Wen & Yen: is this the sweetest offering in the village?

It’s obvious when food is prepared with love, care and passion. And nowhere is it more clear than at Street Feast’s Wen & Yen – a dessert bar with a focus on delicious allergen-friendly products like donuts, cakes and tarts.

Wen & Yen co-founder Wendy Sneah grew up helping out in her family’s fish and chip shop in Wellington, where she had to stand on a box to serve customers. She lived and breathed food and hospitality, explored a corporate career in industry where she learnt business skills and management, but ultimately wanted to chart her own course.

A conversation at Christmas six years ago with sister-in-law Yen Sneah, who studied and excelled in patisserie, sparked the idea of a combined business venture. First they spent their time brainstorming. They trialled recipes for ice cream sandwiches for local markets, developed further products they thought would succeed, found popularity as a food stall, and before long made the leap: resigning from their jobs and opening a shop in Albany. Their offering – a focus on specialist desserts – resonated in the local community.

“Being a bakery we knew we had to do something different to stand out,” says Wendy. “We specialised in donuts and were inspired by a customer who is coeliac to start preparing non-gluten and vegan donuts. We had to have confidence that people would travel for this product, and they do. We used to stock them once a week, then thirty a day, then weekends. Now 80% of our menu is non-gluten.”

Wen & Yen at Street Feast offers donuts, cakes, slices, tarts, waffles and Little 'Lato gelato. Visit in-store and follow them on Facebook and Instagram to find out what’s in the cabinet each week.