Catering & On-Set Services

Here is how this works in practice. New Zealand crew catering rides on a farm-to-table standard that visiting LA and London shoots always call out as a working-week highlight. Our caterers translate that standard into the operational reality of a 60-day shoot. Auckland and Wellington supplier networks deliver grass-fed Canterbury lamb, Hawke's Bay free-range chicken, organic produce from Kapiti and the Wairarapa, Coromandel and Marlborough Sounds green-lipped mussels, West Coast whitebait in season, and Otago salmon — sustainability-coded to Ora King, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, and the Sustainable Restaurant Association NZ.

Here is how this works in practice. Chefs in the Peter Gordon, Al Brown, and Sid Sahrawat lineage carry the Wellywood and South Island catering rosters, and our craft tables ship Whittaker's chocolate, hokey pokey ice cream during summer wraps, mānuka honey, L&P, Lewis Road milk, and Allpress and Coffee Supreme espresso through the Auckland-The capital-Christchurch supply lanes. PAYE and GST 15% pass through IRD-registered catering vendors, ACC cover applies across kitchen staff, and HACCP food-safety compliance is baked in.

Here is the short of it. Operational catering in New Zealand turns on geography. Shoots in Tongariro, Aoraki/Mount Cook, Fiordland, Glenorchy, Mount Sunday, and the Mavora Lakes LOTR trail run forty-five minutes to several hours from any commercial kitchen, so we mobilise mobile field kitchens with diesel power packs, four-wheel-drive cold-chain transport, and DOC-OK'd waste-out plans on conservation land. Iwi catering protocols have the option of a classic hāngi opening — kūmara, pork, chicken, and mutton steamed underground over heated stones — set up with mana whenua and Te Puni Kōkiri-aligned cultural advisors when a marae welcome opens the shoot. Dietary capture covers Māori and Pasifika cultural preferences, the strong NZ vegan and vegetarian market, halal, kosher, and the gluten-free and allergen protocols crews increasingly need. Wine pairings draw from Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Central Otago Pinot Noir, Hawke's Bay Syrah, and Wairarapa Pinot for wrap parties (alcohol off-set per E tū and SPADA discipline), and our coffee carts hold the line through the four-seasons-in-one-day micro-climates of South Island alpine days.