There is so much good food to be had from Northland's many food trucks and caravans.
Northland has many talented trained chefs and food producers working from humble food trucks and caravans. Reporter Jenny Ling tracks down five of the best.
In a carpark on State Highway 10 coming into Kerikeri is a small cabin filled with tubs of the most delicious frozen treat – gelato.
The Kerikeri Gelato Company produces hand-crafted gelato and sorbet with mouth-watering flavours like fig and honey, cherry, and mandarin chocolate.
Then there’s mint chocolate, salted caramel, cookies and cream, and Ferrero Rocher.
Co-founder Simon Nash said the cart on the outskirts of town is a great way to showcase the frozen dessert that hails from Italy.
He runs the business with his partner Paula Alvarez Estean, his parents Sue and Murray Nash, his sister Amy and her husband Paul Wyatt.
“We make all our own gelato, and it’s so rewarding making your own and seeing the end, high-quality product.
“People appreciate that as well.
“We’re trying to work as locally as we can, using what we can. We recently did a flavour with honey from the Honey Shop.”
The idea for a gelato business began in 2015 when Nash and his family were running a blueberry-growing business in Kerikeri.
Nash was approached to supply blueberries to a couple who manufactured gelato ingredients, which sparked a conversation.
By 2017 that had snowballed into Nash opening the Kerikeri Gelato Company, originally with a mobile cart at the Old Packhouse Market.
But a two-year stint in Auckland saw the project put on hold, and it wasn’t until Nash and his partner were made redundant during the pandemic that they decided to head back north and give gelato another go.
“We decided to aim for a lifestyle change and started the gelato business back up.”
Nash works as a gym instructor at Community Fitness Kerikeri over the winter and runs the gelato business over the summer.
Alongside the cabin on SH10, they supply local businesses and have a portable cart for summer events including weddings.
“It’s a really happy product in general,” he said.
“You see little kids run out of the car and their eyes light up when see gelato in the display cabinet.
“It’s a fun product to work with that everyone enjoys.”
Having a highly trained French chef making homemade Belgian waffles in Northland is a rare treat every resident should embrace at least once.
Noemie Alonso, a chef who hails from Provence, is the owner of Mademoiselle Waffle, a pink food caravan that can be spotted at local events.
She also has a stall at the Old Packhouse Market in Kerikeri on Friday nights and on weekends.
Alonso started the business in October 2022 on the back of another business, La Patisserie, selling authentic French cakes and pastries which she runs with her partner Alan Bartos.
Alonso offers two types of waffles; Belgian or bubble, which can be smothered in a variety of decadent toppings.
There’s chocolate and salted caramel sauce, berry coulis, and maple syrup, with m&ms, hazelnut, marshmallow, sprinkles and chocolate chips.
“I love waffles,” Alonso said.
“When I was a kid, I wanted to sell candy, so I thought waffles were similar, you can have lots of different toppings and lots of colour.
“Seeing the guests having the waffles and to see the smile on their faces is wonderful. Kids and adults go crazy about them.”
Alonso spent four years in the kitchen training as a chef as a teenager, then another year learning pastry.
She has worked at traditional semi-gastronomic restaurants in France and is passionate about food.
Alonso and Bartos arrived in New Zealand six years ago on a working holiday inspired by a work colleague who had visited Northland.
Impressed by the photos she posted online the couple thought “we need to go there”.
Initially, they worked at Kauri Cliffs – Alonso making canapes and starters and Bartos as the pastry chef - before the couple opened La Patisserie two years ago.
When they returned from a holiday in France last year, Alonso decided to open a separate business specialising in waffles.
Since then the pink caravan has attended events including the Matariki festival and It! Bay of Islands Food and Wine festival in Paihia, and the Bay of Islands Pastoral & Industrial Show in Waimate North.
“They’re made with good quality ingredients,” she said.
“They’re made fresh, and they’re made with love.”
Matthias Anderson is on a brave mission to make the best traditional Italian pizza in Northland.
The Whangārei resident runs the Wayward Italian mobile pizzeria, specialising in woodfired Neapolitan-style pizza.
The style of pizza originated in Naples and is famous for its simplicity and amazing taste using fresh ingredients – a basic dough, tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, and extra virgin olive oil.
Anderson takes his mobile woodfired oven to markets, carparks, beaches and events within Whangārei and the wider Northland region.
Anderson said he doesn’t have any Italian heritage “that I’m aware of” instead learning tips and techniques from top pizza chefs online.
“I practiced their techniques until I could do it.
“I’ve had quite a few people who have been to Italy or who are Italian, tell me it tastes the same.”
Before his pizza business, Anderson worked in hospitality as a barista.
But his passion for learning to create better food motivated him to step beyond the espresso machine.
At the beginning of 2022, he came up with the idea of a mobile pizzeria so he built a small woodfired pizza oven while mastering the art of making Neapolitan-style pizza.
“I saw people doing other takeaway food trailers at the beaches and thought, what can I do that’s a bit different?
“I had the idea for doing pizza and built a woodfire oven on a trailer.”
Anderson’s menu is simple and includes classics such as Margherita with Italian tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil leaves.
He also puts his own twist on them to cater to Kiwi tastebuds.
His Agnello, made with roast lamb and cherry tomato with basil pesto and mozzarella, is the most popular flavour, with Boscaiola, made with Spanish chorizo, bacon, mushroom and mozzarella.
There is also tiramisu for dessert.
Anderson and his cart can be found at Pohe Island carpark throughout the week, and at the Whananaki campground over the summer holidays.
He’s at the Whangārei markets – the Artisans market on Saturdays and the Canopy Night Market on various dates - and the Wayward Italian can also be booked for birthdays, weddings, and work functions.
Matthias said people have been loving his pizza, and perhaps the best feedback of all was from someone who’d just returned from a stint in Italy.
“They said ‘you could serve this in a restaurant in Italy and no-one would complain.”
The beginning of November is a date etched into Far North residents’ minds and circled on their calendars.
That’s when the Blue River Orchard throws open the doors to their boutique icecream shop after a long winter, and their cute retro caravan starts frequenting the Old Packhouse Market, summer festivals and events.
The shop and caravan business run by Justin Topzand and Buffy McNicholas serves up blueberry icecream, frozen yogurt and coconut icecream made with blueberries from their orchard.
They also sell blueberry smoothies and blueberry bowls, and punnets of fresh and frozen spray-free blueberries.
The first event for the year is the Bay of Islands Pastoral & Industrial Show in Waimate North, this year on November 11, then each weekend after that at the market.
Topzand and McNicholas also take the caravan to Waitangi Day.
“People think it’s a cute little caravan; it’s a 10-foot [3m] 1960s caravan people love,” Topzand said.
“Icecream is a big selling point, and it’s nice to be able to sell the fruit.”
The couple moved to Kerikeri in 2003 and initially dabbled in Samoan misiluki bananas before trying their hand at blueberries.
They have an orchard with about 2000 blueberry plants on their 6ha lifestyle block, on Koropewa Road on the outskirts of Kerikeri, which is where the shop is located.
They set up the caravan within a year or two of opening the shop.
“We started going to festivals with my icecream machine, but it was getting messy and I needed a kitchen to work out of,” Topzand said.
“So we got the caravan, and that led to going to markets and events.”
While their biggest sellers are fresh blueberries and icecream, McNicholas also makes natural jam packed with berries, lemon, and cinnamon.
“It’s a special business because everything is grown locally – apart from the icecream.
“It offers somewhere peaceful to go in a garden setting, and the caravan promotes that location.”
Being known for dishing up the “best burgers in Northland” is a badge Dan Stewart, the owner of Archie’s Burgers & Fries, is comfortable wearing.
Since the English-born chef opened the business in 2021 he’s had nothing but rave reviews.
“That’s what we set out to achieve, so it’s great. There’s no pressure on me, I’m a chef and I thrive on all of that.
“We want to keep producing really good food for locals and newcomers.”
Stewart has more than 30 years’ experience as a chef, having worked at numerous restaurants in London, from fine dining establishments in Mayfair and Notting Hill to little Italian eateries and pubs.
He and his wife Sam moved to New Zealand nearly 20 years ago, initially living in Russell, then settling in Kawakawa while raising their four children.
Before he opened Archie’s he was the head chef at the Plough and Feather in Kerikeri, and he’s also worked at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds café Whare Waka.
Archie’s, located on Kerikeri Road next to Keri Berries, does an American-style “smash burger” using brisket and topside beef.
The menu is simple; either the classic cheeseburger or the bestseller, the double-double, which is basically double meat and double cheese.
“When you smash the patty down on the grill that creates the caramelisation of sugars in the meat and changes the taste of the burger,” Stewart said.
“We’ve got a lovely toasted bun, homemade burger sauce and fresh salad and that’s it.
“It’s just layers of meat, cheese, pickles, red onion, iceberg lettuce, fresh tomato and sauce.
“It’s a burger and fries, but what we’re doing is putting out a really good product made with fresh ingredients, and people really react to that.
“It’s a simple product but it’s executed really well.”
In addition to the menu, customers can add a “style” to their burger. The “angry style” includes jalapenos, and the “bro style” is with egg and bacon.
“We also make a lovely chili mince, and do a sloppy joe, which is a classic American cheeseburger with a scoop of chili mince.”
Archie’s is at Johnson Park in Kawakawa on Wednesdays and in Kerikeri on Thursdays and Fridays from 4-8pm, and Saturdays from 12-8pm.
On Fridays, Stewart is joined at Keri Berries by Chuckles Chicken and Wingless Angel.
Jenny Ling is a news reporter and features writer for the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering health, food, business, and animal welfare issues.
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