Wild Wheat Specialty Breads

Wild Wheat Specialty Breads Wild Wheat has six retail shops in Mt Eden, Mt Albert, Howick, Belmont and Birkenhead as well as at the wholesale bakery in Mangere.

Winner of the 2012 NZ Food Awards and voted Metro Magazine 'Best Bakery in Auckland' 2011, Wild Wheat Specialty Breads is Auckland's leading producer of artisan breads, pastries and savouries. Wild Wheat also supplies to cafes and restaurants around Auckland.

THE FACES BEHIND WILD WHEAT – MEET MT EDEN MANAGER, CHRISTY CHEN-HIRANO! She's the smiling face behind our Mt Eden count...
14/08/2026

THE FACES BEHIND WILD WHEAT – MEET MT EDEN MANAGER, CHRISTY CHEN-HIRANO!

She's the smiling face behind our Mt Eden counter that so many of you know and love, and Christy Chen-Hirano says it's easy to be so happy when she's living her dream! Originally from Taiwan, she remembers the fried bread and the sweet, soft, fluffy bread she'd find on street corners and at night markets with great fondness, and when she moved with her family to East Auckland in 1996, the local bakery quickly became her happy place too! She says, “I used to visit all the bakeries in town and dream of working in one!”

A mum of one, Christy has a degree in Japanese and previously worked as an English teacher in Japan. She has been with Wild Wheat since 2019.

If she could only eat one Wild Wheat bread for the rest of her life, it would be the wholemeal sourdough - "this was actually the last flavour I tried in all of our sourdough range, and I've loved it ever since. It's simple, nutritious, and just delicious! It's too hard to pick just one… sorry, I'm picking one more! The Turkish Pide. I could finish a whole one myself!"

You'll also find her treating herself to a small flat white and a cinnamon bun in the morning- but for a special brunch, she loves making French toast with our cinnamon buns (there's a little tip!).

"Being a local in Mt Eden, I love chatting away with our regulars and meeting newcomers. Hearing what they like to pair with our sourdoughs and buns, or even just getting a simple compliment on the coffee, goes a long way in making my day! No matter if it's a rainy old day or a sunny one, there is always lots of laughter and warmth in the shop."

Christy loves 7am, when the shelf is beautifully stocked with our bread and pastries, the smell of almond croissants is in the air and the first sip of coffee - "it always makes my day! I have to say that Be Specialty, our coffee supplier, does a pretty awesome job on our Stumpy blend to go with our bread and pastries."

For more, make sure you sign up to our newsletter - head to wildwheat.co.nz 🍞

LOAF OF THE MONTH 🍞 Pea, Lentil and Barley Sourdough - This is a bit of a special loaf of the month, with our Pea, Lenti...
08/08/2026

LOAF OF THE MONTH 🍞 Pea, Lentil and Barley Sourdough - This is a bit of a special loaf of the month, with our Pea, Lentil and Barley Sourdough using leftover ingredients from previous monthly specials! Affectionately nicknamed the Odds and Ends loaf on the bakery floor, it combines our famed white sourdough base with blue peas, black lentils, pearl barley, red lentils and purple kibbled wheat for a flavour-filled and nutrient-packed loaf that we love!

Also, our special pies of the month: 🥧

GOURMET PIE OF THE MONTH: Beef Red Curry – Slow-braised steak combines with fresh New Zealand kūmara in a fragrant, Thai-inspired red curry sauce and our signature flaky pastry! (Contains shrimp paste).

VEGE PIE OF THE MONTH: Potato and Mushroom Gratin – Winter's most comforting dish is reimagined in pie form. What could be better! Potatoes are slowly simmered in a creamy garlic sauce and mushroom cream, and then topped with Swiss cheese.

The Faces Behind Wild Wheat – Meet Mike Meharg, our General Manager!  From a flight attendant through to managing Wild W...
21/07/2026

The Faces Behind Wild Wheat – Meet Mike Meharg, our General Manager!  

From a flight attendant through to managing Wild Wheat’s entire operation, Mike’s career in hospitality and business has taken many forms! Now focussed on running Wild Wheat, Mike – who you might recognise as a contestant on the latest series of The Traitors NZ! – shares all his eclectic passions, and what drives him to succeed every day.

He's a 44-year-old proud Westie who loves golf, cricket and any other sport thrown my way, as well as his friends, family and beers. Hospitality runs deep in his veins, and it’s a true passion of his. He's been at Wild Wheat for five years, wanting to join owner Andrew's long-standing legacy and commitment to making the best sourdough in Auckland!

You'll find him hard at work at head office or popping into stores - if it's morning tea time, he'll be sipping on a flat white and treating himself to an Iced Raisin Danish, his favourites (and also the Kūmara Sourdough, of course!).

"I have had my hand in many pies (no pun intended) before Wild Wheat - I’ve been a flight attendant, a bar owner, a courier and a Director of HR. My most recent experiences have been in operations roles with Mojo Coffee here in Auckland and Chicago," he says.

"I have a deep passion for hospitality and customer service. Servicing hundreds of wholesale customers a day, and thousands of retail customers a week, is no easy task, so seeing us delivering week after week, month after month by our teams is a testament to everyone involved. I also love that Andrew is dedicated to his craft and is in the dough nine hours a day, meaning that I never need to worry about the quality of our product. It also means most of our ‘meetings’ are conducted in the bakery over mountains of dough!"

LOAF OF THE MONTH - TURMERIC & BLACK PEPPER SOURDOUGH A little bit of colour in the depths of winter, our special loaf o...
06/07/2026

LOAF OF THE MONTH - TURMERIC & BLACK PEPPER SOURDOUGH

A little bit of colour in the depths of winter, our special loaf of the month is both packed with flavour and nutrients.

Anti-inflammatory and immunity-boosting (perfect for this time of year!) this gorgeous loaf is packed with antioxidants and helps with digestion. Plus, it's delicious- perfect as a side with soup, for your lunchtime sandwiches or eaten simply with some good butter.

Available in all of our stores for July.

Spotlight on: Country Sourdough – Bringing a Slice of Europe to Auckland! 🍞 Wild Wheat’s founder and head baker Andrew c...
01/07/2026

Spotlight on: Country Sourdough – Bringing a Slice of Europe to Auckland! 🍞

Wild Wheat’s founder and head baker Andrew chats about our biggest loaf, the country sourdough!

"The country sourdough holds a special place in Wild Wheat history. Along with the kūmara, these were the first two sourdough recipes I completely designed from scratch.

"In 2002 as I got to better understand the sourdough process, I wanted to create my own recipes that spoke of what I wanted Wild Wheat to embody. Kūmara was an iconic first choice. I also wanted to create something rustic and tasty that spoke of Europe and that could be a centrepiece of a table - enter the country sourdough!

"The country sourdough has always been our biggest standard sized loaf, at 1kg. I added rye and wholemeal to create that rustic feel. We also made a rye starter {still going today} just for this loaf, which gave a stronger “sourdough” flavour. Finally, inspired by northern French-style rye loaves, I added apple cider to the liquids to give another flavour profile.

"All of these ingredients help give the country loaf great keeping qualities. I feel it’s a great option for a “weekend” loaf that can keep being cut away at over the course of two to three days, or be the centrepiece piece for a long lunch."

Our country sourdough is incredibly popular Auckland-wide – here’s how some of your favourite restaurants and cafes use it for a little inspiration you can re-create at home!

Poderi Crisci, Waiheke Island:

Chargrilled country sourdough bread, organic cow milk stracciatella, ortiz anchovy, lemon zest.

The Heke, Waiheke Island:

We serve the country sourdough simply, with whipped butter. Delicious!

Little Lane, Clevedon

We use the country sourdough for our toasties! We do a three cheese, cheese and corn and a salami toastie and our best seller is our salami ,which is an Italian thinly sliced spiced salami with our secret mix of cheeses topped with a drizzle of hot honey.

The Faces Behind Wild Wheat – Meet Luke Frew, our Night Shift Production Manager! 🍞 Luke’s a bit of a newbie at Wild Whe...
20/06/2026

The Faces Behind Wild Wheat – Meet Luke Frew, our Night Shift Production Manager! 🍞

Luke’s a bit of a newbie at Wild Wheat, having started seven months ago. He’s responsible for making things run smoothly during our nighttime baking, so your bread and pastries arrive fresh and perfect every morning. 

He has 15 years of experience working in artisan bakeries and patisseries, from small businesses with a few employees through to large-scale operations that never close!

He'a a dual national Brit/Kiwi, - he grew up in Pukekohe and started hus baking career after dropping out of an engineering degree.

There are few bakeries in NZ of this calibre and scale, he says, so the chance to manage a high-volume artisan bakery like Wild Wheat was hard to pass up. "While small local bakeries have their charm, big operations like this can have a greater meaningful impact on both customers and suppliers."

Luke's typical workday starts at 4.30pm when he gets a printout of the types and amounts of baked goods on order for the next morning, organises the team and then he's off! The team is split between baking the sourdoughs shaped by our day shift team or making and shaping our small items such as hamburgers and panini. 

"I usually take up a role within production but also spend time overseeing how things are going, trying to corral our voracious microbes into a schedule that works for us as bakers. We prepare some doughs for the day shift team, manage our sourdough starters and then we clean up just in time for the 3am finish."

And if he could only eat one Wild Wheat product for the rest of his life, what would it be and why?

"The Seeded Sourdough! Sourdough features heavily in my household, unsurprisingly, and one like the Seeded Sourdough with its wholemeal flour and seeds is both delicious and nutritious."

Check out our newsletter for more insider chat on Wild Wheat and our team - sign up at wildwheat.co.nz!

For all of our monthly specials, insider knowledge and exclusive treats, make sure you've signed up to pur monthly newsl...
10/06/2026

For all of our monthly specials, insider knowledge and exclusive treats, make sure you've signed up to pur monthly newsletter (we promise we won't spam you!). Follow the link in our bio or head to wildwheat.co.nz, you'll find the sign up box at the bottom of our homepage 🍞

June's Loaf of the Month: Brown Rice Porridge Sourdough! Highly nutritious, moist and chewy, this loaf is made by incorp...
08/06/2026

June's Loaf of the Month: Brown Rice Porridge Sourdough! Highly nutritious, moist and chewy, this loaf is made by incorporating cooked brown rice porridge into our dough for extra body and flavour - and the porridge naturally helps to extend the loafed shelf life. In stores until the end of June.

Think you know our sourdoughs? Well, think again! Here’s what’s so special about our seeded sourdough loaf (As seen in M...
27/05/2026

Think you know our sourdoughs? Well, think again! Here’s what’s so special about our seeded sourdough loaf (As seen in Mojo Coffee, Auckland-wide)

Our seeded sourdough has been one of our mainstays for 15 years. The original inspiration for this loaf came from our “bible”, Breads from Le Brea by Nancy Silverton. It was one of the loaves our founder and head baker Andrew was keen to develop very early on when looking to expand the menu. However, the variety of exotic grains Nancy used in her recipe simply couldn’t be locally sourced in the early 2000s!

Fast forward 10 years, and the supplier market was very different. New and exciting grains such as quinoa, amaranth and millet were now more readily available, and Andrew was able to circle back to this idea and develop a seeded loaf that would aim to be our “most healthy” sourdough. Along with those three grains we added 10 more, including oats, chia seeds, and rye flakes to create our own, bespoke ‘seeded mix’. With the addition of some rye and purple wholemeal to the dough base, our healthy loaf took shape.

Today this loaf has continued to sell well in both the retail and wholesale spaces. And while the grains add texture and nutrients, they also enhance the keeping qualities of this bread, perfect if you’re wanting your loaf to stretch over a few days! 

“The seeded sourdough has been on the Mojo menu since before I started more than nine years ago. It’s our main sourdough that we use for our eggs on toast, we don’t even give the customers a choice - it’s seeded sourdough. It’s always consistent and keeps very well in the fridge. Mojo loves the seeded sourdough!” – Paul Davies, Mojo Head Chef

GET TO KNOW: OUR COFFEE SUPPLIER, BEN FROM BE SPECIALTY! founder Ben Boyle will never forget the first time he met Wild...
19/05/2026

GET TO KNOW: OUR COFFEE SUPPLIER, BEN FROM BE SPECIALTY!

founder Ben Boyle will never forget the first time he met Wild Wheat’s founder Andrew Fearnside 15 years ago – Andrew showing up to their meeting in flour-covered pants, while he was standing behind his coffee machine with his own pants covered in coffee!

“I was more than a little excited to meet [Andrew],” says Ben. At the time, Wild Wheat didn’t serve coffee in-store, but that soon changed after Ben and Andrew’s initial meeting.

Now, Be Specialty roasts a special blend for all of Wild Wheat’s stores, dubbed ‘Stumpy’. Says Ben, “This was a blend we developed for Wild Wheat - at the time we only had the one… and Andrew wanted something stronger and with more body - a coffee to help get the bakers going in the wee hours of the morning.”

There’s plenty of similarities between Wild Wheat and Be Specialty – we’re both family-owned and owner-operator businesses and it’s because of these synergies, and the fact that they’ve grown together, is why Ben loves working with Wild Wheat.

“Sharing the ups and downs of the hospitality industry over the long term has been fantastic. It’s been a really rewarding journey. The work culture of all the six Wild Wheat stores has been a joy to see grow,” he tells. “We’re incredibly proud of our 15-year relationship… and we’re also big fans of Wild Wheat breads! It's great seeing Wild Wheat bread boxes in many of our other customers' cafes.”

Be Speciality was started in 2006 by Ben as a little espresso bar, and being one of the first specialty coffee ships in Auckland was an exciting time. Now they have a dedicated roasting site in Birkenhead, and supply their delicious coffee to more than 30 cafes.

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Auckland
2022

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 5pm
Tuesday 7am - 5pm
Wednesday 7am - 5pm
Thursday 7am - 5pm
Friday 7am - 5pm
Saturday 8am - 4pm
Sunday 8am - 4pm

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