Nearly 10 years ago when Fresh first spoke to chef Gus Hayden about his new venture creating boutique luxury preserves, his long-term goal was to establish his own commercial kitchen. This month he achieved that goal. Rebecca Fox goes along for a look.
Paint fumes float down the path as we clamber up the muddy path in search of Gus Hayden. Behind a new fence and planter boxes is a shiny green shed, windows covered to prevent paint splatter. Inside the painters are hard at work and so is Hayden, busily installing Ceratone on the ceiling of his new kitchen.
There is not much of this new endeavour Hayden has not had his hands on, working alongside the professionals and project managing as they erected the "up-specked shed" for his long-awaited professional kitchen. Hayden is the chef behind the Augustine’s of Central range of handmade preserves, jams and chutneys. Gus Hayden’s new logistics shed gives him space to label his Augustine’s of Central preserves.
Photo: Craig Baxter Now, after years of dreaming and planning, it is becoming a reality. Thanks to the generosity of his family, he has been able to build what has become known as his "farmstore and kitchen" in the backyard of his parents’ Fat Weka Farm on the outskirts of Portobello. Hayden and partner Jana Reulecke moved from Wānaka to Portobello in 2022 when their baby son arrived prematurely and have never left, preferring the quietness of Otago Peninsula to the bustle of a growing Wānaka.
"We could never have.