Playing with Fire - Kyle "Uncle" Dunkle and his Coromandel made hot sauce
“Bro, it’s pretty epic” Kyle “Uncle” Dunkle says with a big grin on his face.
Kyle is describing the home town where he gets to work. We’re yarning where it all began - at Kuaotunu’s Kua Kawhe, the first stockist of his Uncle Dunkle’s hot sauce back in 2018.
“I look straight out over the ocean from my home office, I get to give the lads a surf report on demand, and most mornings I can see fish crashing around in front of me.”
Not that Kyle has much time for fishing lately, he’s under the pump making, bottling, and selling his famous hot sauce.
It’s a three day process during the week to make his special Uncle Dunkles hot sauce, which involves a mixture of smoking and roasting in a wood fired pizza oven, fired by kanuka (tea tree). Then he typically hits the road for the weekend, promoting his Coromandel made hot sauce around New Zealand at markets and to retailers. As soon as he’s home, it is time to get another batch down.
His process of playing with fire and smoke makes his sauce unique in New Zealand.
Kyle says he saw the potential of cooking in a wood fired pizza oven while he worked as pizza chef at Lukes Kitchen.
“The pizza oven is so versatile. It holds incredible heat. After Lukes closed on a Sunday night we’d get the community together on a Monday for a community pot luck using the residual heat. I saw you can also use it to slow cook meat. I started making pie fillings for Kua Kahwe, and they were just incredible, you can’t get that flavour from anything but fire.”
Kyle’s fascination with fire can be traced back to cooking over charcoal at university. “I just love the ritual of lighting the fire and having to be there to tend to it.”
His journey as a chef began at a lodge in the Rocky Mountains, and a mountain man named Doug who worked at the lodge remains his food hero to this day.
“We’d do a campfire cook up every Monday, and literally everything was cooked in a dozen camp ovens over fire. Pies. Cornbread. Beef Rump. Pork Loin. Spare Ribs. Potato Gratin. I can still remember old mate Doug lift the lid of the camp oven, sweat dripping off his brow and saying “Man I wanna see those taties bubbling””
Kyle’s love of fishing, especially fly fishing brought him to New Zealand in 2011. His road trip included a long stop cooking pizza’s at Luke’s. “At the stage is was pretty casual man! This cafe was still a workshop and Luke’s Dad was still working on cars - it was super cruisy.” There were plenty more sights to see and trout to catch, but Kuaotunu’s lifestyle drew him back to a permanent gig at Lukes, New Zealand residency, and Kyle reckons 500,000 pizza’s later he was ready to jump into something of his own.
“Kuaotunu has got a lot bigger for sure, and I think Lukes is one of the reasons. People love the beach and everything but if you can get good food too, that’s a huge drawcard. I love how its kept its soul though, its not like a lot of other towns that have gone too crazy.”
“I’m very fortunate to have had the community rally around me. Luke was very supportive back in the day. Adam from Bluefridge Brewery was super sharing with some great contacts to get my branding up and running. Lauren at Lukes nailed my graphics and label. I’ve got Johan who works part time for me who has been super helpful. And of course, I’m forever thankful for the Dunes Golf Club who provide me with the facility to make the sauce. I’m grateful to have had all that help. Kuaotunu and Matarangi sort of see Uncle Dunkle’s as their sauce and thats really cool.”
Kyle’s hot sauce is pretty much a staple here at home. We love a bit of heat with most meals, starting from on top of free range eggs in the morning, and Uncle Dunkle’s has the ultimate balance of heat, acid, sweetness and richness. It goes particularly well with seafood, in our ika matas and fish cakes. Being locally made too, is a huge bonus for us.
Seems Kyle is on the same waka with the eggs! “Oh man, I just love it on eggs in the morning. I’m a big taco fan, and it goes real well in them. As a dipping sauce next to some mayo. It pretty much goes with everything. We now do a mega hot sauce, we do get a lot of chilli lovers asking for that real hit, but personally, I like our medium BBQ sauce which has the perfect balance for me.”
So what is in store for Kyle and Uncle Dunkles?
“Man, I’m just focussed at the moment on pumping the sauce out. I guess getting some more help involved is going to be necessary, at this stage I am still even labelling the bottles by hand myself, I don’t have too much time for much else apart from my sauce! There’s an element of trust in this product, people come and talk to me at the markets, and they know who is making it every step of the way and the love that goes into it. I think people want that connection with their food these days, and that human touch.”
“But one thing that really lights people up is that it is made on the Coromandel. When people visit my stand at a market, whether it’s Tauranga, Hamilton or Taupo, and find out where its made, they put on this big smile - everyone loves the Coromandel man!”
If you haven’t tried Uncle Dunkles yet - do yourself a favour and grab yourself a 4Packundi today! https://www.uncledunkles.co.nz/shop
Written by Carl Muir