Chef partners startup for home Xmas menu

Top chef Michael Meredith has joined forces with local start-up Grossr on a new cook-at-home fundraiser Christmas menu.

Half the proceeds from the summer project will go to Auckland City Mission, which has for years provided lunch and other Christmas services to the community.

Grossr co-founder Wyoming Paul said Meredith’s Britomart restaurant Mr Morris raised $16,206 for the mission earlier this year.

But now Meredith and Grossr say they aim to deliver a special Christmas experience for Kiwis to try at home.

Paul and Grossr co-founder Nick Sinclair said the joint venture involved a more widely accessible Christmas “feasting menu” people could buy for $35.

“Everything is designed to be easily cooked at home, with ingredients you can find at most supermarkets and the local butcher,” they added.

They said the Grossr model could provide 10-12 people the entire menu from about $365.

“I hope this new fundraiser menu can help some Auckland families and bring them a little more joy this year through Auckland City Mission,” Meredith said.

He said he hoped the menu encouraged people to get creative in the kitchen.

The project’s tutorials, prep guide and shopping tools should take some stress and pressure off and help people spend more time with loved ones, he added.

Paul and Sinclair are veterans of the local Parkable car parking app.

Sinclair previously told the

Herald the wreckage inflicted on local hospitality during the Covid-19 pandemic was one of the factors inspiring him to start Grossr.

Grossr partnered with chefs and retailers and provided shopping lists and recipes for people to cook high-quality meals at home.

Paul and Sinclair said they had also partnered with the charity Coeliac NZ, which provides advice for the estimated one in 10 Kiwis who are gluten-intolerant, and new Westmere restaurant Ragtag.

Working with Meredith is a significant development for

I hope this new fundraiser menu can help some Auckland

families and bring them a little more joy this year through Auckland City

Mission.

Michael Meredith (left), chef

young entrepreneurs, working in a frequently fickle and challenging industry.

Meredith established the eponymous degustation restaurant Merediths on Dominion Rd in 2007.

A decade later he closed it down to take a break from the high-stress business before starting new projects.

He has also been a consulting chef for Air New Zealand, and cofounded Eat My Lunch, a food delivery service providing free lunches for every lunch sold to hundreds of schoolchildren.