She might have a PhD in art history but Emily Goldthorpe is just as happy serving up fried egg tacos from a truck window on a city street.
Ms Goldthorpe and her husband, Alex Drummond, both 28, have brought their food truck, The Wolf You Feed, to Dunedin.
So far, she reckoned running a food-truck business was harder than doing a doctorate, with a wider range of skills needed.
It was while living in Wellington that the couple, both of whom were from Dunedin and had studied at the University of Otago, decided they were keen for a fairly major life change.
At that stage, Mr Drummond was teaching music at Wellington College and Ms Goldthorpe was writing her PhD thesis.
They got thinking about what they liked doing; Ms Goldthorpe spent most of her time cooking for friends and family rather than writing that thesis, she quipped.
So they thought about opportunities in the food area and decided to do a food truck, a venture that was already popular in Wellington.
Planning how to set up a commercial kitchen in a truck took a long time but they managed to get a workspace that was spacious, despite looking small from the outside.
They moved south over Christmas last year and settled at Hawea, in Central Otago, and started trading in mid-March, doing lunches and the local farmers markets.
Business was starting to build up "quite nicely'' but they encountered a problem with being unable to trade on council land legally.
Shifting to Dunedin was a way to overcome that; it was also where they had family and they thought it was a good place to expand the business.
There were also more options if they needed extra income, Mr Drummond said.
The city had been very supportive of new businesses - and food trucks - and Ms Goldthorpe believed there was a rise in small businesses and young people "doing what they want to do''.
After eight and a-half years of tertiary study, Ms Goldthorpe wanted to do something different, something she enjoyed on a daily basis, instead of something she enjoyed most of the time but had developed "a love-hate relationship'' with, she said.
When she first moved to Wellington, she thought that a job at the likes of Te Papa or the National Library of New Zealand could suit her.
But then she discovered it was not what she wanted.
She still loved art history but it was nice to do something completely different and also hands-on, she said.
She came from something of a foodie family and food was a key ingredient in them spending time together.
Mr Drummond developed his love of food after meeting Ms Goldthorpe.
Prior to that, he admitted he was not much of a cook and would never have dreamed of eventually running a food business.
The couple, with assistance from Ms Goldthorpe's mother, catered for their own wedding three and a-half years ago.
It was partly to keep the budget down and they also wanted to do it themselves.
For Ms Goldthorpe, that was a highlight of the wedding.
"For us, what we enjoy is meeting people and making food,'' Mr Drummond said.
The couple began trading in Dunedin this week, in the university and Dunedin Hospital area, and the menu, which was mostly vegetarian wholefood, was to be changed weekly so they did not get bored cooking the same food.
Ms Goldthorpe wanted it to be a sustainable business, both economically and environmentally.
While a cafe was a possibility in the future, the focus now was on working together, making nice food and "seeing where it goes'', Mr Drummond added.
The pair's respective skills complemented each other and they were used to being together in a small space, having had "lots of practice'' in a small studio apartment in Wellington, Ms Goldthorpe said.
The couple were enjoying being back in Otago, living at Portobello, with a view of Otago Harbour and the hills.
Last time she lived in the South, it was as a poor student in a cold flat.
Somehow the city felt different now and more lively, she said.
