Kelli Brett

29/08/2025

Fish and Chips by Matt Lambert The Lodge Bar

Need to remind you about some of the best snacks in town…

09/08/2025

Thankyou THANK YOU to all who have booked! We are almost a full house! And I know no one will understand more than you lot that we need to confirm numbers by Monday to the wonderful team at so they can sort their ordering for their spectacular canapé menu.
We’ll be closing sales at midnight tomorrow. (Sunday)
Please don’t wait and then start messaging me next week with your excuses 😅
We can’t wait to celebrate with you all. So proud of you Aotearoa.xx #
Link for last tickets 🥂🍽🥂

https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2025/aug/cuisine-good-food-awards-2025

18/05/2025

Who's joining us at The Runholder this Friday?
Can't wait to meet the wonderful women in food and drink in Wairarapa 💜

Don't miss out! Join Kelli Brett, Sarah Meikle and The Runholder team at our first Women In Food & Drink Networking event in the Wairarapa on 23 May. This is a ticketed event at $65pp and includes a glass of Te Kairanga Rose on arrival, paired with small bites. Tickets are limited so BOOK NOW here, https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2025/may/women-in-food-drink?fbclid=IwY2xjawKPoBhleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFZMkxPc0FzbXJBeXJvdWNHAR4zv_Svg_alagugOF0pAWbttPAX4qL7nIs_5J9XcxOaqaFhYmu5U7pc_mepqQ_aem_g6DPpkR7vBlNa3XxAKAcmQ 💜

Date: Friday 23 May
Venue: The Runholder
Time: 5.30 pm - 7.30 pm

Women in Food & Drink NZ
Kelli Brett
The Runholder
Fine Food New Zealand
Massey University
Corbin Rd

11/05/2025

The mulberry doesn’t fall far from the tree that’s for sure 💜 I still find myself picking up the phone to call her and then realise that I can’t.

Ours was not the traditional version of the mother-daughter cooking relationship. Mum never taught me to cook. There are no memories of matching aprons or of baking or creating meals together. The cooking was always hers. Instead what Pat taught me was determination. That from adversity comes opportunity, that to share food that you have created is to show love and that if you shred a spring onion and put it in ice water it will become magical curls of green. Her dinner parties in the 80’s and 90’s were legendary. I grew up while watching her go from home cook to takeaway food shop owner, to caterer, to gourmet food store owner and then finally, return to her own mums hometown to run a little cafe on the waterfront. I was watching my mum still lugging giant pots of soup or stock around the kitchen well into her 70’s. Food and the sharing of it was her life.

Pat was a goodun’ that’s also for sure 💜
Hug your mum as often as you can xx

26/04/2025

Read a job advert for a chef or front-of-house staff and it will usually lead with the skills that the applicant will need to offer the restaurant. But at 50-50 the emphasis shifts: there they say, ‘We’d love to teach you what we do’ and ‘We can help you become the best’.
We love that Helen Turnbull, it’s a huge part of what makes the experience in your restaurant so special, along with your beautiful and super-interesting food.❣️🍽❣️
Have a squiz at a few dishes from the incredible menu Helen created for us in our March issue. Her take on a zucchini & mozzarella croquette with vanilla butter is inspired, as is the roasted plum with spiced butter that dances with her venison. Duck is paired with a delicious eggplant tahini, while barbecued quail is folded inside a superb butternut pumpkin ravioli. And, being partial to a good cheesecake my only regret is I have waited too long for the right moment to give her baked plum and kawakawa version a go. The kawakawa is in the base and the stunning plum glaze is a thing of beauty.
You can grab all of Helen’s recipes at cuisine.co.nz but the real deal can be found in her wonderful restaurant in the heart of the Kāpiti Coast. I can’t wait to get back again.

Gorgeous pics by for

23/04/2025

Determined to bring you French onion soup for the cover of our French-themed Cuisine, I won’t go into the challenges of working with melted cheese for a photo shoot, but rest assured I am extremely grateful to our talented production team for once again creating the magic, and melted cheese now goes onto my list of never-agains. 😅 However, French onion it is: a glorious soup that has been associated with France for so long that it is difficult to know where the recipe truly originated. Some credit King Louis XV who supposedly returned from a hunt in a ravenous state and ransacked his cupboards to find only onions, butter and Champagne (lucky for some), while others believe that it was simply a ‘poor man’s soup’ made with onions, bread and broth. Either way, it evolved to become a popular breakfast for the workers in the Paris market and a sure-fire hangover remedy for Parisian party-goers leaving the cabarets late at night. A much-loved classic, rich in flavour and comfort, it has stood the test of time and it was the addition of a heavy handful of grated cheese before placing under a grill to serve ‘au gratin’ that elevated the soup beyond class distinctions. I wonder who it was that had that brilliant idea? Whoever it was, at this cover shoot I was beginning to wish they hadn’t.
🥴 🧀 😂
But don’t let all of that stop you from grabbing your copy. It’s going to set you up for a super-delicious autumn in Aotearoa, and the stories alongside will remind you just how much the time-honoured traditions, techniques and tastes of France continue to inspire.
C’EST MAGNIFIQUE!

Recipe Jack Foster
Food styling Fiona Smith
Art direction Fiona Lascelles
Photography Tony Nyberg
For Cuisine Magazine