Get ready to meet Jayde and Andrew Lane from The Smoke Shed in rural Waikato, a husband and wife team who’ve just taken home the Boutique New Product Champion award at the 2025 Outstanding Food Producer Awards! Their secret? A Welsh family recipe that’s travelled generations and continents to become one of New Zealand’s most celebrated artisan sauces.
The story behind The Smoke Shed
The Smoke Shed began with a bottle of Bunney’s Worcester Sauce, a treasured family recipe brought to New Zealand from Pontypridd, Wales, by Jayde’s great great grandfather, Edwin Bunney. It’s the kind of sauce that makes everything better. And when it met Jayde’s Kiwi barbecue roots and Andrew’s South African braai skills, something pretty special happened.
As Jayde shared with The Kitchen Project:
I spent a lot of time copying recipes from library cookbooks and baking up a storm from a young age. When I met my husband it was quickly realised we shared this passion but our bank accounts didn’t so we experimented a lot with herbs, spices and sauces to make the most basic dishes taste incredible.
Living a rural, sustainably focused lifestyle, they’ve always valued cooking from scratch and preserving what they grow. That passion naturally evolved into a range of handcrafted barbecue sauces, each one built on the bold foundation of Bunney’s Worcester Sauce. Their sauces were born from backyard gatherings with friends and family, where low ‘n slow cooking and laughter went hand in hand.
Award winning Worcester sauce recognition
Their Bunneys Worcester Sauce recently earned the prestigious Boutique New Product Champion title at the 2025 Outstanding Food Producer Awards. Judges praised the sauce for its “well balanced flavours” and described it as an “excellent product.”
This recognition validates their commitment to quality and traditional methods. For Jayde and Andrew, the real reward comes from seeing families gather around tables enhanced by their sauces.
Their complete range celebrates this heritage foundation:
- Bunneys Worcester Sauce – the treasured family recipe from Wales
- The Barbecue Sauce – built on the bold foundation of Bunney’s Worcester Sauce
- The White Barbecue Sauce – part of their handcrafted range
- The Hot Mustard Sauce – crafted with the same attention to quality
- The Tomato Sauce – their artisan take on the classic
All products maintain their commitment to small batch production and quality ingredients.
Community connection through flavour
From their base in rural Waikato, The Smoke Shed has built genuine relationships throughout the region. They participate actively in food shows, where their authentic story and incredible flavours continue to win new fans.
“We live a rural, sustainably focused lifestyle where we value cooking from scratch and preserving what we grow,” the couple explains. This philosophy runs through everything they do, from their production methods to their community connections.
Supporting local together
The Smoke Shed perfectly embodies what We Love Local celebrates: authentic passion, exceptional quality, and genuine community connection. Their mission aligns beautifully with ours, bringing people together through real food experiences.
As they describe on their website:
We launched The Smoke Shed: a small business with a big mission to bring people together through real flavour, home cooking, and stories shared over a meal.
Wanting to share that same sense of togetherness more widely, every bottle carries their commitment to creating memorable experiences around food.
Experience The Smoke Shed’s award winning flavours and discover how Welsh heritage and Kiwi barbecue excellence create something truly special. These are the kinds of authentic local treasures that make every meal memorable.
When you choose The Smoke Shed products in our Wondrous Waikato Gift Box, you’re sharing a story that spans generations and celebrates the very best of Aotearoa’s artisan food culture while sending incredible flavours that create lasting memories.
