People often assume chefs open restaurants because they want to cook their own food, win awards, or build a reputation. That wasn't my reason. I opened 50-50 because I wanted to create a place that I wanted to go to. A place where people felt comfortable. A place where they felt welcome. A place where great food was important, but where connection was even more important. Before opening 50-50, I spent years working in restaurants where guests came and went. Every night there

Serves 4 as a starter Ingredients Pink Peppercorn Oil 40g pink peppercorns 4g rosemary 5g star anise 6g dried rose petals 65g sesame oil 2.5g dried chilli 5g salt 300g neutral oil (grapeseed or canola) Parsnip Purée 500g parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped 75g butter 400ml water 150ml milk 8g salt Feijoa & Juniper Salt 40g dried feijoa skin 10g juniper berries 40g fine salt Parsnip Crisps 1 medium parsnip Vegetable oil for frying 1 tsp feijoa & juniper salt To Finish 16 dump

With just a flick of the wand, it seems 2026 is already disappearing right before our eyes. Thankfully, we’ve been busy in the kitchen casting a few new spells to ensure the second half of your year begins deliciously. The magic of winter cooking is that it allows us all to slow down. I love how vegetables become sweeter, the stocks become richer and our connection to what we eat gets deeper. Our new menu begins this Thursday and the curtain rises with freshly shucked Te Kou

One of the little garnishes we use at 50-50 is a kawakawa poppadom. They’re light, crisp, intensely aromatic and surprisingly simple to make at home. The kawakawa leaves are dried and ground into a powder, which is then mixed into a chickpea flour batter. Once dehydrated and fried, they puff dramatically into delicate, crunchy crackers. Ingredients 10g dried kawakawa powder 900g water 12g salt 250g chickpea flour Method 1. Make the kawakawa powder Pick fresh kawakawa leaves a

People ask me this more than almost anything else. And usually what they're really asking is: Will I feel out of place? Will I understand what I'm eating? Is a tasting menu actually for someone like me? It's probably a lot more relaxed than you're imagining. You'll feel it when you walk in The first thing I want when someone arrives at 50-50 is for them to exhale. I really hope you feel somewhere comfortable. Somewhere that feels genuinely glad you're here. There's a concept

One of the most common questions we get at 50-50 is: "What's included in the beverage match?" The simple answer is that you'll receive a carefully selected beverage with each course. But that doesn't really explain why so many guests choose it. For me, a great beverage match isn't about drinking more wine. It's about experiencing the food and wine in a completely different way. What Do You Actually Get? We offer a six or nine course beverage match. Our standard pours are: 75m

Some ingredients demand attention. The new, the trendy and the eager to impress. The golden queen peach isn’t one of them. It appears, shines bright and leaves again. It is, in many ways, one of the horticultural heroes of the New Zealand fruit scene. In the early 1900s, a peach tree grown from seed in a Tauranga garden stood out to its owner, Edwin Reeve. The fruit was deeply flavoured, reliable and well suited to local conditions. Propagated by grafting, the same tre

One of the biggest misconceptions about tasting-menu restaurants is that dietary requirements make the experience difficult or impossible. In fact, one of the most common questions we receive at 50-50 is: "Can you cater for my dietary requirements?" The answer is simple: Yes. We love catering for dietary requirements. We just need to know before you arrive. Book Here We Believe Everyone Deserves a Great Night Out One of the things I feel strongly about as a chef is that every

A reflection on why what grows around us matters as much to our food culture as what we choose to cultivate. By Helen Turnbull, chef and owner of 50-50, Kāpiti Coast Some ingredients arrive through the kitchen door. Others are already here, giving us a sense of place long before we think of them as food. The pōhutukawa firmly belongs in the latter camp. For most New Zealanders, the pōhutukawa means red flowers in bloom signaling the start of summer, school terms winding dow

One of the most common questions we get at 50-50 is: "How long does the 9-course menu take?" The short answer is simple: A 9-course dinner at 50-50 takes around three comfortable hours. But there is a lot more to it than that. After serving thousands of tasting menus since opening in 2017, I've learned that the best dining experiences aren't measured by the clock. They're measured by how the evening feels. The Three-Hour Experience When guests hear "9 courses", they often ima