Thousands of visitors to Ngā Puna Wai each year have the opportunity to grab a healthy bite to eat while on the go or in between games, thanks to the Ngā Puna Wai café run by local resident, Rebecca Robertson.

Rebecca has had an interesting career from a graphic design degree, and truck driving to building her own café from the ground up  – but her passion for cooking and baking healthy food options saw her take on the role as the Ngā Puna Wai café operator at the end of 2019.

“In 2012 I decided I would start up a catering business – I came fresh out of a graphic design degree, had my children before going back into graphic design.”

She quickly realised a change was in order.

“I just wanted to be more active and get my hands dirty really.”

“So, I put myself forward as an operator for a large cafeteria. I thought why not, I had no experience, but was eager to learn all aspects of the industry. Within this role, I also started catering for their meetings and began to expand the business - and the business name - ‘Catering in a Box’ - was formed,” she adds.

Her passion for food led her to her next adventure, and, taking a punt, she built a café in Hornby from scratch. She owned this business for two and a half years before the next opportunity came along and Catering in a Box was appointed as the exclusive onsite caterer at Ngā Puna Wai in November 2019.

Robertson’s philosophy about food made her a perfect fit for the city’s southwestern home of sport and recreation.

“I was never taught the right way to eat, so I’m trying to teach my kids the simple things they can do to keep healthy, like eating fruit and vegetables and drinking water everyday – these little things were not instilled in me at a young age.”

“My grandad was a hotel cook, so I spent many years cutting up fries and deep frying them for him. I will not and do not own a deep fryer, nothing in my kitchen will be deep fried,” she adds.

Everything in her cold cabinet is made from scratch, healthy and packed full of salads.
“It’s quite simple food, but it’s tasty food – it’s going right back to the basics – there doesn’t have to be expensive ingredients, you don’t have to pay the earth. I try to keep my prices quite low.”

As part of her work in the café, Rebecca also provides onsite and external catering – often to those who utilise Ngā Puna Wai for events, meetings, and workshops.

“I love the catering side of things – this side of the business allows me to have that creative flare.”

Next time you are down at Ngā Puna Wai, be sure to pop in to try some of Rebecca’s creations or contact her directly if you are after personalised catering.

For café opening hours, bookings and general catering enquiries contact Rebecca directly at cateringinabox@gmail.com 
 

Article added: Monday 01 March 2021