Erin Adams
Over the past 20 years, chef Emily Lucas has made her mark on the New Zealand food landscape. She has won countless awards, cooked for dignitaries, and catered weddings for high-profile sports stars like Beauden Barrett and Ryan Fox.
But after conquering the world of fine dining, Emily is returning to basics – elevating the humble pie with her latest venture, The West Coast Pie Co.
“There are days where I miss the full-on busy service days, but I love being a baker and creating pies,” says the 52-year-old.
As one of 10 siblings growing up in rural Taranaki, Emily knew her way around the kitchen from a young age. With many mouths to feed, she had to pull her weight, taking part in every aspect of food preparation – from working in the vegetable garden with her mum to helping kill and prepare animals for the freezer, then cooking in the kitchen.
“I feel that connection with food is something that has been lost,” she muses. “When I was growing up, that was the norm. I feel quite privileged to have had that upbringing.”
Emily’s career journey and the impact of Covid
However, Emily only became a chef out of necessity. After taking over as owner of popular West Coast restaurant The Bay House, she struggled to find staff, so she stepped into the kitchen to keep
the business running.
While it was undeniably challenging, it brought her back to her childhood, and she was immediately hooked. She recalls, “It was a steep learning curve, but I loved it. It came naturally to me.”
The Bay House earned awards and a loyal following, and her next restaurant, The Townhouse in Westport, was named one of Lonely Planet’s top five West Coast attractions.
When Covid hit and the hospitality industry faced an uncertain future, it gave Emily time to resurrect a culinary dream she had put on the back burner for a decade.
One of her signature dishes at The Bay House had been a wild venison pie. It was hugely popular and Emily thought it was an accessible way to introduce Kiwis to eating more wild game meat.
It began as a one-woman operation, with Emily using a local pub’s kitchen to prepare online orders for customers in the Westport area. She set up a stall at the local market when lockdown restrictions eased.
In 2022, she opened a shop, By the end of the following year, she had to move to a larger production space to accommodate the thousands of pies she and her team were making each week.
Flavours vary from approachable game meats, like venison and wild pork, to the lesser known wallaby and Himalayan tahr.
“People love the wild aspect – it’s something different,” shares Emily. “People come in and ask a lot of questions about the meat and where it comes from. The great thing is that everyone is blown away by how normal the meat is. It’s not what people conceive it to be.”
Her passion for local produce
With her passion for promoting the deliciousness and sustainability of wild meat, Emily was a natural choice to join the judging panel for this year’s Monteith’s Wild Food Challenge, alongside fellow chef Ben Bayly and celebrated spear fisherman Sam Wild.
Diners can visit participating venues nationwide and vote for their favourite dishes. The winner will be picked at the live judging event later this month.
“It is such a brilliant celebration of creativity, local produce and bold flavours,” enthuses Emily. “It really shines a light on eating wild meat, which I think we need to be doing more of in New Zealand.”
While she couldn’t be happier about the success of the business, Emily admits that this year, she’d love to find more time to enjoy it with her husband Tom, 51, a geotech engineer. He has been by
her side throughout all her restaurant ventures and fully supports her long hours. But Emily knows balance is key to staying at the top of her game.
“It can be all-consuming because you do everything, so it’s important that the people who are close to you are on board,” she admits. “But you have to make time for other areas in your life, otherwise it wouldn’t work. The business has grown so much in a short period of time, I’d love to have a year of just enjoying it.”
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