Our Team

Greig Buckley

Greig Buckley

After a lifetime in advertising, from old-school print and television to digital media, founder Greig Buckley is finally able to justify his overflowing pantry, hours of cooking and eating out as product research and development.

Since he was a boy growing up in the wilds of Auckland’s North Shore bays, eating and cooking have been part of his life. Truly, back in the day, a small boy could safely collect blackberries from the side of the road, eels from the stream and oysters off the rocks. Summer holidays were spent fishing and scalloping with family at Te Ngaere Bay, Northland, and weekends making muffins with his mum. His first food activism was getting boys into cooking class at his intermediate school (sadly meaning his woodwork and metalwork skills are dire), but more recently he’s been a trustee for Garden to Table that teaches kids to grow, cook and eat real food, as well as a board member for Food Writers New Zealand and volunteer with Everybody Eats.

Eating right now: Cauliflower any which way, old school barley and vegetable soup (with a bacon hock of course) just as Mum taught me, and anything from the slow cooker.

A cookbook that changed my life: The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander. Australian legend and founder of the Kitchen Garden Foundation, the model for Garden to Table.

The ingredients I couldn’t live without: Olive oil, lemons, salt.

 

Catherine Smith

Catherine Smith

Wordsmith, sounding board and keen observer of human behaviour. Holds a day job as a writer, cookbook reviewer and editor, a night job of eating, reading about food culture, history and foodways as well as the odd spot of veggie gardening and poultry-keeping. Has made good use of intermediate school sewing skills up cycling op-shop clothes and stashing fabrics, and volunteering with Dress for Success and Everybody Eats.

Eating right now: Cauliflower, every which way

A cookbook that changed my life: The Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen. It made me realise how deeply Irish cooking (my family heritage) influenced pakeha New Zealand food.

The ingredients I couldn’t live without: Cheese, but potatoes would come a close second (growing up in Pukekohe, it's pretty much a requirement). 

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