KRISTA
on HING

Krista has always been in hospo, and after many years of being strictly front of house she finally ended up in the kitchen.

She has always loved cooking but was never sure if it was the right thing for her, especially after witnessing many an angry chef meltdown in her time.

She and her partner up and left Wellington to settle in Malta, and spent a year working and happily mincing about the island, however, she found herself missing the produce and food of home. When she returned to NZ, she relocated to Auckland and enrolled at AUT culinary school, working briefly at Merediths until she found her place at Gemmayze Street, where she spent the better part of five years.

When lockdown hit, she decided it was the perfect opportunity to test the waters with her own thing, launching her micro-bakery Bunanza (she didn’t come up with the name and she blames her partner).

This experiment has paid off by giving Krista the opportunity to have a little more balance in life, with the trade-off being that it is quite the solo situation - a stark contrast to what she is used to.

When we chatted she talked about the strange pull of working in hospo, the addictive nature of kitchens, and the perverse joy in the hustle and stress of it all - despite its ruthlessness. We noted that her love for food and hospitality goes hand in hand with the relationships she has made during her time cooking - forging bonds with people through the tough and rewarding times together.

Despite her Chinese heritage, her dad, unfortunately, knows very little about food - struggling to even cook a sausage according to Krista. Her mother cooked hearty New Zealand fare for the family, while her grandparents each had their own areas of expertise in the kitchen. Her Nan was a pro wedding cake maker, always having tables full of delicate royal icing flowers and huge sheets of marzipan at hand. Her Grandad was an expert in fishing and preserving. They would spend lots of time together in the garden deciding on the next culinary experiment, sometimes even sampling Grandys feijoa wine in between rounds of miniputt. 

Like many New Zealand cooks, Krista’s food is a melting pot of influence but if we had to describe it in three words it would be fresh, decadent and layered.

Tulips are Krista’s fave flower.