Do you make the best pies in NZ? –
Entries are now open at pieawards.nz for the Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Awards with plans underway for a huge celebration to mark their 25thth anniversary.
NZ Bakels managing director, Brent Kersel says: “Yes, that’s right! We had to postpone the 25th anniversary a couple of times due to Covid, but now we can’t wait to celebrate this milestone.”
“And for our 25th anniversary, we’ve asked Al Brown, one of New Zealand’s most recognized chefs, to help us judge the pies. We couldn’t have chosen a better person to be our celebrity chef judge. Al won’t hold back on any aspect of judging day on July 27.
He’ll be right in there among the other judges looking at pies, checking out the quality of the pastry, their ingredients, tasting them and thinking, constantly assessing if they are worthy of a gold award and whether he will see them again at the Supreme judging stage.
Al is that passionate about everything he sets his mind to and we’re very lucky to have him back for this monumental year.” Al was previously the celebrity chef judge in 2012.
He is recognized as a leading New Zealand chef, restaurateur, television presenter, author and entrepreneur. He owns Federal Delicatessen and Eatery depot in Auckland, Best Ugly Bagels with locations across NZ, Good Joe Coffee Co, Tipping Point wines, and he has launched several fine food products under his Al Brown brand.
Al says: “We are putting a lot of effort into our condiment products, especially ‘Old Yella’ Habanero Mustard and ‘Simply Red’ Kasundi Ketchup. We have just been ranged in 200 Woolworths in Aussie, so it’s exciting times getting into the overseas markets. Funnily enough, they are the perfect sauce to accompany any savory pie!
“The humble pie plays such an important role in the culinary fabric of Aotearoa. It is an honor to play a small part in helping to choose the best pie of the year.”
So what will Al be looking for?
“While thinking outside the box and being innovative is important, for me much of it is about nailing all the foundations of what makes a delicious eating pie. Texture of the pastry, does it work with the filling, filling to pastry ratio, balance of flavours, seasoning etc.”
Brent Kersel says: “If you think your pies are the stuff of legends, like those of our past Supreme winners, then get your entries in before they close on June 23 at 5pm. And may the best pie win!”
The 25th Bakels Supreme Pie Awards will be announced in Auckland on Tuesday August 1.
7 Ways to Save on Summer Travel in 2023
Key points
- Travel credit cards can help you save in multiple ways, from redeeming rewards and travel credits to making use of valuable perks and benefits.
- The more flexible you are about your travels, the more affordable it will be.
- Pack less, travel together, and be creative about when, where, and how you travel.
Check out our picks for the best credit cards
Depending on your destination, the cost of a family summer vacation can easily get into the four digits. But you don’t necessarily need to drain your bank account just to have a good time this summer. There are all kinds of ways to save money on your vacation, from credit cards to carpools. Here are some tips to consider.
1. Redeeming rewards
My favorite way to save on travel expenses is to redeem travel rewards instead of paying cash. This could be a reward you earn with a travel credit card or loyalty points picked up on previous trips.
Pro tip: Don’t assume every redemption is a good redemption. Divide the cash cost of the room by the number of points you’d need to redeem to see the per-point cost. You want your per-point value to be as high as possible.
save: This credit card has one of the longest intro 0% interest periods around
more: Save while you pay off debt with one of these top-rated balance transfer credit cards
Travel credits and free night certificates can also be great tools for scoring free travel. For example, your card may offer you an annual statement of credit you can use toward travel purchases. This can be far more convenient than redeeming rewards, as it typically doesn’t require looking for award space. Similarly, many hotel cards can pay for themselves in free night certificates alone if you’re a little strategic about when and where you redeem them.
2. Maximizing perks
Travel cards, elite status, special booking deals — there are all kinds of ways to get valuable travel perks. For example, the elite status of your hotel credit card can help you score free breakfast or a room upgrade. Airline credit cards often give you free checked bags.
Many issuers also have travel portals through which you can book your vacation, often with extra perks. American Express’s Fine Hotels & Resorts program, for example, can unlock all sorts of extras, like 4 pm check-out (terms apply). Chase’s Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection comes with similar benefits.
3. Sharing the burden
Do you have some friends or family members who are also planning a summer vacation? Consider vacationing together! A larger group can actually make your per-person costs much lower, especially when it comes to housing and activities. Renting a vacation house with room for two families, for example, could be cheaper than trying to rent multiple hotel rooms.
Many activities you may want to experience can also be made cheaper with larger groups. Tours, excursions, and other activities often have group discounts that your smaller family may not qualify for — but your multi-family group could.
4. Packing light
The easiest way to increase your travel costs is to pack too much stuff. Checked bags alone can easily run you $30 a pop. But even if you’re doing carry-on only, you could be looking at extra costs. Discount airlines often have remarkably affordable deals — provided you don’t need overhead bin space.
It’s not just flights, either. More luggage means a larger rental car, more space in your hotel room, maybe even paying for bag storage if your flight arrives before you can check into your hotel. Overall, one-bagging your trip could substantially reduce your per-person travel costs.
5. Being flexible
This is arguably the most important tip on this entire list when it comes to saving money on travel, especially during the busy summer season. When possible, be flexible about when you travel, how you travel, and even where you travel.
Avoid traveling around major summer holidays (July 4, Memorial Day, Labor Day) if you can. If you’re flying, make sure to look up deals for all of your nearby airports. (Driving a little further to another airport can be well worth it if you can save money or find better award availability.)
If you’re renting a car, consider whether taking a taxi away from the airport to pick up a car will save you money. Picking up your car at the airport usually means paying a few surcharges.
6. Finding fun for free
It can be really easy to get caught up in the idea that you need to do something BIG on your summer vacation, like hitting a theme park or a major landmark. But these popular activities tend to be very expensive, particularly during peak season.
With a little research, you can easily find tons of free — or at least affordable — activities to keep your family entertained. Even if you still want to hit the parks, you can supplement your activities with a few free museums, nature walks or outdoor concerts.
7. Earning bonuses
Alright, so this one is most likely going to save you on yours next vacation, rather than your summer travel. But if you open a new card before booking, you could potentially earn a big sign-up bonus you can redeem in the future, all by just booking the travel you were going to buy anyway.
That said, your sign-up bonus could also be used to help pay for your summer vacation if it’s in the right currency. For example, if you earn your bonus quickly, you could potentially redeem it for cash back or a statement of credit to cover your current expenses.
Mix and match for the best results
Summer vacations are a cornerstone of American life. But the fact that we all tend to travel at the same time — and to the same places — means it’s often a pricey experience. Hopefully, with a bit of mixing and matching, you can use these tips (and any of the thousands of others all over the internet!) to make your summer vacation not only more affordable, but maybe even more fun, too.
Alert: the highest cash back card we’ve seen now has 0% intro APR until 2024
If you’re using the wrong credit or debit card, it could be costing you serious money. Our experts love this top pick, which features a 0% intro APR until 2024, an insane cash back rate of up to 5%, and all somehow for no annual fee.
In fact, this card is so good that our experts even use it personally. Click here to read our full review for free and apply in just 2 minutes.
Read our free review
Sixty hospitality venues join Ponsonby festival month –
Ponsonby’s month long restaurant festival, Eat, Drink, Love Ponsonby, is back for another year and is bursting with the flavors of a culinary melting pot of cuisines, from Bangkok to Bali, Mexico to Malaysia, India to Italy–and beyond.
Taking place from 4-28 May along the length of Ponsonby Road, the popular festival is in its fourth year and is once again highlighting specific food and beverage offers for every appetite and budget.
A record 60 establishments are taking part this year, including bars, cocktail bars, casual restaurants, food court eateries, cafes, gourmet burger bars, hole in the wall snack spots, pizzerias, newcomers to the strip, Ponsonby Road stalwarts and a fine dining establishment–all showing the best of what the popular urban village has to offer.
With offers that fall within three fixed price ranges, $30 & Under, $30 to $50, and $50 & Over, below is a snapshot of what’s on offer in Ponson by this May.
the $30 and Under category features cocktails, gourmet burgers and sandwiches, bento boxes, baos, crêpes, ice creams, kebabs, laksas, bread rolls, pizza, platters, tacos, and more.
The two remaining categories – $30 to 50 and $50 and Over – offer a range of lunch and dinner menus for groups of all sizes. The fixed price ranges help take the guess work out of enjoying lunch or dinner, with hero or signature dishes included in the offer.
A snapshot of some of the participating bars and eateries include Azabu, Bali Nights, Bedford Soda & Liquor, Better Burger, Bird On A Wire, Boy & Bird, Burger Burger, Clipper Bar, Chop Chop Noodle House, Daphne’s Taverna, Dante’s Pizzeria, Dedwood Deli, Dida’s Wine Lounge, El Sizzling Chorizo, Elmo’s, Farina, Fitzroy Lounge Bar, Gaja. Gusto Italiano, Hoppers Garden Bar, INCA Ponsonby, Khu Khu, KOL, Longroom, Mekong Baby, Mexico, Mumbaiwala, Okumnandi, Ponsonby Friends, Ponsonby International Food Court, Ponsonby Road Bistro, Revelry, Sidart, Tokyo Club, The Blue Breeze Inn, The Broken Lantern, The Gyoza Bar, The Hidden Village, Win Win Bar.
Ponsonby Business Association General Manager Viv Rosenberg says she is delighted with the number of participating eaters for the 2023 festival.
“While there are 60 special offers this year, Eat Drink Love Ponsonby is about supporting all the area’s bars and eateries and encouraging people to revisit their old favourites and to check out something new.
“Ponsonby just does it better,” she says. “Whether it’s for a quick café pick-me-up or fine dining cuisine at one of our award-winning restaurants, Eat Drink Love Ponsonby will help people find their next foodie obsession thanks to an entire street’s worth of mouth-watering adventures. The fixed-price menus in the three price categories keep everything simple – and delicious. So, are you ready to Eat Our Street?”
With 60 venues and offers coming to the party for this year’s festival, Eat Drink Love Ponsonby 2023 and their offers can be found at eatdrinkloveponsonby.co.nz. For giveaways and more information follow Instagram @iloveponsonby. All offers are available from 4-28 May and can be booked directly with the restaurants and bars.
Tourism & hospitality Expo roadshow starts May 11 –
Next week, from 11 – 13 May in Christchurch, Go with Tourism will kickstart New Zealand’s only free, dedicated careers expo for the tourism and hospitality industry, hoping to inspire a new generation of tourism and hospitality workers.
The expo, in partnership with New Zealand Careers Expo, will then move on to six more cities around the country: Palmerston North, Napier, Hamilton, Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin.
With industry professionals, employers and educators on site, students and job seekers will discover a wide range of opportunities available, such as work experience, mentorships, job vacancies and tertiary studies.
As well as showing career pathways, the main objective of the expo is to change negative perceptions about tourism and hospitality work. Go with Tourism Program Director, Heidi Gillingham, says that the 2023 expo season will be the most important yet for achieving this.
“Covid hit our industry hard. 90,000 employees were displaced, job security was in doubt, and we’ve experienced a massive skills shortage since. With international travel back to normal in New Zealand – and heading towards pre-Covid numbers again – it’s crucial to attract talent back into our industry to meet visitor demand.
“Additionally, due to the opportunity to engage with younger learners, we hope to see an increase in students choosing Tourism at the NCEA level in the future, as a result. We want to help parents and students understand why the industry is so important to New Zealand – from building our economy to championing our culture.”
In 2022, the Go with Tourism Expo saw 28,667 people walk through the doors and Gillingham believes 2023 will be a busier year. “This year will be our first expo season not limited by pandemic restrictions, so we hope to welcome more visitors than ever before to discover the wide range of career and study opportunities available in tourism and hospitality.”
To find out more information on the Go with Tourism Expo, go to: gowithtourism.co.nz/expo
- 11 – 13 May, Christchurch Arena, Christchurch
- 18 May, Central Energy Trust Arena, Palmerston North
- 23 May, Pettigrew Green Arena, Napier
- June 11-12, Claudelands Showgrounds, Hamilton
- 15-17 June, The Cloud, Auckland
- June 23-24, TSB Arena, Wellington
- 28 June, Dunedin Town Hall, Dunedin
Jock Zonfrillo: 1976 – 2023 –
Love them or loathe them reality television programs and their social media lives have become part of this generation’s culinary experiences. Whether you believe they belittle or encourage the art of great cuisine, it is very hard to underestimate the impact of reality shows such as MasterChef, My Kitchen Rules and the plethora of other food related programs currently available to view.
The sudden loss therefore of the brilliant Chef Jock Zonfrillo at just 46, to the world and the MasterChef Australia international community, brought a whole new meaning to the word reality.
Reality means losing a talented individual whose culinary skills inspired thousands of creative cooks to follow their passionate desires to excel in the kitchen and bring their language of love to our living rooms.
Zonfrillo was born in Scotland and raised by his Italian father and Scottish mother, with a strong mix-culture ethos fueling his obsession with food.
He was in the food industry from the young age of 12 before eventually working with the famous chef Marco Pierre White at the famous chef’s restaurant.
After moving to Australia, he opened Bistro Blackwood and Restaurant Orana, with Orana being consistently awarded one of the world’s best culinary establishments.
Zonfrillo was hired in late 2019 as one of three new hosts for MasterChef Australia.
Zonfrillo died in Melbourne on April 30 and is survived by his wife Lauren and four children, and while decisions are being made as to the future screening of the current MasterChef Australia series in which he features, our hearts remain broken for a talent taken too soon .
RIP Jock Zonfrillo 1976-2023.
Sarin Group unviels Thordon Quay apartment hotel –
New Zealand-owned family business Sarin Hotels has opened a 72-room apartment hotel on Thorndon Quay – the eponymously named Proximity Apartments, located near Sky Stadium and The Beehive.
The project has been four years in the making, with delays caused by Covid-19. The new 9-storey building is owned by Wellington property developer Craig Stewart and is his first hotel development.
As the third hotel operated by Sarin in the Wellington area, and its eighth throughout New Zealand, the 4.5-star Proximity Apartments join the Sarin-managed DoubleTree by Hilton Wellington and The Sebel Lower Hutt, which opens in May/June. The group also operates the Lower Hutt Events Centre.
Offering short, long and residential stay options, Proximity Apartments are priced in the $199-$299 per night range. The hotel features undercover parking, 24/7 guest services, full-service kitchenette and digital check-in.
Speaking about the launch, Udai Sarin, CEO of Sarin Hotels said, “Wellington offers so much to travelers. It’s not just the political capital, it’s becoming the country’s cultural capital as well.
“During one of my business trips, I realized this is one of the very few cities across the globe to have a great balance between work and play. These new apartments are affordably priced, and styled to meet the needs of business people, domestic and international tourists alike.”
Given the city’s ongoing room shortage, David Perks, General Manager, Tākina Commercial Development at Wellington City Council welcomes the new hotel.
“As Wellington has emerged from the pandemic the demand for commercial accommodation in the city has quickly picked up to what it was in 2019, with demand driven by an unusually varied business mix of leisure and business travelers.
“Tākina – Wellington’s new Convention and Exhibition Center – opens at the end of May. We expect to see 500,000 visits to the center, 60 percent from outside the Wellington region. Hoteliers are going to be busy every day of the year.”
Also commenting on hospitality’s post-pandemic recovery, Stephen Hamilton, Director of leading hotel, tourism and leisure consulting firm Horwath HTL New Zealand, also predicts the recovery in Wellington’s hotel occupancy will be reasonably strong.
“The average room rates in Wellington have particularly risen, and in the last six months were 25 percent higher than the same period before the first national lockdown three years ago. The imminent opening of Tākina will provide a further boost to hotel occupancy in the city, and probably room rates as well.”
Other Sarin family-operated hotels include the stylish new Observatory Hotel in Christchurch’s Arts Centre, which recently received a 5-star ranking, as well as Christchurch’s MUSE Art Hotel, Holiday Inn Queenstown Frankton Road, Ibis Invercargill by Accor, and another Proximity Apartments hotel in Manukau.
Staacy Waaka backs Beef & Lamb –
Beef + Lamb New Zealand is teaming up with rugby world champion Stacey Waaka to encourage Kiwi teenage girls and women to eat beef and lamb more frequently to help prevent health concerns.
It is the first campaign in five years for Beef + Lamb New Zealand and addresses statistics from the last National Nutrition Survey that shows over a third of teenage girls don’t achieve their daily iron requirements and one in 14 women are low in iron.
Waaka says nutrition is incredibly important to her and a big part of her success and what she is about. Therefore, she wants to do what she can to make sure others are doing all they can.
“Our young teen girls and whāhine especially have greater iron requirements than most and being low in iron can really impact their well-being, productivity and energy levels.
“Like me, they’ll get so much more out of life with their iron tanks full!” says Waaka.
The easily absorbed iron in New Zealand beef and lamb can certainly help Kiwis out with that says Beef + Lamb CEO, Kit Arkwright.
“Manatū Hauora (Ministry of Health) stats (from October 2022) show women eat less servings of red meat than men on a weekly basis, so we knew we needed to reach that audience with our messaging.
“Who better than a wonderful whāhine toa like Stacey to help us do that,” says Arkwright.
“Plus, if you think Stacey’s a force on the rugby field, you should see her with a pair of BBQ tongs in her hands!”
Beef and lamb are a natural source of protein, iron, vitamin B12 and zinc. These nutrients are essential for growth, development, and general well-being.
Waaka says beef and lamb can be part of a well-balanced diet and can help increase your iron intake.
“I’ve learned that one of the best ways to top up my body’s iron stores is through including iron-rich foods, like beef and lamb, in my diet. If you’re like me and love eating red meat you can enjoy it up to three times a week.
“A nutritious balanced diet is personal to me and a super important part of what fuels me as a professional athlete.
“It tastes pretty damn good too!” says Waaka smiling.
Go Coconuts for NEW Monin flavours! –
Bring the sunshine in this winter with MONIN’s two new tropical flavours – MONIN Coconut Puree and MONIN Le Mixeur Pina Colada.
Le Mixeur de MONIN Pina Colada is your bartender in a bottle – simply add equal parts mixer, spirit and ice for a delicious and quick cocktail. Bursting with the fruity sweetness of pineapple and creamy coconut, Le Mixeur Pina Colada will instantly transport you to the tropics when you add it to cocktails, milkshakes and smoothies, or be adventurous and try mixing it in cold brew coffee with coconut milk. You can also try it in your next baked creation or dessert – the perfect tropical twist to a lamington, donut or muffin.
The tropical flavor of rich, creamy coconut in our MONIN Coconut Puree makes it hard not to wish your toes were somewhere in the sand. Take a staycation instead and use our MONIN Coconut Puree to add lightly sweetened authentic coconut taste and texture to smoothies, milkshakes, cocktails and baking until you can actually make it to the beach.
You can have confidence in these products’ clean labels – no artificial flavors or colors, non-GMO, Gluten free, Halal and Kosher. They are shelf stable and provide consistent flavor all year round.
Available via your local distributor or contact [email protected]