs for an apron & chefs cap to pursue her dream of running and growing Keto Smart Bakes full time. The range of products she offers has continued to expand from pizza bases to bagels, tortillas and garlic bread, with more to come!

The unique thing about Keto Smart Bakes is that everything is made in small batches, hand-crafted and freshly baked weekly. "I work on a pre-order basis and that can be a bit challenging for new customers because we live in such an instantaneous world. But my customers know that I am a solopreneur and that I'm also a mom. They know that I put so much into my business and my products that it's worth the wait."

Specifically, we chat about:

• As a small business owner, finding the balance between work life and home life
• Working around production challenges when everything is hand-crafted
• Making 'convenience' products that are still worth the wait

Sachie came to New Zealand after graduating high school, mainly to speak English. What was she most surprised with on coming here? She says, "I was surprised with the size...not of the country but with the size of vegetables here. In Japan, a capsicum may be the size of an egg while here it's more like an apple!"

Sachie's journey in entrepreneurship started rather serendipitously while she was working in hospitality sales. She went in one morning and learned of a colleague that had passed away from a heart attack at just 45. That same afternoon she heard of another friend that also passed away. "It was a lightbulb moment. If I die tomorrow, will I have any regrets? I went back home and drew a mind map. What do I love - food, what do I enjoy doing - I love cooking and sitting with others to eat, what skills did I have - I know how to cook Asian food really well. So I thought, that's it. I will teach those who love Asian food how to cook it. It's in my kitchen so I will call it Sachie's kitchen and so it began."

It has now been ten years since that day and Sachie's Kitchen has gone from strength to strength. It is now one of the most-awarded cooking schools in Australasia. To date, more than 50,000 New Zealanders have been through Sachie’s Kitchen with millions more watching her demonstrations on the small screen – her television show is broadcast in over 35 countries.

Her classes appeal to individuals with a passion for Asian cooking and also corporate teams who book events that cover Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Chinese, Indian & Korean cuisine. Sachie has gone on to launch her own range of branded food products nationwide and is now exploring virtual cooking classes as well.

Favourite quotes:

Growing up for me, food = people

When I opened the door to Sachie's kitchen in Parnell I had to really think of how people would find me and know about my kitchen. For me, the answer was media. So, I wrote it down on my mind map. I wrote TV, radio, magazine. And the law of attraction took over. When I write things, it attracts opportunities in my life. Over the next two weeks, my husband bumped into someone that ran a radio station and I got onto the radio. Same for my TV show, I wrote it down and then one day, the producer came through the door.

Opportunities are always around you. They are ready, for anyone to grab. But if you're not ready, you will not see them. You will miss the boat.

In front of my computer, I have a wall where I have a mind map. I write on it opportunities I want to attract, where I want to be and then I transfer it into my yearly calendar and then it does just happen.

Monisha's journey cooking and eating fresh, healthy food started long before she joined Instagram. In India, she worked as a naturopath, as an aerobic instructor and a yoga teacher.
 Life changed when her family and she decided to move to New Zealand. They began their journey in Invercargill where Monisha was unable to resurrect her career in naturopathy and started working in a meat and freezing works. A seven-month stint at the local Pita Pit reminded her how much she loved being around fresh food and simple flavours. So, when they moved to Rotorua a few months later, Monisha continued to work in hospitality. But then she got sick. 

To help her body recover, Monisha resorted to making lots of smoothies. "When it came to food, I always something a bit extra, so I'd make these pretty layered smoothies", says Monisha. When her son saw her pretty creations, he opened an Instagram account for Monisha. 

"I had no clue what I was doing. If you scroll down 1000 posts you will see I didn't even know how to write hashtags correctly. But I learned. And I made friends. And then companies started approaching me to give them ideas for dishes. But it's the smoothies that got me started".

On the episode we talk about:

• Being real on social media
• From influencer to recipe developer, the journey
• Adding colour to food and how that can change your meal

Follow Monisha and her colourful, fresh food on Instagram

Ash Razmi was on a trip in the States when he tasted his first quality craft beef jerky and couldn’t get enough. After he came back home he was determined to replicate those flavours and used a home dehydrator to try making his own jerky. It took him hundreds of attempts to get the balance perfect and because beef jerky is not made the same day there was lots of recording involved to see what worked. 

Most of the biltong and jerky available in NZ is made by large manufacturing brands and has a long list of artificial ingredients. Ash didn't want to create another tough, rubbery jerky that "can last forever and survive a bomb blast". He decided that his company, Bootleg Jerky would make jerky that's free of nitrites, nitrates, MSG or other additives with unpronounceable names.

Since both Ash worked full-time, they had to partner with a manufacturer who would agree to make the jerky to their exacting standards. Since then, Bootleg Jerky has grown by leaps and bounds and they have now turned their garage into a custom-built licenced manufacturing facility inside - and no, they didn't actually tie up the MPI food safety officer (see their instagram video to know what I mean!)

Bootleg Jerky's secret to success is firstly creating a great product. "Our marinating process is simple. Meat plus marinade plus time, or rather, lots of time". On the episode we talk about:

• Why having a great product is important
• Direct to consumer or being on the shelves, what’s the better strategy
• Manufacturing journey - from garage to contract manufacturing to purpose built facility
• How Bootleg Jerky spread the word

www.bootlegjerky.co.nz

When my mum and I moved to New Zealand, I was always the odd one out at school. Other kids brought sandwiches while mum always packed me some Indian leftovers. "What's that, butter chicken?", my Kiwi friends would ask while I waited near the microwave for my food to be heated. My eyes would roll inside my head. If only they knew the joys of a true Indian dish. 

It took growing up, moving back to India and missing the oddly orange 'Kiwi' butter chicken, to realise that it wasn't anyone's fault. After all, butter chicken, tikka masala and naan were the only dishes they knew! How were us Kiwis to get a taste of real India if no one ever made us taste it? I parked that thought until I moved back to New Zealand in 2019. 

It clicked that if I wanted my friends and those around me to experience the true taste of India, I had to do more than talk about it. I had to bring those flavours into their kitchen and show them how truly versatile they could be! I wanted to show my fellow Kiwis that Indian spices can be used to make just about anything, from dahl to roast to pasta and everything in between. It was time to start the journey and move beyond butter chicken. Why are these notes in the first person? Because, this time around, I am a guest on my own podcast. 

Guest host Grace Kreft of the PepTalk podcast chat's with me this week. We discover: 

• The importance of sharing the stories of NZ food entrepreneurs
• How Kiwi Foodcast helped me launch my own business 
• Getting to the starting line of a food business - what's involved
• Dolly Mumma and how she inspired my love for food

Hungry for Indian food? Head to www.dollymumma.com and get a taste of the real India.

Jayshri was born in New Zealand. However, she grew up eating primarily Gujarati food at home. For her mum, like many Indian mums, food was the primary love language. Jayshri didn't learn how to cook Indian food until she left home to study. She would try calling her mum to ask her how to cook something and would often be told to add 'a little bit of this and a little bit of that'. 

It's a quandary many of us have faced. Not wanting her family secrets to be lost, Jayshri started noting the recipes down in a wee notebook when her parents sold the family dairy. However, when she told a few Kiwi friends what she was doing, they all said, "oh my God, we need it because our mums are the same". The project turned into a cookbook that Jayshri has self-published with her mum and the duo's book won the Best in the World Gourmand Cookbook Award in 2018. 

On the episode we talk about:

• Intuition, a key ingredient for cooking Indian food

Food, the recurring theme in Indian culture

• New to cooking Indian food? Here are the key fundamentals
• Self-publishing a cookbook, why do it

My favourite quotes from the episode:

"Back in the 80s when I went to school, we were the only Indians in my school at Christchurch. Back then no one knew about Indian food. They didn't even know what a samosa was."

"My mum was used to just cook with her own teaspoon she had in her home. So she would use her spoon, then we would tip it into the measuring spoon and that's how we figured out the recipes."

"You walk into an Indian household and straightaway they are sharing food with you."

The FoodBowl is for food entrepreneurs what the Willy Wonka Chocolate factory was for kids. Supported by Callaghan Innovation and run by the Auckland chapter of the NZ Food Innovation Network, the FoodBowl is an open access facility whose core business is to increase the ­value of New Zealand's food sector by encouraging companies to develop and commercialise new products.

We all know that developing a new product or process can be an exciting journey. But it's also exhausting. FoodBowl provides support and resource for companies and innovators not only with expert advice and connections to experts but also with access to a huge range of equipment. While the facility and therefore the manufacturing runs are partially funded by the tax-payer, all companies pay to use the FoodBowl. Whether you're looking to make something cheaper, faster, safer or better or you're ready to grow beyond Kiwi shores, the FoodBowl can help. 

Businesses like Pure Food Co. have used their facility to commercialise their product before investing in a plant while established companies like Sanford Ltd have used FoodBowl's equipment and importantly, engineers to fast-track their research in fish oils, mussel extracts and proteins. 

"We are a bridge between a kitchen recipe and a contract manufacturer", explains Alasdair Baxter, Business Development Manager at FoodBowl. On this episode, I talk to Alasdair to find out:

• What exactly is the FoodBowl and how they help food innovators
• Is the FoodBowl right for your business?
• How innovative do you need to be to secure support from the FoodBowl
• Culley's, Citizen and The Apple Press, how the FoodBowl has helped these Kiwi companies

Learn more about the Food Bowl and how they can help you

Adlena Wong grew up in Singapore. Her mix of Chinese, Indonesian and Malaysian heritage meant that she grew up eating a lot of sambal and dodo's (a sticky taffy like pudding) as well as having Tau Huay (soy bean pudding sweetened with ginger and vanilla) for breakfast every weekend at the local hawker stall with her grandmum. 

At the end of 2020, Singapore hawker culture was added to UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. A whole generation of Singaporean bankers, lawyers, engineers and more have had their studies funded by their parents' hawker stalls. Each stall often sells only one or two items that they are known for and its where the country's best food can be found! 

On the episode we talk about:

• What does 'shiok' even mean?
• Food vendors in the Asian subcontinent and their 10000 hours of expertise
• Singapore noodles
• why you will never find them in Singapore
• Is there such a thing as Singaporean food?
• The Super Shiok Eats journey

New Zealanders spend more than $118million annually on pies consuming close to 66 million pies a year. From a gas station to a supermarket to a bistro, they are just about everywhere and for us Kiwis, the ultimate comfort food. The Kiwi pie is famous mainly because of our pastry.

Back in 1981, Tom and Ben's father, Eddie, started Dads Pies in a small pie shop at Red Beach. Word spread fast and they went from a small pie shop to a pie factory in Silverdale to being stocked at Wild Bean Café's across the country. It's fair to say therefore that both Ben and Tom grew up around pastry and pies. In their own words, they were the cool kids in as their dad delivered all the pies for Friday pie day at school.

On the show today we talk about:

• Why do Kiwis love pies so much
• High quality pie fillings and why that makes a difference
• Vegan pies - is that even a thing and do they taste good?
• Running a multi generation family owned business and the associated complexities
• Key learnings from exporting pies globally
• Creating a new brand and how that rejuvenates a business that's been around for decades