Café Secrets - Season 1

A stone's throw from trendy Cuba St and right next door to the Wellington City Art Gallery, you'll find Gallery Nikau Café, owned by business partners Kelda Hains and Paul Schrader. Kelda is the chef, Paul works front of house.
Politicians, tourists and locals enjoy a great mix of seasonal food prepared in an open kitchen, visible to diners.
Gallery Nikau Café is famous for their brunch menu. In this episode, Kelda shows Julie Le Clerc how to make her famous sage fried eggs.
Kelda and Paul are keen to use food that has been sustainably produced or raised with compassion. It's a sentiment Julie agrees with and in return, she prepares roast pork belly, using free-range pork with a spicy caramel sauce.
Outside of work, Kelda and Paul roll their sleeves up and work in a community garden in the suburb of Brooklyn. Julie goes along to inspect their work. She prepares a vegetarian curry and gluten-free fudge brownies to feed the hungry workers.

Down a quiet street in Takapuna, over on Auckland's North Shore, you'll find "Little and Friday"- a retro chic café, with a strong local following, owned by former wedding cake decorator, Kim Evans.
Kim's eye for strong visual presentation is seen in the exquisitely decorated cakes, fruit tarts and pastries on offer.
The cafe started off in a very small way- open only once a week on a Friday- hence the name. But now Kim has bought the shop next door, doubling the size of the café and business is booming.
In this episode, Kim shows Julie how to make their famous doughnuts.
Julie creates her own high tea, making friands using Lady Grey tea and bacon, pesto and parmesan pinwheels, all served up with a refreshing cranberry juice and iced tea.
She also visits a tea master at the Bell Tea Company, who organizes a blind tea tasting.
Kim likes to give something back to the community and in this episode she teaches Takapuna Grammar students how to ice and decorate cupcakes. Julie gets involved too, giving out tips and then judging the results. There's much celebration as the winner is announced.

The Wellington suburb of Miramar is home to Peter Jackson's "Weta Workshop". Café Polo is located a short stroll away and serves fabulous food to the animators, modelers and actors working on the "Hobbit" movie, as well as locals.
Café Polo was opened by former financial director and lawyer, Valentina Dias. She has since been joined by business partners, Josh Pointon who works front of house and chef, David Thurlow.
In this episode, David shows Julie Le Clerc how to make a special grilled halmoui salad. In return, Julie makes gourmet venison pies to add to the café menu.
The café supports the local community through various charitable events, such as a regular "dog walk" in aid of the Wellington branch of the S.P.C.A. Once the kitchen has closed, David makes cupcakes for humans and "pupcakes' for dogs for sale at the dog walk. Julie gets stuck in, helping to boost sales by making tasty fish turnovers and honey cakes.
Dozens of doggies and their owners turn up for the dog walk and a large sum is raised for charity.

Ruth and Andy Petit opened the Colenso Café 22 years ago as a way of boosting their income, while raising four children. Orchardists by trade, their original plan was to sell freshly squeezed fruit juice to passing tourists, but the council insisted they install a commercial kitchen, so they decided to go the whole hog and open a café.
Set in a beautiful, country garden, the café specialises in fresh herbal teas, homemade soups, enormous cakes- the sort of fresh, good quality food our grandmothers made.
In this episode, Ruth shows Julie Le Clerc how to make a fabulous pavlova stack filled with fresh cream and boysenberries- their signature dish.
In autumn, the Coromandel stages the "Homegrown Festival" which celebrates food, music and the arts. Colenso Café plays its part with honey tastings and "Feijoa Fridays". Julie gets involved, gathering feijoas to make a feijoa and macademia nut loaf, as well as making a double pear chocolate cake using the café's own Beaujolais pears.

Most Aucklanders take good coffee for granted. But 20 or 30 years ago, it was a different story. Michael Allpress changed all that. A former chef, he began importing coffee beans and roasting them himself to sell to cafes and restaurants. Allpress Espress is now synonymous with great coffee.
In this episode, Julie Le Clerc visits two of Michael's cafes- Biscotto in Ponsonby Road and Caffetteria Allpress in Freemans Bay. She gets a behind-the-scenes look at hot air roasting and learns the secret to making delicious Italian biscuits called ricciarelli.
Julie is inspired by the Italian theme and creates a spicy risotto using authentic Mediterranean ingredients.
Allpress coffee sacks are sold to customers and the funds go to local primary schools. Julie visits Ponsonby Primary School where they've bought veggie planters with the donated funds. Julie makes the kids a healthy picnic- risotto cakes, tiny cheesecakes and mini BLT bagels. The kids finish the day with a sack race!

In this special episode, Julie Le Clerc visits a small café tucked inside "Okere Falls General Store" on the shores of Lake Rotoiti.
The store was opened 5 years ago by Sarah Uhl and her German-born husband, Andi. They serve simple café food seven days a week, including the best muffins in NZ! They have thrown their hearts into the community- holding mid winter bonfires, and opening the café to visiting bands.
Three years ago, Sarah received publicity for refusing to sell cigarettes in the store- her stance was welcomed by health organizations including the Cancer Society.
The waterfall and the lake drew the family to this location. Their life revolves around water. Swamp thing.
In this episode, we see Julie learning how to make the café's famous baked potatoes. In return, Julie shares a recipe for wagyu steak sandwich with onion jam. She prepares a tasty sausage and minestrone soup to share around a mid-winter bonfire.
Then everyone climbs into kayaks and boats to search for native weweia or dabchicks- an endangered type of "glebe" that live on Rotorua's lakes. The Store takes part in monthly counting sessions and the data is given to DOC and other wildlife conservation organizations. Julie gets her binoculars out to lend them a hand. She prepares a heart brunch featuring spicy chorizo and kumara frittatas and smooth made from organic feijoa ice cream and yoghurt.