Like any good romance, we met Krista over a plate of food - more specifically over the dessert pass.

Krista has always been in hopso but it took her a while to end up in the kitchen. She’s always loved cooking but was never sure if it was quite the right thing for her. After a year mincing around Malta presumably hoping to experience some international culinary wonders - she instead found herself missing the food back home and on return enrolled in chef school. Krista went on to cook at Meredith’s and then spent the better part of four years at Gemmayze street. 

When lockdown hit she decided it was a good opportunity to give her own thing a crack and launched her own micro-bakery Bunanza, which alongside private catering is now her full-time gig. Bunanza has given Krista the opportunity to have a little more balance in life, with the trade off being that it’s quite a solo situation. When we chatted she talked about the strange pull of working in hopso, the addictive nature of kitchens, and the perverse joy in the hustle of it all - despite its ruthlessness. We noted that although she clearly loves food, it was the relationships she has made during her time cooking that she spoke most affectionately to. 

Despite her Chinese heritage, her Dad, unfortunately, knows nothing of good food so there’s not a huge amount of influence coming from there. As a kid, she spent a lot of time baking and eating lace marzipan with her nan who was a pro wedding cake maker. Her grandad was also an amazing preserver and cook so they spent a lot of time hanging out in the garden together and experimenting with his various concoctions.

Tulips are Krista’s favourite flower.