ALL BASES covered By Mikayla van Loon Photos Yanni
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wo New Zealand-born chefs are cooking up a storm and delivering heart-warming meals to your front door. The best-friend duo, Dan Hawke and Reece Morrow, are the co-founders of Mornington Peninsula based Home Run Food Co, an initiative that started just as the pandemic did.
The pair come from a background of cooking for on-set productions with their Sydney-based business, Set Piece. From catering for the likes of Johnny Depp on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean to the most recent seasons of The Voice, these two know good food. Reece and Dan made a big lifestyle change by moving to the Mornington Peninsula two years ago with their families, commuting back and forth to run Set Piece. But as the pandemic hit, it put a stop to all their work and left their staff and equipment at a stand still. “When the pandemic hit, we had all our kitchens, all our gear, all our refrigerated vans just parked doing nothing, and this was pretty early on and we thought, we’re either going to sit here twiddling our thumbs or we can try and get something moving,” Dan said. “There is very little going on in the film and TV industry at the moment and we thought of our own community, where thousands of people are trying to avoid going out unnecessarily or are working from home. We thought they could use some help,” Reece said. Returning to Sydney to pick up a kitchen and cool room from the set of The Voice, the duo organised a makeshift factory in Mornington to set up shop and start creating home-cooked meals that everyone would love. “We pretty much had everything we needed, so it was an easy shift to make” Dan said. “It was bit of a no brainer for us and we had a lot of staff in Sydney who couldn’t get JobKeeper, so we were trying to support those staff as well – so that’s how Home Run Food Co was born I suppose, out of necessity.” Drawing inspiration from their own family kitchens, Dan and Reece have put together a menu of hearty and comforting meals that can be eaten on their own or by adding ingredients from your own fridge. Their moto: ‘mix it up and keep it fresh.’ Sourcing all their ingredients from the Mornington Peninsula area, Dan and Reece work with what is in season to make the meals as affordable as possible. The menu also works around the time of year, so at the moment the meals are winter inspired but as summer rolls around, that will begin to change. Although fan favourites and best sellers change from day to day, Dan said there are some popular combinations that can’t be
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30 | PENINSULA
October 2020