Made Local: RedKitchen
“We want our meals to be the same quality we eat at home. We create them as a team and they really are made with love.”
RedKitchen began as a cafe and store 14 years ago, servicing a loyal Te Awamutu community with fresh, quality, home cooked food to dine in or take home. Megan and Mathew, now married 20 years and parents of 3, made the pivotal decision in July of last year to sell the cafe and hone in on their take-home meals - expanding their nationwide wholesale capacity and opening a flagship in the Made Market. Lucky us!
What reigns true in this next evolution of RedKitchen is their commitment to home style cooking. Not compromising on ingredients from the quality of the butter, the olive oil and the cocoa to the freshest local meat and produce - has become the driving ethos for delivering pre-made meals that differ from the rest. Megan believes every home cook needs a night off, and their mission is to provide meals that are fresh, nourishing and flavorful; everything you look for in homemade.
How are the recipes developed?
First we come up with a concept; something that we love cooking and eating, or a favourite family recipe. Mat’s Meatloaf for example, is the first meal Mat cooked for me when we lived in France that his Mum made in their home growing up. I make the first batch and we then taste it as a team in the kitchen, opening the floor for input from each of our talented home cooks. We then work on recipe development and this is tested and tweaked up to 5 times in small batches. This is then made into larger batches, where we work out the final costings, test freezing times, thawing, heating methods and finalise labeling.
We then share it around with friends, family and regulars to test the re-heating instructions and acquire more feedback. Our first full size batch is sent out to retailers to sample and offered to the market at a discount in return for their thoughts (check out our Facebook page to be a taste tester!). By the time it hits the shelves it has been tested and in production for approximately 5 months.
How does Red Kitchen Dinners differ from other pre-made meals?
We want our meals to be the same quality we eat at home. We create them as a team and they really are made with love. With that said, every step and ingredient meets the threshold of home style, quality values. What might come at a higher expense, ultimately elevates the final product and makes it synonymously ‘RedKitchen’. I love seeing the food our team produces. It blows me away everyday that we have a team of talented chefs that really care and cook with passion, I feel so proud seeing the meals, preserves and baking leave the kitchen. Knowing hundreds of people every night are sitting down to our meals really drives me. I want them to be amazing.
Where are Red Kitchen Dinners available?
Our biggest and growing markets are in the Waikato, BOP and Taranaki, close to people who know us, our product and our local story. We are growing and working on obtaining the same success in Wellington, Nelson, Auckland and Christchurch. If you want to see our meals in your town, ask your local fresh choice or artisan market to get in touch. Many of our stockists are small artisans like us, and I love this. We strive to build relationships with our stockists and our team delivers with pride.
What do you hope people gain from Red Kitchen dinners?
When I eat a good meal made with care, I actually think the chef loves me, I have walked out of garden place noodle bar and The dumpling house and said “Thanks, love you guys too” and then realised I must sound like an idiot, but I am so happy because of the sheer deliciousness of my meal and I know it did not happen by luck, but rather by love, quality, passion and care. I want others to have that feeling because of our meals. I want them to be a good solution when they need a break. Food brings people together, good food says so much.
Visit RedKitchen in Made Market
