August 11, 2022
Award the tonic for Kiwi Kai business
The winner of the supreme prize at this year’s Māori Women’s Development Incorporation Business Awards credits her Māori father’s kaimoana gathering skills and the food shared by her mother’s Chinese work colleagues for inspiring her fusion food business.
Reni Wereta-Gargiulo started her Kiwi Kai business by mixing up batches of raw fish for sale in the Nelson farmer’s market, and then added other offerings such as paua dumplings and what she calls Maksa, a Māori take on the classic South East Asian laksa soup.
The award acknowledges her ability to come up with new products such as carbonated drinks infused with rongoā plants like kawakawa and horopito.
“Our drink is called Atutahi and it’s made from New Zealand native leaf so we bring in an indigenous drink as well so that’s what we focused on for the awards and of course they looked at everything else we do as well,” Ms Wereta-Gargiulo says.
Atutahi drinks are available from cafes and restaurants around the country or online, but for the raw fish you’ll have to hikoi to Nelson.