Tasha Meys
You’d think that when most people meet Cherie Metcalfe, the powerhouse behind cult condiment brand Pepper & Me, they’d be hitting her up for dinner inspo. But these days, the question she gets most is: “How did you lose all that weight?”
“It’s so funny – people really want to know!” laughs the Papamoa-based foodie and business owner, who lost 25kg through two months of personal training five days a week, daily runs and a strict low-fat diet.
“Food’s always my number- one priority, so my weight goes up accordingly,” she admits.
Finding balance in health and food
“I’d gone too far the other way, so it was time to knock it back into shape. It was so boring – calorie-counting, exercise and no butter or oil. I didn’t even want to think about diet food because it was no fun!”
A chef by trade and a passionate home cook at heart, Cherie’s food obsession began young. Growing up in Rotorua, she started waitressing at a local restaurant and begged the chefs to let her help out. She learned to make desserts, then salads and mains – all while still in high school.
“On my first day as a proper chef, I was so excited, I bought a new knife,” she recalls.
“It slipped through its sheath and stabbed me in the back of the leg – a gaping wound about an inch deep. Five stitches and they told me I needed to stay off it for a few weeks, but no way! I still turned up to work, just an hour late and wrapped up tight.”
Cooking around the world
Her early hospitality years took her from Rotorua to Australia’s Hamilton Island to superyachts, where she cooked for clients such as Sir Mick Jagger’s ex-wife Bianca. It was travelling that really sparked her appreciation for the connection between people and food.
“We’d arrive at a new place, know nothing about it, then meet the people and their families, buy from local markets and try to cook recipes from their culture,” she shares.
After losing her superyacht job due to breaking the rules by drinking on a night out, Cherie, now 36, realised it was time to come home. Soon after, she was married and became a mum to daughter Pepper, now nine, and son Kit, seven. It was while juggling motherhood and seeking flexible work that she dreamed up Pepper & Me.
From jam sandwiches to spices
“I was working in a daycare kitchen making jam sandwiches and mac and cheese, then coming home to mix spices in the spare bedroom,” she tells.
The business has come a long way from the market stall run by Cherie, with her black duvet whipped off her bed to be a makeshift tablecloth, her then-baby daughter Pepper in a front pack and $300 in the bank.
“I started making lactation-friendly seasonings because I realised new mums didn’t want more cookies and sweets – they wanted help with dinner,” she explains.
“But then I realised if I removed the word ‘lactation’, I sold way more!”
A decade of growth
A decade later and Pepper & Me is now stocked nationwide, with a range of 85 products and a team of 33 staff, including her younger brother Lorne. Cherie’s latest project is self-publishing her third cookbook, Seasoned, which features favourite midweek meals from Pepper & Me’s Recipe Club.
“It’s our best one yet,” she enthuses.
“People just want yummy food they can cook on a Tuesday night at home.”
She’s also co-founded other ventures, including Cain & Able knives, made from recycled Vietnamese war trucks, and a community cooking club called “Cook the Books”, where locals make food from the same cookbook and meet for pot-luck dinners in Tauranga. Yet life isn’t without its challenges. Cherie split with her kids’ dad a few years ago.
From lockdown lessons to new love
“It was Covid, actually – when you’re stuck in lockdown with each other for a month, it hits you like a hammer. We’d just grown apart. I went from a minimum-wage chef to learning to run a company and we lost anything we had in common. The kids were young and adjusted well. Now we have two happy, settled homes.”
Her new partner Matt Wilson, 42, an ex-chef and fellow foodie, is the fire to her flame.
“We met through the single-parent gang down here,” she says.
Love and blended families
“The chemistry was instant. We’re very different to my marriage – which was safe and secure – but this is exciting, passionate and messy in the best way.”
Between them, they have four kids and while they haven’t blended households yet, they split their time between parenting and each other. Through it all, Cherie remains grounded.
“I don’t have a five-year plan,” she laughs.
“I just want to wake up every day, get people excited about everyday food and empower them to cook.”
Seasoned ($50) is on sale now at pepperandme.co.nz and selected bookstores.
