Contract Cooking

Small-batch cooking support for sauces and condiments

Are you a small food business with a sauce, relish, chutney, condiment, or similar product that needs to be cooked in a certified commercial kitchen?

Wild West Gourmet may be able to help.

We offer contract cooking support from our commercial kitchen in Pakotai, Northland, with the ability to complete cooks of up to 100 litres at a time. Our service is suited to small food businesses, start-ups, market brands, and growing producers who need practical, compliant cooking support without moving straight into large-scale manufacturing.

Who we are

Wild West Gourmet is a small-batch food business based in Northland. We produce our own range of Worcester sauces, relishes, chutneys, flavoured salts, and everyday gourmet products, so we understand the care, consistency, and practical thinking that goes into creating food people love.

We know what it is like to build a product from an idea, refine it through testing, and then work through the realities of production, packaging, labelling, food safety, pricing, and shelf life.

That experience means we are well placed to support other small food businesses who need help getting their product cooked properly and consistently.

What we can help with

Our contract cooking service may be suitable for products such as:

• Sauces

• Relishes

• Chutneys

• Condiments

• Vinegar-based products

• Fruit or vegetable-based savoury products

• Small-batch cooked products that fit within our kitchen setup and certification

At this stage, we can complete cooks of up to 100 litres at a time.

Every product is different, so we will need to talk through your recipe, process, ingredients, packaging, food safety requirements, batch size, and what stage your product is currently at before confirming whether we can help.

Certified commercial kitchen

Wild West Gourmet operates from a certified commercial kitchen and holds FCP NP3 certification, issued through Whangārei District Council.

This gives small food businesses the opportunity to access compliant cooking support without needing to immediately invest in their own production space.

Please note that your product, process, labelling, and food safety responsibilities may still need to be reviewed depending on your business structure, registration, and how your product will be sold. We can talk through the practical side with you and help identify what information may be needed before production.

Who this service is for

This service may be a good fit if you:

• Have a sauce or condiment recipe ready for production

• Need a certified kitchen to cook your product

• Are currently making product in very small batches and need more capacity

• Sell at markets, online, through stockists, or into local retail

• Want to test demand before investing in your own production setup

• Need help moving from home-scale cooking to a more structured small-batch process

It may also suit established small food businesses who need occasional production support, seasonal batch cooking, or overflow capacity.

What we will need to know

To work out whether we can help, we will usually need information such as:

• What product you would like cooked

• Your current recipe and process

• Approximate batch size

• Ingredients and allergen information

• Packaging format i.e., bottles, jars, pouches, etc.

• Whether the product has already been tested

• Whether you have pH, brix, shelf-life, or food safety information

• Where and how you intend to sell the product

• Your preferred timeframe

If you do not have all of this information yet, that's okay. Start with what you do know and we can guide the conversation from there. 

Let’s talk

If you are looking for contract cooking support for a sauce, relish, chutney, or condiment, we would love to hear from you.

Tell us a little about your product, where you are at, and what kind of help you need, and we will let you know whether Wild West Gourmet may be the right fit.