Taste of the South wins
Jared Mcdonald’s Texas Petes Authentic Southern Barbeque wins Best Food Vendor, for its first appearance at Fieldays this year.
A trip to the US inspired Jared Macdonald to bring Southern barbecue style cooking back to New Zealand.
Macdonald owns Texas Petes Authentic Southern Barbeque, which won Best Food Vendor in its first time at Fieldays.
During his trip, Macdonald fell in love with the whole barbecue belt lifestyle type of food. He is a qualified chef from Hamilton’s Wintec and holds a degree in Business Management from the University of Waikato.
Colleen Herbert, who helps out with her nephew’s business, said customer feedback has been “phenomenal, we’re selling out of food, we can’t make it fast enough”. On Wednesday they sold about 450 combos, then on Thursday 800 and were looking to sell more than 1000 on Friday.
Texas Petes has been running for 18 months. Macdonald built his own barbecue smoker, as it was too expensive to import one from the States.
Herbert said that there have been challenges but Macdonald believes that “to make money you have to spend money”.
Macdonald is looking to open a shop in Hamilton East in the next six months.
Currently he sells his Southern Barbecue style food on Saturday nights at the Hamilton markets, and has recently started supplying to restaurants such as The District in Hamilton.
Herbert said Macdonald “really believes in his product and backs it 100 percent. He’s been tenacious with his idea and believes it’s a good quality product. He just needs people to be exposed to it so they believe it too.”
