Mad Platter sisters-in-law turn food into art

Kylie Ataera and Birgitte Ataera, of The Mad Platter, with one of their amazing platters. Photo/Duncan Brown

Everyone loves a good food platter, however not everyone is good at putting one together — myself included.

I always end up scattering some crackers around the plate, throwing on some cheese, cold meat and olives, and that's about it. Now there's a solution — the Mad Platters — and boy do they take platters to another level.

Platter Queens Kylie and Birgitte Ataera, who are sisters-in-law (Birgitte married Kylie's brother) have taken the platter and made it into a work of art.

"Birgitte came up with the idea," Kylie said. "We are both foodies — food is always at the centre of our whanau gatherings and we started making platters to take along. Birgitte suggested we should make our platters into a business. She said no one else was doing it and Hawke's Bay was the perfect location for it.

"I was reluctant — I didn't want to do it, but thank goodness B kept pushing me."

Birgitte says she did some research and "eventually talked Kylie into it". In June they launched Mad Platters, inviting guests to sample food from their massive "grazing table".
It went down a treat and the orders started coming in.

Their platters are absolutely amazing. They look stunning — full of colour, and of course delicious food both sweet and savoury.

Their lives are "very busy", with Kylie working fulltime and Birgitte part-time, as well as being a mother to her 18-month-old daughter.

They both agreed the prep was the most time consuming aspect of their platters. Putting them together though was a lot of fun.

"We just let our hands do the talking. We are both really creative and love styling our platters," Birgitte said.

Every platter is different — "we change it up" all the time.

"We critique each other and nothing goes out unless we are both totally happy with it."
They do savoury and sweet platters, or a mixture.

"We also do picnic boxes which have been really popular with bridal parties," they said.

"There are endless options for people to choose from. We do gluten-free, dessert platters, grazing tables — just tell us what it is you want."

A lot of their platters are put together on site as it is impossible to transport some of the grazing tables and bigger platters.

A highlight for Kylie was being asked to provide a grazing table and platters for her marae, Ngati Manu in Bay of Islands.

"Our food is a far cry from your average marae food but they were adamant they wanted to do something different for the local Members of Parliament and Jacinda Ardern.

"They loved it and I actually sat next to Jacinda and shared some food with her. I even gave her our business card. We were really excited when she liked an Instagram picture we posted."

The girls love the social side of their business as well.

"We love meeting people and we really love the fact that we can source so much of our high quality food locally," Birgitte said.

"Our advice to anyone out there who has an idea is to take a leap and go for it. Sometimes we do freak out and doubts creep in but then we see the reaction we get when we deliver our food and look back at what we have achieved and the doubts fade."

They are both excited about the future with fresh ideas bubbling to the surface almost daily.

■For more info email themadplatternz@outlook.com