Proof is in the pudding. Hangi Master Rewi Spraggon with his latest treats. Photo / NZME
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Hangi master Rewi Spraggon and Asian bakery owner Amy Sevao have joined culinary forces to produce the world's first Hangi Buns.
"This is the only place you can buy hangi buns in the world," Sevao said. "This is a very unique product."
The collaboration happened almost by accident.
Sevao's dad - a Taiwanese baker - went to a food festival where Spraggon was plying his trade - hāngī.
"Amy's dad was at a festival and tried one of my pork belly buns and went home and bought back 20 different flavoured bao buns," Spraggon said.
"From there Amy and I got together and came up with the Hāngī Bun. We have a number of different ideas for other joint cuisine collaborations."
Sevao said there was a gap in the market for authentic Māori-Asian fused kai.
"We saw great potential for the Hāngī bun in both retail and food service, so once we had refined the recipe we invested in an initial production run of 5000 samples to test the water." Sevao said.
"We looked at packaging and design and the uptake from retailers has been tremendous.
"We can produce 10,000 hāngī buns a day, so there's no issue with capacity."
"The Hāngī Bun slot is now scheduled into our production plan for the foreseeable future. Our aim is to ensure that everyone can buy them from their local Pak'nSave or New World supermarket, so our team is working extra hard to make that happen.
The hāngī flavoured steam buns are being stocked in Foodstuffs stores in the North Island "but we'd love to take it nationwide," Spraggon said.
'He has disregarded our voice and continued with this divisive kaupapa.'