Words Vicki Ravlich-Horan Images Ashlee Decaires
A girls getaway in South Australia was just the motivation Amelia Lisignoli needed to turn an idea that had been simmering away for a few years into a reality.
The idea began with a trip to Melbourne. Amelia was having a coffee in one of the many funky laneways when she noticed a line of people queuing in front of an inconspicuous hole in the wall. When the garage door rolled up, she discovered what everyone was queueing for was soup. No, this wasn’t a soup kitchen for the down and out but rather a soup kitchen for the hip and happening crowd of Melbourne’s gourmet connoisseurs.
Amelia, who freely admits she “loves soup!” was intrigued and began pondering how she could turn this love of soup into her own business. Having worked in hospo, she dismissed the idea of a bricks and mortar enterprise, saying, “I didn’t want to be a slave to cooking.” Instead, she looked around for a gap in the market.
What she discovered was the supermarket was full of ready-made, canned and instant soups but no Kiwi-owned brands or ones that didn’t contain a list of salts and e numbers.
This busy mum of three, with her own full time landscaping business, started experimenting with recipes she loved, trying to modify them into a dry, shelf stable offering, something you could have on hand in the cupboard and know would create a delicious meal by just adding water and a few fresh ingredients.
A love of cooking meant the process, which Amelia admits included “a lot of trial and error”, was not arduous. In fact, a decade ago, on the family’s return to New Zealand from having lived in Australia Amelia retrained. “I tossed up between food science and landscape design,” says Amelia. Not wanting to live in Auckland, landscape design seemed the more sensible choice. But that love of creating and understanding flavours was still there.
The tinkering turned serious when a friend asked her on a girls trip to Adelaide. Wanting to fund the holiday, Amelia created Base at Your Place and headed off to Pirongia Market, and the rest, as they say, is history.
She sold three quarters of her stock and began taking regular orders from customers. In fact, her first stockist found her at the market. Friend Sarah Taiapa-Bell came on board to help with setting up the online shop, marketing and sales.
That was just over a year ago and Base at Your Place now has a growing number of stockists around the Waikato and Coromandel in addition to its online store. The initial range of soups has expanded to include risottos and pilafs, crackers and bread mixes.
While there are firm favourites, like the Chicken Noodle and Coconut Curry Lentil soup, the range is ever changing, both with the seasons and as Amelia develops new lines. She’s pretty proud of this winter’s addition, Minestrone, and is currently working on a versatile split pea soup, and is keen, she says, “to get the flavour balance right, and consistency just like how Nana used to make it”.
“I would love to develop a line of bread mixes for bread makers,” admits Amelia. But as quickly as she makes the current offering of products, they head out the door. Packed by hand in the Lisignoli kitchen, Amelia says, “I currently make to order. The goal is to get ahead but as soon as I have a stockpile, they sell.”
The joy of Base at Your Place meals is they can sit in your cupboard for those times when you think you have nothing for dinner, or perhaps can’t be bothered. They are the perfect meals to have in the bach or caravan with serve sizes big enough to feed a family.
Amelia says they are a popular gift item and conversely, as they are so well priced and easy to use, they have proved a great solution for food parcels.
Enjoy them as is or add your own twist, throw in the veg lying around in the fridge or going mad in the garden or some leftovers like roast chicken or sausages, and before you know it you have a nutritious tasty meal on the table.
Last week I threw together the pilaf and served it with leftover roast lamb and pumpkin mixed through. We also enjoyed the risotto one night on its own.
You can find Base at Your Place meals at Red Kitchen Cafe (Te Awamutu), The Fat Kiwi (Ōtorohanga), The Green Grocer (Thames), The Well Stocked Deli (Whitianga), Two Tides (Tairua), The Larder at Made (Hamilton), and online at baseatyourplace.co.nz.
