Lisa Richards started Knutsford Gourmet with a simple mission statement: To introduce new flavours to the cheeseboards of Perth. While Perth’s access to quality cheese has steadily increased, she noticed that people were more inclined to fill a plain cracker with spreads, fruits and nuts, than to look at upgrading the cracker itself. We spoke to Lisa about how she started making gourmet crackers, and her experiences as likely Perth’s only gourmet handmade cracker producer. "I wanted to encourage people to eat a different flavoured biscuit with their cheese instead of a plain cracker or cheese on it’s own. People would add paste and fruit to a plain cracker, so why not have a flavoured cracker?” Lisa began making biscuits when one morning, stocking up at The Grand Fromage at Kyilla Farmers Market, she noticed she couldn't get everything she needed to entertain guests that night, "I told him he should sell biscuits and accompaniments,” She suggested that she could make these biscuits herself, and showed up to the next market with her first batch, baked in her home oven, "He loved them, and became my first stockist.” Starting with a Walnut and Honey Lavosh based on a recipe she learned as an apprentice chef, Lisa began expanding her offerings and building her brand. "I think it helps having been a chef for 17 years. It helps to know your flavours. For example I don’t use raw fennel seeds, I toast them first which gives a more nutty, wholesome flavour. I have different styles of biscuit as base styles, and then any flavour can go on it, It’s all about experience and experimentation. Her products now include graham crackers, lavosh, multi-seed crackers, shortbread and biscotti, each with suggested cheese pairings on their packaging. "Just like any food, a chef puts together a plate with flavours which all compliment each other. I’ve designed styles of biscuits which will compliment your style of cheese." Each package contains just enough produce for an average cheeseboard without any waste, the crackers have a good shelf-life of 5-8 weeks depending on the product, even despite being handmade with no preservatives. As her brand expands, Lisa has moved from her home oven to a commercial kitchen, with yet another move in the works. She plans to expand her range and distribution without neglecting the quality and bespoke nature of her produce. “My home oven made everything up until about three months ago. It was on morning, noon and night. I would drop the kids to school, roll, bake, then pick them up with trays ready for the oven. I’d put them to bed and start again from seven to around midnight, then start again." "Once I’ve got the new space I’m looking for I can get the product to a lot more people. I also want to start touching on the Eastern states.” The success and positive reactions Knutsford Gourmet has earned have shown Perth’s trending interest towards more complex and nuanced food, "People don’t spend money going out to clubs so much any more, they spend money on food, something you can remember and talk about for the rest of your life.” said Lisa. In closing, we asked Lisa how she sets up a cheeseboard at home. "I always have a lavosh, something long, then a stack, some nuts, olives and fresh fruit on your plate,” she said, "I like some sweet and some savoury, Three cheeses and the biscuits which best suit." Order Knutsford Gourmet and find their stockists on their website.
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Perth sometimes gets a reputation as a sleepy city, and we think we’ve found the reason: Great coffee becomes increasingly difficult to find in the late afternoon. While Perth had no shortage of incredible brews, many of our favourite stores shut before 4pm, leaving us coffee lovers who aren’t morning people stuck with a homemade or lacklustre fix. We’ve searched Perth and found four spots serving up the goods well into the evening. And so whether it’s to steel ourselves for a late night of festivities, recover from a long day’s work, or just because coffee is fantastic, we head to: Big El’s x The WKND - Yagan SquareThe newest addition to our list is a collaborative space between Big El’s Latin American Fusion restaurant and The WKND, a specialty coffee space which is fast becoming one of our absolute favourites. When does Big El’s become The WKND and vice versa? We have no idea, but we don’t really mind because they serve great coffee all the way through. After coffee try: Pulled Pork Mango Tacos Henry on 8th - MaylandsThis quirky cafe filled with art and vintage furniture transforms into a bar and restaurants as the night goes on, but never turns off the coffee machine. Be sure to check out their art space upstairs and keep up to date with their regular live art and music nights. After coffee try: a pork burger and a beer, or if you’re really raring to go skip straight on to an espresso martini. Petition Kitchen - Perth CityIn the beautiful state buildings, Petition Kitchen dim the lights and take on a slightly more formal vibe in the evenings, but they’re always happy to make lovely coffee. Stay for delicious food and fresh oysters after your coffee has perked up a bit, and be sure to check out their wonderful neighbours. After coffee try: A couple share plates before a trip through to their wonderful neighbouring wine bar or beer corner. Gordon St Garage - West PerthThe converted Gordon Street Garage now serves as a beautiful cafe/restaurant as well as home base for the mano a mano coffee roastery. While you won’t be able to peek at any coffee roasting (which often starts at 4am), you’ll still find fresh coffee served all throughout the night. After coffee try: BBQ Salmon and a WA white wine. Got a favourite evening coffee spot? Let us know in the comments!
As part of our ongoing series on the art of grazing we spoke to Tiffany of Tiffany Keal Creative Studio. Tiffany specialises in event styling and elegant and beautiful grazing tables. We caught up to discuss her favourite food board additions. Could you introduce yourself and your creative studio I’m Tiffany Keal, Creative Director of TKCS. I started my creative journey by intensive studies at WAPPA of set & costume design, followed by the move to Melbourne where I undertook a course in Visual Merchandising and Event styling. I embraced the knowledge from both courses and when back in Perth I started my own business specialising in Creative Direction and Styling. Grazing is our business and our passion, I have always been passionate about food and it seemed a natural progression to align both food and my styling to produce grazing feasts not only for the eye yet also for the palette. When you set up a grazing station what are the things which people immediately jump on? What are your essentials? People are always drawn to the beautiful soft cheeses. Depending on the visual scape we vary our parings to enable us to use seasonal produce. Dripping honeycomb and candied walnuts are a crowd pleaser. What are your favourite inclusions and what are the sleeper hits which people might not think of but which go down a treat? This often changes due to seasonal favourites. Often suppliers will let us know when they have something new and unusual, as we're always up for experimenting. Our focus is to hero the cheese, artisan meats, and seasonal fruit: always including glazed pears and fresh honeycomb. Our go to for honeycomb are Perth local bee gurus The Furious Bee. You’re at home on a Friday night and just want to throw a few things on a board, what do you go to? Manchego, Sicilian green olives, Halloumi with caramelised dates, Duck & orange pate from Poach Pear. And of course our candied walnut Does your work with the studio extend to what you eat at home, or are you more inclined to just throw a few things on the board? It comes naturally in everything I do. I can’t help myself, it must be styled! Yet always with a more relaxed approach at home. What are the simplest things which step up your experience? Which are the most overlooked? We always use the finest produce, aesthetically we want to create visual magic. More importantly it must taste as good (if not better) than it looks! For us its about having a less is more approach: It's better to have produce that everyone is swooning over. Check out more of Tiffany's work on her website and follow more pictures of beautiful events and grazing tables on her Facebook and Instagram. More GrazingNo Mafia has established itself as a treat for wine lovers and a highlight among the William Street strip. Owned and Operated by Emma Ferguson and her partner, Dan Morris, No Mafia remains relevant and exciting in Perth’s wine scene for their ability not only to source amazing local wines, but also to play their own hand in creating new wines. We spoke to Emma about how No Mafia supplement their wine list with collaborations with talented local winemakers. An Italian ApproachEmma was travelling around Sicily with her partner and Co-owner Dan, and the couple were struck by the correlation between Sicilian and Western Australian cultures. They both loved the seaside, had similar climates, and produced outstanding wine. “We noticed you’d go to a restaurant and they’d have their favourite Etna rosso, and it would be at a really good price point,” Emma said. And when they came back to Perth to start No Mafia, they wanted their own house wine to be similarly delicious, while keeping a great price. Collaboration"We decided that the focus on our house wines would also be natural wines, always organic, hand picked, no additives, and always local. We've got a lot of friends in the industry who make wine, and do a little bit of winemaking ourselves.” The great quality of No Mafia’s house wines come from collaboration with local winemakers, including Dormilona’s Josephine Perry, Blind Corner’s Ben Gould and Paul Nelson. The house wines sit beside other more premium collaborations, which have included Stormy Q, their collaboration wine with Josephine Perry, and an upcoming collaborative nero d'avola, zibibbio blend with Brendan and Laura of Unico Zelo. "It's quite easy because these are friends of ours. We go down to the regions a lot, I’m a surfer so I'm always in Margaret River. When I'm down there, probably about once a month, we'll just say, 'hey are we doing a wine?'" "Even with Unico Zelo, it was just a 'hey we should do a wine,' ‘awesome’. If it works for them, great, if it doesn't we won't push it.” House Wines in PerthWe asked Emma if their high quality house wines challenged perceptions of house wines in Perth as low quality. While she agreed, she also noted that, now in their fourth year, No Mafia has established their house wine as both well-priced and delicious.
“People are actually coming in and ordering a bottle of our house wine, knowing that they love it. If they want to spoil themselves, they're more than welcome to. We've got wines at all sorts of price points. But if it's a tuesday night and they don't want to break the bank, they can come in and order a glass, knowing they’re getting something organic, vegan and made locally." Emma and Dan always take some part in each of their collaborative wines: This year their house wines were made by Ryan O’Meara of Express Winemakers, and Emma had the pleasure of helping blend their semillon based house white, and stomped on the grapes of their shiraz house red. "Kind of like it in in southern Italy. In Tuscany you have chianti, if Sicily you hve nero d'avola. It was important to us that we keep it local. Were always really proud of our house wines. It's not something that we're trying to sneak away from.” Emma said. "We always have a little story to tell, and a bit of heart and soul in our wines.” 12/4/2018 0 Comments Upgrading Your Charcuterie BoardCharcuterie can feel a bit like meat plus alchemy. Originally made to preserve meat before the invention of refrigeration, good charcuterie is a great upgrade for your basic cheese platter. We spoke to Adam Bielawski who makes, sells and distributes charcuterie of all types for his companies Poach Pear, and The Black Pig Deli & Co. Adam helped us break down what makes charcuterie great, and how to tell you’re getting the best charcuterie you can find. Charcuterie 101Adam says while they don’t tend to categorise much, what separates one piece of charcuterie from another is all in the process. The foremost distinction comes from whether a piece of charcuterie is based on ground meat or a whole piece of meat which has gone through a curing process. Ground charcuterie goes through a mincing process before being cooked, cured, or both. The end result is determined by how fine the meat is ground, with terrine and salami on the coarse end of the spectrum, and mortadella and pâté at the finest end. Ground charcuterie, also called Forcemeats, can be further broken down into cooked and cured meats. Mortadella retains its bright colour and shape from cooking in either water or smoke, whereas salami gets deep in colour and a little rough around the edges from being fermented and then air-dried until it loses a predetermined amount of moisture. The other side charcuterie is cured whole pieces of meat. This includes prosciutto, jamon iberico and serrano. These meats are usually whole portions of a butchered pig which are salted and spiced before being air-dried for between six and twelve months. Much like with mortadella, similar cuts of meat can be smoked or cooked to create a familiar deli-style ham. Levelling Up Your CharcuterieAmong his own salami and prosciutto Adam focusses on a less common level of charcuterie, making terrine, pâté and rillette for their Poach Pear brand. "They're all charcuterie which is made relatively quickly and are to be eaten within a month. It's not a long term process, whereas salamis and hams take months to prepare, and are made to last a long time.” Adam said. At the Black Pig Deli & Co. Adam makes seasonal terrines, which are sliced fresh for the customer. "Terrine is named after the cooking vessel, which is similar to a bread pan. The meat which goes in is similar to a sausage.” he said, "Terrine comes from the farm. It uses everything, and whatever herbs and vegetables you have growing. It's really thrifty: I'll get a local pig and make that into three or four different products, then make terrine out of the trim, or the excess leftover meat. We also use local duck and heritage chicken, as well as lamb." Pâté is a spreadable paste made of liver which is blended and then set in a jar with gel or clarified butter. Adam prepares Pâté using chicken and duck, with various different seasonings. Rillette, one of the lesser known charcuteries, is slow cooked pork shoulder or neck, usually cooked in it's own stock with vegetables and herbs for six or seven hours and then shredded set in a jar back in with it's stock. Rillette is similar to confit, and employs a confit cooking process, but the charcuterie itself is defined by the meat being shredded before being set back in with the stock. Where to BuyWe can’t recommend The Black Pig Deli & Co. in Inglewood enough. But if you’re scoping out your local, there are plenty of signals to look out for which can tell you whether they’re putting out great products. Adam says the quickest and best way to find out about a deli’s produce is to speak to the person behind the counter. "We're a small family business, so it really matters to us that we source the best quality product, and that the customer trusts us that our choice is right. We get that trust and respect. When I'm slicing I can tell people where most of our stuff comes from. I can tell them that this is comes from a certain butcher, or that I've made it, but that I've selected from this particular butcher.” said Adam. Good deli owners will only purchase charcuterie from butchers they are proud to support, and will often develop a personal relationship with those butchers and farmers along the way. “There’s really no comparison between the role of small butcher or someone doing small batch charcuterie versus a supermarket.” Adam said, "The stuff made in-house in supermarkets is made for the masses, it's got to be the same flavour every single time, and has to be made exactly the same way. A small butcher can adjust the flavour, the salt content, they can treat each animal individually and taste, rather than recipe, dictates their process." "A large scale supermarket may use caged meat or just one variety of animal, and often not the best quality. They don't have any personal relationship with that animal, it just comes in and gets pressed or made into that piece of meat. Whereas a small place will likely know the farmer and will build relationships. We have a really good relationship with Linley Valley Pork. We’ve seen and understand their process from start to finish. You have a sense of pride when you're working with something you've seen first hand." Finding Quality CharcuterieYou can get a lot of information about a piece of charcuterie just from looking at the fridge. Adam notes to look for a small selection of whole pieces, ready to slice for order. Colour and size variations are actually an indicator of high quality, bespoke meats, as a perfectly shaped ham leg indicates that the product has been set in a mould. A good deli will also have determined the best way to slice each meat which comes into their fridge. While Adam says he is happy to cut to a customer’s taste, he is also happy to make suggestions. "I like to slice based on what the customer wants, but I do like certain ways of cutting certain meats.” Adam said, "A salami is better off a little bit thicker than say a slice of proscuitto or jamon, which will just melt in your mouth if sliced thin enough.” Adam’s Picks for a Simple Cheese & Charcuterie BoardWhile charcuterie can get nerdy and complex, Adam recommends a simple, easy cheese and charcuterie board: two or three cheeses and two or three meats. He recommends mixing it up, so you don't oversaturate with any one sort.
"I always recommend a pate or rillette, I try to incorporate a Poach Pear product, they're basically designed to go with any cheese board. I would always recommend a solid meat, so like a ham, proscuitto or jamon, a salami of some description, and something a little different." When all of your types of meat are covered, Adam recommends balancing out your board with a range of flavours: Even if you're a fiend for spice, it's great to have one middle-of-the-road meat to give your palate a different flavour. The same can go for thickness. Finally, Adam recommends using the cheese and charcuterie board as a space to experiment with something new. You can, and should, get your favourites. But there's room on the board for one meat which you haven't heard of, and which might become your newest obsession. "There's always something people recognise, but we also change the cabinet quite frequently. I always have about half a dozen things in the cabinet which are a little bit different, which most people haven't tried before." Mash Brewing is a gem amongst West Australian breweries for their ability to put out approachable, easy-drinking beers amongst complex and exciting seasonals all from a brewery small enough to be tucked behind the bar of their Swan Valley brewpub. Today marks the release of Sarcasm, their annually brewed and oxymoronically labelled Session Imperial India Pale Ale. At once both easy-drinking and intensely alcoholic, the 9.5% beer is a bitter, boozy, citrusy and piney two-batch release. We spoke to Mash’s new head brewer, Damien Bussemaker about the challenges involved in the latest iteration of Sarcasm Session IIPA. Coming from a brewing position as Elmar’s, Damien joined Mash as Head Brewer just four months ago, and relishes the chance to work with a new range of styles. “It’s very different from Elmar’s here.” Says Damien, "Down there everything is brewed to German Purity Law, and it’s restricted to German styles. It was a good opportunity to nail all of those styles, but Mash is great because nothing is off limits, and you can use way more hops.” The German Purity Law refers to a real law passed in Germany in the early sixteenth century which dictated that beer should be made out of only four ingredients: Water, hops, barley and yeast. The law was intended to maintain quality and avoid dodgy additives, but modern brewers, Mash included, have begun to use the law more as a guideline than a rule, “There’s not much deviation here, most of the beers do use just those four ingredients. But we will occasionally a bit of extra dextrose and sugar to boost the alcohol when needed.” Sarcasm, is a beer made by taking many such aspects of beer brewing to their extremes, using much more hops, barley and yeast compared to their standard releases, the result is a much bigger and more powerful beer. Brewing to 9.5% alcohol means enough barley to completely fill their Mash tun, which Damien says makes the necessary stirring particularly difficult. Once mashed, Sarcasm takes about a week longer than their standard releases to ferment, during which additional hops are added in a process called ‘dry hopping'. “Sarcasm is designed to be just super hoppy,” says Damien, “You’ve got 30+ kilos of dry hops between the two batches, which makes it a challenge for the accountant to cost it, too.” “All of the old Sarcasm releases have been really good, it’s not just another IIPA,” says Damien, noting that this year’s release will show his particular brewer’s thumbprint with an update of last year’s recipe including some new hops and malts, "This year there are a few different malts and a few different hops. There are a few new-age hops which we didn’t have last year, a bit of vic secret and a couple of traditional American hops.” These new decisions are informed by Mash’s other seasonal runs, and from brewing test batches in their smaller sample sized equipment, “We can run a test batch of 20 litres and see what each new hop brings to the table, and we made a double ipa last year which we’ve based a portion of the Sarcasm recipe off, more for volume than for types of hops.” says Damien, “Some of the American hops are piney, citrusy and resiny, some are fruity, giving pineapple, melon, mango flavours, but using just one runs the risk of being quite one-note.” The popularity of Sarcasm, plus the decision to can it, further adds to the production process. Mash put out roughly one seasonal release each month and in most cases these require “One brewing day, one kegging day, and just a bit of nurturing in-between.” However, the canning process and multiple batches of Sarcasm further slow down the release process. All of the work involved has resulted in a uniquely delicious beer with a load of hoppy character. Due to the large amount of hops, Sarcasm greatly benefits from being drunk fresh, and its seasonal nature and propensity for being snapped up by beer enthusiasts, only serves to ensure it is shown off at it’s best. Sarcasm is now canned, kegged and shipping to bars and bottle shops throughout WA. Check out Mash’s social channels for where to get yours. More:We've never been much for showrooms, we prefer the studio out back where the metaphorical or sometimes literal sausages are made. We've spent time with local jewellers in the unassuming little workbenches where quarter-million dollar diamonds are cut, and we've spent more than our fair share of time in Perth's iconic Chris Huzzard Studio, a photographer's playground which does a wonderful job reminding us that only where the camera is pointing needs to be pristine. This fondness for transparency came about immediately when we stepped into the home of High Spirits distillery. Nothing is unclean or slapdash about the distillery, but the aesthetics of the workspace are clearly secondary to the product itself. You get the impression that this is where work gets done, and High Spirits distillery's first two products, a triticale Vodka and Gin, are testament to Mike Caban's dedication to putting out exciting and beautiful spirits. High Spirits may well be the smallest distillery in Australia. Entirely family operated and funded, the distillery is less focussed on bells, whistles and gimmicks than in becoming a nurturing ground for Mike to use his chefs background in exploring and experimenting, all with a creative drive and a passion for great ingredients. "Ideas for distilling are what keep my brain ticking," said Mike, "Pretty much anything you can eat besides the obvious things like fish and steak, you can run through a still. And most will impart some sort of flavour. One thing I'm very excited about right now is making a ginger beer from scratch using wild yeast, and distilling that ginger beer. I've never done it before, it's still in it's infancy at the moment.” Vodka and Gin"It was obvious that gin and vodka were the start, owing to the ageing requirements of anything else." The genesis of High Spirits came about four years ago as Mike and his brother attended a Cognac tasting night. "We started talking later on that night about what we could do, and a distillery was the obvious choice. I had a knowledge of stills from having a friend who worked selling stills. The seed was planted and over the next two and a half to three years we threw everything we had into it financially and scraped together what we could from family. I started out on the R&D straight away." As Mike and the family went down the route of licensing and fitting out a distillery, they were fortunate to be approached by a farmer from Dumbleyung, "Our farmer only supplies a handful of producers, amongst them are a couple of breweries and an organic rolled oats producer. He grows to the principals of biodynamics and doesn't use any chemicals, instead, between harvests he lays ground cover crops to regenerate the nitrogen in the soil," said Mike. It was this farmer who suggested they try using the Triticale wheat/rye hybrid grain which is now the base of their vodka and gin. "I distilled the Triticale and it was like nothing I'd ever tried before, not initially a good thing— it was very hard to work with, but the result was a game changer." Apart from using the triticale grain, High Spirits distinguish themselves in making a Gin which is redistilled from their Vodka: At it's heart, Gin is just a juniper flavoured neutral spirit, and part of the Australian gin craze can be attributed to the availability of wholesale neutral spirits which many new distilleries import as the basis of their Gin. High Spirits make their Gin entirely from scratch, considering their Triticale Vodka as an ingredient just as important as each of the twelve botanicals they add. The ability to have control over every aspect of their process not only results in a product which is completely local and bespoke, and also one of the smoothest Gins we've tried. Moving Forward"The idea is the build up a repertoire of spirits which we can knock off as time progresses.” Mike told us he has little interest in looking out at the market for new spirits. Rather than a reactionary creation process, he is relishing the chance to experiment and establish new recipes to build a backbone for their new and seasonal releases. "Everything goes out to our close knit group of family and friends, as you can imagine, lots of people put their hands up for taste testing when you run a distillery.” Said Mike, “Everyone gets a sample of bottles, I don't include any of my notes, just have them write down their own subjective opinion, we develop based on that." "I'm currently working on a few products at the moment, and we also plan on having a series of small batch seasonal runs, "I've got some really nice ingredients to play around with, one thing I'm really liking is vanilla from broken nose.” Said Mike. In the corner of the distillery is a small basket press similar to what you’d find in a small batch winery or cider house. It becomes clear that buying from High Spirits is an investment into Mike’s sheer excitement with the distillery at his hands, mitigated by his dedication to seek out feedback. "I started High Spirits to start a tradition for my family, as well as to provide an income doing something that I loved and to satisfy my need to experiment. And to make something which adds to the market, not just another vodka on the shelf. Nobody that I know of makes triticale vodka. There are tens of thousands of distilleries out there, but I don't know of any other commercially available triticale spirit.” Spirit of a Family BusinessHigh Spirits have strong ties to Mike’s family who are all welcomed to weigh on in the company’s products and direction. The distillery is entirely family funded, with no external debt, and Mike’s brother works as the Co-Managing Director.
Continuing on from their family attitudes, Mike has ensured that the impact made by High Spirits is bespoke and considered even beyond the product itself, and this extends to choosing who stocks their item, and to choosing where their waste goes. Spent grain is a byproduct for distillers, but a valuable food for livestock. Mike was careful to pick a farmer who’s values aligned with his own to receive their spent grain. Concluding on what a family business means to them, and what supporting family businesses looks like, Mike said, "The difference for us is that when you buy from a local producer you’re not paying a CEO, that money is paying a kids school fees, or filling up a family's car” I doubt I'm the only one who's left their Christmas shopping a little late this year. I've always thought it's better to be busy than bored, and these holidays have been bountiful in the former. Fortunately: food is the best gift to buy late. Last minute food buys are often fresher and have a greatly lessened risk of being snapped up by a roommate or family member. So here's a list of our favourite ideas, food, and food-related gifts for the special people in your life this year: FoodsLocal Honey Raw honey and honeycomb from local producers is a prestigious gift in many cultures, but here in Australia it's often overlooked— A shame, as honey bees in Australia are the most productive in the world. We love honey and honeycomb from Honey I'm Home. And if you can make it into their Maylands store be sure to try a few of their honeys first to work out what's right for you. Tea Threeonesix do direct trade with a tea farm in Northern Thailand. What this means for you is some of the best tea available in Perth, all at a great price and all the sweeter because all Threeonesix teas purchased make a direct positive impact in providing safe and dignified employment in Northern Thailand. Threeonesix are even holding a popup retail store in Subiaco every saturday morning until Christmas, check out their Facebook page for details. Local Spirits Spirits from local distilleries Whipper Snapper and High Spirits make us proud of the local spirit scene. Whipper Snapper's Crazy Uncle Moonshine and High Spirits' Vodka make for great summery mixed drinks. Whipper Snapper's Upshot features in our Mint Julep, a drink which will last you a whole summer afternoon, and as for the High Spirits Gin.. You guys are clever, you can work out what to do with that one this summer. Coffee The retail shelf at Modus in Mt Lawley hosts a rotation of some of the best coffees roasted throughout the world. With all of the associated gear you'll need to make it. Dormilona's famous Tinto and Blanco house wines are back in stock and at under $25, they're too good not to have. Snatch some up before they're gone once more! If you're already a fan of the house wines, be sure to also check out the brilliant Bare All Wines label from L.A.S. Vino. Not FoodsCeramics ERVCeramics are a line of beautiful, local and bespoke ceramic mugs, bowls and plates available in William Topp and Monde Design. They're surprisingly hardy and dishwasher safe for everyday use, whilst being striking enough to save as an occasion piece. Cast Iron Cast iron pots and pans make great, heirloom quality gifts for new and experienced cooks. Cast iron radiates heat more than non-stick or stainless steel pans, allowing you to cook with high heat and still cook finnicky foods like chicken to a safe internal temperature. Many will even go straight from the stove to the oven, allowing you to combine the fast direct heat of the stove with the indirect, controlled heat of the oven. Check out Gumtree for low maintenance enamelled products from Lodge and Le Creuset, or try a new un-enamelled pan by Lodge or Solidtechnics. Instant Read Thermometer
A good thermometer is a game changer in the kitchen, from ensuring you never anxiously overcook chicken, to rudimentary sous vide, to brewing finnicky green and oolong teas at the perfect temperature. Fast-reading thermometers like this one by Thermoworks are a little pricier, but don't run the risk of accidentally overcooking your food while hunting around for a correct temperature. As food trends come and go, we're becoming more and more interested in the chefs, artisans and producers who take things back to basics. To fresh produce, simple processes, and great ingredients. All of this is why we're beyond excited to welcome Black Pig Deli & Co., the latest addition to Inglewood's growing Beaufort St strip. The Black Pig Deli & Co. is the latest project by Adam and Marissa of Poach Pear. Similarly unassuming and exciting, the deli makes the perfect stop-in for a picnic or gathering, and amongst ready-to-eat foods is a repository of local and exotic ingredients sure to excite chefs and home cooks. We caught up with Adam to talk about the role of Black Pig Deli & Co. as a specialty store in Inglewood. Everything You Can't Do In a CafeBefore the deli, and before Poach Pear, Adam and Marissa were the owner-operators of Picco's Kitchen in Maylands. Adam is a chef of 22 years, and Marissa has a background in Marketing for food businesses. They started Picco's Kitchen in 2010, and after a brief introductory period their artisan foods company, Poach Pear emerged from within the cafe. "We used to make our own pate and charcuterie, I tried to do as much as I could myself," said Adam, "People asked to buy the pate and we started jarring it up, making maybe half a dozen jars and selling them over the counter." The pates and terrines proved a hit, and Adam soon found his product under the eyes of Blue Cow for export in the Eastern States, "A Blue Cow rep came in for breakfast and asked if we made bigger amounts. We did some samples and originally were only planning on wholesale. We made up some logs and jars of pate and they did a full tasting and liked them, then said 'we want to see your retail range', I didn't realise it would take off." Said Adam. The sudden growth of the Poach Pear brand was enough to necessitate moving out of the cafe and into their own dedicated space. Adam was making between five and ten logs of terrine each week after finishing at the cafe, and not getting much sleep in between. They decided to sell their cafe and move to a kitchen in Caversham, and weren't long before moving from Caversham into the even larger commercial kitchen in Bayswater which they now occupy. "Pretty much right after selling the cafe we decided we wanted another shop-front. We couldn't base out of the industrial part of Bayswater we were working from, and that's when we started looking into a deli.” Adam told us, “I saw the shop was for lease during the night markets, but didn't initially look at it. During the beginning of this year, we were talking to one of the vege growers and I found myself staring, noticing that it was still for lease. We met the agent the next day and had the shop within a week." Since he doesn’t have to prepare food to order, Adam uses the extra time the deli affords him to expand their lines with more charcuterie, preserves and chutneys exclusive to Black Pig Deli & Co. They have an expansive cheese fridge and make fresh terrines which they slice to order. Now that the deli is finally here, Adam says they’re not turning back, "We knew at that stage that a deli in the cafe might work, but now we've started the deli, I'm in no hurry to go back to a cafe.” Black Pig DeliRegarding their name, Adam says “Black pigs are a traditional old pig, they're a rare breed, the original idea actually was 'rare breed,' but black pig rolled off the tongue a little better. The '& Co.' comes from all of the growers and artisan producers we've met over the year, and who we can feature." Adam says he and Marissa took inspiration from the old butchers shops throughout Europe, “We always wanted a black ceiling to focus everything on the shelf. We love black and white, it's our thing, and we wanted an industrial look, with a little bit of wood mixed in to warm it up." At the moment, their shop is about 40% Adam, and 60% ‘Co.', but he is aiming to bring things around the 50/50 mark. For his part, Adam is interested in preserving old techniques and traditions. His foods are simple but well made with local ingredients. “It's our own herbs and a lot of our own citrus. The preserves are all from local farms and growers. Whatever they have in season we grab, and if we can't sell it, we preserve or pickle it.” Adam works closely with local butcher Paul Marinovich, a second generation butcher Adam remembers from his childhood. “He's a Croation-Polish butcher and I had Polish grandparents, so we used to go there quite a lot.” Adam relishes the ability to bring food back to basics and to simple local origins, telling us, “People will always go back to comfort food, the food they had around their grandparents. If you travel enough you notice the rest of the world doesn’t really follow food trends, you can go to Italy and have a tomato sauce which will just blow you away, and it’ll just be vine ripened tomatoes from across the road, garlic grown by their neighbour, they don’t complicate things.” & Co.The ‘& Co.’ in their name was important to Adam and Marissa as it represented the many producers they work with and support in their new position. Adam and Marissa have found exciting foods from local, national and some international producers, many of which are completely new to Inglewood and some which are even new to all of Perth. "There are a few things which aren't from WA or Australia, just because I like them. But for the most part the more local, the better." said Adam, "We've also gone about sourcing really good dry ingredients like a larder would. Things I've struggled to find as a chef. People are always hunting for certain ingredients, and we wanted to use our local position in town to be able to give them those options.” Amongst the products which are exclusive, Knutsford Gourmet custom lavosh and cheese crackers are made specifically for the deli. Pure Naked Honey sell their honey in Bormioli Rocco jars exclusively to the deli— and Roger has even installed hives on their roof. Kokopod chocolate also have exclusive ranges for the deli, and a range of exclusive boards and cheese/pate knives from Heartwood Timber, just out of Bunbury.. Amongst their exclusives, many exciting local players fill their shelves including Dingo Sauce, 66 Barrels, flowers from A Little Bohemia, and fresh loaves from Bread in Common delivered at 10.30 each morning. "We want to have products which chef's might buy and which you can't always get in a supermarket,” said Adam, “And we have a really good testing regime, we're happy to test anything we like, and sell what we like in the shop.” InglewoodIt’s now been a month since the deli opened on the 2nd of October, and Adam and Marissa couldn’t be happier with the response they’ve received from the Inglewood locals. "Having the locals support has always been our main goal.” said Adam "We've had a lot of people come in and say 'we've been waiting for something like this,' It's nice to hear those things, they mean we're on the right track."
While they’ve made a splash in their current entity, the Deli is not the only step Adam and Marissa have in store, with plans to expand and to offer even more local and specialised foods to their customers. "We want customers to tell us what we want, we’ll go find it,” said Adam, "You have to be flexible, you can't just tell people what they want." 26/10/2017 0 Comments Tea with Purpose: threeonesixTea with SignificanceNathanael Foo, the founder of threeonesix Tea is different from a lot of the people we talk to here in that his business didn’t start with an idea or a passion for food but rather a social impact model and a place. Nat had taken a three month volunteering trip learning about human trafficking in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, worked in an anti-human-trafficking organisation in San Francisco, and completed an MBA in Copenhagen, and found himself in Northern Thailand with a list of possible industries and an idea for an impact model. Nat paid a local to drive him around Northern Thailand and help translate as they hopped around farms looking for inspiration. Nat stumbled upon a farm which met all of his needs: A USDA certified organic Tea farm set up with the mission to create safe, dignified employment for local people. We spoke to Nat about creating a direct trade business model which gives consumers access to creating positive change, and all while enjoying quality tea at a great price. “I know the names of the pickers, I’ve plucked some of the tea myself , and most importantly I’ve had meals with tea workers . I don't tell them what to do, I don't tell them what price to charge me, all I need to do is support them in doing what they do well - produce good quality tea through a safe and dignified manner”. The threeonesix ModelDespite their many similarities, the production process between tea and coffee are very different. Coffee cherries are plucked, delivered to a mill, fermented, dried, sold and roasted. It makes sense for people along the supply chain to take some of the profit as they're contributing to the value of the product. In tea, however, everything from growing and picking the leaves, to delivering the rolled up, oxidised, roasted teas Nat sells, is performed on the farm. “The farmers are doing 95% of the work, they're not just experts in agronomy , but in roasting and how to oxidise the tea, what's left is just marketing, sales and logistics.” said Nat. But even though the tea is already finished, the farm and tea pickers often sees less than 1% of the profit made in the sale of their teas. The remainder is eaten up by tea auction houses, blenders, buying agents and retailers. "It's probably not surprising then that a huge amount of people in the tea industry don't make enough money to meet their basic needs.” said Nat. "It's easier to produce a product without as much ethical consideration, and to donate profits away. We make sure that every single step leaves a positive net social impact. We can keep profits because the social impact has already been made. We've supported safe and dignified employment opportunities, and we can still donate profits back into the farm as a trade premium or for particular projects like a school in the community. We have that possibility.” threeonesix’s ethical considerations extend even to Perth, where Nat is careful to price his tea to be as accessible as it can be. “I think it’s quite unjust that people of a lower social economic means can't support socially minded products. Ethical products quite often come with a premium, and to help this I price match comparable tea companies as much as I can.” Said Nat. TeaThe specific details of Nat’s business venture in Northern Thailand didn’t fully form until he tried the tea from the farm from which he now sources. He was not yet particularly involved in tea, but tried their product and decided that he had to work with them, he is now diving head first into the world of tea. “With a good enough product you can get really nerdy with it.” Said Nat, "There are so many different ways of doing it and presenting it, and I still have so much to learn about tea even after the last year and a half really studying it" The threeonesix range consists of eight teas ranging from Oolong, green tea, black tea and herbal tea. Whilst the range is modest, each tea is of exceptional quality and many would surprise even seasoned tea drinkers. The English Breakfast, for example, does not have any tannin, the cottony, puckering feeling present in black tea in teabags. The GABA Oolong is of particular note, a truly unique and complex taste profile, it is processed in nitrogen, the tea preserves the GABA neurotransmitter which is present in tea and rice, but is usually destroyed through oxidation. GABA is helpful in concentration, and so the tea pairs well with working or studying. "The quality is good enough that we don’t need to colour or flavour artificially. The Peppermint, for example is real peppermint without oils or flavourings, which gives it a balanced and naturally sweet profile which a lot of people find quite surprising” Said Nat. Nat and his staff package and label the tea personally, which gives them the chance to see the quality of the tea themselves, and means they can pull out any leaves which might not have rolled up or a twig which may have fallen in, where in a larger operation these may be ignored, and end up in the final product. "It’s literally Farm, to me, to you” Northern Thailand“My passion is to eradicate inequality and injustice," Said Nat, "it's quite broad, and quite universal, exploitation and human trafficking have always made me feel strongly, and there's a lot of that in things like tea.” Nat chose Northern Thailand knowing that it bordered Burma and Laos, two developing nations from which people often enter Thailand as economic refugees— People leaving their home country to escape living in poverty. In addition to these people are a number of ‘Stateless' people living in Thailand, who are not biologically Thai but have lived in Thailand for generations, these stateless people are allowed to live in the land but don't have the rights of a Thai Person. They don't have rights to health care or education and they can only look for employment within the district they were born in. "The sad thing is that when there is a high supply of vulnerable people, traffickers see that as a big advantage for cheap and free labour. They take people and exploit them in many industries including seafood and the sex industry.” Said Nat, “The more you learn about a social problem, the less you act out of guilt or benevolence and the more you want to study it further, to look into initiatives that target upstream factors and create long-term change. I thought why don't we go in that area and support somebody who is already impassioned about providing safe, dignified employment to people who are sociologically vulnerable.” Nat was lucky enough to find a farm who’s values aligned with his own, and which was producing excellent tea. Not only does the farm grow and process all of it’s tea, but it also grows food for the workers and other crops to compliment tea: "It’s a testament to their thoughtfulness, all tea comes from the same plant, and the harvest and growing of tea only goes for four months of the year, but they’ve started to grow other things which compliment their tea during the downtime like jasmine, ginger, peppermint and osmanthus." PerthPerth is home for Nat, but Perth also lies in the Indo-Pacific region, a region where two thirds of people in modern slavery are found. It is in the same time zone as many of these nations, and has free trade agreements with many. After feeling “not so much homesick, but certainly sun-sick" while living in Copenhagen, there was no question that Nat would return to Perth to create threeonesix . The company launched last August and is, currently in it’s pilot phase. "Perth is a hard place to sell right now. There’s a lack of expendable cash and the mining bust, and most people don't drink high quality tea, but people do want to feel connected to what they buy, and Australians have values which drive us to support meaningful causes,” Nat Told us, "The closer you bring the people don't the hard work to you, the consumer, the more you start to empathise and care for them, and the more likely you are to change your consumer behaviour." Nat says he did prove a few expectations, and discovered that Tea has got to be packaged nicely. His focus now is on educating Perth on his brand, his tea, and the impact they can deliver with something as seemingly simple as buying and drinking quality tea. “Some think it's a marketing scam. I can understand that - many companies use social good spin to differentiate, inevitably causing customers to become skeptical. This doesn't perturb me, because I know I'm not doing that. I've spent five years of my life learning and working in the field, and now am confident that I know what I'm talking about. We stand for safe and dignified work which reverses exploitation, and a great, healthy, high quality drink. We’re hoping we can educate people on both aspects." threeonesix tea can be bought direct from their website or bought in person from King St Collective. Stay up to date with them on Instagram and try their tea at Modus.
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