Where Our Flavour Begins

Every sauce has a story. 
Ours begins long before The Smoke Shed had a name.

It starts generations ago with a Welsh Worcester recipe carried across the world, settling eventually into New Zealand kitchens. It lived quietly through the years, a flavour that anchored simple meals, added depth where needed, and became the kind of sauce that was always there. Dependable, honest, and full of character.

That Worcester would one day become our backbone.
But the story was never heritage alone.
It had fire.


Fire That Shaped Us

Andrew grew up in South Africa, where braai is not an event.
It is part of life.

Flavour is instinctive. Fires are tended with care. Meals are made slowly, shared widely, and remembered long after.

When he moved to New Zealand, that fire came with him. In how he seasons food. In how he builds heat. In how he layers flavour until it sings. Years later, during a trip back to South Africa in 2023, we stood around real braai fires and felt the depth of the flavours he had grown up with.

Bold. Warm. Generous.
Made to be shared.

We did not know it then, but those moments would later shape the character of The Smoke Shed. Not through imitation, but through understanding.

Rural Roots and Real Food

Jayde grew up in rural New Zealand, where meals were simple. Meat, veg, tomato sauce from the supermarket, and the kind of cooking that fed a family well without fuss. But even in those early years, she was drawn to flavour. Jayde noticed the difference between good food and unforgettable food long before she had the skills to make it. As she got older, that curiosity became a craft.

Preserving was not nostalgic.
It was discovery.

A way to understand food more fully, make it work harder, taste better, and last longer. Those skills became the quiet foundation of her cooking. Knowing how to make flavour dependable, adaptable, and ready for whatever the week needed.

She learned how flavours behave.
How balance gives food structure.
How ingredients earn their place across a week of dinners.

The preserving, the gardens, the everyday meals.
That was Jayde’s training ground.

The fire and instinct of the braai.
That was Andrew's.

Together, those worlds created something neither of us could have built alone.

The Flavour We Built Together

Our lives, our heritage, the fire we cook over, and the rural kitchens we have raised our kids in slowly wove themselves into sauces.

First as experiments.
Then as craft.
Then as something worth sharing.

Worcester became the backbone. The flavour thread tying past to present.
Braai became the spark. The warmth and boldness shaping our BBQ sauce.
Rural food intelligence became the structure. The versatility, balance, and reliability you can taste in every bottle.

Everything we make carries those three layers.
Heritage. Fire. Real life cooking.

That is why our sauces are not made to crowd your fridge.
They are made to earn their place in it.

Flavour made to show up again and again, the way good food should.