All Black WAGs come up with tasty treats
Rugby stars backing their partners in recipes and gossip venture
Move over Nigella — there are two new domestic goddesses in town. Daisy Aitken and Amber Vito, the better-looking halves of All Blacks Israel Dagg and Victor Vito, have launched The Rugby Pantry, a culinary webpage featuring homemade recipes and personal gossip. And they tell The Diary, “the boys are right behind us”.
Amber, an honours graduate in communications from Victoria University, has entrepreneurial nous. Her parents set up the country’s first gluten-free bakery, and she co-owns The Boutique Collective, an online vintage and designer fashion shop, and works fulltime at a digital and marketing recruitment agency in the capital.
Organic cooking is her passion.
“Both Daisy and I are passionate foodies and friends are always asking for our recipes, so we thought we’d start our own page. We’re not pretending to be expert cooks. We just want to provide easy, accessible recipes that people can share,” she says.
“The feedback so far has been great.”
The women say it’s just a hobby now, but hope the Facebook page may lead to a culinary career, with cookbooks and television appearances.
“We’d love it to go somewhere,” Amber says. There’s no denying they it adds a point of difference. “Sure, we’ll leverage off Victor and Izzy, and they don’t mind. It’s smart business,” Amber says.
A recipe for quinoa salad with eggplant and pumpkin includes a tale about Dagg. “Made this little ripper for dinner not so long ago and was so excited to have it for lunch the next day, only to find Izzy had eaten the whole bowl for his pre-match meal last Saturday. It must have helped them win the game,” Daisy wrote.
The Rugby Pantry is both confidante and culinary diary. It takes us that much closer to our rugby heroes through the gastronomic talents of their significant others.
You won’t find these footballers’ wives obsessing over sunbeds and