Sister act

Good things come in threes – and Nectar, the third hospitality venue from sisters Jess Mackenzie and Shelby Rafferty, certainly brings charm and class to Tauranga’s social scene.

Words Monique Balvert-O’Connor / Photos Erin Cave + supplied

When Jessica (Jess) Mackenzie and Shelby Rafferty say Tauranga’s new hospitality offering named Nectar delivers something excitingly different for the city, best believe them.

Not only are the two sisters the owners/creators of Nectar, they also know their patch. Located at 97 The Strand, Nectar is but a hop, skip, and jump from The Crown and Badger and Volare – both owned by this young duo. Jess (30) and her parents bought Crown and Badger five years ago, and about a year ago, Shelby (26) returned from her nursing job – and lengthy pandemic lockdowns – in Melbourne to secure an ownership interest in all three places. Jessica has assured her there will be time for a breather on the buying front now that property number three has been purchased! After all, the sisters are “super excited” about Nectar and are loving watching an appreciative public become acquainted with this new offering on the block.

It's hard, they say, to define Nectar’s “excitingly different” vibe within a mere sentence. So, they offer a few…

“It’s a premium venue without the pretentiousness. It’s a place to hang out and it incorporates some Melbournian kind of fun.

“It’s an all-day eatery (a day and night place), a place to relax with special occasion food in an inviting atmosphere. 

“Think big-city vibes, not standard café food. It’s not a café and not a wine bar. The food’s delicious and flavour-wise diners can expect to be pushed and challenged. There are lots of sharing plates to suit Nectar’s social theme.

“There are couches by the fire, high leaners, mid-height leaners, tables, and booths. There are power plugs and USB chargers everywhere as Nectar is wired for connectivity. It really is a hangout.

“It offers a sense of elegance. It’s also relaxing and classy, approachable and fun. It’s a balance between lots of wonderful things – and a place where people want to be.” 

It is also an undeniably beautiful place, in terms of both locality and décor. Jess has been making eyes at the building (long-time home to Japanese restaurant Tikara) for the last four years. 

“I have stared out at it from the Crown and Badger, thinking, ‘I need that big site with its full sun.’ When I knew it was coming up, I knew we had to get in quick. It’s so beautiful, and has water views too,” she enthuses. The corner site can sit 48 inside comfortably, but 150 all up when the pavement area is included.  

Sitting inside is inarguably a delight, thanks to interiors with wow. 

“There’s greenery galore – it’s a bit of a jungle,” Shelby laughs, adding that there’s a lot going on, but it works so well. Décor delights include glossy green tiles, oak features including a wall in a stunning herringbone pattern, hand-blown glass light fittings of varying shapes, gorgeous upholstery, rimu and tawa floorboards, and walls of green (painted by Shelby and Jess). There’s also rainforest-themed wallpaper and a dramatic, 2.5 metre-tall mural featuring a woman at one with plants. It’s “unique and empowering and perfect.”

The seating booths and oak features were created by Christchurch company Harrows, and Auckland’s Sophie Burns of Burning Red Interior Design masterminded the interior design. Other than that, the focus was very much on local creatives, from both the big details to the small. The entire fit out was tackled by Mt Maunganui-based Ramma Construction, the dramatic mural is the work of local artist Millie Newitt, and the water jugs are from the pottery wheels of Waihi’s Laughing Pottery. As for the logistical side of things, Jess, who has a management degree and extensive international hospitality experience, did much of the project management too, working alongside the Ramma Construction team. 

Being hands-on and full-on is how Jess and Shelby rock. But they have, of course, called on key people as part of Nectar’s ongoing team. People like Martin Allan, who designed the menu and is executive chef (he’s ensured there’s lots of plant-based food, and meat and fish can certainly be found on the menu). And people like bar manager Katie Short, who has created cocktails especially for Nectar. 

“She does a bloody good Bloody Mary and a magnificent matcha cocktail called You’ve Met Your Matcha,” Shelby attests. Nectar also boasts an extensive and very good wine list and great coffee, too.

Also an integral part of the team is Jess and Shelby’s mother, who still does the books but admits it’s quite tricky these days with so many moving parts. Their “very grounded” dad remains an encouraging mentor, who keeps them moving forward. The couple (who raised their children in Gisborne) have retired to Russell, happily leaving their daughters to thrive at the coalface. And thriving they are.

Says Jess, “It’s been a long journey and a big logistical exercise. We signed the lease about 18 months ago, but have been dreaming it up for a long time.  

“We are super excited about this, and super excited for Tauranga, too.”

@nectar.eatery

Creating and innovating

Hospitality really is at the heart of this restaurant.

Words Nicky Adams Photos supplied

Bethlehem’s Somerset Cottage has something of a multi-faceted footing in the food world. In addition to offering an unforgettable dining experience, it runs cook schools and provides the option of accommodation in an architecturally designed adjoining studio. It is unique not just because of its ‘dine, learn, stay’ ethos, but also because, under owner/operator husband and wife team Anne and Rick, Somerset Cottage has been creating cherished food memories for over 36 years, which in hospitality is monumental. 

Anne and Rick are respectively front of house and chef, and a mutual respect of the importance of each other’s roles goes a long way in their recipe for success. Anne has a unique gift in that she combines an efficient professional manner with friendliness and open humour. Rick is reserved, with modesty masking his mastery and expertise. He is miles away from the stereotype of bullish, egotistical chefs – in fact the thought of him raising his voice, throwing a tanty or melting down over a split sauce is frankly laughable. 

This calm, understated vibe is what defines Somerset Cottage, and the fact that Anne and Rick actively shy away from the limelight is in some way what has allowed them to seamlessly evolve from the small BYO restaurant that started in July 1986, to offering the symbiotic foodie experience that they excel in today. 

With a keen eye on the advances in dining expectations, they understand the need to move with the times. As Anne points out; “We’ve evolved on a food front, but also on a wine front – the drinks are no longer just about wine, increasingly it’s about cocktails and non-alcoholic options. Food has progressed immensely: people’s dietary requirements have necessitated that. We’ve embraced a vegan menu – as a long-established restaurant you have to offer the dishes that you are strongly associated with, but at the same time if regular customers don’t see change, some of them critique that - hence our weekly menu that accommodates the seasons.” Ironically, a regular diner I spoke to tells me, she often feigns delight at the array – then circles back to the tried-and-tested favourite dish, Sauteed Squid, every time.

While the food is exquisite – so much so that my visiting best friend smuggled vacuum-packed items back to Melbourne with her – the cook schools are at once informative, interactive, engaging, and entertaining. Held with Rick demonstrating and Anne explaining, the intimate vibe and the wealth of knowledge means that even the most timid home cook comes away with tips and the know-how to recreate restaurant-quality dishes. After the cooking demonstration the group together enjoy a long lunch and paired wine: the bonhomie and jokes flow as freely as the wine, and Anne remarks with obvious pleasure that “it just works.”

With the cook schools attracting participants far and wide, Anne and Rick made the decision to build a loft-style studio next door. According to Anne, “We had a vision – a small, intimate space that’s all about the bush - a space to decompress.” Whether just for a ‘staycation’ or to visit the restaurant or cook school, it’s a stunning stand-alone experience.

With a stubborn determination to remain under the radar, Somerset Cottage is a beguiling mix. It offers world-class food yet prizes the relationships with its customers above any accolade. While moving with the times – you’ll find Anne gleefully telling tales of sourcing the latest New Zealand distilleries – some things haven’t changed for 30 years; you will no more find yourself charged for your side dish than be allocated a restricted dining time slot. You are here for the experience – and the team will do its best to ensure it’s an unforgettable one.

Somersetcottage.co.nz

Plenty of flavour

Incredible foodie offerings proves there’s so much more to the Bay than good surf and sunshine.

Words Sue Hoffart / images supplied

When Flavours of Plenty Festival director Rae Baker moved to the Western Bay of Plenty in March last year, it was a homecoming of sorts.

Although she was largely raised in Scotland and has been living in Queenstown for four years, her Kiwi father attended Tauranga Boys College. She has spent copious childhood summers at Waihī Beach and still has a network of extended whanau and old family friends in the region. Pulling together the festival programme has fast-tracked the newcomer’s food knowledge.

“This festival celebrates a place I’ve loved my whole life,” Rae says. “When we were living in Edinburgh my dad would always say kumara is kumara and jandals are jandals. 

“But I’m still learning more about the region. There have been plenty of revelations, like the fact we’ve got more truffle farms in the bay than in any other region in New Zealand. I knew about the kiwifruit and avocados but I didn’t know about the chocolate and blueberries, or the macadamias.”

The inaugural Flavours of Plenty Festival, which runs from April 7-10, aims to celebrate the coastal Bay of Plenty’s world-class culinary offerings. This year’s festival will showcase horticultural heroes through workshops and demonstrations, degustations and pop-ups, restaurant nights and themed in-house menus, cultural and māra kai (food garden) events.

“Obviously, this region has always been famous for its landscapes and beautiful beaches but we have a really rich food story to talk about and I think it’s about time we did.”

Rae says the Flavours of Plenty steering group, formed by Tourism Bay of Plenty, has uncovered hundreds of food-related producers between Waihī Beach and Ōhope.

The group has also established that the region hosts more than 600 cafes, restaurants and other eateries. In Tauranga city alone, the food and beverage sector generates more than $150 million and employs about 4400 people.

She says natural advantages, such as excellent soil and a sunny climate, are increasingly teamed with skilled growers, scientists, chefs, manufacturers and educators to produce premium products.

“Restaurants are really starting to showcase what’s great and locally grown. Our Toi Ohomai campus has an amazing culinary department and we’re seeing real efforts to connect people to the produce we grow here.

“Personally, we’ve bought a place in Papamoa and I have a vege garden now and, oh my gosh, the tomatoes. My South Island friends can’t believe I don’t need a greenhouse. And, coming from Scotland, there’s no way we have the opportunity to grow avocados and feijoas, lemons, passionfruit, clementines.

“I’m loving having access to farmers markets here, with all those people making kombucha or vanilla or sourdough. And I’ve loved taking friends to Dinner In The Domain at the pony club in Papamoa. I’m blown away and it’s time we really started singing from the rooftops about it.”

Markets and the domain dinner are included in the festival offerings, alongside events such as craft brewery tours or a multi-course modern hāngī or a family-friendly cheese rolling contest run by Mount Eliza cheesemakers.

Mount Sourdough Co’s mother-son duo Margaret and Sam Langlands are also promising foodies a new experience. The sourdough starter, which requires regular feeding with a flour and water mix, has been around for at least 15 years thanks to Margaret’s dedication and skill. Both she and her son has been known to take the precious starter along on their respective holidays, in order to keep it alive.

Sam learned baking skills from his former primary school teacher mum and became serious about dough only after working in corporate finance. He was planning to head overseas – flights were booked, visa confirmed – when their small, homegrown bread business grew unexpectedly quickly. 

Four years ago, the engineering graduate set up a Facebook page to sell bread baked in the family kitchen at Mount Maunganui. When they outgrew that space, the pair expanded into the garage and developed a range that now includes a spiced fruit version, one with olive and rosemary and another studded with flax and sunflower seeds. These days, Mount Sourdough produces 500 loaves a day from a dedicated bakery and has plans to expand both the team and the small commercial kitchen. While Sam’s airline tickets and visa have long since expired, Flavours of Plenty ticketholders will have a chance to hear the Langlands’ story and discover the history, health benefits and science of sourdough. Guests will also get their hands on some dough, learn how to look after and bake the perfect loaf and take home a sourdough starter pack of their own.

As part of the festival, at least 16 eateries will utilise a matching ‘produce box’ to showcase what’s grown and made along the coast. Judges will pick winners but diners are also encouraged to taste the specially-designed cocktails or menu items and vote for a people’s choice award. 

Fife Lane restaurant’s Flavours of Plenty lunch was the first event to sell out, while Sugo restaurant has designed a plant-based ‘king’s feast’ luncheon and Elizabeth Café is hosting a dinner created by Pepper & Me food business owner Cherie Metcalfe. 

At Paengaroa, The Mediterranean Escape will see ticketholders visit a truffiere and an olive oil producer before heading to the Trading Post restaurant in Paengaroa for a degustation dinner. 

In Whakatanē, The Good Fusion fashion and food event teams local boutiques and designers with live music and locally-made wine or kombucha as well as grazing platters that feature locally-made or grown products. Proceeds will support a charity that helps families facing childhood cancer. Whakatanē will also welcome diners to a long lunch at the award-winning Mata Brewery, led by brewer Tammy Viitakangas.

“This festival ticks all the boxes,” Rae says. “It’s great for the community, great for people who visit the region, for families. I see the event growing and growing, expanding every year.” 

Flavoursofplentyfestival.com

Worldwide Wahine

In the eight years since sisters Karena and Kasey Bird wowed the Masterchef kitchen with their home-grown culinary flair, they’ve collected more awards and travelled around the globe showcasing their kai. Now Kasey has an exciting new food critic on board to taste test all their fresh ideas.

words Sue Hoffart / image Graeme Murray
Baby Koaretaia Biel is destined to eat exceptionally widely and well, given the legendary cooking prowess of his mother and aunt.

The Maketu boy was 11 weeks old when mum Kasey Bird and her older sister Karena flew to Dubai on an official government cooking mission. The television stars and award-winning cookbook publishers travelled to United Arab Emirates in January, to help showcase New Zealand’s culinary culture. During their stay, the pair undertook a cooking challenge, led a kitchen demonstration event, designed a hangi-inspired beef dish and created a Matariki-themed multi-course feast for the World Expo.

But, even while preparing a degustation dinner for international dignitaries, Kasey regularly stepped out of the kitchen with a breast pump to keep her milk supply going in readiness for their return. She did the same thing on flights, in restaurants and while holed up in a quarantine hotel. The jet-setting mum left litres of milk with her baby’s grandparents and trainee teacher father Patuara Biel, who sent daily updates and videos of their son. Meanwhile, Karena has been researching baby food traditions in other cultures, to plan Koaretaia’s first solid meals. An Indian-inspired dahl perhaps? Or a turmeric-laced puree using vegetables grown in his grandparents’ garden. They also like the Chinese tradition of giving teething babies dried fish to gnaw on, though of course theirs would come from Bay of Plenty waters.

The sisters (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Manawa) are determined this baby will be raised by  whānau, with his feet in Maketu sand and his taste buds roaming the world. It’s a recipe that has certainly worked for them.

Growing up in the coastal village, east of Tauranga, the pair would dash across the road after school to swim or gather shellfish. Their earliest memories revolve around digging for pipi in the estuary, then cooking the molluscs on an old cake rack over an open fire on the sand. 

“It felt so safe, really idyllic,” Kasey says of their Maketu childhood. “It was normal to let kids go to the beach by themselves. Mum could see us from home and our Aunty would whistle and all the kids knew it was time to come home.”

“Every Sunday, we would have this big pot luck dinner with all the family and friends, everyone bringing a different dish. And we’re the type of kids, if we saw something we didn’t recognise, that’s what we wanted to try.”

Food dominates their memories. Kasey has always been drawn to the kitchen, while her sister was the eager eater in the family. It was Kasey who caught and smoked her own fish and pestered aunts and grandmothers for lessons and recipes or begged for cookbook gifts each Christmas. Although her sibling had little interest in cooking, she was equally excited by a good meal. Especially if it involved new flavours.

Karena recalls marvelling at the magical ingredients – capers, olives, sundried tomatoes – in a salad her aunt brought to the house. Her sister was certain she had found “the nicest thing on earth” after tasting crème brulée for the first time.

Kasey was 10 when the girls’ parents Kerry and Atarangi Bird shepherded the family onto a plane and headed overseas, intent on expanding their daughters’ horizons.

“They always wanted us to know where we’re from and be grounded,” Karena says. “And they also wanted us to see the world was a big place, to see a world full of possibilities.” 

Decades after ticking off Los Angeles and New York, London, Paris and Sweden, it is the culinary memories that linger. They still talk about discovering fresh pretzels and just-made lemonade, sushi and Mexican food for the first time. Or the French bistro where they happily ate lentils with sausages and “really stinky cheese”.

As teenagers, the sisters would scour ‘top 50’ restaurant lists and pool their pocket money before driving to Auckland to dine out. 

“When we were in high school, food was all we talked about. While our friends bought concert tickets and clothes and CDs, we would save up money to go and eat in restaurants. We’d take pictures, try new things, then come back to Maketu and try to replicate it.”

Their horrified parents  – this dining out compulsion was wasteful according to chartered accountant dad and university lecturer mum – insisted the duo pursue proper careers. Both made choices that now confound them. 

Kasey initially studied fashion in Melbourne until homesickness drew her home, where she enrolled in an accountancy degree and found local work auditing health contracts. Her sibling headed to Wellington to begin Bachelor of Commerce studies. 

Neither was particularly interested in balance sheets or finance and neither was destined to complete her degree.

Instead, Kārena decided to attend the cordon bleu cook school in Sydney, while obsessively watching competitive cooking television programme Masterchef New Zealand.

“My flatmates thought I was crazy. I’d never cooked one meal in the flat and on leaving night, they gave me a Masterchef cookbook and wrote ‘can’t wait till you’re on the cover one day’. They were thinking it was a big joke. I still have that book.”
Karena only ventured into the kitchen once she was home again, intent on saving and practicing for her pending culinary training. With no restaurants nearby and no escaping the family cooking schedule, she threw herself into trialling techniques and trying to outdo her sister when it was her night to cook.

“I was making up for lost time,” she says. “I cooked heaps. I’d watch food shows then recreate it. I learnt a lot.”

Without realising it, the sisters were also amassing a portfolio of images, menus and experiences that would impress television producers looking for talent to feature on the show. A week after submitting their application, the duo had an interview and launched into auditions. 

The rest is history. In 2014, the Te Puke High School graduates – Karena is a former head girl – attained national celebrity by winning the reality show Masterchef New Zealand. Their own travel cooking series followed; Karena and Kasey’s Kitchen Diplomacy saw the pair film 20 episodes in 20 countries over a two year period, with a host of impressive international cooking engagements on the side. Trips to Asia and Europe and South America were interspersed with five separate stints in China, work for wine and food companies and starring roles in a food safety programme for the Ministry of Primary Industries. They have also run a diabetes education programme for kuia and kaumatua in a community hall in Murupara. And they have self-published two sell-out cookbooks, the first of which collected an international award. Their third book is expected to hit shelves later this year and will be written entirely in Te Reo, with pages of text and glossy photographs laid out in their parents’ house. Kasey and her husband live across the road and Karena is a one-minute walk away. Master Koaretaia is passed between all three homes and adored by everyone, including youngest Bird sibling Michaela. Auntie Michaela is an actress living in Auckland but spends plenty of weekends back home, doting on her nephew.

Maketu is the well-travelled sisters’ turangawaewae, the place they come home to for a dose of reality and unconditional love. Their mum will ask whether they have done their laundry and insist they place newspaper on the floor while cooking, to mop up any mess. No-one cares that Karena has been dining in an exclusive restaurant overlooking 15,000 fish inside the world’s largest aquarium. Or that she had to pick gold leaf out of her teeth. Back home, she is expected to rinse her dinner plates and contribute to family life.

“I think it’s what keeps everything in perspective,” Kasey says. “Just being part of the fabric of whanau and community, everyone is just the same. 

“I like to think we have the best of both worlds, that idea that a modern woman can have your baby and go to Dubai. And eat truffle and go to the marae and be in the kitchen with the aunties. The next generation can have all of that. You can still be worldly and still be really grounded.”

It was their grandfather who arrived in nearby Te Puke, from Rotorua, to open a branch of the family’s jeans manufacturing company before moving to Maketu. But the Birds have had holiday homes in the beach community for six generations;  Kasey lives in a house her paternal great great grandparents once inhabited. In recent years, they learned a Scottish female forebearer opened Te Puke’s first bakery in the 1800s.

“We loved growing up in Maketu. It’s still unspoilt, it’s remained that real quintessential beach town. It’s such a safe haven for us.

“Travel definitely gave us the real deep appreciation of where we come from and of our family.”

It also helped shape their determination to learn te reo. Although they spoke the language as young girls and grew up around it – their mother is a Maori language lecturer – their enthusiasm waned. That interest was reignited through learning about other nations’ culture, language and history and realising they knew too little of their own. 

“Being Maori is really important to us but we almost started to feel like imposters,” Kasey says.” People were so proud of us but we didn’t have the language.”

It was Kārena who pushed for them both to place their international schedule on hold and spend a year at Waikato University’s Tauranga campus, learning te reo full time. They did still squeeze in work trips to Fiji, China and Taiwan before emerging as fluent speakers, at the end of 2019.

The timing has been remarkably fortuitous. As Covid slammed international borders shut, their new skill led to new work. Like a string of Matariki-related engagements or the television miniseries that saw them teach a master class in cooking, solely in te reo. Or the  nine-course fine dining event that tells the Maori creation story through food.

“I think the best thing about learning it, though, is the feeling we have, feeling complete. And now, having a baby, it makes it all worthwhile. He’s going to have both languages.”

This year will bring another round of speaking engagements and celebrity cheffing roles, including high guest spots in the inaugural Flavours of Plenty festival. Their Hangi With Karena and Kasey event promises “a deeply cultural feast” that blends traditional cooking techniques with modern twists, whilst celebrating the Bay’s plentiful plethora of produce.

No doubt there will be more international travel in future, too.

“Always, all the time, we are looking at each other and saying ‘how good is our life?’,” Karena says of their last eight adventurous years. 

“We never take it for granted,” her younger sister chimes in. “We always pinch ourselves.”

Division of labour

Much of the sisters’ work and home life is deeply enmeshed. They even refer to Koaretaia as “our baby” and Karena attended a few antenatal classes when the father-to-be couldn’t make it.

But they do take account of each other’s strengths when it comes to sharing the load.

Kasey is the organised one, the logistics and planning expert. She is happiest behind the scenes and her accounting background has come in handy after all; she looks after the finances. 

Karena is the outgoing people person. She’s more bossy, generally takes the lead in the kitchen when it comes to plating food and tends to do the talking in public, though Kasey has plenty to say one on one. 

Karena likes to claim she brings the x-factor to the partnership. “And the humility,” she jokingly adds, as the sisters break into laughter. 

“Being sisters, we just know what our roles are without even talking about it. We have this innate understanding.”

Would they ever consider splitting up to pursue separate careers? Especially now there is a baby in the mix?

“We’re not for or against the idea,” Kasey says. “If something came up for Karena that was really awesome, we’d just be happy for each other. We want what’s best for each other.”