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 Rona
moved to the 4 acre property she now lives on in 1995 with
her lovely husband Colin and their three children, Hamish,
Kirsty & Gracie - to let the kids go to a country school
and feel the cow poop between their toes. Rona was mainly
a stay-at-home Mum, but dabbled in foodie stuff making cakes
and slices for a Cambridge café and later joining
with a friend making and delivering 'Simply Sushi' to local
business people at lunchtimes. After always being in reception/administration
roles pre-kids, when she applied for (and got!) a part-time
job with Fiona at Rosbak Cuisine she felt right at home.
The job cleverly combined her love of cooking and her devotion
to being a bossy-britches and having things run 'just so'.
The pair quickly became friends and realised that they made
a great team. During this time, Rona would bore all the
Rosbak Cuisine staff talking about one day opening a guesthouse
next to her home and making it the cutest, quirkiest, best
darn value-for-money place to stay people had ever seen
… "and you can come and take cooking classes
when I get my new kitchen Fee". Well, her dream was
realised and she now successfully and happily runs The Lofthouse,
spoiling her guests with home-baking and fluffing around
still making sure that things are 'just so'. She also makes
and sells gorgeous reversible aprons that can be bright
and funky or softly vintage. More importantly, she now has
her gorgeous new kitchen for the cooking classes and The
Two Tarts are happily working side-by-side once again. Aaaaaaah. |
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 Fiona
started her career at Andersons Theatre Restaurant in Hamilton
- you guessed it, washing dishes! However, her latent talents
did not go unnoticed and by the tender age of 19 she was
running the kitchen and turning out fabulous French-style
a la carte meals to appreciative diners. So impressive was
she, that our lovely Fee was invited to attend the Hotel
Olympia competitions in London. No mean feat for one so
young. However, by this time Fiona had her dashing husband
Paul to consider and they had babies on their minds! Two
babies in fact … Luke and Karina, now both all grown-up
and married. Once those years of nappies, nurturing and
night-waking were over Rosbak Cuisine was on the agenda.
This successful catering business was run from home for
eight years with a staff of nine (this is where No. 2 Tart
Rona came in!) until The Rosbaks decided to shut up shop
and head over to Paul's homeland of Canada for a year of
quality time with maturing parents. Once Fiona was back
on New Zealand soil she opted for office work for a while,
but eventually decided that she would like to get back into
the hospitality industry and share her skills. The rest,
as they say, is history. Fiona likes to stay fresh with
her recipes and menu ideas and has taken part in cooking
classes in Sydney, Melbourne, Thailand, Christchurch, Auckland
and Wellington. She also gained valuable experience while
working at Brooklands Country Estate near Waingaro where
she alternated between head chef and assistant manager.
So we are confident that you will learn from Fiona, both
from her expertise with food and also from her habit of
sharing rather random but entertaining stories and tips
- food related and otherwise! |
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