Meet New Zealand’s Outstanding Makers

The growers, makers and producers behind award-winning food and drink.

Featured {Outstanding} Makers

Discover the stories behind Aotearoa’s most inspiring food and drink producers. Meet Your Maker celebrates the people, passion, and provenance behind award-winning products—highlighting the growers, makers, and innovators shaping New Zealand’s food landscape.

Featured
2026 Leefield Station Supreme Champion Monty & Sons
2026 Leefield Station Supreme Champion Monty & Sons

Everyone can agree there’s something quietly satisfying about a good bowl of pasta. The kind that doesn’t need much more than olive oil, salt, and a seat at the table. For this year’s Leefield Station Supreme Champion Monty & Sons Radiatori Pasta simplicity is exactly the point.

Good Chow NZ
Good Chow NZ

For Good Chow recipe mastermind Jenny Yang, food has always been about care - but also, at times, about pressure. Growing up, she watched her mother express love through cooking. Three meals a day, every day, prepared with precision and pride. It was an act of service that held the family together, but it also came at a cost.

A Bit Dressy
A Bit Dressy

Meet Lara Hayes, the multi-award-winning force behind A Bit Dressy, who infuses her gate-to-plate Bay of Islands heritage and Mediterranean expertise into premium, small-batch olive oil dressings and nourishing bone broths.

More {Outstanding} Makers

Nicola McConnell Nicola McConnell

Matangi

Matangi 30-45 Day Dry Aged Sirloin Steak Cutlethas been crowned Leefield Station Supreme Champion and Emerson's Paddock Champion at the Outstanding Food Producer Awards 2025. This recognition highlights Matangi ‘s innovative approach to farming, emphasising land stewardship and a commitment to quality from the farm gate to the plate.

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