Hospitality Magazine August 2013 by Hospitality Magazine

Print Post Approved PP349181/00109

No.697 August 2013

Fine Food Australia

2013

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

40 PAGE › INSIDE ‹

PREVIEW

foodservice

accommodation

beverage

management

Sweet temptation Top chefs’ tips for boosting dessert sales

PLUS:

Taiwanese whisky winning praise

MIND YOUR MANNERS Are your staff in need of some etiquette training?

Freekeh-ing out

The latest ancient grain making its menu mark

Cocktail revolution

Bars head to the dark side with shift in spirit trends

EW N

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tiptop-foodservice.com.au To purchase, contact your local foodservice distributor. For further information, please contact our Customer Information Centre on 1800 086 926, or email us at foodservice@gwf.com.au

Introducing the new

Frozen Sliced Bakery Range

CONVENIENT FAST DEFROSTING ALWAYS AT HAND

Tip Top Foodservice has added a range of frozen sliced breads and traditional English muffins to their frozen bread range, offering the ultimate in convenience for foodservice outlets nationwide. The range has a number of benefits to make life easier in busy kitchens.

REDUCES WASTE AVAILABLE NATIONALLY

Benefits...

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Made with natural wholegrains, high in fibre.

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Super Thick White Sliced

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your

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editor’s note

hey do say change is as good as a holiday don’t they? Well I don’t know if “they” would still be saying that in this current fast-paced world in which we live where change is constantly upon us leaving many of us (or yours truly anyway) a little breathless and in need of a little lie down at times. But of course there are lots of good sides to change - it can refresh, invigorate and get us looking at things in a new light. Why am I rabbiting on about change? Well two things really. Firstly you might have noticed we’ve made a couple of little tweaks to the magazine for this issue. Kind of what we in the industry like to call a refresh. On our news pages you’ll see we’re putting an extra focus on our website and the wealth of news and features you’ll find there that’s updated daily. We’d like to encourage more of you to head to the site - hospitalitymagazine.com.au - to see what we’ve been doing there if you’re not already familiar with it. Inside the magazine you’ll also find a new column, the first in a series of articles being prepared for Hospitality by Sissel Rosengren, who’s head of foodservice at leading research company BIS Shrapnel, and an expert when it comes to the trends taking place in the very busy and ever changing world of foodservice. We welcome Sissel to our pages and we hope her insights will offer some gems you can use to take advantage of changing consumer demands. We’d love to get your feedback!

Editor: Rosemary Ryan rosemary.ryan@ cirrusmedia.com.au

PUBLISHER Martin Sinclair martin.sinclair@cirrusmedia.com.au EDITOR Rosemary Ryan Ph: (02) 8484 0880 rosemary.ryan@cirrusmedia.com.au JOURNALISTS Brea Carter Ph: (02) 8484 0661 brea.carter@cirrusmedia.com.au Alexandra E Petri Ph: (02) 8484 0854 alexandra.petri@cirrusmedia.com.au CONTRIBUTORS Christine Salins, Ken Burgin & Tony Berry

hospitality | august 2013

Andrew McConnell’s Earl Grey ice cream, chocolate, Pedro Ximénez prunes & honey.

cover

contents FEATURES

19 The cocktail revolution

REGULARS

There’s a dark force infiltrating our bars and cocktails.

22 Sweet profits Six top chefs’ tempting tips for boosting dessert sales - and your bottom line.

28 Freekeh-ing out Meet the ancient grain offering a tasty alternative - and super health credentials too.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Rizwan Nawaz Ph: (02) 8484 0622 rizwan.nawaz@cirrusmedia.com.au ADVERTISING NATIONAL Rhonnie Merry Ph: (02) 8484 0642 Fax: (02) 8484 0915 rhonnie.merry@cirrusmedia.com.au PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Troy Stevens Ph: (02) 8484 0748 troy.stevens@cirrusmedia.com.au PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR Laura Panameno Ph: (02) 8484 0772 laura.panameno@cirrusmedia.com.au

News online

16 Beverages

The latest industry news from our website.

10 Workplace Minimum wage rise adds to pressure on businesses.

12 New openings Check out the latest arrivals on the hospitality block.

14 Mystery diner

Taiwan wins praise in the world of single malt whisky.

30 The insight Is tea a missed opportunity?

32 Ken Burgin Are your staff rude or maybe just etiquette illiterate?

33 Dr Hospitality

La Luna gets a visit.

Management questions answered.

SUBSCRIPTIONS Ph: 1300 360 126 ONE YEAR: $132.00 incl GST TWO YEARS: $220.00 incl GST

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Average Net Distribution Period ending March 2013 - 13,950

PRINTED BY: Bluestar Print 83 Derby Street, Silverwater NSW 2128 P: 02 9748 3411 MATERIAL The publisher does not accept responsibility for any editorial or advertising material forwarded or held in storage nor will material be automatically returned. Whole or part of this publication cannot be reproduced without prior written approval from Hospitality’s management.

CIRRUS MEDIA Tower 2, Level 3, 475 Victoria Ave, Chatswood, NSW 2067, Australia Locked Bag 4700 Chatswood Delivery Centre, NSW 2067, Australia P: (02) 8484 0888 F: (02) 8484 0633 ABN 80 132 719 861 www.cirrusmedia.com.au © Copyright Cirrus Media, 2013

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newsonline

Sydney restaurant gets sustainability tick SEAFOOD SUSTAINABILITY champion Tom Kime’s Sydney restaurant has become the first independent restaurant in New South Wales to gain multi-species sustainable certification from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Fish & Co has nine species of seafood on its menu with the blue Eco Tick accreditation from the MSC. They include six Australian species, as well as salmon from Alaska and NZ hake and hoki. Kime said he’ll continue to increase the range available at the restaurant as more species come on board with the MSC certification in Australia and internationally as part of his aim to encourage more people to seek out and eat sustainable seafood. He said more fish will be sourced from WA in the next 12 months as a number of fisheries in assessment receive certification.“The message I’d like to pass onto other restaurants is that it’s really easy to use sustainable seafood,” he said. “Being sustainable is not something that’s exclusive. Choosing sustainable fish is about every day seafood choices. “It’s looking at alternative species and fish that have a certification.” Sustainable champion Tom Kime. Image: Fish & Co Body_Cap Image:?

■ Read the full story at http://bit.ly/19K7b6h

ROYAL BABY GEORGE INSPIRES HOSPITALITY OPERATORS THE ROYAL family weren’t the only ones prepared for the birth of Prince George - so were Aussie hospitality operators who were quick to ride the excitement. English-born cupcake queen Anna Eden had been planning how to harness the birth as a marketing tool since the pregnancy was announced. Eden, who owns The Classic Cupcake Co store in Sydney, unveiled a Royal Red cupcake to mark the arrival. A regal creation in red, white

and blue, it comprised a red velvet sponge with whipped buttercream, finished with red royal crumbs and Belgian chocolate buttons made from moulds Eden created from real aristocratic vintage buttons from England . “Once I heard [about the pregnancy] I began looking at how I could use the buttons on a special royal cupcake,” she said.

■ Read more at http://bit.ly/14KWApl Right royal cupcake. Image: Anna Eden

LOVE SA PRODUCE

Image: Food SA

JUST OUT is the new South Australian Food User’s Guide that’s aimed at helping chefs and food lovers more easily get information about, and source, the great produce from the state famous for food and wine. There’s everything from poultry and seafood to meat and cheese. Read it online or request a copy from contact@foodsa.com.au

■ Read the full story at http://bit.ly/13gxIkd

hospitality | august 2013

Truffle mania CHEF MARTIN Boetz didn’t need a truffle dog to help him sniff out some of the aromatic beauties at Duncan Garvey’s NSW Southern Highlands truffle farm. Boetz (pictured) was one of several chefs from the Hunter Valley and Sydney who celebrated the truffle season by taking part in a series of tours led by the Hunter Valley chef Tawnya Bahr for a day of harvesting the black Perigord truffles.

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

“

newsonline

yoursay

FRONT-OF-HOUSE STAR SECOND IN THE WORLD DAVID CHANG’s Sydney restaurant Momofuku Seiobo was celebrating following the silver medal performance of its front of house star Jessica Martin at the Jessica Martin (right) and 42nd WorldSkills International Competition Jessamy Mooney at Worldskills. Image: Worldskills Australia in Leipzig, Germany. Martin’s silver in the Caption: circle for Restaurant Service category was one of two for headshot only Australians at the event - the ‘World Games’ of vocational skills. The Australian team also won a gold (in automobile technology), and a bronze medal (in welding). The second silver was in the jewellery category. Martin was one of a team of 31 Aussie competitors who battled at this year’s event against 1000 of the world’s best apprentices from around 65 countries, across 29 skill areas.

Artur Sekula commented on article:

New project aims to boost regional hospitality students education Very good idea -it will definitely provide opportunities for kids from regional areas to learn new skills. This will also allow us future employers to keep working with well qualified and educated staff - I will keep an eye on new recruits coming through William Angliss and other partners - Good luck - Artur Sekula at Cordon Bleu Consultants Melbourne.

■ Read the full story at http://bit.ly/12C2Ttp

■ Full story at http://bit.ly/1ephOJo HospitalityMagazine posted:

OMNIVORE ‘JEUNE’ FEST HITS TOWN SOME OF the world’s most innovative emerging chefs will join forces with our local kitchen stars in October when the international food fest Omnivore comes to Sydney for the first time. Billed as “100 per cent jeune cuisine”, the French-based Omnivore launched a world tour last year and has so far taken place in 11 major cities around the world. Omnivore Sydney will bring 20 chefs from France, America and Australia in a program of masterclasses, “Amazing Dinners” and pop-up events. The young gun

line up includes OS chefs James Henry (Bones, Paris), Sven Chartier (Saturne, Paris), Derek Dammann (Maison Publique, Montreal), Michael Meredith (Meredith’s, Auckland), and Thomas Lim (Goldie’s, Los Angeles) as well as locals Colin Fassnidge (Four in Hand, 4Fourteen), Carla Jones (4Fourteen), Hamish Ingham (The Woods, Bar H), Ross Lusted (The Bridge Room), James Parry and Daniel Puskas (Six Penny), Luke Powell (Tetsuya’s), and Darren Robertson (Three Blue Ducks).

■ Read the full story at http://bit.ly/1c6amXG Ex-pat chef Thomas Lim back for food fest. Image: Omnivore

We were in heaven sampling some of Shangri-La Hotel pastry chef Anna Polyviou’s decadent dessert creations this week. Watch out for her in the next issue!

Hetty Pruis commented: oh how yummy looking is that?

Hospitality Magazine commented: You’d better believe it Hetty!

■ Read the feature on Page 22

@SCOysterBar posted:

Sydney harbourside oyster bar marks 25 years with new sous chef

For other stories and information please visit our website: www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au

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And our Chef Ali is already a bit of a star...read all about him here. (Thanks @Hospitalityed for the great story!)

■ Full story at http://bit.ly/13JiKmC

hospitality | august 2013

workplaceissues

Visit us @ Fine Food Sydney Stand HJ52

DESMON COOLROOM INSTALLED IN UNDER 2 HRS AND FOR AS LITTLE AS $85/WEEK*

What goes up must come down Continuing increases in costs are hitting hospitality businesses hard, says Restaurant and Catering Australia.

particular do most of their business and make most profits during penalty times (Saturdays and Sundays), so in real terms their minimum wage increase must account for the additional burden of penalty rates. Furthermore the industry is heavily reliant on a seasonal and transient workforce of casuals. These casual employees are paid a 25 per cent loading and weekend penalty loadings as well making the rate for Sunday unprofitable for many businesses. Too often the income gap is cited as an argument for minimum wage rises. But it’s the top of the income spectrum that’s responsible for the disparity, not the bottom. Pricing labour out of the market isn’t an economically sound course for the future. The hospitality industry is one affected by minimum wage increases because it’s predominantly made up of small businesses. It’s vital for the Australian economy to keep small businesses active. Data is now emerging that business related bankruptcies and insolvencies are at a record high. This is due not only to excessively high labour costs but roll outs of red and green tape by Government that strangles the commercial viability of many small business operators who are diverted from their core business to look after administration. If small businesses are forced out it will have a significant impact on unemployment and reduce the culinary variety that Australian consumers expect.

‘The minimum wage burden for this industry is often overlooked.’

Cool Rooms • FReezeRs Wine Rooms • Cheese Rooms Climate ContRolled Rooms hinged oR sliding dooRs glass dooR inseRts integRal ReFRigeRation Remote ReFRigeRation

NUTRIFASTER AUSTRALIA PTY LTD UNIT 7, 62 – 66 NEWTON ROAD WETHERILL PARK NSW 2164 AUSTRALIA TEL: +61 2 9729 2011 FAX: +61 2 9729 2012 INFO@NUTRIFASTER.COM.AU *Based on a standard coolroom 1460 x 1760 x 2360 H with intergral refrigeration and standard install

hospitality | august 2013 10 Nutrifaster 194x275mm Advert July 13 FINAL.indd 1

his financial year has seen an increase in the national minimum wage by 2.6 per cent. This has increased the minimum wage amount from $15.96 to $16.37. Whilst unions have welcomed the increase, many employer advocates, including Restaurant and Catering Australia, have highlighted the issues associated with excessive labour costs. Given the economic climate, the rise in superannuation and the rise in gas and electricity prices, an increase in wages adds great pressure to the business bottom line. This is exacerbated particularly in the hospitality industry. The industry has a particularly high casual workforce, bringing with it an additional impost of compulsory loadings. Irrespective of one’s views on the minimum wage, it’s undeniable that Australia has a disproportionately high minimum wage. Compare Australia’s minimum rate with that of the UK (£6.31 per hour) and the US (US$7.25 per hour) and that is clear. For employers, high minimum wages become a hiring deterrent. Cost increases are all around us. The business community faces a challenge when it comes to survival, let alone prosperity. The hospitality industry in particular has unique challenges. Heavy users of gas and electricity utilities, the recent increases have hit profit margins hard. Combine this with lowering consumer confidence and the size of the challenge becomes apparent. The minimum wage burden for this industry is often overlooked, but it’s important to acknowledge the key operating hours for these businesses as well as their employee makeup. Restaurants in

29/07/13 11:32 AM

This article was written by the Workplace Relations Team at Restaurant & Catering Australia. Contact them on 1300 722 878.

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The Sapphires (PG)

J. Edgar (M)

21 Jump Street (MA15+)

Delicacy (M)

Something Borrowed (M)

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (PG)

Machine Gun Preacher (MA15+)

The Newsroom S2 (M)

You can now deliver a world of entertainment to every guest, in every room. With a box in every room our residential-style Platinum Accommodation Package includes 84 channels, with 7 dedicated entirely to movies. It’s a service that will help your business stand out, and your guests settle in.

For more information call 1300 362 282 A Foxtel Platinum Accommodation Package can attract more guests by offering: • Hundreds of movies per month across 7 themed movie channels – Premiere, Action/Adventure, Comedy, Family, Masterpiece, Drama/Romance and World Movies • Our Premium Drama channel – showcase: the home of HBO • The freedom to record, pause, rewind and fast-forward live TV Foxtel and some services not available in some areas/buildings. Foxtel marks are used under licence by Foxtel Management Pty Ltd. FOX3721

newopenings

The Eastern

Three new venues have opened at Bondi’s The Eastern Hotel, adding to its pre-existing Mexican rooftop restaurant and bar, El Topo, and all are headed by executive chef Matt Fitzgerald. The Eastern is now home to The Publican, a new pub located on the ground floor specialising in craft beer and offering diners gourmet jaffles to snack along with their drinks; Anatoli, a 120-seat Greek restaurant on the first floor focusing on using Australian produce to highlight the fresh driven Mediterranean diet with a selection of more than 200 wines, including Greek wines; and Chimmi’s, a South American venue occupying the second floor and featuring traditional options like arepas and empanadas, accompanied by a long list of international rums.

Have you been to any of our featured restaurants? Do you know the chef?

Check it out

Join the conversation online to have your say!

Los Barbudos Rum Bar

Los Barbudos draws inspiration from Cuba’s golden age - it’s named after the member of Castro’s army who were coined barbudos, the “bearded ones”. It has a laid back Caribbean vibe and endless supply of international rums. The cocktail menu features traditional Cuban classics, like mojitos. And starting in August the brothers behind Chingon Cantina y Taqueria and Dr Juicy Jay’s Crab Shack, Will and Mick Balleau, will also launch a Cuban street-food inspired food truck, El Paladar, that will be set up shop in the venue’s rear warehouse with a menu featuring dishes like traditional Cuban sandwiches, empanadas, and plantain fritters from chef Mitchell Townrow that can be eaten in the bar.

Owners: Colin Parras and Andrew Lazarus Chef: Matt Fitzgerald Where: 500 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction, NSW P: 02 9387 7828 W: theeastern.com.au

DOC Pizza

The DOC Group’s Tony Nicolini has ventured out to South Melbourne to set up DOC Albert Park, the latest branch of this ever-expanding pizza empire. Located in the area where Nicolini originally started his career in hospitality, the new 115-seat restaurant will focus on an authentic Italian menu featuring dishes like lasagne and soup, and of course pizza - from an open kitchen where customers can see them being prepped front and centre. DOC offers its customers aperitivo, as well as a salumi and a mozzarella bar. It aims to continue the DOC tradition of combining simple and classic Italian fare in a contemporary and vibrant setting.

Meat and Wine Co

Food Fund Australia’s fourth outpost of its Meat and Wine Co group of restaurants has opened in the heritage environs of Sydney’s InterContinental Hotel in the city’s CBD. The second Meat and Wine Co for Sydney, this restaurant’s site is unrecognisable as the space that was once Justin North’s now defunct Etch restaurant. The beautiful timber-focused fitout has been designed to reflect the South African heritage of its owners. They meaty menu shows off the company’s exclusive line of beef that was introduced to its menu last year. The Monte Beef brand is sourced from premium breeders of primarily Angus cattle from farms around Australia.

Check it out

Owners: The Thankyou, Come Again team Chef: Mitchell Townrow (from El Paladar) Where: 95 Smith Street, Fitzroy, VIC P: 03 9416 0079 W: losbarbudos.com.au F: facebook.com/losbarbudosbar

Owners: Tony Nicolini, Robert De Santis, Michael Costanzo, Riccardo Bianchini Executive pizza chef: Michele Circhirillo Where: 135 Victoria Ave, Albert Park, VIC P: 03 9690 7960 W: docgroup.net

Owner: Food Fund Australia General manager: Emile Turqui Head chef: Soo Young Kim Where: 117 Macquarie Street, Sydney P: 02 9252 7888 W: themeatandwineco.com

hospitality | august 2013

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mysterydiner

La Luna Bistro Chef Adrian Richardson has earned a big reputation for his passion for, and commitment to, meat. Our masked diner can attest to how well deserved that reputation is after his latest visit to this Carlton restaurant.

ow refreshing when you meet a ‘celebrity’ chef and they’re exactly as relaxed in person as the image we see on TV and hear on radio. Adrian Richardson seems to be everywhere, but this night he was in the kitchen of his Melbourne meat institution La Luna; or he was earlier. At the end of our excellent meal, our foodie pals and I wanted to buy a couple of his books and the waiter offered to go and get him from home. Now he must live close, but not too many chefs I know would return so eagerly at the end of the shift - and then be up for a chat. It’s the sort of hospitality that makes you want to go back again. As it happens, this is one of our friend’s favourite haunts and I have also been here before for a very enjoyable porky feast. Richardson certainly is a man on a meat mission and for more than a decade he has worked with suppliers to control the quality of his produce. We lightly perused the menu, declared it too difficult to choose, and threw ourselves on the mercy of the staff – with a banquet called ‘Today’s Feast’ for the princely sum of $85 per person. In some circles $85 might not get you too much, but at La Luna it opens a door to more courses than I thought I could eat and with a combination of rustic and fine technique. We begin with some Croser and proceed to Moss Wood and John Duval wines through the night. House made smallgoods are a real passion of Richardson’s and this plank is groaning with braun, pancetta, prosciutto, lardo, lombardo and a couple of salamis. When you eat these artisan, handmade products and compare them against regular smallgoods offerings you can appreciate the depth of flavour and the skill required to deliver it. Next comes a salad of house-smoked salmon with apple and herbs. The salmon was translucent and almost like sashimi in texture, offset by the crisp apple batons. All fresh and crisp was the salad, unlike the plate of fried magnificence that followed; bacon and onion croquettes with bacon mayonnaise. Yes

hospitality | august 2013

‘Yes, my friends I said BACON mayonnaise. So gooey and good. So bacony. It’s a must have.’

my friends, I said BACON mayonnaise. I nearly squealed with delight. So gooey and good. So bacony. It’s a must have. Then the mains arrive. Crisp duck legs are piled high in a bowl with peppers and eggplant beneath and fresh tomato and basil on top. Again, it lets great fresh flavours work with the slow cooked, richer items. A bowl of fresh oricchiette lobbed; all squid ink black with tender calamari, capers and anchovies. It was a dish that instantly placed you at the seaside. I was almost done, but the ‘hero’ dishes were yet to arrive. Slow cooked lamb shoulder came in a dark dish like the bottom of a tagine, surrounded by soft chunks of pumpkin and fell apart at the merest hint of a serving spoon. More chunky veg arrived, this time in the form of beetroot salad with a little horseradish and coriander to lift its spirits. It proved an excellent foil to the lamb and steak that followed. Dry aged, butchered and hung on site, the rib eye is a delight. It’s meltingly tender, with a couple of grill marks and sliced into thick pieces with a simple side of buttered beans and house fries. I thought we were finished and then spied the crackling-wrapped roll of pork heading our way. The ladies had almost raised the white flag at this point and

the Doc is not much of a pork man, so I had to take one for the team and eat outside my comfort zone. It was fabulous. You’d think we could share a single dessert at this point for the sake of politeness, but no. A platter with six different options is presented. Thankfully they were a collection of dessert minis. There was tiramisu, ice creams, crème brulee, lemon meringue, quince crumble and a little jar of berry mousse. It was sort of a David Copperfield moment as I’m not sure how we made them disappear, but they did. All decadently lovely. I can truthfully say that a ‘feast’ at La Luna is exactly that. We were fed beyond our capacity and served by a very helpful and pleasant floor team. When you can have all of that with fine wine and in good company, it’s an absolute bonus when the man leading the show proves to be more than a terrific chef, he became an excellent host and sent happy punters into the night. To return.

Check it out Owner & chef: Adrian Richardson Where: 320 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North, VIC P: 03 9349 4888 W: lalunabistro.com.au

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LET OUR REPUTATION BUILD YOURS.

Your reputation and the success of your establishment are too important to trust to just any cooking oil. For more than a decade we’ve built our reputation on the consistent frying quality of our oils, which is why Formula 40 is the preferred brand of oil for chefs who understand the value of a good reputation. Formula 40’s thicker, cloudy, robust base guarantees longer fry life, superior drain-off and a neutral oil taste that retains natural food ﬂavour. Why risk your reputation to anything else?

Formula 40 is part of the range of quality cooking oils from Peerless Foods, an Australian company. www.peerlessfoods.com.au

beverageimbibe

Scottish whisky? from

No this oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Taiwan It may not be the first place whisky lovers think of when it comes to sourcing the best quality single malt. But one of Taiwanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s distilleries is making its mark in the category, writes Christine Salins.

King Car Food Industrial Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s whiskies are being widely praised for their maturity beyong their years. Images: King Car Food Industrial Company

hospitality | august 2013

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beverageimbibe

ithin just a few weeks of its Australian launch at The Whisky Show in Sydney, a range of Taiwanese whiskies has made its way onto the list at bars in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Perth and Byron Bay. If you think all premium whisky comes from Scotland, think again. David Ligoff, director of Double Bay retail store, World of Whisky, says a number of other northern hemisphere countries are producing standout whisky, notably India, Taiwan and Sweden. “There’s no such thing as the best whisky because it all comes down to personal taste,” said Ligoff, who not only runs Australia’s only specialist whisky store but is also an agent for about half a dozen overseas distilleries. Ligoff had already heard of Taiwan’s Kavalan whisky before he was approached to sell the product in Australia. It had created considerable interest in Europe, where it won gold medal and was named best in class at the 2011 International Wine & Spirit Competition. The whisky has been widely praised as having all the characteristics of a whisky matured for 20 years rather than the three years maturation it actually underwent. Last year, King Car Whisky, from the same distillery, won a Worldwide Whisky Trophy at the same competition. The company was named Asia Pacific Spirits Producer of the Year for the second year running. King Car and another Kavalan whisky, Solist Fino, were named in 1000 Whiskies You Must Try Before You Die, released in Australia last month by Murdoch Books. The book is a fascinating exploration of whisky distillers around the world, from Scotland and Ireland, through North America, Japan, India and other countries, including Australia. Australia has a burgeoning whisky industry and far from that being an impediment to the Taiwanese product, Ligoff said it’s the biggest thing in the King Car group’s favour. “Australian consumers are not fixated on ‘all good whisky must come from Scotland’,” he said. “Other countries are a bit more reluctant to take up big volumes of new world whiskies.” The King Car group makes nine expressions of whisky in its Kavalan and Solist ranges, five of which are being imported into Australia. They range from Kavalan Single Malt, which is fruity and floral, and

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Kavalan Concertmaster, matured in Port casks, to King Car Conductor, packaged in an impressive leather box. The other two imports are Solist Bourbon, matured in American exBourbon casks, and the top-of-therange Solist Sherry, matured in Oloroso sherry casks for four to five years. Despite its high price tag, Solist Sherry has proved to be the biggest seller with Australian consumers. Ligoff has described it as having rich treacle/sticky date pudding characters. “I call it a meal in a glass,” he said. “It’s nearly $180 – it’s not a cheap whisky but because of its uniqueness, our customers are really going beserk over it.” Ligoff describes all the whiskies as “unique, very well made whiskies with excellent balance” despite their youth. It’s perhaps not surprising that a Taiwanese company wanted to produce whisky, such is the passion there for premium whisky. “It’s probably the only country in the world where more single malt whisky is consumed than blended whisky,” said Ligoff. (Although single malt whisky has the higher profile, blended whisky sustains the industry, accounting for 90 per cent of the market worldwide.) The King Car Food Industrial Company, founded in 1956 by Tian Tsai Lee, father of the current chief executive officer, has more than 2000 employees. Its interests range from beverages, food, biotechnology and aquaculture, to the production of PET bottles at the remarkable rate of 1000 bottles a minute. It’s known in Taiwan for its readyto-drink coffee, Mr Brown, which is also available in Europe. When the company set about developing Taiwan’s first whisky, it didn’t do anything by halves. The scale of its operation in Yilan County, in the northeast of Taiwan, is impressive to say the least. The distillery, built in just nine months in 2006, initially produced three million bottles a year. Additional pot stills from Germany enabled production to increase to nine million bottles a year. The complex includes a vast neo-classical visitor centre decorated with marble, a 600-seat café and five-storey maturation warehouse. About 46,000 casks are

‘It’s not a cheap whisky but because of its uniqueness, our customers are really going beserk over it.’

Kavalan Distillery master blender Ian Chang.

now in storage. More than one million visitors tour the distillery each year. What the company has achieved in less than a decade is remarkable but Ligoff said it would be wrong to think of it as replicating the Scottish product. “There are incredible challenges and obstacles to producing whisky in a hot climate like Taiwan,” he said. “A common mistake is to use the word replicate. It’s something they physically cannot do.” Instead, according to Dr Jim Swan, Kavalan’s Scottish consultant who also helped set up a distillery in India, the company had to “go back to the first principles of the science of producing whisky”. Recognising that finding a site with the ideal water supply was one of the major keys to its success, King Car eventually settled on the Yilan site with its abundant supply of cold spring water flowing down from a mountain range. With much of the flavour of whisky attributable to the cask it’s matured in, the company has been meticulous in its cask selection. Master blender Ian Chang went to Scotland to learn the whisky-making process, and in March 2006, the first drop was produced. The first bottles went onto the market in December 2008. Ligoff said the product sells itself when put in front of people. He’s planning a series of in-store tastings, and possibly a tasting with a Skype link to Chang in Taiwan. As a host of both private and corporate whisky tasting events, Ligoff said matching whisky with food is akin to matching wine with food. “We’ve had several degustation dinners and we usually find it works best if the chef chooses the dishes and we match it [with whisky],” he said. “We regularly hold whisky and cheese master classes, and it works in the same way one would do with wine. The process is the same in terms of the nosing and the palate.” Ligoff said he prefers to hold blind tastings so people can decide for themselves which whisky’s they like best. “It’s an holistic experience,” he said. “One shouldn’t be constrained by preconceived norms. We always say trust your palate.”

hospitality | august 2013

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A Sidecar cocktail. Image: Whisky + Alement

beveragecocktails

The cocktail, Change is blowing though the Australian cocktail world as mixologists and bar operators get creative and look beyond traditional recipes, with a big trend towards drinks that showcase a darker side of the spirit world, writes Brea Carter.

lassic cocktails such as the Cosmopolitan, Caprioska and Pina Colada have a popularity that transcends time and place; however the darker spirits on the shelf, rum and whisky, are moving in and quickly taking centre stage at the bar. Sven Almenning, managing director of The Speakeasy Group, the company behind Eau De Vie in Sydney and Melbourne, The Roosevelt and Bottleneck Bar and Eatery, says some of his best selling cocktails today are whisky based. “I find people hardly ever, in our venues anyway, drink bourbon outside of cocktails - they always drink them in something like a Manhattan or a Brooklyn, and are a good way for people to get into scotch, whisky and bourbon,” Almenning says. “With cocktails, you can have all the masculine associations of having a whisky, but enjoy it in a format that is a little bit more approachable, unless of course you are a hard whisky drinker.” Almenning says the Ron Zacapa Blazer, a warm, rum-based cocktail served up at Eau De Vie, is particularly popular with patrons. “We sell a hundred of those every week regardless of the time of year,” he says. “We’ve had 40 degree days in Sydney and at midnight people are still drinking it.” The Speakeasy Group’s venues have been one of the pioneers of the shared

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cocktail trend, and Almenning has noticed more and more bars are embracing it. “We have a shared cocktail menu in all our bars, where people can order a cocktail for four and enjoy the same sort of experience they get when they share a bottle of wine or champagne,” he says. “It really becomes a shared experience as opposed to an individual experience. “We have one at the Roosevelt called Al Capone’s Smuggler’s crate, which is a rum-based cocktail served in a big wooden crate. It arrives at your table; you have to jimmy it open and inside are glasses, a big bottle of pre-mixed cocktail and some small bottles with mixers for topping it up.” Almenning believes there will always be a demand for classic cocktails, and his venues offer them albeit with a unique twist. “One of the cocktails we put on at Eau De Vie when it first opened was called the Ladies Leg Cosmopolitan, which is served in a cocktail shaker shaped like a ladies leg from 1935,” he says. “It’s made with citrus vodka and we replace the cranberry juice with a homemade cranberry sorbet to make it creamier, top it up with champagne and add

in a few other more bespoke ingredients to make it a bit more special than just a straight up Cosmopolitan.” The operations manager at Tasmania’s Nant Distilling Company, Ryan Macleod, agrees cocktails are a great way to introduce people to whisky. “We are a distillery and we have whisky bars,” he says. “Predominantly [whisky] is what we sell so part of our strategy to get new whisky drinkers is to introduce them to it via cocktails. If you can introduce someone to whisky and then eventually convert them to drinking whisky neat or on the rocks then that is great.” Macleod believes cocktails remove the traditional associations many people have with whisky. “When people talk about whisky they think of old men in smoking jackets swilling single malt,” he says. “It’s about changing that perception using cocktails. Our espresso cocktail is a prime example of that because it shows that if you take away the alcohol hit it still has the body of the whisky.” The espresso cocktail is much like an espresso martini, except that it contains Nant’s Nant Brisbane venue manager Simon Besse. single malt French oak port Image: Nant Distilling Company. wood whisky. “We take our

‘If a bar is not using fresh lemon or lime juice it is not a cocktail bar in Sydney anymore. It is just a big no-no now.’

hospitality | august 2013

beveragecocktails

whisky, cold press it and fuse it through coffee, then we full drip that - it’s a 12hour process - and use it as the base for our martini,” he says. “We’re finding a lot of people who drink espresso martinis are saying ours is the best they’ve tasted, even though it isn’t strictly an espresso martini but an espresso cocktail.” Macleod believes many people are intrigued by whisky but are a little scared to order it neat on or the rocks, which is why whisky-based cocktails work so well. “People want something that isn’t just going to get them drunk, it’s about an experience, and by Eau de Vie’s Honey Buttered Old Fashion. putting whisky in cockImage: The Speakeasy Group. tails you can include people who might not want to drink straight whisky,” he says. “If they can order a cocktail and then engage in a conversation with the bartender about what sort of whisky is in it they can eventually take that next step and maybe try it neat or with ice, or stay on the cocktail.” While whisky forms the basis of every cocktail at Nant’s two venues, Nant Whisky Cellar & Bar in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley and Salamanca in Hobart, some of them are sweet and even a little sour. “We do a few sweet cocktails - our sherry whisky goes very well with oranges and things like that, it has a bit of a snap to it so we use it in our more sour cocktails, and our port finish is used in the sweeter cocktails,” Macleod says. “Because an Old Fashioned was originally made using bourbon whisky we use a single malt which is matured in an American Oak ex-Bourbon barrel, so it still has those butterscotches and caramels.” Whisky appreciation also underlies the philosophy at Melbourne’s Whisky & Alement. It offers a small selection of whisky-based cocktails, along with a vast collection of primarily single malt whiskies. “We set the bar up the way it is so people can come in and try some of the rarer single malts that they are not able to get retail, or if people are looking at buying a bottle they can come in and try it first – our style of ser-

‘When people talk about whisky they think of old men in smoking jackets swilling single malt. It’s about changing that perception using cocktails.’

hospitality | august 2013

vice is to open people’s minds up to whisky,” says bar manager Evelyn Liong. The venue’s bartenders are perhaps best described as whisky connoisseurs, and their aim is to help patrons find their perfect whisky. “We generally ask them what they usually drink, what they like and even what sort of mood they are in so we can gauge where their palette is at and find something that will suit them at that time,” Liong says. The bar’s cocktail menu typically changes with the seasons, and the customer tends to dictate what will stay and what will go. “We decide what cocktails to bring back and those we should move on from based on what has been selling the season before - we have people coming back for certain cocktails and we get requests through the bar as well so we always have ingredients that we once used for previous cocktail lists on hand,” Liong says. “We had a Sazerac over summer which is a little fresher as well as the Waldorf, which is a little heavier on the palette. At the moment we have the Hot Toddy and Hot Brick on, which are your warmer style drinks.” Liong also takes inspiration from international trends that may not yet have gained traction in Australia. “I do try and find out what’s going on internationally just to see what the trend predictions are going to be like, and I base my cocktails on that,” she says. Amongst the new cocktail trends Liong predicts will emerge over the warmer month ahead are punches and

The Bickleback at the Bottleneck Bar & Eatery. Image: The Speakeasy Group.

The Salty Donkey from Chimmi’s. Image: The Eastern Hotel

tea based cocktails. “They’re going to come back in a big way, along with really light but more floral style cocktails,” she says. “I’m looking at putting punch on at the bar, having it pre-batched for the night and pouring it to order to make it easier for service.” Tom Bulmer, the bar manager at Sydney’s new South American rum bar Chimmi’s, believes it’s the change in bar culture that’s driving the rise in the use of rum and whisky in cocktails. “People want to be in a place where they feel comfortable and welcome, and the American bar is that and the Caribbean is definitely that,” he says. “Rum and American whisky has just been a byproduct of a culture change in Australia. “When we started with Chimmi’s it wasn’t about rum it was about creating a South American fun house. We really felt there were too many serious prohibition bars in the CBD and wanted something more relaxed.” This is evident in the bar’s décor – it resembles a living room where 1970s style lounges, chairs, tables and even a television set are scattered throughout, and kitsch ornaments line the walls. The bar’s cocktail list pays homage to rum sourced from nations throughout the Caribbean, including Guatemala, Jamaica and Venezuela. “Our biggest focus in what we do with our cocktails is we talk about where the rum is from, and we alternate the islands it comes from,” Bulmer says. “We source it from a whole bunch of Caribbean nations and they all produce it in their own way.”

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beveragecocktails

Rather than refer to the word ‘rum,’ can be just as important as how you make the cocktail list features the name of each a martini – for example, we import cocovariety and the country it’s been sourced nut cream from the Dominican Republic from. For example, it states the Salty and coconut rum from Jamaica for our Donkey is comprised of fresh pressed Banana Colada,” he says. “If a bar isn’t pineapple, Flor De Cana Nicaraguan using fresh lemon or lime juice it’s not a 4YR and a salt rim. cocktail bar in Sydney anymore. It is just Bulmer says there’s a a big no-no.” trend towards cocktails Bulmer is passionthat contain complex inate about customer gredients yet showcase service, and believes simple flavours. “It’s what refusing customers the I like to call complicated right to enjoy a classic simplicity; it is about cocktail such as a Cosusing really complicated mopolitan or a Mojito ingredients but creating isn’t acceptable. quite a simple drink.” he “All the cocktails on says. “You could take our menu are rum fosomething like a daiquicused, but the most imri for example and make portant thing is to give what I call a black daipeople what they want,’ quiri – you use Gosling’s he says. “Because we’re Black rum, muscovado sugar and fresh a rum bar and we have over 100 rums pressed lime juice. You change the drink’s we offer customers the chance to have concept but it tastes quite simple.” any rum in their classic cocktail.” “We offer people the cocktail they Regardless of whether they’re sweet or designed to please the more discern- want but then with something on ing drinker, Bulmer believes all cocktails top of that. It’s really about customisamust be made using premium quality in- tion rather than selling people someA D _ H“How O S Pyou H Imake F E aBpina _ 1 colada 3 . p d fthingP different.” a ge 1 3 1 / 0 1 / 1 3 , gredients.

‘It’s what I like to call complicated simplicity; it is about using really complicated ingredients but creating quite a simple drink.’

Caribbean Queen shared cocktail at Eau de Vie. 1 1 Image: : 1 4 TheASpeakeasy M Group

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foodservicedesserts

Sweet endings Desserts. They’re the cherry on top of a meal, the grand finale. They’re also an opportunity for chefs to get creative, and operators to add an extra sweetener to their bottom line, writes Alexandra E Petri.

Last but not least: Andrew McConnell’s violet ice cream, chocolate ganache, sour cherry and clove meringue dessert. Image: Cutler & Co

hospitality | august 2013

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foodservicedesserts

o what’s the secret to persuading diners to take that extra step and indulge in some dessert? We rounded up six of our leading chefs to find out what their guaranteed best sellers are and their tips for an irresistible dessert offering.

Andrew McConnell Chef, restaurateur, Cumulus Inc, Cutler & Co, Golden Fields, Builders Arms Hotel What’s the most popular dessert at each of your restaurants? At Cutler & Co. it’s our Earl Grey ice cream, chocolate, Pedro Ximenez Prunes and Honey. At Golden Fields the Peanut Butter Parfait, Salted Caramel and Soft Chocolate. At Cumulus Inc the Rum Baba, Aged Rum. And at Moon Under Water it’s the Raspberry, Almond, Meringue and Rose. How do you approach creating a dessert menu for your venues? The season usually dictates what fruit we use, or often we plan a dessert based around quality pastry or chocolate. I definitely don’t enjoy desserts that are too sweet or overly rich. Ideally I like a dessert to complement the preceding meal without making the guest roll out the door - there is a really fine line separating over indulgence and balances it. I believe that the first and last thing you eat at dinner are usually the ones you remember. A well balanced dessert, both in flavour and texture and well cooked, contributes to the overall dining experience. Are customers these days more reluctant to buy desserts do you think? In my restaurants up to 80 per cent of our customers eat dessert. If they don’t, it’s often because people are full, or they may not have a sweet tooth or perhaps they may be watching their weight. One’s dining out budget is also a consideration. How can the staff help promote dessert? Obviously the wait staff are there to suggest and guide a guest’s evening. My staff are knowledgeable and provide advice about how many dishes should be ordered from my sharing menus according to the number of guests attending. This approach means our guests often order dessert.

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What advice would you give for boosting dessert sales? Ensure the same amount of finesse and attention is put into the preparation and execution of the dessert as you would any part of the menu. How valuable are strong dessert sales for business operators? The model is different for each restaurant but, generally speaking, the food cost margin is often better in a dessert than a main course or entree.

Catherine Adams Ex-Rockpool pastry chef, now co-owner Cipro Pizza, Sydney Tell us about your approach to your desserts at Cipro? It’s very simple and fuss free. I’ve had creative freedom at my past job, and looking after bar and grill and spice temple gave me an even broader range. What’s the most important thing to remember when creating a successful and irresistible dessert menu? Don’t try and over complicate things. How are the dessert sales at your venue? We sell more desserts at the weekends and in the evenings than during the day. Our Nutter Butter biscuit is a big seller during the day and it has received quite a bit of attention. Is that your best selling dessert? I think the Nutter Butter Gelato Sandwich would be the biggest seller. As we make our own gelato, I wanted to do some sandwiches. We already had the biscuits for it, and the flavour and texture of the biscuits work really well as a gelato sandwich. It’s always on on menu. Why the move to make your own gelato? Making our own gelato seemed to be the natural partner to the pizza component of what we do. I didn’t have any experience with gelato but had been making ice cream for some time. We have a pasteuriser and a Carpigiani Quartetto and store it in a pozzetti counter. There’s a bit of math involved in getting the correct balance of ingredients to make it stable and at a good consistency for scooping. We have just four flavours, keeping them to vanilla, a chocolate, a sorbet, which is blood

hospitality | august 2013

foodservicedesserts

orange at the moment, and a composed flavour, which is passionfruit pavlova. I tried to change it once but everyone kept asking for it.

Anna Polyviou Ex-Bathers Pavilion pastry chef, now exec pastry chef, Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney

About Us The Foodservice Industry Association is a non-profit organisation formed in 1985 to organise and manage Hospitality and Catering Expos throughout regional NSW. The events provide an opportunity for members and non-members to promote their products and services to all sectors of the foodservice and associated industries. By specialising in high value exhibitions for both participants and visitors alike, The Foodservice Industry Association has established itself as the leader in the regional Foodservice & Catering Expo/ Trade Show field. The association is managed by industry professionals from our membership, with some of Australia’s leading Foodservice providers at the helm, including Bayview Seafoods, Sara Lee, Clorox, Patties Foods, Ingham’s, Ready Bake, Murray Goulburn and Peerless Foods, just to name a few.

Vision Statement The Foodservice Industry Association is committed to the ongoing growth and development of the industry and our members by continuing to deliver high quality, high value trade shows and exhibitions throughout regional NSW. These expos and trade shows give a broad range of industry users the opportunity to meet and compare and discuss the latest trends in the Food Services Industry.

‘We also eat with our eyes and our palettes go crazy when we like what we see.’

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You recently launched a dessert degustation at the Shangri-La. What was the inspiration there? When I applied for the position as the executive pastry chef, and I had the tour within the pastry kitchen I knew straight away magic was going to come out of that kitchen. I wanted a different cutting edge and to stand out from the rest of the hotels and pastry kitchens. I wanted to make it a place people want to work and place people talk about. I put together the [degustation menu] with my favourite flavours and techniques, from caramelising white chocolate, doing verrines or soufflés from the oven. What were your main goals when designing it? I made sure visually that the dishes were exciting, as we also eat with our eyes and our palettes go crazy when we like what we see. I designed it around what people knew, but with a twist and some fun to it. The dishes start light become a little heavier at the end.

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hospitality | august 2013

Love on a plate: Polyviou’s Caramelise Me Casey. Images: Shangri-La Hotel

What’s the most popular dessert on the menu? Caramelise Me Casey. I thought, ‘I’ll be romantic and create a dessert after

my girlfriend. I designed this dish with her favourite flavours: candied popcorn ice-cream, milk chocolate, passion fruit delice with a grue cacao crunch, white chocolate powder, banana puree and baby micro herbs to bring out the freshness, served up with passionfruit sorbet. I think the guests loved the story behind it - they thought it was romantic and had a laugh about it. What’s your approach to creating a dessert menu? Making sure it’s well balanced, fresh, and that there are different plates for different courses. Most importantly, I make sure from the first course to the last it looks completely different and that includes the flavour, too. I look at technique but also a fun menu and flavors that people get excited about. How can you make desserts part of the experience for guests? The last course is what the guest remembers; they walk away and tell their friends. Excite the guests and allow them to experience the love and care of the creation.

Andrew Bowden Head pastry chef, Hartsyard Restaurant, Sydney Your Peanut Butter Sundae was on critic Terry Durack’s list of top desserts recently. Tell us about that one. I had a peanut butter and banana smoothie when I was in New York. I was in search of a turkey sandwich and came across this small place that was more pastry focused. While I was waiting for my sandwich, I noticed that they had a peanut butter and banana milkshake, so I decided to order it. I thought, ‘Wow, this would make a great sundae’. I chucked some pretzel ice cream in there for good measure, along with some chocolate fudge. It’s a very rich dessert and has everything good about America. It’s one that never comes off the menu; it’s been there since the start, and it’s developed a cult following. It’s not allowed to go. What’s your approach to desserts? I like to be a little left of mainstream. I don’t like to have normal desserts. You’d order the dessert and wouldn’t expect to be getting what you expect to get on the plate. You have a lot of different

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foodservicedesserts

elements. I also think you need to have your chocolate dessert covered, have something lighter, and then it depends on the season. Play around with what you’ve got at the time. I kind of generally become obsessed with one ingredient and I will work out a dessert around it. How important is familiarity? I think it’s important that desserts bring back childhood memories for people. It’s important to have elements in their desserts that remind them of times when they had to finish their dinner to have dessert. If you put Milo in a dessert, for example, it just brings you back to your childhood. If you get too creative, it can scare people off. Recently I put a rice pudding on the menu. I always hated rice pudding as a child, and I don’t think anyone actually likes it. I became obsessed with trying to make a rice pudding that people would actually like. I don’t actually call it a rice pudding. I call it a pumpkin pie because it’s flavoured with pumpkin pie flavours. It also has Jack Daniels ice cream in it, so people see Jack Daniels and say, “Jack Daniels – cool. Pumpkin pie, I like that.” What role does the staff play in helping promote dessert sales in restaurants? When our staff sit customers, they go through the menu and they promote the desserts while they’re introducing the menu. It’s also good to let the wait staff taste the desserts regularly to remind them that they’re tasty and that they should sell them. Sometimes if dessert sales aren’t going well I’ll give them a bit of an incentive. I think they play a major part. If you’re building up the hype before, then dessert is always in the back of people’s minds.

Felix Goodwin Pastry chef, Saigon Sally, Melbourne

Saigon Sally’s creme caramel. Image: Saigon Sally

hospitality | august 2013

What’s your approach to creating desserts? I find a lot of desserts are really oversweet. I like to have a lot of balance and I like to finish on a lighter, refreshing note if I can, something that will clean the palate. I find that when I go out, and if I’ve had a really nice meal, I don’t really feel like loading up with sugar. You want something that’s refreshing and that you can take away with you. It’s always good to try new things and push the boundaries, but you really do have to see where your customer is at and

see what they’re comfortable with and go from there. At our restaurant, we’re catering to a certain clientele, and you have to understand that. You can’t just put on things that you like that possibly other people won’t. You have to find a midpoint and hopefully expand their horizon a little bit. That’s the biggest challenge for me. I like lots of unusual things and flavours, but I understand a lot of people are more conservative. I think our desserts cater to a large range of people. I like to have fun with it.

‘It’s been there since the start and it’s developed a cult following. It’s not allowed to go.’

You’ve introduced a gluten-free dessert menu? Why was that? I’m a coeliac, so it’s something I’d wanted to do for a while. An Asian restaurant lends itself to gluten free because [Asian people] don’t have a whole lot of gluten in their diets, so it makes sense to try and do the desserts gluten free as well. I don’t have to change a whole lot to make them gluten free. How do you promote sales in your restaurant? I do all of my desserts in the middle of the restaurant, so it’s a live and sort of an on-show dessert bar. That was one of the ways we thought would be good to promote dessert sales in the restaurant. It also gets pastry out of the kitchen, which is often hot and not ideal, so it’s a good environment to do pastry in. Desserts are also included on a $69 per head set menu, where diners can get entrees and a desserts and everything included. We just write a menu for the diners - it’s a good way to introduce people to desserts they might not have otherwise ordered. We do it for smaller parties and larger parties. What are your tips for operators who want to promote their desserts better? I find that when I’m trying to sell something that’s a bit unusual and where the customers may not be as inclined to order it because it’s a bit outside their comfort zones, I’ll try and put words or name the desserts something that they can associate with. We have a dessert called TiraMi-Sally. They can associate the tiramisu because they know what that is and they know the flavours and they know they’re comfortable with it, but it isn’t a tiramisu as such. It’s a macaroon ice-cream sandwich. The name alone invites people to wonder. It looks like a Vegemite and cheese sandwich when it comes out, and people pick it up and eat it with their fingers and it really gets them involved. They really enjoy it.

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foodservicedesserts

Guy Holder: Co-owner Epocha restaurant, Melbourne (which features a dessert trolley)

a group of three. It’s another quick little taste for people to finish off, or with a coffee.

How long have you had the dessert trolley at your venue? We opened in September, and the dessert trolley was one of the things we had from the beginning. It was always a part of our concept. We also do a cheese trolley. The trolley’s a great tool for the waiters to be able to build rapport with guests and also be able to take an active role in determining the end of their dining experience. People love that old world charm of having the trolley wheeled through the restaurant. It creates a bit of excitement and anticipation. There’s a benefit to sales without a doubt; seeing the goods in front of them lends itself to people earmarking and leaving a little bit more room for dessert. It’s been great.

Have you ever found it hard to sell dessert because customers don’t want to spend the money or don’t save room? We’ve downsized our desserts a little bit from the size that would be an a la carte dessert. I don’t think people are necessarily price conscious, but I think you have to make it easy for them - that’s the key. When the desserts are there in front of them, there’s that willingness to take part, especially if they’re small desserts. I think people often get to the end of the main course and quite often wouldn’t be swayed into desserts by a waiter unless the waiter really does the hard sell. With the hard sell you really have to sow the seed early and it needs to be something very special for them to go for it. I think a written dessert menu is more challenging to get dessert sales. Here we’re probably averaging between 50 to 60 per cent of people getting desserts.

Sweet temptation: Epocha’s dessert trolley. Image: Epocha

Is there a best seller that’s been on the trolley since you opened? Yes. It’s a bit of a signature - the little chocolate gâteaux. It’s been very hard to take off. It’s layered with chocolate brownie at the bottom, which is flourless, then a little chocolate ganache over the top and a little honeycomb and brandy schnapps to finish it. Usually throughout the night time we have will just four desserts, and that would be just a little selection. We might have a little trifle, a little tarte, the gâteaux, and we’ve also been doing salted caramel profiteroles as well. They work out well because you can sell them each or as

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

What are your tips for increasing dessert sales? Obviously there are challenges in having a good dessert trolley. I think you have to have desserts that can stand out for a couple of hours, and that presents a few issues. We have to make sure that they’ll hold up. The idea with the dessert trolleys is that they have to look good, and you always have to constantly keep maintenance of it. You need to be really committed to a dessert trolley. It adds another element to service, but it does take extra focus. Once you start to put those systems in place, they start to run more efficiently. We have a situation where by the end of the night, we will be aware of how much is on the trolley and try and use it as much as we can through the sharing menu and try and minimise our wastage. At the same time, it’s also nice if you’ve got a couple of people at the end and you’ve got a couple of desserts on the trolley – we just throw them down on the table and be generous. The trolley can be time consuming in the middle of service, but we believe in the opportunity it gives staff to express themselves [with the customers].

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hospitality | august 2013

producefreekeh

Freekeh out

Just when we’ve gotten our mouths around quinoa a new grain is steadily marching onto menus. By Rosemary Ryan

Freekeh in the making: Green wheat from a crop in South Australia. Image: Popina

hospitality | august 2013

eet freekeh, the ancient Eastern Meditteranean grain that’s made from green wheat traditionally roasted over wood fires to burn off the husks giving it a wonderful smoky flavour. It’s the latest “new” grain on the block that’s steadily being discovered by more and more chefs around Australia who are enjoying it as an ingredient for its texture and the flavour it can add to dishes from risottos to salads, as well as its health and nutritional value. Middle Eastern people have been eating freekeh for millenia, using it for a range of traditional dishes from stuffing pigeons and making pilafs, to simmering it in stock for soups. The story goes that in 2300 BC the people of a nation in the Eastern Meditteranean picked the heads of their wheat havest while still young and green becasue they needed to store food to see them through an unexpected siege on their walled city. During the conquest the store of green wheat caught on fire and the outer grains were burned. In an effort to salvage their food store they rubbed the wheat heads and discovered it exposed the delicious toasted green grains. They called the new grain freekeh meaning “the rubbed one” in their Arameic language. Whether freekeh will be able to upstage the very cool-right-now quinoa remains to be seen but the smoky robust grain has certainly got a few chefs singing its praises. They’re also seeing it as a way for them to set themselves apart, with something new and interesing they can feature. Hey, quinoa is so mainstream now, right? Head chef at the hot Margaret River restaurant Morries Anytime, Carolyn Griffiths, introduced freekeh onto the menu in a mushroom risotto-style dish that she says is now in the top three most popular on her menu. “We put it on about a month ago and it’s now our third biggest seller,” says Griffiths. “I’d used quinoa a lot but never freekeh but I saw it in the local health food store and thought I’d try it. And it’s been amazing the reaction to it. It’s had a very good response.” Griffiths says freekeh’s flavour marries especially well with mushrooms. “It’s a little bit earthy and the flavour works well with the mushrooms,” she says. “I use a mix of them, oyster mushrooms, enoki, shitaki, and button, with some mushroom stock. Then it’s finished with some goats curd and truffle oil.”

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producefreekeh

Griffiths says using freekeh also fits with the local customer base of Morries because of its recognition as a top food in the health stakes. “[Our customers]are pretty health conscious so this really suits them,” she says. “They are looking for food that is healthy, and that’s something I keep in mind when I’m developing dishes for the menu. “[The freekeh] is definitely a talking point. Not everyone has heard of it and at the start not everyone understood it but then the staff explain that it’s cracked wheat and that it’s a really nutritious grain and they’re really interested and keen to try it.” The nutritional muscle of freekeh is also a big part of the reason chef John Ayala at Melbourne’s Richmond Hill Larder and Café is drawn to it as an ingredient. He’s been using it with lots of success as the basis of one of his line up of hearty and healthful salads. Listed on his menu under the section headed “Grains, greens and things”, the freekeh salad combines the grain with toasted slivered almonds, shredded carrot and beetroot, Goji berries, spring onion, green beans and rocket served with a pomegranate molasses dressing. “With our customers a lot of them are women and a lot of them are health conscious, they appreciate dishes that are really healthy,” Ayala says. “And we also get a lot of people in from around the hospitals nearby so I was looking for something really nutritious. “A lot of my customers are vegetarian as well so I don’t want to lose sight of those people and want to make sure they are well catered for on the menu. When I came up with this salad I was looking for a way to serve a really good vegan option. “We had been using quinoa and we use a lot of seeds and grains. With the freekeh salad I was wondering how to make it a little bit different than the quinoa, and bring a little bit of refinement to it. “I’m a big fan of salads. I like my food fresh and so I favour salads, even

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Freekeh as an ingredient in salads is especially being embraced. Image: Popina

during winter, and always incorporate some kind of grain and seeds in any salad I make for texture, for crunch, for the mouthfeel.” Ayala says another plus with freekeh is how simple it is to prepare, although a bit of time is involved. “It’s one of those things where you have to cook it a lot – it can be a little like wild rice – it’s not really cooked enough until it almost looks like it’s bloomed, like if you have pearl barley,” he says. Morries’ Griffiths also vouches for the ease of use. “It does take a bit of time to cook but there’s not a lot of stirring compared to when you’re make a risotto say with rice, so it saves on labour

Super freekeh: The Wild Mushroom Risotto at Morries Anytime. Image: Morries Anytime

a bit there,” says Griffiths who’s now experimenting with other ways to add freekeh to her menu such as in soups and as an accompaniment to fish. Nutritionist Dr Joanna McMillan is another passionate champion of freekeh and has been promoting its benefits to the Australian market as part of her work with Australian company Popina, which has just launched a South Australian-grown freekeh into the market under the Goodness Superfoods brand. From a nutritional angle it’s hard to beat, she says. “Nutritionally freekeh is far superior to many other grains and the more common carbohydrate rich foods we eat,” Dr McMillan says. “Freekeh has up to four times the fibre of brown rice, provides more protein than mature wheat and most other grains and is rich in iron, zinc, potassium, and calcium. Unlike mature grains it’s also rich in two carotenoids – lutein and zeaxanthin – that have been associated with reduced risk of age related macular degeneration. “It’s also high in resistant starch this is a starch that can’t be digested and absorbed in the small intestine and therefore it reaches the colon where it acts like dietaty fibre and contributes to bowel health. Recent scientific thinking is that this type of fibre is particularly important for bowel cancer. It also means the total carbohydrate load of the freekeh is reduced. The CSIRO has also found both the cracked and whole grains are low GI.” Richmond Hill’s Ayala says he believes chefs should be looking at ways to serve customers food that’s good for them as well as tasty. “I think it’s one of our responsibilities, to do food that is attractive and nutritious as well as delicious,” he says. “That’s one of my aims and goals here.”

‘It has a bit of an earthy flavour that works really well with the mushrooms.’

‘I think it’s one of our responsibilities to do food that’s nutritious as well as delicious.’

Want Carolyn Griffiths’s recipe for her Wild Mushroom freekeh risotto? Head to our website at hospitalitymagazine.com.au

hospitality | august 2013

Image: Sydney’s Observatory Hotel.

theinsight

Brew up tea sales

with a better cuppa

In the first of an ongoing series of articles for Hospitality, BIS Foodservice’s Sissel Rosengren shares an insight from the company’s ongoing research into the Australian foodservice industry.

one seemingly are the days when a cup of tea was a good enough reason for people to head to a café, and much of what we can pin this demise to is the prevalence of operators neglecting to feature the beverage or give it the effort the consumer demands. Customers feel short-changed when they order tea and receive hot water and a tea bag. Yet in 2012 we still have many high-end cafés using tea bags instead of tea leaves in a pot, despite knowing full well that using tea leaves will produce a better quality cup of tea. Not surprisingly, tea has now been in decline as a beverage consumed away from home and away from work – that is at a restaurant or café – with coffee now the preferred choice. Our Coffee and Beverages 2012 Report Series found coffee is now the number one hot beverage across all age and socioeconomic groups, while tea is largely in decline across the board. The total market for coffee in terms of number of units bought away from home and away from work has increased from 1.8 billion in 2010 to 2.1

hospitality | august 2013

billion in 2012. This is despite the price of an average cup of coffee rising in the two years prior to 2012 and with the likelihood that the average price is expected to hit $4 soon. The away from home coffee market is expected to grow between 10 and 15 per cent within the next two years, driven very much by the younger generation. If these figures don’t paint the picture that Australia is fast becoming a coffee nation, the figures showing the decline in consumption of the once-dominant tea certainly do. Tea has also lost its mantle as the at-home hot beverage of choice among Australians, with the average number of units of tea consumed per person per week at home falling from 8.6 to 7.9. Away from home, we found the average number of cups of tea, per person, consumed away from home per week fell by 0.4 units a person over a two-year period. While the number of cups of coffee consumed out of home has climbed from 1.5 in 2010 to 1.8 in 2012, tea has fallen from 1.3 to 0.9 in the same time Some of these figures can be attributed to weak consumer confidence, as

Sissel Rosengren

‘We still have many high-end cafés using tea bags instead of tea leaves in a pot.’

many customers are requesting tap water along with their meals; a common occurrence in times of economic uncertainty. But this does not account for the growing love of coffee across the board. Despite these findings, we believe there’s ample opportunity for tea to once again be a force in cafés and restaurants, and our findings may be different in the next report series due out later this year. However, any rise can only be led by the operators themselves. They need to use proper cups and saucers, and cups that are already hot. They also need to offer a better selection of types of tea in a pot than just the black variety; offering green tea as well is a good place to start. But more than anything, they need to move on from serving the teabagand-hot-water combo, and provide the consumer with the tea, and the service, they deserve. Sissel Rosengren has more than 25 years experience in market research and industry forecasting.

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

managementcomment

Watching your manners Are your staff a little careless when it comes to the gentil niceties of life and how they communicate with customers? Maybe it’s time for some etiquette training, says Ken Burgin.

anners and etiquette are not about treating everyone like a lord or lady, but ensuring that your staff’s language and presentation enhance your brand, and don’t damage it. If schools and parents forgot to teach the finer points you’ll have to be the coach, tutor and guide. You should set the standard. Have them practice the words, don’t just write a list. Most staff learn by doing, talking and reviewing, not reading text books. And don’t forget to check the competence of supervisors and duty managers. Are their manners and presentation up to scratch? Start by checking phone conversation. How formal or casual should they be? How is advice given on directions and location? Do staff know how to make light of problem situations like parking or if you’re booked out? How confidently do they describe food, wine lists and prices? Can they do a polite sales push to secure a deposit? How do they handle greeting and seating? What’s your standard on eye contact, timing and words of welcome? Hopefully they don’t say ‘hi guys’ to a bunch of business women arriving for lunch. We want staff to be themselves, but not ‘too natural’ - blunders are usually because of ignorance, not disrespect. How should they greet males and females: sir, mate, buddy or miss, ma’am, or madam? A warm ‘hello’ is just as friendly as ‘hello sir’ and avoids the risk of saying the wrong thing. They also need to show respect for the boss - do they automatically offer you and your guests a coffee, and shield you from interruptions? Do they anticipate your needs? There’s also a skill in speaking to guests without being patronising: they may be older or younger, speak a different language or dress very differently. They also need to be able to shift a conversation that’s out of line: sexist or sexually explicit, political or racist opinions you don’t agree with. Our job is to gently but firmly change the subject (and keep our standards) without embarrassing the customer.

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What about touching customers? Handshakes, kisses, hugs or a friendly squeeze - what’s acceptable? You make the rules, ensuring they’re evenly applied. What are the policies on personal grooming, rules for men on shaving and ‘growth’, and rules for everyone Ken Burgin on display of tattoos, piercings and crazy hair colour? If you’re not as tough as a five star hotel, where do you draw the line? What about clothes to and from work. How casual is too sloppy? The computer in the pocket will also need regulation – mobile phones. Can we all stop using mobiles in view of customers? The rule used to be ‘turn it off when you’re on duty’. Is it okay to just text or receive messages? Accessing Facebook may be banned on the PC, but they can all be reached on a smart phone. Now that they’re also used as marketing tools, how do you make a distinction? There are extra standards for managers, for example with writing and emailing to customers. Bad spelling and punctuation make you look sloppy and uneducated, even if you’re not. A good email needs a proper subject line, capital letters and full stops, short sentences plus a standard signature with a web link. Business letters requesting information, making a complaint or communicating about an issue should follow a proper format, and envelopes have the address in the middle. There will also be times when managers represent the business at industry events - are you game to turn them loose? What information is appropriate to share at training ses-

‘We want staff to be themselves, but not ‘too natural’ - blunders are usually because of ignorance, not disrespect.’

sions, trade fairs or award nights, and what is confidential? How many drinks can they have if there’s an open bar? Let’s not forget to take manners beyond the essentials, for example saying ‘thank you’ after an event. Who sends the card or email, and what does it say? Most times this is forgotten, but a friendly message is always appreciated. Managers also need guidance on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks: who should they ‘friend’? Are there different expectations of what they can share online? Is it okay for the boss to ‘friend’ a staff member? Be confident and lay down the rules. Most of these issues are not up for a vote. One of the nicest compliments a customer can give is ‘you have great staff’. Chances are this response is because of the ‘finer points’ they’ve experienced with service, manners and correct etiquette. Here’s to many compliments coming your way. Ken Burgin is the owner of leading hospitality management consultancy Profitable Hospitality. To find out more visit www.profitablehospitality.com or contact him on 1800 001 353.

At your service Here are some etiquette sayings that can be useful for staff discussion: 1. Never compete with the guest. Our job is to be less glamorous, fashionable, opinionated or talkative. 2. Wait for the invitation. Be alert for signals that a customer needs attention, working with ‘eyes wide open’. 3. Treat a table formally until you’re given the right to be informal.

hospitality | august 2013

managementcomment

Culinary royalty leads decline Once held as the standard for gastronomy, France is battling a decline in food and wine appreciation. What does it mean, asks Tony Berry.

h dear, oh dear. Or, even sacre bleu, as the French might utter, for it’s they who are guilty of the latest abomination assaulting our world of foodservice. The land that once was regarded above all others for the quality of its wine has spawned a company marketing red wine flavoured with cola. Fittingly the label on the bottle gives its name as Rouge Sucette, which translates as Red Lollipop. Tony Berry Oui, my friends, the country that gave the world Mumm, and Mouton Rothschild and the delight of beaujolais nouveau is now giving us lolly water and calling it wine. The sad excuse is that this adulterated vin rouge is aimed at “a new generation of drinkers”. What’s wrong with this generation following what their predecessors did by growing into an appreciation of wine? And if there’s nothing that satisfies them, there’s always the cocktail bar. Wine is a wine is a wine. It’s not grape juice augmented by a carbonated and caffeinated beverage. To sell lolly water as wine is the Starbucks solution to declining sales. If you can’t compete with those offering the genuine article, offer a bastardised version and try to convince the gullible members of “the new generation” that it’s the real deal. Maybe this is all a case of the French being French and getting piqued because they’re no longer top of the pile. It was bad enough facing competition from the Germans and Italians, and even Californians and South Africans. But now they’ve hit rock bottom with sales being hit by upstarts from Australia. To compound this Gallic loss of status have been critical comments on the declining standards of its restaurants. Along with that have been revelations that 31 per cent of the nation’s restaurants use “industrially prepared” products. Now there are moves by the French to decree that any establishment not preparing in-house the food it sells will no longer be allowed to call itself a restaurant. Precisely what

they’ll be called is still being argued. Following the decline of French gastronomy – which they themselves have reluctantly admitted – there now appears to be something amiss about having a predominantly French organisation dictating global restaurant standards. What began as a tyre company’s guide for its customers has morphed into an instrument of torture that can turn chefs into gibbering wrecks, ruin businesses, and even lead to suicide. How did the industry allow such an initially well-meaning venture to become such a weapon of foodservice destruction? Why does it continue to allow itself to be constrained by the demands of a coterie of judges who persist in their belief that French cuisine is the ultimate? And what really does a Michelin star mean? It’s simply a great marketing tool, that gives bragging rights to chefs and restaurants. And do the stars belong to the restaurant or to the chef? So many of the chefs move on, still claiming to be Michelin-starred. And if the chef leaves, does the restaurant still qualify for the accolade? As our own capital city guides have proved, many of these recommendations are out of date even by the time they’re launched. To think that the vast number of restaurants that now exist can be adequately assessed in the period between each publication is quite laughable. Even more ridiculous is to have these faux stars allocated by a nation whose own culinary stars are dimmed by declining quality of food and service. It says much for the style of Aussie restaurants that Michelin has yet to curse us with its presence; we just wouldn’t measure up to its perverse expectations. And long may it remain so.

‘How did the industry allow such an initially well-meaning venture to become an all-consuming weapon of foodservice destruction?’

hospitality | august 2013

Tony Berry is a former editor of Hospitality magazine, a restaurant reviewer, and restaurateur. You can contact him at tonybee@ozemail.com.au

doctorhospitality We have a new manager – he’s very young, wears too much hair product, and has a born-to-rule attitude. I can’t stand it. Help. Is he useless, or can he do the job? If he’s competent, now’s the time to show everyone your maturity. Be happy about change, flexible and ready to be a positive part of the team. There will be plenty of things he needs to learn about the business. Can he look to you as a supporter, or sullen and unhelpful? Guess which attitude will get you the best shifts and more pleasant conditions. You’ve had much bigger challenges than this in the past. Act your age. How do I poach someone from another business without looking tacky? It is a bit tacky, but you won’t be the first, and this person is free to make their own decisions. You’ll be giving them information about work you think they will find interesting and rewarding. Make sure it’s a genuinely good opportunity, and not just because you’re desperate. Recruiters sometimes say ‘we wondered if you know someone who would be interested in…’, avoiding a direct offer but putting information on the table. Don’t forget you will probably end up paying more to this person because you chase them, and make sure to get some dark sunglasses for when you walk past their current employer. Sales this month are terrible. I’m wondering if a monthly sales incentive for staff might be a helpful way to boost business? It can, if you design it the right way. Staff love to win, so make sure there are rewards every week, not monthly. Let everyone benefit by offering incentives on certain extra-profitable items, for example sides and beverages, the second coffee, dessert and high-margin wines. Have them put in a claim each night for the bonus items they’ve sold, and pay out each week. Randomly check to ensure honesty, and if some staff can’t or won’t use the opportunity to sell and make money you may have to move them on. It’s all hands on deck to help the business survive.

Have a question for the good doctor? Send him your queries via Hospitality editor Rosemary Ryan with a quick email to rosemary.ryan@cirrusmedia.com.au

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

shelfspace

4 1 A tea revolution The capsule concept developed by the coffee market has expanded into the tea market with Dilmah’s latest offering, the tea pod. Compatible with all coffee capsule machines, the product produces quality cups of tea in an efficient and mess-free manner - simply insert into the machine and pull the lever down. The tea pod is available with two of Dilmah’s new Single Region Selection varieties, Earl Grey, which is grown in the Ratnapura region, and the Dimbula Valley grown English Breakfast. See www.dilmah.com.au

2 Retro glassware with a modern twist The new Bach glassware collection from Luigi Bormioli comprises martini, beverage, DOF, whisky and hi ball glasses that cater to the current retro trend. Each product in the range is more resistant to breakage than authentic retro glassware because it is made from SON.hyx®

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

lead-free crystal glass, a strong and durable material that continues to sparkle like new even after 4,000 dishwasher cycles. The range is available through Crown Commercial. See www.crowncommercial.com.au

3 Indulgent desserts that prevent wastage too The new Portion As You Please range from Patisserie d’ Artiste comprises four desserts with a sweet pastry base. There’s Bacio, which features a combination of Nestlé chocolate and cream, the sweet yet tangy lemon and lime variety, a white chocolate and vanilla mousse with raspberry topping, and a mango and coconut dessert, which is comprised of a coconut mousse and mango macadamia cheesecake. The desserts are created in rows, enabling kitchen staff to simply cut the number of portions they require at any given time, then plate, garnish and serve. Head to www.nestleprofessional. com/australia

4 Mulled cider here to stay Following on from a successful trial last year, Cheeky Rascal mulled cider from boutique cider house Rebello will now be available every winter. The mulled cider is made using a pyramid bag typically used for tea, that’s filled with cinnamon, star anise, orange, clove, nutmeg, vanilla bean and all spice berry. The spicebag is then paired with the company’s Cheeky Rascal Cider apple cider, which is free from concentrate, flavouring and additives. Preparation is easy - just drop the spice bag into a pot and warm up the cider. See www.cheekyrascal.com.au

5 Organic coffee with a conscience Griffiths Coffee has recently launched Just Fair, its new Fairtrade and certified organic coffee range comprising organic espresso blend coffee beans, organic espresso blend ground coffee and organic decaffeinated coffee. The 100 per cent Arabica

6 beans are roasted in small batches for guaranteed freshness, and they are sourced from farmers in the developing world at a fair price, for the benefit of both local communities and the environment. The products are available in 250g tins and one kilogram bags for commercial use. www.griffithscoffee.com.au/ just-fair-coffee

6 All natural milkshake toppings from Edlyn Edlyn has released a new range of double strength milkshake toppings in flavours including chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, caramel and banana. Each variety is made using natural colours, flavours and sweeteners and contains between 23 and 40 per cent less sugar than the brand’s traditional toppings. They’re double the strength of their predecessors and so packaged in 1.5 litre bottles rather than the standard three litre bottles. See www.edlyn.com.au

hospitality | august 2013

eventscalendar

hospitalitydiary AUGUST 12-13 Lunch; Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre If you missed it in Sydney make sure you make it to Melbourne for this year’s second Lunch show, the event specially designed for the fast growing food-to-go market. See www.lunchshow.com.au 27-29 Australian HACCP Conference and Awards; Pier Docklands, Melbourne Now in its 20th year, this conference is the go to event for the food safety industry and will feature a number of the industry’s most respected professionals discussing a range of food safety related issues. www.haccptown.com.au

SEPTEMBER 9-12 Fine Food Australia; Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre The largest trade event for the Australian hospitality industry is back. Don’t miss the chance to see more than a thousand hospitality industry suppliers under one roof plus get some tips and ideas from the range of free seminars and live culinary and baking competitions taking place over the four days. See www.finefoodaustralia.com.au

HO0 7 1 3 _ 0 3 4 _ RE A

NOMA’s René Redzepi with Jill Dupleix during last year’s Good Food Month.

OCTOBER 1-31 Good Food Month, Sydney. This new expanded food event from Fairfax Media is an extension of the previous Sydney-based festival. Starting in October in Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane, it then heads to Melbourne and regional Victoria in November. Highlights of this year’s event include the visit of some of the world’s most acclaimed and innovative chefs including Rene Redzepi and Alex Atala. See www.goodfoodmonth.com

2 0 1 3 - 0 6 - 2 5 T 1 1 : 3 6 : 2 8 +H 1O 0 0: 80 10 3 _ 0 0 0 _ C H E

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Serve with chunky chips and crisp salad or veg, for a great Winter special For your FREE sample email: sample@readybake.com.au Offer ends 31st August 2013 Samples may not be available in some regional areas

For more information on our complete range of products and visit: www.readybake.com.au Pastries for all occasions

P R O D U C T S

hospitality | august 2013

Beef & Guinness pie kit hospitality ad July .indd 1

28 Savour National Awards for Excellence; Royal Randwick, Sydney. Who will be named this year’s national Restaurant of the Year at the annual industry awards from Restaurant & Catering Australia recognising Australia’s best foodservice operators? It’s the culmination of a year of state metropolitan and regional awards. See www.restaurantcater.asn.au

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I CANNOT BELIEVE IT’S

NOT LINEN! Duniletto® Slim, the clever solution. An innovative napkin made from quality Dunisoft™ material, enhance your venue while reducing staff time. Dunisoft™ is FSC Approved, a bonus in completing venue portfolio. Conveniently packed standing up in countertop display box so cutlery can be prepacked before service. Please contact Chem-Pack Supplies for free samples or more information.

sales@chem-pack.com.au

02 8536 9500

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

18/06/2013 11:56:33 AM

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