About The Lemon Tree Café & Restaurant

The Lemon Tree Café was opened on Dec. 6^th, 2004 by Alexandra & Thomas Ehret and enjoys great popularity. Various articles in “Cuisine”, “Taste Magazine”, the Otago Daily Times, AA Magazine and the “Clutha Leader” as well as an interview on national radio broadcast across New Zealand and the South Pacific have contributed to the Café’s growing success.

The Lonely Planet has published The Lemon Tree Cafe as one of the regions best Cafes in the latest New Zealand edition. We also had several famous guests such as Gavin Hood, the director of the X-man 4 movie, Michael Hill,the famous New Zealand Jeweller,The Black Seeds band on their New Zealand and Australia Tour 2008, Grada, the Irish Folk Band on their New Zealand, Australia and Japan Tour..., who released The Lemon Tree Cafe on their Facebook page.

We are very proud of our gem, which is a family business in every sense!

 

Thomas

Thomas has undertaken two apprenticeships as a chef and pastry chef in Germany, and studied hotel management at the "Hotelfachschule Heidelberg" in Germany. His work experience included several years of travel when he worked in five-star hotels in Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain and New Zealand.

He has also held the position of head chef at a five-star hotel in Switzerland.

Alexandra

Alexandra studied hotel, catering and institutional management at Thames Valley University in London, Great Britain and obtained work experience all over the world including England, Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand. She was also the restaurant manager at a five-star hotel in Switzerland and Germany.

She has considerable experience in Sales & Marketing with the Holiday Inn chain, for which she was the sales manager in Heidelberg, Germany.

They both have been in charge of the VIP catering for the German Pop-Band PUR, Bridgestone Formula 1 in Hockenheim, Germany including the catering for Michael Schumacher and the VIP Catering for the Canadian Cirque du Soleil in Frankfurt, Germany. They also held cooking classes on Easter Island, Chile and Bora Bora, Tahiti, French Polynesia.

Gregor (March 2006) & Aurélie (August 2007)... our latest additions and future gourmets!

 

Meet the rest of the Lemon Tree Family - our staff:

	Mareen Mareen is here for the second year already and came over from Suhl in Germany. She has got extensive experience in the hospitality industry and we have known her from working in Switzerland already.
	Cameron Cam is our only "true-blue" Kiwi staff member. He assists with the food preparation, enabling Thomas and Stefan to create those beautifully designed and delicious meals! He is also the calming presence in our kitchen, keeping everybody else grounded. Cam has been with us for more than two years already, making him the longest-serving member of staff!
	Juliana Is from Brazil and has been in New Zealand for the last 2 years. She is here to get some more experience in the Cafe trade and is great fun to have to keep the ethnic variety interesting.
	Susanne came over from Berlin in Germany to get to know New Zealand and to help us at our busy Cafe, she has spent time in Ireland too and likes to practice her spoken English which has been gained over the years studying.