RC April 2015

Restaurant Catering

APRIL 2015 $6.95 GST incl.

Official Journal of

Restaurant & Catering

The Gambaro family in Queensland have been serving up good food and hospitality for over 20 years. Sharing their

story was an offer too good to refuse, page 20

Completely flooredHow to avoid slip-and-fall injuries, page 10

Morning gloryThe very best way to start the day, page 14

“My aim is to showcase the flavours of fresh Australian produce alongside the spices of traditional Malaysian cuisine.”Bob Yam, Malayan Orchid, Bendigo

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Contents

In this issue ...Upfront4 From the Association

John Hart highlights the importance of the fight for industrial relations and Matteo Pignatelli congratulates the 2015 Lifetime Achievers

6 News & eventsR&CA’s Lifetime Achievers and Young Achiever Of The Year announced; Awards for Excellence appoints new chair of judges; and more ...

Wisdom10 Six steps to safer floors

How to reduce the risk of slip-and-fall injuries

14 Brekky centralWhy the morning meal has become so popular

18 What I’ve learntIt was a passion for finding something new that made Bob Yam’s Bendigo restaurant, Malayan Orchid, such a local favourite

Stuff24 New products

The latest and greatest stuff

25 Product guideRestaurant & Catering magazine’s guide to the best dessert products

35 Product guideRestaurant & Catering magazine’s guide to the best red meat products

41 Technology3D printers in the kitchen

44 DrinksOffering low alcohol options doesn’t need to be dull—far from it

46 DetailsA vast renovation of the heritage Seppeltsfield winery by architect Max Pritchard included a new branch of the celebrated Fino restaurant

April 2015 $6.95 GST incl.

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Four if by seaFrom a single fish and chip shop to a four-strong empire of award-winning restaurants, the Gambaro Group has long reaped the rewards of the sea. But now director John Gambaro sets his sights on meatier flesh

COVER STORY20

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Restaurant & Catering magazine is published under licence on behalf of Restaurant & Catering by Engage Custom Media, Suite 4.17 55 Miller Street, Pyrmont NSW 2009 www.engagemedia.com.au

Editor: Nicole Hogan Art Director: Lucy Glover Sub-editor: Kerryn RamseyContributors: Ben Canaider, Sue Nelson, Natasha Phillimore, Natasha Shaw, Chris Sheedy, Samantha Trenoweth Sales Director: Adam Cosgrove

Direct: (02) 9660 6995 ext 505Fax: (02) 9518 5600 Mob: 0404 351 543 Email: [email protected]

Editorial Director: Rob Johnson Commercial Director: Mark Brown

For all editorial, subscription and advertising enquiries, ph: 1300 722 878Print Post approved PP: 2255003/06505, ISSN 1442-9942

©2014 Engage Custom Media. Views expressed in Restaurant & Catering magazine are not necessarily those of Restaurant & Catering or that of the publisher, editor or Engage Custom Media.Printed by Webstar

Back to the battlementsPeople are starting to understand that an inflexible IR system doesn’t help consumers, staff or restaurateurs

From the Association

Restaurant & Catering’s mission: To lead and represent the Australian restaurant and catering industry.

Contact details

8,494 - CAB Audited as at September, 2014

Restaurant & Catering AustraliaAddress: Level 3, 154 Pacific Highway, St Leonards NSW 2064Tel: 1300 722 878Fax: 1300 722 396Email: [email protected]: www.restaurantcater.asn.au

President: Matteo Pignatelli (VIC)Senior Vice President: Mark Scanlan (NSW)Junior Vice President: Kevin Gulliver (QLD)Treasurer: Richard Harper (VIC)Chief Executive Officer: John Hart

It is the pointy end of some high-profile industrial relations (IR) inquiries and reports scheduled for 2015. The Productivity Commission has closed off its submission deadline, as has the Annual Wage Review for 2014-15.

Restaurant & Catering Australia has undertaken intense work in preparing submissions for both inquiries. They’re both important opportunities to put forward suggestions for an industrial system that embraces our industry.

Some changes will be politically and socially challenging, but what’s clear is the ultimate driver of these constraints (the view of consumers) has changed.

When the campaign started, for every positive view, there was a negative. The call for change was met by the defence of workers’ entitlements. Now it’s understood that closed businesses don’t help anyone.

Recently an agreement was made between Business SA and the Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees’ Association (SDA), to trade off penalty rates for an additional eight per cent to the hourly rate. This shows sentiment turning. This isn’t an industry-wide precedent—the situation in retail and hospitality is totally different to that for other industries.

We must continue to fight the jurisdictions that really count—the Fair Work Commission and the Productivity Commission—for changes to the Act.

John HartCEO, Restaurant & Catering

RestaurantCatering

4 RESTAURANT & CATERING

Join the conversation on theSavour Australia Restaurant &Catering HOSTPLUS Awards forExcellence with #savourawards

/savouraustralia@savouraus

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Discover Hospitality is here to help your career take off—and stay on track. Discover the career possibilities or find suitable staff with #discoverhospitality

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Keep up to date with Restaurant & Catering Australia (R&CA) news, events, products and programs, and ‘like’ and ‘follow’ the association on social media with #restcatering

/restaurantandcatering@restcatering

restaurant-&-catering-industry-association

Honouring our starsWe’ve always celebrated our greatest Australian restaurateurs, but now the world will too

It’s always an honour to induct our Lifetime Achievers at the annual dinner in Parliament House, along with members of parliament and senators attending. This year was no exception, with Frank Van Haandel, Niño Miano, Jim Carreker, Warwick Lavis and Greg Doyle, all celebrated in early March.

A few years ago, Restaurant & Catering Australia also introduced a Young Achiever Award. This year it was won by Adelaide chef and restaurateur Adam Swanson. Adam is a great ambassador for the industry and has achieved a lot in his career, building a reputation beyond his business into a range of media engagements.

We do have some great media performers in our ranks—Shane Delia, George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Luke Mangan to name but a few. These restaurateurs do represent our sector incredibly well. This is increasingly so off-shore. As we promote tourism to Australia, through the Restaurant Australia brand, it is becoming obvious that our celebrity chefs are world superstars.

In India, for example, George and Gary are more popular than some of our cricket legends, thanks to a very high-rating MasterChef Australia in India. That’s no mean feat when there are over one and a quarter billion people in India. While not all of them are thinking of coming to Australia, the influence our restaurateurs have on travel intention is quite amazing.

Matteo PignatelliPresident, Restaurant & Catering


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News&events


The 2014 Lifestyle Achievers celebrated their success at a formal dinner held by Restaurant & Catering Australia (R&CA) at Parliament House in

Canberra on March 3. R&CA, the national association that leads

and represents the interests of the 35,000 restaurants, cafes and catering businesses across Australia, was delighted to honour and congratulate the outstanding contribution of the following Lifetime Achievers to the industry. • Greg Doyle, New South Wales • Frank Van Haandel, Victoria • Niño Miano, Queensland • Jim Carreker, South Australia • Warwick Lavis, Western AustraliaThe one thing that most of the five winners have in common is a commitment to the restaurant industry over their entire lifetime, pursuing their careers at a very young age. Greg Doyle, widely regarded as one of Australia’s most talented chefs, decided on his cooking career when he left school at 16 years old.

Frank Van Haandel is one of Melbourne's most successful and dynamic restaurateurs, whose experience spans 40 years. Niño Tuccio Miano fulfilled his dream in 1992 when he opened Volare in the Gold Coast, a fine-dining Italian restaurant while still being busy with his jewellery store. Jim Carreker became an Australian citizen in 2007 and by 2010 had helped establish Luxury Lodges of Australia, which includes 18 of Australia’s top hospitality properties. Warwick Lavis is managing director of Matilda Bay Restaurant & Bar, and has held this position for the past 25 years.

Adelaide-born executive chef and San Remo brand ambassador, Adam Swanson, was also announced as the Young Achiever of the Year at the ceremony.

This is the latest accolade for the restaurant owner, who began his culinary career when he was 17 years old, before establishing Zucca Greek Mezze at Holdfast Shores in Adelaide’s suburban beach tourist district in his mid-twenties.

R&CA CEO John Hart offered Adam Swanson his congratulations on the prestigious award. “Adam has done a great deal to raise awareness and advance the public’s knowledge of food. He has been a constant strong contributor to the restaurant and catering industry and serves as a role model and inspiration for other young chefs with a driving passion to succeed,” said Hart.

The Lifetime Achiever program was launched by R&CA in 2003 to acknowledge those who have made a commitment to the restaurant and catering industry and to celebrate their outstanding achievements, efforts and dedication in their state and/or nationally.

Get your customers' voteGet your customers voting for you for their chance to win a dinner for two!How to get your customers voting for you:1) Let them know that Consumer Voting

is now open!2) Direct them to the Awards for Excellence

Vote Now page on the Savour Australia website and enter the name and suburb of their favourite restaurant or caterer and their name, region and email address.

3) Let them know that by voting, they go in the draw to win lunch or dinner vouchers to their region’s 2014 Restaurant & Catering Awards for Excellence Restaurant of the Year winner!

4) Download the logos below to use on your website and in emails to your customers.

Voting closes Monday April 20.

Deadline extendedR&CA has extended the deadline for NSW, WA and QLD nominations in the Awards for Excellence program until Monday April 13 with nomination forms for Restaurant, Tourism and Catering found at the Awards for Excellence tab at www.restaurantcater.asn.au. The George Mure Professional Development and Hospitality Awards, which recognise excellence in training in the workforce, are open until Monday April 20.

The Social Media Award has recently opened to encourage and recognise the use of social media within the restaurant and catering industry.

To nominate your business, complete the entry form available on the R&CA website and encourage your customers to use your unique hashtag! Closing dates are:

Awards for Excellence appoints new chair of judges

Vale John Hemmes 1931—2015At the beginning of March, Sydney fashion and hospitality entrepreneur John Hemmes, known by all as Mr John of Merivale, and Mr John fame, died following a long battle with multiple myeloma. His Merivale Group has forever changed Sydney’s hospitality industry. Restaurant & Catering extends deepest sympathies to his family.

R&CA’s Lifetime Achievers and Young Achiever Of The Year announced

Reputed to be the most objective awards systems in the world, the 2015 Savour AustraliaTM Restaurant & Catering HOSTPLUS Awards for Excellence has

appointed a new national chair of judges.Stewart White, who has been the NSW chair

of judges for Awards for Excellence over the past two years and chair of judges for the R&CA Wine List awards since 2012, has been promoted to the top job. R&CA chief executive officer John Hart congratulates Stewart White on his well deserved promotion.

“Stewart is highly regarded in the hospitality industry with extensive experience reviewing

restaurants since 1987. I take my hat off to him for his long-term commitment to the hospitality industry,” said Hart. Chair of judges Stewart White encourages caterers and restaurant and cafe operators to view the Awards for Excellence as a goal, rather than a reward. “The winners are representative of the best Australia has to offer in the competitive and volatile restaurant and catering world,” he said.

White’s achievements include being past president and vice-president of the Australian Association of Food Professionals and immediate past president of the Food Media Club Australia Inc.

Warwick Lavis


ACT: Jun 1 VIC: June 29SA: July 13 WA: August 3QLD: August 17 NSW: August 31

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Front-of-house apprenticeships return to Brisbane’s hospitality industry

Entering the hospitality industry is more appealing than ever with the new front-of-house specialists’ apprenticeship and the Cert IV

chef apprenticeship being introduced in Queensland.

The College of Tourism and Hospitality (COTAH) within TAFE Queensland Brisbane is excited to offer these programs aimed at increasing the skills and professional standing of graduates with comprehensive training and support from COTAH’s industry leading trainers, and expect a strong interest in the pathways across the region.

Restaurant & Catering Association (R&CA) has worked extensively with government and industry representatives to allow existing and new employees to upgrade their skills and gain qualifications and recognition deserving of professionals in the hospitality industry.

The Certificate III in Hospitality and the Certificate IV in Commercial Cookery

apprenticeships are now available through the R&CA Skills Pathways Project in conjunction with COTAH at Tafe Queensland Brisbane. Apprentices who are training through this arrangement can become a trade qualified chef (Cert IV) or a trade qualified front-of-house specialist (Cert III) through competency-based pathways by demonstrating their skills and knowledge. Apprentices can complete their qualification in a lesser period than generally achieved through the traditional method.

R&CA is pleased to welcome Bulla Dairy Foods, Australia’s oldest family owned and operated dairy company, as the official partner for the remainder of the Skills Pathways Project.

The Skills Pathways Project arrangement includes career advice, job search assistance, mentoring and an online Skills Passport. R&CA chief executive John Hart

believes that an apprenticeship is the most effective training pathway, particularly for young people entering the hospitality industry. He noted that “the on-and-off job learning provides the most ‘job-ready’ graduates. Australia has a very good reputation in this industry and skills gained can be transferred to any part of the world - in fact they are sought after.”

The program is reinforced by the Discover Hospitality website, which is the first online recruitment platform where users can store their electronic CV and supporting information in a free, convenient and secure ‘Skills Passport’. Employers can search for staff and track an employee’s training and career achievements on the website, which helps connect them with apprentices and qualified staff.

Those interested in any of the Skills Pathways are encouraged to register their interest at www.discoverhospitality.com.


Organic Products Europe’s Natural Food Show. naturalproducts.co.uk Tue 21The 8th Food & Hotel Vietnam show takes place on April 21-23 in Saigon. foodnhotelvietnam.com Wed 22Restaurant and cafe owners understand the importance of safety in the workplace—find out more tips at the Safety in Action trade show in Brisbane on April 22-23. safetyinaction.net.au Thu 23Health food extraordinaire Kate Weiss won a Telstra Women’s Business Award for her business Table of Plenty. For this year’s awards, go to telstrabusinesswomensawards.com Fri 24Perfect for green thumbs and wine lovers alike, New York’s Wine & Herb Festival on April 24-26 combines two great loves. cayugawinetrail.com Sat 25It’s Anzac Day so be prepared for a busy Saturday! And make sure there are plenty of fresh Anzac biscuits on display all day long.

April—May 2015

MAY

APRIL

Fri 1Crack open a bottle to celebrate the start of Aussie Wine Month. wineaustralia.com Sat 2Today’s Upper Hunter Wine & Food Affair pleases even the fussiest of foodies. upperhunterwineandfoodaffair.com.au Sun 3Enjoy food, wine and the charm of MasterChef’s Matt Preston at Grampians Grape Escape in Victoria on May 2-3. grampiansgrapeescape.com.au Mon 4Best place to make your beef connections is in Rockhampton, QLD, during the Beef Australia expo on May 4-9. beefaustralia.com.au Tue 5The fifth day of Kangaroo Island FEASTival opens with Table Surfing, a chance to share a table with a local. On May 1-8. tourkangarooisland.com.au

Wed 15Tonight the Australian Interior Design

Awards unveils the 2015 winners. Visit australianinteriordesignawards.com Thu 16

SA’s Barossa Vintage Festival holds its Gastronomic Golf Trail today. barossavintagefestival.com.au Fri 17The world’s largest gathering of rum experts kicks off at the Miami Rum Renaissance Festival in the US. On April 17-19. rumrenaissance.com Sat 18Forage—a 3.5km walk through vineyards of the Orange district—is the event of choice for F.O.O.D Week in central-west NSW. On April 10-19. orangefoodweek.com.au Sun 19Gourmet food and classic motors on parade— a winning combo at SA’s McLaren Vale Vintage & Classic day. vintageandclassic.com.au Mon 20Today is the last day of the two-day Natural &

What’s on

May 1

April 16

Sun 26Like it hot? The weekend-long NYC Hot Sauce Expo goes out with a bang today in Brooklyn. nychotsauceexpo.com Mon 27 Get into the spirit of EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival, a week-long celebration of the city’s extraordinary culinary culture. On April 27-May 3. eat-vancouver.com Tue 28The Australasian Hotel Industry Conference & Exhibition is the place to be for Aussie entrepreneurs. On April 29-30 at Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt Hotel. ahice.com.au Wed 29Nominations for the delicious Produce Awards close next month. Give your producer the accolades they deserve at taste.com.au Thu 30The London Coffee Festival gets brewing today. Head to Brick Lane in London for four days of coffee heaven on April 20-May 3. londoncoffeefestival.com

Wed 6Visit your local bakery and scarf down a pain au chocolat—it’s International No Diet Day. Thu 7Wild abalone and leatherwood honey can be tasted at the Unique Tastes Pavilion, part of Launceston’s Agfest on May 7-9. agfest.com.au Fri 8Food SA is coordinating the Australian Pavilion at SIAL 2015 in Shanghai for the first time. Drop by on May 6-8. sialchina.com Sat 9Today’s Moree on a Plate festival in NSW has something for everyone. moreeonaplate.com.au

Sun 10Offer up your very best to all the hard-working Aussie mums by putting on your best spread for Mother’s Day.

Mon 11Be quick! The Hunter Valley’s Lovedale Long Lunch

(on May 16-17) fills up fast. Book early online at lovedalelonglunch.com.au Tue 12South Korea shows off its quality meat and wine at the Seoul Food & Hotel Exhibition on May 12-15. seoulfoodnhotel.co.kr Wed 13Get inspired by the latest design trends at the Hospitality Design Expo in Las Vegas on May 13-15. hdexpo.com Thu 14Queensland chefs Matt Golinski, Philip Johnson, Alastair McLeod and more whip up an unforgettable lunch during the Noosa International Food & Wine Festival. On May 14-17. noosafoodandwine.com.au Fri 15A mouth-watering array of Victoria’s finest food, wine and beer is all on display during the High Country Harvest on May 15-24. highcountryharvest.com.au


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Management


steps to safer kitchen floors

6Hundreds of foodservice employees are injured each year as a result of slip-and-fall accidents. Samantha Trenoweth talks to the experts to find out how you can reduce the risks

Slips and falls are the primary cause of accidents in restaurants and hotels, costing the food service industry millions of dollars each year. In Australia,

restaurants rank fifth (just behind aged care facilities and schools) on the Monash University Accident Research Centre’s list of the most likely locations for a slip-and-fall accident to take place.

Fast and furious activity, ever-present moisture and the likelihood of spills increase the danger in restaurant kitchens. However, building safety and workflow specialists advise that there are a number of simple, preventative measures that can substantially reduce the likelihood of slip-and-fall accidents. Here are their top tips for a non-slip kitchen.

1The bare bonesMany slip-and-fall accidents are a result of the underlying structure

of restaurant flooring. So, if you’re in the enviable position of being able to build (or rebuild) your kitchen from the ground up, you can start your slip-proofing in the bare bones.

A Work Cover Australia and Hospitality Industry study recommends that the substrate of commercial kitchen floors should be made from concrete and graded towards floor drainage outlets. This will help to prevent pooling of water. Ideally, drainage outlets should be installed near water supply points (including sinks, basins and dishwashers) to ensure that leaks and spills are channelled away quickly.

Safe Work Australia advises that changes in the floor level be minimal and that, if levels must change, ramps are generally safer than steps (provided you ensure that the maximum ramp slope does not exceed 1:12).

2 SurfacingHowever, most slips and falls (70 per cent of them) take place on

perfectly flat, even surfaces, so a steady gradient won’t entirely slip-proof your kitchen. Installing an effective non-slip floor surface is also essential. Here are some of the most popular commercial

kitchen floor surfaces and Safe Work Australia’s verdict on their relative pros and cons.

n Ceramic tiles. These should not be glazed and should be installed with epoxy grouting. The addition of slip-resistant mouldings or treatments is recommended.n Quarry tiles. These require an impervious sealer and again, slip-resistant mouldings or treatments are recommended.n Polyvinyl sheet or tiles with heat welded joints. Choose a slip-resistant vinyl with aggregates moulded in. As a rule, the thicker and softer vinyls are the most slip-resistant. n Stainless steel with a non-slip profile and welded joints. This is an acceptable surface, though it can become slippery when worn.n Concrete. Steel trowel case hardened concrete with epoxy sealant is an acceptable surface but, again, it can become slippery over time as the surface wears.n Plastic matting. Interlocking PVC extrusions give very good traction and drainage but it is essential that an even floor surface is maintained to avoid tripping hazards.n Fibreglass gratings. When ‘grit’ particles are moulded into the surface, these also provide excellent slip-resistance and drainage.

It is crucial that all commercial kitchen floors have a non-slip surface, that they are laid professionally and meet the requirements of Australian and New Zealand slip-resistance standard AS 3661.1.

Once it’s been laid, it’s important to clean and maintain your flooring in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions and (depending on the surface) be prepared to resort to deck-brushing, as well as washing, to reduce built-up grease and cleaning products. Simple mopping is often not thorough enough for a commercial kitchen. Most kitchen floors require mopping (with a little elbow grease and a strenuous

In Australia, restaurants rank fifth (just behind aged care facilities and schools)

for the most likely location for slip-and-

fall accidents. Monash University Accident

Research Centre

scrub), followed by a thorough rinse with clean, hot water. Mop heads and deck brushes should be

replaced regularly—before

built-up grease and grime can impede

their efficiency. It’s also important to consider

the transition from kitchen to front-of-house flooring. Sudden changes in floor surface texture or grading can lead to trips and falls. Where these transitions occur, install good lighting and visual cues.

3The safety auditConduct periodic safety audits of your kitchen and other

restaurant areas. Slippery floors are not the only culprits in kitchen falls. Others include inadequate workspace and clutter, furniture, bags or boxes impeding easy progress through thoroughfares. The Australian Building Code stipulates that, to maintain ease of movement through a commercial kitchen, 10m2 should be allocated per person working there.

Check that doors and cupboards also allow space for staff to move freely. Up to 1200mm clearance is recommended in front of storage areas with sliding doors and there should be 1200mm x 1200mm clearance in front of swinging or folding doors that lead to other parts of the restaurant.

4Watch that workflowIt’s important to audit and organise your workflow. The

kitchen should be designed to facilitate a continuous progression of food from delivery to storage, then on to preparation and the final dish. The aim should always be to minimise movement around the room, and to avoid cross-traffic and backtracking.

In all this kitchen planning, don’t forget the wait staff. Make sure you allocate sufficient space for them to enter and exit comfortably.


5Shoe businessA number of companies provide slip-resistant shoes, boots

and clogs, specifically designed for the restaurant industry. Insist that all staff wear non-slip shoes and that they clean


Management

6Communication Finally, it’s important to communicate and provide

staff with some basic safety training. Type up a list of optimal procedures and distribute it or hang it on a wall. Train staff to recognise slip and trip hazards and point out the importance of keeping the workspace in order.

Make sure that everyone (not just the kitchen staff) understands the importance of quickly dealing with spills and leaks. Ask for staff feedback on where they see potential hazards and ask them help you to devise solutions.

Slips and trips are common causes of kitchen accidents but many of them are preventable. With a slip-resistant, well maintained floor, a thorough safety plan in place and the lines of communication open, you can keep staff on their feet, absentee levels low and business booming.

the soles regularly to stop grease and

grime build-up between the treads. It’s also important to replace shoes before the treads wear too far down and reduce traction.

Insist all staff wear non-slip shoes, boots or clogs.

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Marketing


The business of breakfast is growing at a furious rate and shows no sign of letting up. Why has the morning meal become so popular? And how can a restaurant or cafe do breakfast well? Chris Sheedy finds out

centralBrekky


In the restaurant and cafe industry right now the golden rule is to make hay while the sun shines, especially the early morning sun. While official figures are difficult to come by, the increasing

popularity of breakfast as both a destination meal and an on-the-run takeaway is plainly obvious.

Having been in the food industry for over 30 years as a baker, pastry cook, marketing manager, salesperson and now one of the Tip Top Foodservice’s national account managers, Darren O’Brien has witnessed major trends and changes. The one that stands out the most, he says, is the increase in the number

breakfast meetings are increasing in popularity while lunches and dinners, with their greater requirements in terms of time and cost, are likely suffering. “But of course business people still want to impress the person they’re taking for breakfast, so they expect to go somewhere nice and have a unique, high quality meal,” he says.

“At the other end of the spectrum is the fact that we are all living a far busier life. Nobody has time for anything—we rush out in the morning to go to the gym, or for a run or a surf, then we rush off to work and often don’t even have time for breakfast at home. So we have our breakfast on the way to work. Weekday breakfast is often a takeaway coffee and a thick chunk of bread.”

And it is important that it is a single,

central of people going out for breakfast.“When I first considered becoming

a baker, my school teachers laughed at me,” he says. “But now if you’re going to be a baker then you are a rock star, and chefs are gods. There has been a major shift in the public’s attitude towards everything to do with food.

“Chefs are creating new experiences for people and as a result it has become trendy to explore food and to be out there and talking about it. Everybody goes out to dinner and of course people go out for lunch. That has now gravitated to breakfast. What I’m seeing and hearing in the market is that breakfast has become a destination meal. Some of the dinners people used to go out for have been replaced by breakfast.”

In the business world, O’Brien says,

Ricardo’s Cafe home-made Bircher muesli with seasonal fruits and pistachio rosewater.

thick chunk of bread, O’Brien says. Knowing they will have a coffee in one hand, people in a hurry to get to work need their entire breakfast to fit in the other hand.

Our increasing likelihood to purchase breakfast means we push the breakfast providers—restaurants and cafes—to continue to improve their offerings. No longer do poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce on a few slices of white bread, or on English muffins, pass muster as an acceptable eggs Benedict. Instead, we expect sourdough or ciabatta or Turkish bread, and the ham or smoked salmon should also be somehow distinctive.

Taking full advantage of such expectations is patissier Ricardo De Marco, owner of Ricardo’s Cafe in Canberra. Having won in 2014 the Savour Australia Restaurant & Catering HOSTPLUS Awards for Excellence for Breakfast Restaurant, Cafe Restaurant and Consumer Vote Award, De Marco and his team obviously know a thing or two about keeping their morning customers happy.

“Many cafes and restaurants have a very similar breakfast menu with basic egg and bacon meals,” De Marco says. “I think there is so much more to


Marketing

offer, so we try to push the boundaries.”This includes an all-day breakfast

menu that includes offerings such as tiramisù French toast, which incorporates focaccia bread, coffee, custard, maple syrup, ricotta, rosewater jelly and a deconstructed chocolate that he calls “chocolate soil”.

“The chocolate soil actually looks like soil,” he says. “We decorate the meal with herbs and edible flowers and finish it with cocoa, so it looks like part of a garden. When people see the plate on the table they just say, ‘Wow!’. We’re trying to give them another experience of breakfast.”

Another dish called ‘Breakfast Fritters’ contains zucchini, corn and haloumi fritters with poached eggs, beetroot hummus, harissa yoghurt, quinoa and roasted corn salsa. It’s a far cry from bacon and eggs!

“Actually, if you come in here and feel like poached eggs on toast then you can have it,” De Marco says. “We are very flexible and we’re not going to tell people what they should be eating.

“We actually don’t want to do anything too crazy. We know that people want eggs and pancakes. So we try to take these dishes to another level. We watch where trends are heading when it comes to breakfasts. But ultimately we work with something traditional, such as hotcakes or French toast

or eggs Benedict. We work with those meals and ask how we can make our dish unlike everybody else’s. How can we make it different? What sorts of flavours can we use? That is how we come up with something unique.”

So hotcakes at Ricardo’s Cafe, rather than being served as expected with butter and maple syrup, instead comes as banana hotcakes with passionfruit curd, banana crumble, coconut mascarpone and maple syrup. “We’re looking for very special flavours and textures,” De Marco says.

And that is what creates success in the breakfast business, says O’Brien—the act of delighting and amazing your customers. Whether it is with a perfectly brewed coffee and a filling slice of thick raisin bread, or a three-course, five-star weekend delight, if you can make them say ‘Wow!’ then you have won the breakfast battle.

“Most of the drive for an increase in quality and uniqueness of breakfast comes from the public,” O’Brien says. “Customers expect new and interesting meals and, from my point of view, this also means new and interesting types of breads. Even with the traditional bacon and egg rolls, cafes are offering gourmet versions. They say that you can have it on a normal white bread roll but you can also have it on a Turkish roll or a sourdough bun. These types of choices at all levels are driving the growth of the breakfast business.”

“How can we make it different? What

sorts of flavours can we use? That is how

we come up with something unique.”

Ricardo De Marco, owner of Ricardo’s Cafe, Canberra

Smoked salmon, poached eggs, smashed peas, crème

fraîche and dukkah, by Ricardo’s Cafe.

Banana hotcakes with passionfruit curd, banana crumble, coconut mascarpone and maple syrup by Ricardo’s Cafe.

ADVERTORIAL

L ast year, restaurateurs were worried about the impact of the phase-out of using signatures with credit cards,

and the changeover to PINs only. But since October 2014, a group of high-end restaurants, including award-winners Otto Ristorante, Quay and ARIA in Sydney, have found Tyro’s EFTPOS solution solves hassles associated with PIN@POS and early data suggests tip amounts have increased by more than six per cent for those restaurants using Tyro’s [email protected]

“We’re focusing more on humanistic design,” says Tyro co-founder Andrew Rothwell. “Everything we do should revolve around providing products and service that make our restaurant, bar and café owner’s lives simpler, more pleasurable, more productive, and give time back to them to do what they want.”

While PIN@POS was a recent phenomenon for restaurants, Tyro has been working on it for years. “We’ve been experimenting with pay-at-the-table type technology, software-wise, for at least five years,” explains Nathan Cause, Tyro’s Hospitality specialist. In Europe and the UK, restaurant patrons

were able to pay tips by EFTPOS at the table, and we thought, ‘That’s a really great way to offer a payment experience to customers in Australia.’ Many people were used to writing a tip on their receipt, which was a discreet experience, however they were not used to an EFTPOS terminal pay-at-the-table experience, where they felt exposed. Because we were ahead of our time, we got to experiment with many different ways of tipping. Our experimentation resulted in us developing what we consider to be the simplest way for patrons to tip and split bills, if needed.

The Tyro solution involves a series of soft, non-intrusive prompts for the customer. Rather than being abruptly asked for a tip amount up-front, the Tyro terminal screen offers a ‘yes/no’ option for whether the customer wants to leave a tip—making it far less

confronting.It is easier for floor staff too, who now no longer have to hover over the table helping customers to use the terminal—walking them through an awkward tipping process—or from feeling like, by standing there, a gratuity is being sought. “The wait staff can comfortably leave the EFTPOS terminal with the customer and let the process flow naturally; and provide more service to nearby tables.” says Nathan.

Tyro’s EFTPOS system uses the same communication protocols as web pages to talk to your point-of-sale system, and can integrate with the vast majority of established industry players, making back-end transaction reconciliation and reporting simple for managers and owners.

Another key difference with the Tyro solution is its smarter approach to integrated payments and continuous operation of the POS system. Nathan explains, “Traditionally, point-of-sale systems can get locked up when an

integrated payment is being made, preventing wait staff from using the system to complete orders for other tables. But Tyro’s solution doesn’t lock up the POS system. This feature is a great example of the simplicity and uniqueness of Tyro’s humanistic design.”

Tyro surveyed more than 50 of their current customers using Pay@Table and found that the tip amounts rose by 6.8% since the PIN Mandate. It’s proof that making something simple, customer-focused and pleasant will pay dividends. A bit like running a successful restaurant.

1. Tyro survey data March 2015

“With the ease of use for the paying at table option, as well as the

clean split bill method, the choice to change over to Tyro was an

easy one for us.” Andrew Ray, General Manager, The Lucas

Group (Chin Chin Restaurant, Go Go Bar,

Kong Restaurant, Baby Pizzeria.)

Follow the leadersSome of our top restaurants have discovered a secret for keeping customers tipping, staff and restaurant owners happy, since the PIN@POS changeover.

WWW.TYRO.COM

Otto Ristorante staff member using Tyro’s

Tap&Go terminal

“Tip amounts rose by 6.8% for Tyro customers using Pay@Table since the PIN Mandate.”

Nathan Cause, BDM Hospitality at Tyro.

I came to Australia in 1981 from Malaysia as a student. I studied accountancy in Bendigo [in Victoria], fell in love with the country town—and a local girl—and never left. While completing my studies I worked in a Chinese restaurant, enjoying the familiar fare and learning about the industry on the job.

Growing up in Malaysia, I honed my culinary instinct watching street food vendors. I would ride my bike to buy takeaway food for my family. It’s all open kitchen, and you can observe a lot while you’re waiting for your food. So when I came to Australia I had a basic understanding of the cuisine and how to cook it.

It is now 20 years since I bought the Malayan Orchid. Back then it had been a really traditional country Chinese restaurant, but we made it strongly Malaysian, with some Thai flavours, and it evolved from there. It’s not your usual hawker food. I didn’t try to replicate Malaysian takeaway dishes; I tried to create something completely unique.

Studying accounting has had its uses. One concept of accounting is the point of differentiation. You’ve got to make yourself stand out from all the other Chinese restaurants doing sweet-and-sour pork and lemon chicken. Game meats don’t get used a lot in Chinese cooking, and this was our original angle. We used emu, camel, buffalo, venison. From then on, our reputation started to snowball.

I’ve always liked the idea of creating my own take on fusion cuisine, and over time I experimented with fresh and interesting ingredients that had a uniquely Australian flavour. We started incorporating kangaroo, Moreton Bay bugs, crocodile and emu, and we used Asian techniques combined with Western methods of service.

My aim is to showcase the flavours of fresh Australian produce alongside the spices of traditional Malaysian cuisine. There is no need to drown the meat in the traditional rich sauces, because the quality of the meat is so good.

Trends in Melbourne usually take a while to filter through to regional areas, and I make sure I keep a finger on

the city’s pulse. I’m pleased to see many new higher end Melbourne restaurants using Asian spices and ingredients. It all helps to create a widespread interest in fine Asian dining.

So why does Bendigo have such enduring appeal for me? Put simply: family. When we started to do really well there was always this nagging feeling that we should expand to Melbourne, but I had a young family and wanted to bring the kids up here. Owning restaurants in different cities would have made this logistically difficult. We didn’t want to repeat ourselves in Bendigo—there just wasn’t the market—so I opened a French restaurant and learnt that technique for a few years, and ran the two restaurants concurrently.

While I valued this experience, in the end it wasn’t for me. Once you have another restaurant, you become a businessman rather than a hands-on restaurateur. Of course, there are a lot of executive chefs in Melbourne and Sydney who make it work, but it becomes about so much more than food. It’s a whole different game.

My advice for younger restaurateurs is to ensure that you are meeting a demand. You may feel like the market is ready for your brand new concept, but you have to be adaptable. Knowing the market and your customers—their price range, what kind of food they’re after—is half the battle. Meet that criteria and do it well and you’ll be successful.

For hands-on restaurateurs, the feedback is there every day. If someone enjoys a certain dish or not, if they think it’s expensive or they think the service is too slow, this is something you can find out and rectify on the spot. There is no interval or delay, you can immediately make the changes.

As for the dreaded online reviews, I believe that the credence given to anonymous bloggers and amateur reviewers is waning. I like to see the positives in any potential challenge, and reviews are a handy way to check your temperature. As a restaurant owner, you ought to be reading what these people say. It gives you an idea of how you can iron out problems that others may see—you get an idea of what’s happening out there. But I don’t take it too seriously. You can’t satisfy everybody.

What I’ve learnt

YamA yearning for the flavours of his home country may have given Bob Yam a start in restaurants, but it was a

passion for finding something new that made Yam’s Bendigo restaurant, Malayan Orchid, such a local favourite

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Cover story

From a single fish-and-chip shop in downtown Brisbane to a four-strong empire of award-winning restaurants, the Gambaro Group has long reaped the rewards of the sea. But now, Natasha Phillimore discovers, director John Gambaro has set his sights on meatier flesh

Four if by sea


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“My first memories of food are actually of my grandma and mum standing at the stove, stirring the meatball sauce. We would line up with fresh bread to dunk in it,” John remembers, adding a sidebar. “Wonder why I had a weight problem when I was young! Food brought us together. It was, and is, the basis of life.”

But while our blue Pacific may have been both the deliverer and saviour of a family fleeing a post-war communist-leaning Italy, it was nothing but hard graft that made the Gambaro Group the great success it is today.

From those humble deep-fryer beginnings, there was no resting on laurels. The mid-’70s saw Gambaro Seafood Restaurant launch, then relaunch in 1982 with a function centre. In 2003 the Group gave the Seafood

Restaurant a major renovation to its facade, and five years

later matched the interior to the facelift.

By 2013, John was ready for his next challenge: steak. “It was a big move for us,” he admits. “We did meat in the Seafood

Restaurant, and of course the function

centre, but to be a specialist in the meat

business—and there are some very good steak restaurants

in Brisbane—it had to be right.”The fundamentals to opening Black

Hide Steakhouse, he explains, are the same as any of his businesses. “The biggest hurdle is always: what is a

As far as dynasties go, the Gambaro family is disappointingly free of controversy. Surely three

brothers—that’d be John, Donny and Frank—working alongside one another (not to mention Dad, Michael, weighing in with his more than half a century of hospitality know-how) is a recipe for disaster? We want fireworks, we want Italian drama!

“Dad is the commander in chief; we actually call him that,” John Gambaro laughs, fanning the flames before throwing cold water on them. “The little tiffs are quickly forgotten though,” he says. “The best intentions underlie everything. We have mutual respect for everyone’s skills. Not much of a challenge goes on here.”

The Gambaro story is one of the ocean. Its waves brought John’s grandfather Giovanbaptista to Brisbane from Genoa. Its produce was served in fish-and-chip baskets on Caxton Street in Petrie Terrace in 1953 (the shop bought for a princely sum of £4700); its fresh prawns had Australians navigating 40-degree Christmas days lining up at the wholesale seafood site, Domenico’s, run by Michael’s brother.

Four if by sea“My first memories

of food are actually of my grandma and

mum standing at the stove, stirring the meatball sauce.”

John Gambaro, Gambaro Group

(From left) Brothers Donny, John and Frank Gambaro.

customer’s biggest complaint when they get their steak on the plate? And it’s that it isn’t cooked right.”

So, the restaurant adopted a philosophy when serving to slice the meat at the table. “It’s not for everyone,” says John, “but it was the only way to ensure it’s cooked right.”

This waiter flourish is performed in a distinctly masculine space; all rough-hewn timber, dark leather and stainless steel, softened with dim lighting and Gambaro family pictures. “Touch wood—actually, touch all the hard work. It’s working,” says John. “It’s what people are attracted to—all about great materials that add warmth: rustic timber, sleek lines, elegance. The space already had a heart and soul because it’s here that we started.”

It took just 12 months for Black Hide Steakhouse, on Caxton Street opposite Gambaro Seafood Restaurant, to climb the chargrill leaderboard, taking out the gong not just for Best Steak Restaurant, but also the coveted Restaurant of the Year in the 2014 Queensland Savour Australia™ Restaurant & Catering HOSTPLUS Awards for Excellence.

Cover story

John, as is his habit, places the accolade at everyone’s feet but his own. “We have a very good supplier, Stanbroke, an incredible team …” And a head chef that comes with his own celebrated CV.

“When we decided to open up the steakhouse, we travelled overseas and around Australia, seeing what people were doing in steak restaurants,” recalls John. “Sydney is definitely the big brother but Brissie is catching up! I’m an inquisitive little guy, so when I went to visit Rockpool, I popped into the kitchen. [Head chef Corey Costelloe] said to come see him after service, when he told me his steak cook, who had been looking after all his meat, was moving back to Mullumbimby.”

John flew straight down there, and in a move redolent of an Italian gangster movie, “offered [the former steak cook] a package he couldn’t refuse”.

While Lukas McEwan won’t be drawn into the mafia version of this story, he concurs that it was a serendipitous series of events that had him grilling on Black Hide Steakhouse’s blistering 900-degree Fahrenheit Montague grill.

“I was looking for a move to Brisbane for family reasons,” he says. “And when John found out I was sous chef at Rockpool Bar & Grill, he made contact with me and offered me a job at Cut, which was what it was called at the time—and that was it. I moved up a month before the restaurant opened.”

McEwan admits working for the family-run business has taught him a few lessons, partly because it is his first head-chef role, but not least because the brothers have a very hands-on management style.

“I’ve worked with directors, a lot of other top-of-the-chain people, and they’re definitely not as hands on as John and the family,” he says. “The Gambaros are involved in everything, right down to the cleaners, the storemen, the servers, making sure the music is turned on, the air-conditioning’s perfect—even as to how the toilets are being cleaned. They’re very hands on, and passionate about what they’re doing. That’s a good thing, not being left in the dark. John’s very clear about the direction he wants to take the restaurant, and the company.”

(From left) Head chef Lukas McEwan, John, Frank and Donny Gambaro.



In fact, it may already be clear to the rest of the state: basically, up. Each launch over the past few years has netted the group serious accolades: industry awards, a five-star rating for Gambaro Hotel (one of only three in Brisbane), rave reviews. But it’s not as easy a task as John makes it look.

“Sure, we make mistakes,” he shrugs. “Great produce should speak for itself, and sometimes plating it gets too complicated. You can do too much.”

When asked to pinpoint the secret of the Gambaro Group’s longevity in the often fickle world of hospitality, for the first time during the interview, John is stumped. “I don’t know!” he exclaims. “I know that we hate it when people who have a go don’t succeed. There’s a consistency to our approach; every day is important. We want customers to feel at home because no customers mean no business. And it’s not just relationships with one person—it’s generational relationships, and that only

comes with time.”He admits it’s

a difficult period in hospitality in Queensland at

the moment—transient hospitality staff, weekend penalty rates. “We just wish everyone would get back into it, and take it as seriously as we do,” John says.

Next up for the brothers is getting Gambaro Seafood back to its glory days, less lobster Mornay and fisherman’s baskets, and more carpaccio and other dishes where the seafood is the star. A fresh, innovative approach that has McEwan chomping at the proverbial bit. “We’ve had a lot of success with the steakhouse. I’d love to see the same results for the seafood restaurant and function centre. It takes a lot of work, if not more, for those parts get the accolades. John works so hard, it would be good to get him those rewards.”

“This year is all about consolidation for us,” says Gambaro. “Last year was a wonderful journey. We opened Gambaro Hotel, and won a hotel award; opened a steak restaurant, and won a restaurant award. We want to do all that even better this year, and show everyone why we won those awards.”

McEwan knows what he means. “John understands that in the Brisbane market, you haven’t got that pop like Sydney and Melbourne do; you have to work extra hard to get people through the doors. He doesn’t rest, doesn’t waiver, doesn’t take his foot off the pedal.”

And what if John wasn’t running restaurants? “I’ll have to ask my wife. She’d say, on a boat somewhere,” says John, laughing, before turning serious. “Maybe a doctor. I might have made a good doctor.” A pause. “Really, though, I’d be running another restaurant.”

“I offered him a package he

couldn’t refuse.”John Gambaro to ex-Rockpool chef Lukas McEwan

Black Hide Steakhouse head chef Lukas McEwan.

Birch & Waite’s quality fresh chilled sauces, mayonnaises and relishes are the easy way to upscale your burger into a gourmet taste sensation.

The new burger range embraces a selection of distinctive and delicious flavours including: Caramelised Onion, Tomato Relish, Beetroot Relish, Peri Peri Sauce and Italian Truffle.

Birch & Waite products use Australian produce where possible and are all batch-crafted to ensure consistent taste and texture. They come in a variety of sizes and packaging options including 20g portions, 2.3kg jars and 10kg and 20kg buckets. To arrange a FREE tasting, contact Birch & Waite customer service at [email protected] or phone 02 8668 8000.For more information, visit www.birchandwaite.com.au.

Transform your burger with Birch & Waite’s new range

New products

Introducing Albert, CommBank’s clever new EFTPOS tablet set to revolutionise hospitality.

CommBank understands customers expect an experience. And there’s no denying traditional merchant terminals don’t do this.

That’s about to change. CommBank’s Albert has launched to help restaurants improve their customer experience by offering a mobile, user-friendly and customisable POS tablet that takes secure card payments anywhere.

Albert centres on customisable, open-source software that enables restaurants to create apps which solve problems—for example, Albert’s ‘Split the Bill’ app allows cheques to be divided up to 10 ways; customers can even calculate and add tips simply. Visit commbank.com.au/albert for more information.


Sandhurst Fine Foods are launching some new additions to the family, the 2kg Fresh Pails.Available in 11 varieties (five Australian): • Sun-dried Tomatoes• Semi-dried Tomatoes• Fresh Marinated Mixed Olives• Pitted Fresh Marinated

Mixed Olives• Char Grilled Capsicum• Australian Basil Pesto• Australian Char Grilled

Sweet Potato• Australian Char Grilled

Pumpkin• Australian Char Grilled Eggplant• Australian Char Grilled Zucchini.

The freshest ingredients are sourced direct from growers. These products have uncompromised quality to ensure the freshest taste.

Adding character and flavour to individual dishes, the Fresh Pails will not fail your expectations.

New 2kg Fresh Pails

YumTable (yumtable.com.au) is the new way of making restaurant bookings as diners receive a discount of up to $40 off their bill. Customers can simply book through the YumTable website or app for a table at nearly 1600 restaurants around the country. No coupons needed as the discount is discreetly applied to the bill.

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Desserts Product Guide

Product Guide

Restaurant & Catering magazine’s guide to the best dessert products on

the market today


ADVERTORIAL


A ustralian consumers are increasingly taking on health-conscious diets—paleo, gluten

free, vegan, dairy free—but despite the rise in demand for healthier on-the-go lunches and wholesome dinners, Aussies still want to have their cake and eat it too.

Foodservice professionals across the country know that, no matter what the fad diet of the moment is, a good dessert will always be in demand. Unfortunately, for some outlets, dessert adds that extra stress on an already busy or space-limited kitchen.

The answer may lie in the humble pancake.

An extremely versatile base, pancakes can be fresh and light,

hearty and filling or a real ‘death by chocolate’ experience. They are the ideal way to deliver a range of dessert flavours to customers while keeping costs low whether you are a fine dining restaurant or quick service canteen. Tip Top Foodservice’s Golden Pancakes are sweet and satisfying yet convenient for busy kitchens to prepare. Simply thaw, warm in a sandwich press or oven, and serve.

Golden Pancakes are part of Tip Top Foodservice’s Frozen Bakery Range which can be ordered through your local distributor. Delivered frozen, they have four months frozen shelf life and come in cartons with five packs of six pancakes, easy for smaller foodservice outlets to store and manage.

Flat Out Sweets

Dessert Product Guide

Caramelised Maple Banana Pancakes with Strawberries and Walnuts

6 Golden Pancakes2 large bananas, cut lengthways and halved1 cup maple syrup30g butter½ punnet strawberries, hulled and quartered½ cup walnuts½ cup double cream

Method• Over a medium heat in a heavy

based frying pan, toast the walnuts for 3-5 minutes, remove and set aside.

• Melt butter in the pan until lightly foaming. Fry the bananas flat side down for 2-3 minutes until they begin to brown.

• Add half the maple syrup and reduce until bubbles start to form.

• Heat each pancake in a microwave, sandwich press or oven until warm.

• Stack pancakes in the centre of each plate, top with caramelised bananas, drizzle with reduced maple syrup, scatter with fresh strawberries and toasted walnuts.

• Drizzle with the remaining maple syrup and serve with double cream.

Why pancakes are the perfect dessert offering

Promotion runs from 15 April 2015 to 15 June 2015. Goods must be invoiced between 15 April 2015 to 15 June 2015. Conditions apply. Open to Australian businesses who are end user customers of the Promoter and not the Promoter’s distributors, and any other business deemed ineligible by the Promoter in its absolute discretion. Final claims must be received by 5pm on 30 June 2015, unless specified otherwise. *Purchases must be made in one invoice to be eligible. Max 5 claims in total per eligible business.

© Registered trade marks of George Weston Foods Limited. All rights reserved.

TIPTOP-FOODSERVICE.COM.AU / 1800 086 926 CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FOODSERVICE DISTRIBUTOR

OFFER VALID 15 APRIL TO 15 JUNE 2015

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Your favourite bakery products frozen from fresh

– just thaw and serve

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

1. Place an order through your local foodservice

distributor and for every $100 of qualifying products

(listed) purchased you will receive a $20 Coles Myer

Gift Card.

2. Simply send your invoice (goods must be invoiced

by 15 June) containing your name, address and

phone number to us by 30 June 2015 and once

verified you will receive your card/s.

For every $100 you spend on Abbott’s Village Bakery®, Burgen® and/or Golden® frozen products receive a $20 Coles Myer gift card*

PREMIUM FROZEN BAKERY RANGE

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ADVERTORIAL


T he EOI range of margarines, shortening and premixes, have been the trusted choice of pastry chefs and

pâtissiers for over 80 years. Our range of premium ingredients will meet your exacting high standards and satisfy your most fussy customer.

Highly skilled and resourceful technical personnel, including PhD scientists with over 20 years combined experience in fats and oils, has allowed EOI to be at the forefront of bakery and patisserie developments.

Our knowledge of the baking industry in Australia is from hands-on experience and supported by a team of highly-qualified pastry chefs. Therefore we can quickly understand your challenges and assist you to develop outstanding pastries, cakes and desserts.

EOI Custilla mix is one of Australia's premium custard mixes, saving both

time and money with consistent deliverable results time after time.

For further EOI Custilla recipes such as our famous Continental Vanilla slice, Mousse Dessert, Kahlua Custilla Filling, Custilla Custicream, Coconut Cream Pie and Cream Stabiliser, please request our FREE 16 page EOI Custilla Booklet by contacting us at www.eoibakery.com.au.

We also have a range of other recipes for desserts, pastries and cakes, all obtainable from your local representatives.

Superior ingredient solutions from EOI


FREE RECIPE BOOK

Contact: Peerless Foods, phone 1800 986 499VIC/TAS: Brendan Bullen 0418 993 791, David Musgrove 0411 868 022 QLD: Leif Madsen 0417 217 994

NSW: Laurie Farr 0418 194 613, Tony Hetherington 0417 668 510 SA/WA: Jason Riley 0417 200 105

tel://1800%20986499

EOI Lemon Meringue Éclairs

Quality Margarines & Shortenings | Unrivaled Technical Support & Service | Recipes & Promotions Enquiries 1800 986 499 | www.eoibakery.com.au | Proudly 100% Australian made and owned

Group

1

2 3

Grams

250 1000 1000 600

250 500

3600

Ingredients

EOI Puffs and Éclairs Recipe

Lemon Juice Full Cream Milk Thickened Cream EOI Custilla

Egg White Castor Sugar

TOTAL WEIGHT

Method

Make up EOI Puffs and Éclairs Recipe in the usual manner.

Filling - Add all ingredients together. Mix on low speed for 1 minute, scrape down bowl, then mix on high speed for 4 minutes.

Meringue - Mix egg whites on high until soft peaks appear. Slowly add castor sugar and mix on high until dissolved.

Make-up Procedure Pipe lemon filling into Éclairs or Puffs. Then pipe meringue on top and brown with a blow torch.

Recipe uses: EOI Custilla

ADVERTORIAL


B ulla Dairy Foods is one of Australia’s oldest family owned and operated dairy companies, proudly

making premium quality dairy products in country Australia since 1910. A trusted name in Foodservice, Bulla delivers consistent and dependable products with care, craftsmanship and passion. Made using fresh milk and cream delivered daily, you know you’re getting real dairy in every pack!

Collaborating with experienced chefs, the Innovation team at Bulla Dairy Foods has developed a range of products that elevate sweets to the next level. Each Bulla cream product has been crafted for a specific cooking application —saving you and your team precious time in the kitchen.

From thickened, cooking and whipping to thick and extra thick cream, all Bulla Foodservice products are made using the highest quality raw ingredients and state-of-the-art technology, ensuring your desserts deliver on taste and flavour.

One of our top picks is the 5L Bulla Cooking Cream; with its high heat threshold and rapid thickening capabilities, it’s specifically created for trouble-free cooking. Delivering

Bulla’s kitchen confidential: Every chef’s secret to the perfect dessert


rich, smooth and creamy textures, Bulla Cooking Cream can be mixed with acidic or alcohol based ingredients without curdling. This versatile product gives you the freedom to explore different flavours and techniques and allows you to push your creativity, without fear of a product letting your creation down.

Just as desserts are the perfect way to finish a meal, Bulla Extra Thick Cream is the perfect way to finish your dessert. Containing 35 per cent milk fat, this product is extra thick, designed for dolloping on fresh fruit, puddings, tarts, pies and cake, or mixed into decadent mud or cheesecakes. Without the

need for whipping, Bulla Extra Thick Cream provides

the ultimate experience with unrivalled quality, taste and texture.

Elevate your desserts to the next level; be sure to ask your distributor for BULLA cream!

Like Bulla’s cream range—Bulla’s frozen products also cater to diners with different eating preferences and allergies, so you can be confident that you’re using a product that meets all of your customer’s needs.

A trusted kitchen confidante, Bulla is by your side no matter the cooking application. Experience the difference and try their Citrus Tart recipe, developed by Bulla’s chefs for you.

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Desserts Product GuideADVERTORIAL

Travel the World

Priestley’s tempting array of new delights— Flavours of the World—feature flavours ranging from the exotic to the sublime, to suit the multicultural and sophisticated Australian palate.

In keeping with market trends, two new cheesecakes have reduced fat and sugar. They are delicate, light and refreshing. Lychee & Mango cheesecake and Chai Latte cheesecake will add a touch of the exotic to dessert menus and cake cabinets.

The Italian inspired Tiramisu is a flavour favourite among all coffee lovers. Delicate textures with a coffee flavour punch will make this slice a winner in any cake cabinet.

While the origins of the Frangipane tart are disputed—the taste and texture of this delicious dessert is undeniably delicious. The Frangipane tart is a filled with fragrant, creamy, almond-flavoured filling. Priestley’s Spiced Apple version is mixed with apple and delicate spices to create

a sophisticated alternative to the humble apple pie. This tart will prove a winner on the dessert menu served warm with cream and ice-cream. For colour and sophistication add a marbled red velvet loaf to the cake cabinet.

The delicate flavours in this delicious loaf are the perfect accompaniment to a nice cup of tea, for lighter moments when seeking an alternative to cake and coffee.

In celebration of these Flavours of the World, Priestley’s are offering you the chance to Travel the World. Plate up one of these delicious new products to go in the draw to WIN a share of $15,000 in travel. Email your photo to [email protected] or enter on our website. Terms and conditions apply. Visit www.priestleys-gourmet.com.au for full details


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Keep up to date with Restaurant & Catering Australia (R&CA) news, events, products and programs and ‘like’ and ‘follow’ the association on social media. We would like to hear from you!

social media

social mediaR&CA

Join the social media phenomenon and promote your signature dish, upcoming event and restaurant, catering or cafe through Savour Australia. Savour Australia is Restaurant & Catering Australia (R&CAs) consumer network that promotes its members and consumer messages to avid foodies across the country

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like us on

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Red meat Product Guide

Product Guide

Restaurant & Catering magazine’s guide to the best red meat products

on the market today


ADVERTORIAL


A ccording to Sam Burke, Corporate Chef at Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) there’s a growing

interest among consumers in the provenance of the beef they choose from the menu. Sam says this creates a great opportunity for foodservice staff to better market their beef offer by educating customers even further.

“Australian consumers are becoming more and more interested in where their produce comes from,” Sam explains, “According to our research they’re not so sure about how it was produced. This creates a real opportunity for chefs to educate their diners about how the beef they have on their menu is grown.”

Sam says that while branded beef can add a sense of ‘romance’ to the menu, simply naming the brand isn’t enough. According to our research 50 per cent of foodservice operators use a brand on their menu but only 13 per cent actually state where the meat was farmed, and only nine per cent state the farming method.

“It’s all about telling the story and triggering deeper engagement between the restaurant staff and the consumer,” Sam explains.

“On that point, it’s obviously important for the kitchen to educate the wait staff so they can answer any questions customers may have about the farming methods and process involved in getting that piece of meat onto the menu.”

When it comes to red meat, steak is still king on foodservice menus. According to research conducted by BIS Shrapnel in November 2014; 87 per cent of chefs are ‘satisfied’ to ‘extremely satisfied’ with the quality of the beef they serve.

“There’s been uplift in red meat quality in recent years, which is partly attributable to the increase in branded beef underpinned by the Meat Standards Australia (MSA) grading system,” says Sam. “The MSA system takes the guesswork out of buying

quality beef, ensuring that customers receive a tender, juicy cut every time.”

Sam points out that while steak cuts such as rump, scotch fillet, rib eye and striploin are all on the increase, there is also strong growth in the awareness and popularity of some lesser-known cuts.

“These used to be known as secondary cuts, but that’s really a misnomer,” Sam explains. “At MLA we like to call them ‘masterpieces’ because these cuts allow a chef to show creativity, innovation and skill to produce something memorable and often beneficial to the bottom line.”

He uses the examples of brisket, flat iron and skirt steak, which are growing in popularity as chefs recognise these are cost-effective menu choices which still deliver the taste that diners crave.

“The Australian diner is cautious and frequently indulges in behaviour called ‘Safe Experimentation’. Creative chefs can trial say, a skirt steak or a flat iron steak, as long as they’re presented in a format familiar to consumers.”

Sam acknowledges that there may be a little more skill involved in preparing some of the lesser-known cuts, but adds, “That’s my job at MLA, to help chefs overcome those hurdles!”

Are you maximising the value of your beef offer?

Red Meat Product Guide

Grilled flat iron steak with tomato, olive and oregano salad

ADVERTORIAL


A tron is one of Australia’s most highly awarded beef processors. Our family owned and operated

company was established in 1993 and now boasts four beef processing operations across the eastern seaboard.

With a long and proud history of integrity and innovation, Atron has become an established leader delivering specialised branded beef products to customers in Australia and to the world’s largest export markets.

Having close networks of Australian family cattle producers, two established food service companies and retail stores in Sydney and Brisbane, we provide a smooth journey from farm gate to end user by controlling quality, service, price and delivery. We work closely with our customers to create tailored co-marketing strategies, leveraging the power of our brand stories and traceability at every stage of the supply chain.

By taking the time to understand individual customer requirements, we deliver the right product at the right price with a guarantee of quality and consistent supply. Our customers rely on our trusted branded range to craft dishes that impress even the harshest of critics.

Just like you buy a bottle of Coca-Cola in Japan and expect it to be the same as the bottle you had in Sydney, our branded products are underpinned by the same kind of consistency and quality assurance.

This philosophy has helped to earn Atron a swag of medals at Fine Food shows across the country. At the 2014

Sydney Royal Fine Food Awards, our branded range earned gold, silver and bronze. These coveted awards offer an independent seal of quality and excellence.

Atron’s flagship grain fed brand Condabri is Australian family farmed and underpinned by the rigorous MSA grading system. Condabri has caught the eye of some of the world’s finest restaurateurs, chefs and hotel groups including Marco Pierre White Grill and Conrad Hotel Dubai. With a reputation for outstanding flavour and tenderness, Condabri sets the gold standard for Australian grain fed beef.

Our grass fed offering Spring Grove, appeals to the discerning consumer and boasts a range of cuts to suit a variety of dishes. Spring Grove is hormone and anti-biotic free and graded in the upper tier of the MSA

grading system to deliver optimal tenderness, juiciness and flavour. Cattle are hand-selected and raised on rich farmland in the Northern Rivers region of NSW where they are free to roam and grow naturally. Experienced local farmers ensure our cattle enjoy a stress-free lifestyle. The result is herds of happy cattle that deliver Spring Grove's award-winning tenderness and rich natural flavour.

The most recent addition to our branded offering is Hereford True Beef. Backed by two years of planning and development, Hereford True Beef is graded in the top tier of the MSA grading system. It delivers a truly unique next-level dining experience and offers customers a new alternative to other breed-based brands. Only cattle with 100 per cent Hereford genetics fit into Hereford True Beef ’s exacting selection criteria.

To find out more about our exclusive branded range, contact us on 03 8742 6225 or [email protected]

Atron—Australia’s branded beef specialist

Red Meat Product Guide

“It takes experience, integrity and good old fashioned hard work to

create a branded beef product that stands out from the crowd.”

David Larkin, founder and managing director – Atron

mailto:[email protected]

As seen in the following publications

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Imagine your restaurant’s logo in chocolate placed neatly next to a customer’s coffee instead of an after-dinner mint… Nice, huh? Now imagine a customised

pasta shape bathed in a delicate tomato sauce perched on a diner’s fork, not instantly eaten because the diner is admiring its intricate curves.

Now, we’re not insisting you go out and hire a master chef or chocolatier. Not at all; you just need a super burst of technology in the form of 3D printing.

While 3D printing has been utilised in Australia for a while now in the area of industrial design and manufacturing, 3D food printing will soon hit our shores in a wave of gourmet creativity.

Shaping pastaFood printing technology is already gaining ground in Europe, particularly

in countries such as the Netherlands. Here, renowned pasta manufacturer Barilla teamed with scientific researchers The Netherlands Organisation (TNO) just over a year ago to place 3D food printing machines in several restaurants around Eindhoven. The basic idea was to introduce customised pasta shapes to customers, but Barilla is hoping to get to the point where diners bring in their own designs on USB sticks to have their pasta ‘printed’ for their meal. For example, you could have the restaurant print heart pasta for an anniversary.

Barilla is most certainly leading the push for printed pasta. In December last year, it announced the winners of its PrintEat competition, whereby 530 international product designers came

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up with 216 new design concepts for a pasta that uses 3D printing technology.

The winning shape was by French industrial designer Loris Tupin.

His Rosa pasta model ‘blooms’ into an open rose when cooked in boiling water.

Traditionalists might feel the need to complain, as pasta shapes are steeped

in history, each originally designed to hold particular

sauces such as a smooth tomato passata or a chunky meat

sauce. However, there is no reason 3D printing can’t produce the shapes we all recognise. And, meanwhile, any newer intricate designs are sure to hold sauce adequately—there is definitely a niche for such creativity in Aussie restaurants.

Creating chocolateAn area that 3D food printing appears

spaceYou may have heard of this technology, but you may not know how 3D printing will work its way into your kitchen. Natasha Shaw explains further

Edible 3D colour-flavoured sugar confections (above)

by 3D Systems. Below: Lune moon-shaped pasta from the Barilla contest.



to be perfect for is chocolate making —a delicious extravagance that could very well see the first commercial 3D food printing machine used in Aussie restaurants and by our chocolatiers.

Australian company Solid Idea has invented the ChocaByte machine, which looks a little bit like a food processor. Because it’s so small, the going price for the first 500 manufactured as a limited run was just US$99. The chocolate designs can be downloaded from the ChocaByte database or you can create your own using simple software. At the moment, each chocolate takes about 10 minutes to form (which is a long time for those wanting to mass-produce) and the maximum size for each goodie is about 5cm x 5cm x 2.5cm.

Alternatively, the CocoJet developed by 3D Systems in the US in conjunction with America’s famous Hershey Company drew many oohs and ahhs at International CES, the annual global consumer electronics and consumer technology trade show, in January. Touted as the most advanced chocolate printer in operation, it can create fancy

custom designs in many sizes in white, milk and dark chocolate.

Jane Erikson of Red Chocolate Tree in Sale, Victoria, has been following the progress of chocolate printing machines overseas. “It’s something I’m keeping an eye on for our business,” she says. “I think it will suit small chocolatiers in creating a point of difference—it certainly is unique.”

Erikson sees 3D chocolate printing as an extension of her handmade chocolates, saying it’s “just an extra tool” and would enhance a personal relationship with her customers. “Like wedding cakes, people will come in with their chocolate shape ideas and we will help refine them,” she explains. “Customers can pick the flavour and texture of the chocolate, and then discuss their 3D design on top of this. We’d be providing an extra service in a niche market.”

Streamlining time and costs would also be a welcome side effect of 3D chocolate printing. Large and small chocolatiers would have more control of the design process rather than relying on manufacturers in France and Belgium

for expensive custom-designed moulds. “Just one small mould can cost $500,” says Erikson. “And if it’s a one-off design a customer wants, then the cost has to be passed onto them.” Therefore, 3D printing helps give a customer a unique experience without the added expense of having moulds made.

3D printing would also mean that chocolatiers wouldn’t have to rely

on the stock-standard moulds that everyone else uses. “When you buy a mould, you just have that one mould. With 3D printing you just change a disc or memory stick and you have a new design,” says Erikson.

The futureNot to be outdone by chocolate, the ChefJet and ChefJet Pro, also by 3D Systems, are the world’s first professionally certified kitchen-ready printers, and can produce a geometric sugary masterpiece in minutes before your very eyes in a rainbow of colours and numerous flavours. At its launch a year ago, creative director of Food Products, Liz von Hasseln, said: “Food is an incredible platform for creativity, experimentation and celebration, and we are thrilled to place these powerful 3D printers in bakers and chefs’ kitchens. We invite leading pastry chefs, restaurateurs and event planners to join us in bringing 3D printing into the kitchen.”

And in reality, the applications for 3D printing in the kitchens of cafes and restaurants worldwide are endless. Just think, McDonald’s could have a field day printing nuggets and fries. And could it mean the end of bakers getting up at the crack of dawn as machines begin pumping out printed bread for them? As food safety standards improve, what about printed cheeses, cakes or even sausages and meat patties?

3D printing might still be mostly in the experimental stages, but you can be certain that as soon as five to 10 years down the track, many Aussie restaurants will be taking advantage of this amazing technology and customers will be enjoying the incredibly unique food experience offered to them.

CocoJet 3D printing in action.

Sugar cubes and sugar

vase printed by ChefJet

3D printer.

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Offering low-alcohol options doesn’t need to be dull—far from it, explains Ben Canaider


Drinks

Low-alcohol options. What goes through your head when a customer approaches the bar and, following your winning smile and charming “Hello!”, asks for a low-alcohol glass of white wine?

I bet that for 11 out of 10 on-premise operators, the instant thought is a mild expletive, because they don’t stock such

drinks. While desperately trying to think what you can on-sell the customer to, you end up replying, “Sorry, we don’t have any…”. But by then the potentially high-net individual has ended up ordering a lemon, lime and bitters, or, worse, left. In terms of the customer-service-hospitality nexus, it’s lose-lose.

Which is why low-alcohol drink options need to be taken more seriously by anyone in possession of a liquor licence. Drinking habits, just like dining habits, are changing, and all on-premise operators need to consider, and accept, how they can cater for such change in the future. The near future.

This is because lower-alcohol beverage options are no longer just about drink driving.

Thirty years ago, lower-alcohol beer might have fed off that particular social policy, but the demand for lower-alcohol drinks now draws on a far more diverse range of factors. And if you still imagine that lower-alcohol drinks are some sort of mythical creature that will never actually show up in your bar, then it is wise—and prudent—to remind yourself that low-alcohol beer is now very much a social norm.

To begin with, low-alcohol beverages raise questions and reminders about your responsible service of alcohol requirements. These regulations increasingly touch on every aspect of your customers’ varied inebriation, no matter how partial: driving, social behaviour, anger and violence, your staff ’s workplace safety, even the ability of your customer

to be a responsible pedestrian when exiting your venue.

On top of this, there is also a much newer trend regarding lower-alcohol options, and it is all to do with health and wellbeing. Customers in a licensed establishment don’t always, all of them, want to drink to excess. Some of them don’t even want to drink moderately. As recent studies on wine consumption have shown in France, the 18- to 25-year-old demographic associate health and wellbeing issues with a strong notion of personal liberty. Entrenched social and cultural customs—such as all too regularly drinking wine in a bar on the way home from work—do not permit one to be really, truly free. So people are drinking less, or so the mood suggests.

We know that to be true in Australia. Statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2014 point out that we are now drinking less total alcohol than at any time over the past 15 years. Beer consumption has halved since the mid-1970s, and is now at its lowest since the end of World War 2.

Extrapolate this trend and you can see that it is not just a matter of your responsible service of alcohol being properly observed, but your notion of service itself that needs to be considered. And the level of expertise and quality and choice you bring to serving a customer wanting lower-alcohol beverages should be on a par with that level of hospitality offered to a customer who’s just ordered a $28 glass of cask-strength single malt.

The question is a dogged and stubborn one, however: how best do you make lower-alcohol beverages fit so naturally into your inventory?

Certainly there are things not to do: a trend towards low-alcohol beverages doesn’t have to become prescriptive or

low down

The

bossy. Without listing centrifugally de-alcoholised wines there are plenty of naturally lower-alcohol beverages that customers can also be guided towards.

Start with lower-alcohol mixers, such as Aperol at only 11 per cent. It’s got all the bitter flavour you want from strange old apothecary stimulants, but at about half their punch-drunk weight. Similarly vermouths—now a stand-alone bar trend in Spain and France—can replace a lot of 40 per cent spirits as a mixer of choice, and at about half that alcohol by volume (ABV).

Where wine is concerned, semillon from the Hunter Valley is a classic case in point. Locally made, bottled within a few months of vintage, with racy acidity and lots of clean lemon and lime flavours, it is a refreshing white wine that’s versatile with many modern fusion foods and is often under 11 per cent ABV. The only trouble is—at least by volume—no-one drinks it. (Maybe if more people discovered its lower-alcohol content they would?)

The new trend towards lean and mean Australian chardonnay that is more akin to chablis than pineapple juice concentrate is also another natural way to head in the lower-alcohol direction. The much awarded and lauded Dandelion Vineyards Chardonnay 2013, for example, weighs in at 12.5 per cent ABV. Admittedly these sorts of ABV figures are not as low as the more decidedly alcohol-reduced options, but it is a step in the right direction, rather than a step closer to drunkenness.

Where determinedly low-alcohol wine options are concerned (such as Lindeman’s Early Harvest) the trouble for on-premise is their very loud retail presence. And this is always a hurdle for liquor licensees, not to mention a double-edged sword: on the one hand you want to respect the health and well being of your customers, but on the other hand you’re unfairly criticised for selling alcohol-reduced wine over the bar at a marginal—I mean outrageous—profit. We’re back to lose-lose.

Nevertheless, there are some things you can do to embrace a lower-alcohol regime in your bar. It’s about getting on the front foot as far as this real trend is concerned, and even if all you do tomorrow is re-draft your wine list with ABV level attached to each wine listing, it is an expression of your understanding of the trend, and of your customers’ desire to know how much they are actually drinking. Of course, there still may be a stigma attached to people asking for and drinking lower-alcohol beverages when on-premise, but in an age where your menu notes everything that’s gluten-free (GF), it is surely not long before low-alcohol (LA?) finds its place.


www.stoddart.com.au1300 791 954Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth

Innovation is about the ability to recognise that nothing is impossible or cannot be

improved upon.

Woodson is Australia’s original countertop equipment business,

founded in 1954. It is renowned for its performance, reliability

and back-up service.

Today, Woodson is just one of many leading brands

brought to market by Stoddart and is

manufactured locally in Australia.

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Drinking habits, just like dining

habits, are changing, and all on-premise operators need to

consider, and accept, how they can cater for such change in

the future.


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A vast renovation of the heritage Seppeltsfield winery by architect Max Pritchard included a new branch of the celebrated Fino restaurant

“I became involved with Seppeltsfield about four years ago when they were reviewing options in regards to their cellar

door. It was quite dated so the decision was made to convert the old bottling hall. The space is so large it can easily accommodate the new Fino restaurant.

“We designed a series of circular pods so the cellar door could serve many people at the same time. The other end is the dining area with the two zones demarcated by a large stone fireplace.

“The roof of the bottling hall is lined with big high trusses and ceiling windows flood the space with a lovely light. There is seating on the open floor but also some unusual private nooks. Tables have been positioned on a lower level where the wine fermentation tanks used to sit.

“A big issue we had to resolve was the entrance to the restaurant. The old bottling hall was partly buried underground and access was quite difficult. You had to cross a large asphalt forecourt, go downstairs and enter under a low verandah. A lot of dirt had to be removed to lower the area outside so a courtyard and a more pleasant entrance could be formed.

“The materials which make up the space—concrete, timber, slate, whitewall—are all beautiful. The concrete floor is original with a nice feeling of age. The only change we made was to cut out small slots for services. The slate lids from the old vats in the winery were re-used and the colour palette was kept very simple. White, black, slate and American oak timber reflects the wine tradition.

“Seppeltsfield has been around since 1851 so it was important that there was no clashing colours in such an old space. There is a real sense of history that we didn’t want to lose.

“David Swain (chef) definitely wanted a kitchen that was open. We partly enclosed a section of the verandah and patrons can see straight in there. It’s a really nice environment for the chefs.

“There are a few dining areas at Fino—the glass enclosure, the main bottling hall and a subterranean option. Down half a flight of steps are tables where the old vats used to be located. It’s a very rich area with big timber beams and rough hewn walls. We decided to keep this space looking raw and natural. If we knocked down a wall, we left a jagged edge to make it clear what we had done without getting too refined.

“There is a challenge when doing heritage work. If you’re adding anything new, it needs to stand out and not be mock-heritage. When forming an opening, we wanted to make it clear exactly what we had done. We’re not pretending that it has always been there.

“Fino at Seppeltsfield allows patrons to appreciate the old, while at the same time, dine on amazing food in a space that feels very new and fresh. It really is a wonderful result.”

Fino at Seppeltsfield

Max Pritchard ArchitectPO Box 808 Glenelg SATel: 08 8376 2314www.maxpritchardarchitect.com.au

Documents

RC April 2015