Rolling Kai is Te Ariki and Jade Rangi — husband and wife, both ex-hospitality, both from Te Puke. We started the truck in 2021 after years of talking about what Māori kai could look like if it was given the same love as any other street food tradition.
Every dish starts with ingredients from this rohe. Our brisket is from a Matamata farm; the kūmara comes from a grower in Ōpōtiki; the kawakawa is picked from the bush behind Jade's parents' place. We smoke over mānuka from a mate's firewood business in Rotorua.
We are not trying to reinvent hāngi. We are taking the flavours we grew up with — horopito, kawakawa, rewena, watercress, kūmara — and putting them in formats that work at a market window. Fast, affordable, packed with flavour, and proud of where it comes from.
Ko te kai a te rangatira, he kōrero. The food of chiefs is conversation.
Rolling Kai holds a current food safety certificate under the Food Act 2014. Registration number: FCS-12847. Truck inspected annually by Western Bay of Plenty District Council.