New Year 2025 Honours: Nadia Lim and Carlos Bagrie appointed officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Nadia Lim and Carlos Bagrie co-founded My Food Bag in 2013.

Husband and wife co-founders of My Food Bag Nadia Lim and Carlos Bagrie have been made officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year Honours list.

Both received the honour for services to the food industry while Bagrie was also commended for his contributions to rural industries.

Speaking together, both told BusinessDesk they had no idea who nominated them but were humbled that someone did.

“We’re trying our best to produce high-quality food in the most sustainable and ethical way that we possibly can,” Lim said. “It’s nice that someone wants us to be recognised for it.”

Bagrie said he was pleased they have been recognised for their work in the food and fibre space because, to him, it’s an area in which New Zealanders excel and one that deserves acknowledgement.

Lim and Bagrie

Though joined through marriage and their involvement with My Food Bag, Lim and Bagrie both have their independent achievements.

After winning MasterChef NZ in 2011, Lim’s cookbooks and television shows have made her a household name in the country.

Nadia Lim and Carlos Bagrie in 2011, after Lim won MasterChef. Photo / Janna Dixon

During Covid-19, Lim launched the television programme Nadia’s Comfort Kitchen. She later published the show’s recipes into a cookbook of the same title and raised more than $400,000 for Youthline and Women’s Refuge.

Bagrie, who grew up on a farm on the outskirts of Invercargill, co-founded Royalburn Station, a regenerative paddock-to-plate farm that is committed to ethical and sustainable farming practices.

He has also spent his fair share of time on the screen, starring in three series of Nadia’s Farm, which showcased the challenges of farming at Royalburn station.

‘Dedicated to the farmers’

Despite encouragement from Warner Bros and TV3, Bagrie said he initially had reservations about Nadia’s Farm.

“I was frightened to demonstrate farming in a way that wasn’t authentic or genuine,” he said. “We wanted to show the realities of farming. And by that, I mean the highs and the lows.

“We wanted the buy-in from the rural audience, but we also wanted to show it a way that was friendly and inviting to the urban population.”

After the first season came out, Bagrie said an “outrageous” number of farmers approached them with comments that “were quite moving”.

“They told us that the show was the first time that agriculture has been shown in a positive light in a very long time.”

Lim, a self-acknowledged “towny”, said living on the farm for the past six years has broadened her perspective.

Of all her achievements, she is most proud of the work she and Bagrie have done to close the cultural gap between urban and rural New Zealanders.

“Everyone eats, right? And if you eat you should, in my opinion ... have a bit of an interest in how food gets to your plate.”

Both wanted to dedicate their honours to all the farmers and food producers around the country.

“We don’t feel we do a better job than all these other amazing farmers and food producers, we know that we’ve learned from so many of them.

“We need them. They do great great things,” Lim said. “It’s not an award for us, it’s an award for the industry.”

‘Extra special’

Lim and Bagrie said their three children, who they hadn’t told at the time BusinessDesk interviewed them, were likely too young to understand what the honours meant.

Their parents, however, will be extremely proud, they said.

Bagrie said the fact that he had made the honours list alongside his wife made the moment all the more special.

“It makes it extra special. We can celebrate each other at the same time as we celebrate ourselves.”