Sarah and Jesse know the final taste is dependent on what you start with: Quality ingredients and the ability to showcase their natural flavours.
Raised on farms, where meals were grown or sourced in their backyards, it was their time overseas together which cemented the couple’s love for food. They were swept off their feet by the produce-driven philosophies of Italy and France where in-season ingredients are where it all begins, cooked and presented with so much respect and skill, it appeared effortless.
No Biggie brings this way of thinking to the abundance of fresh, local produce New Zealand is spoiled with.
They let the season’s offerings and the character of an event (and its hosts) set the menu. Each dish is cooked to bring out the best of its components - simply, and with expert flavour matchings.
Hunting with his dad and digging up his mum’s vegetables at their lower Kaimai Ranges farm, Jesse learned the value of quality ingredients even before becoming a professional chef.
Studying cooking in Dunedin and working at restaurants in Sydney taught him the right tricks to begin a private cheffing career in Palma, Spain and start eating his way around Europe.
While Jesse was hunting and gathering, Sarah was living paddock-to-plate at her family’s own sheep and grain farm in rural South Australia.
Unofficial childhood apprentice to her grandmother's’ baking and cooking prowess, it was being the principal of a unique school which served as the garnish on top of her food knowledge.
The school ran its own large scale vegetable garden and orchard, which Sarah oversaw to teach students how to plant, nurture, pick and cook the produce.
Armed with skills, experience and a lifelong love of food, Sarah and Jesse created No Biggie with the philosophy to deliver the freshest of ingredients in the most simply delicious ways.
