Meanwhile, Hinemoa Elder is behind a gourmet Waiheke food manufacturing business using bilingual labelling and looking for markets in Australia and Asia.
It already has the local seal of approval from specialty food stores - and a ringing endorsement from Millie.
"The product is amazing. Obviously I love it because it's mum, but they really do make the best stuff," Millie told The Diary.
"Their lavash is awesome to have with drinks and nibbles. Mum supplies me with goodie bags full of treats every week."
Ringawera, an artisan bakery on Waiheke Island, is owned by Elder, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, and her partner Patrick Griffiths, a former actor-turned-chef.
The company supplies bread and baked goods - ciabatta, pide, focaccia, baguettes, muffins and croissants, etc - to their Waiheke bakery and gourmet stockists around the country, but has plans to expand into Australia and Asia.
Griffiths told The Diary the company is part of the Indigenous New Zealand Cuisine Cluster, an initiative set up by the Poutama Trust and supported by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to promote Maori food and beverage products in New Zealand and around the world.
"It's a group of Maori food businesses that work together and support each other," he said.
The bakery is largely run by Griffiths and a team of staff. Elder is a child and adolescent psychiatrist for the Hauroa Waikato Group and provides neuropsychiatric treatment for children with traumatic brain injuries. She came under public scrutiny when her daughter went through her very public battle with P, in and out of court and rehab.
Millie has also had the strong support of her mother, and stepmother Lady Deborah, who leaped to her defence last week after a report which implied Millie may have been excluded from the broadcaster's will.
"Paul's children, Millie and Reuben, have been treated equally by Paul, as they have always been," Lady Deborah wrote to the Herald on Sunday. "We accept that [the will] may be a public document but it is a private family matter. There are also private documents..."
Lady Deborah told The Diary the children were grieving for their father and don't deserve erroneous scrutiny or speculation at this trying time.
"Who are these people? What do they know? Let them think what they like. We know the truth and that's all that matters."
Spa treatments might help the nerves
Filming kicked off yesterday for TV3's highly anticipated The X Factor show with public auditions taking place at SkyCity Theatre. Aspiring singers are battling it out for a shot at the title - but the female judges weren't immune to the pressure.
"I couldn't sleep on Monday night," said Melanie Blatt, one of the four celebrity judges. "But I'm not sure if it was nerves or excitement," confessed the former member of UK girl group All Saints.
Twelve auditions will be held over the next week. Tickets were snapped up in 36 hours. Organisers say the team - Blatt and fellow X Factor judges Ruby Frost, Stan Walker and Daniel Bedingfield, plus host Dominic Bowden - are getting on well, but a special bond is forming between the girls.
"Mel is taking Ruby's culinary suggestions on board, and the two women had spa treatments together yesterday."
Nothing says sorority like facials.
Hosking tweet goes down like lead balloon
Auckland's hottest eatery has found itself the subject of attention thanks to an absurd tweet this week from broadcaster Mike Hosking, who is now accused of being detached from reality.
"Dinner at St Heliers Bay Bistro. Arrived a bit after 6. You can't move for people. Brilliant food. Lovely service. So much for recession," he tweeted.
Critics responded in droves suggesting the broadcaster, who drives a Maserati and lives with his family in leafy Remuera, is out of touch with New Zealanders and disengaged from real life where job cuts, unemployment, poverty and the ever-present fog of the global economic recession remain a constant.
Hosking may not feel the Antarctic chill of economic downturn blowing, but plenty of Kiwis do.
"Windy night out West at local takeaways. $1, $2 and $3 family specials. Queues out the door. Free raspberry fizzy. Recession? Huge recession," one retorted icily.
We doubt that Hosking was listening.
Olympian donning shoes for mile dash
He's quietly churning through his bucket list of goals: Coast to Coast, NZPGA, Halberg four-time winner. Now Olympian Mahe Drysdale will try the Queen St Golden Mile.
How fast will he run it? We'll find out on April 1 when Drysdale hits the pavement with his partner, Olympian Juliette Haigh, in the race which has been reprised by Sir John Walker, after a 30-year absence, to support his Find Your Field of Dreams Foundation.
Drysdale, who is on a six-month break from rowing, and Haigh, who has retired from competitive rowing, are challenging other Olympians to join them in the dash down Queen St.
The couple are enthused by the prospect of crowds lining both sides of the street to cheer them on. "Juliette is already in serious training for it," Drysdale said.
There will be various races for people to take part in. Go to queenstreetmile.co.nz to enter.
