For many Kiwis, the Overseas Experience (OE) is more than a trip. It’s a rite of passage – a time of growth wrapped in a sweet ache for home.
We all know that feeling of being half a world away yet craving something so familiar it instantly takes you back. A bag of pineapple lumps tucked into a suitcase. The comforting crunch of ToffeePops at midnight in a London flat. A square of Whittaker’s chocolate that no other chocolate quite compares to. These aren’t just snacks — they’re edible memories, little bits of home that keep the homesickness at bay when you need it most.
I know this feeling well, because I’ve lived that OE life too. That longing for a bite of home is exactly why a proper Cornish pasty has become so much more than just a meat pie for us at The ’Ansum Pasty Co.
During the long, quiet weeks of lockdown in 2020, Adam Rickett — an award-winning British chef and The 'Ansum Pasty Co. founder who now calls Auckland home — found himself yearning for a taste of his own past. With two decades in some of New Zealand’s most respected kitchens, including Euro Bar & Restaurant, The Matterhorn and Pravda Café, Adam knows food inside out. But sometimes, no matter how many fine dishes you can cook, what you really want is the simple, honest flavour of your childhood. For Adam, that was the Cornish pasty — the same pasty he first learnt to make while training back in St Austell, Cornwall.
So he asked himself the question, who else in New Zealand might feel that same tug? Turns out, it’s a lot of people. Thousands of British expats have made Aotearoa home, bringing incredible skills and adding vibrancy to our communities — but that little pang for the familiar never fully goes away.
When we launched The ’Ansum Pasty Co. online, we expected a warm welcome, but the response has been extraordinary. We’ve heard from so many people who say that biting into one of our pasties brings them straight back to a family kitchen in Cornwall, a village bakery, or a childhood holiday on the coast. It’s a small thing, but it means a lot — a bit like that moment in Ratatouille when a single mouthful sweeps the food critic back to his mother’s cooking. That connection matters.
For Cornish folk living here, authenticity isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s everything. You can’t fake a pasty. It has to be right. That’s why Adam’s genuine training and our shared chef backgrounds are so important. Every pasty we make is a nod to tradition, crafted properly with quality ingredients and handled with the same care you’d expect in a great restaurant. We don’t cut corners, and we don’t churn out generic savoury pies. We focus on doing one thing exceptionally well: the real Cornish pasty, just as it should be.
Of course, we have big dreams too. One day we might even explore sweet pie recipes for treats like blueberry pie or an apple pie recipe, showcasing our delicious pastry ingredients. For now, our focus at our pie shop and pie bakery remains where it belongs: delivering truly savoury pies and an authentic taste of Cornwall, one perfectly crimped edge at a time.
For every expat, traveller, or homesick Kiwi who longs for a bite of something that feels like home, we’re proud to help fill that gap. From our kitchen in Auckland to your table, thank you for letting us share a piece of Cornwall with you, right here in Aotearoa.
If you haven’t tried one yet — maybe it’s time you did.