Hi Couturiers,

Well Christmas is upon us once again and our sales have gone through the roof. We can only put it down to lots of our past customers buying Chrissie presents for their foodie friends and co workers. Three cheers for Santa!  We hope there are lots of happy people on Christmas morning. Have you made your Xmas Pud yet? If not here's a great recipe which has been in our family for ummm..........around two weeks. A bit like the Campbell's (or was it Heinz) soup ad where the grandmother hands it down to the mother who hands it down to her daughter - who then takes it to the checkout.

Christmas Pudding 

Ingredients (serves 8)

• 750g mixed dried fruit
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, coarsely grated
• 1/2 cup (125ml) brandy
• 2 teaspoons mixed spice
• 2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
• 125g butter, softened
• 1/3 cup (70g, firmly packed) brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups (140g) fresh (made from day-old bread) breadcrumbs
• 1?3 cup (50g) plain flour
• Plain flour, extra, to dust
• Double cream, to serve

• Brandy butter

• 125g butter, softened
• 1/2 cup (100g, firmly packed) brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (60ml) brandy or sherry
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method

1. Place a large square piece of calico in a bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside overnight to soak.
2. Combine dried fruit, apple, brandy, mixed spice and orange rind in a bowl. Cover. Set aside overnight.
3. Drain the calico and transfer to a large saucepan of boiling water. Boil for 20 minutes.
4. Use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add to the fruit mixture and combine. Stir in breadcrumbs and flour.
5. Remove calico from the water and wring out excess water. Place flat. Sprinkle generously with extra flour, leaving a 5cm boarder. Shape mixture into a ball and place in centre of calico. Gather the calico together and tie to seal. Leave 2 loops at top.
6. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Place a saucer in the bottom. Lower pudding into the water and secure loops to the saucepan to make sure the pudding doesn’t touch the pan. Cover with boiling water. Cook, covered, over medium heat, adding more water when necessary, for 6 hours.
7. To make the brandy butter, use an electric mixer to beat butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Beat in the brandy or sherry and cinnamon.
8. Remove the pudding from the water and serve with brandy butter and double cream.

WHEN IN PARIS.........................

A LITTLE SOMETHING TO INSPIRE.

A LITTLE BIT OF PARIS FROM US TO YOU.

BAKERY BUY UP!!!!!

As the title states - we've had a stampede on our bakery/pastry range of tees and polos and are currently out of stock of a couple of designs. The lovely Ally from Timstock Trading House has bought up a large amount of our tees. For those of you interstate - Timstock is a wholesale ingredient supplier dedicated to the Baking Industry in Victoria. We've previously dealt with Timstock in our other lives and are very proud to be associated with them.

As we always like to keep things moving at Kitchen Couture, we'll be replacing some of our existing bakery inspired designs with new designs in 2012. We'll be sticking with vintage ideas and are madly sketching away as we speak.

Sorry - the items below are currently sold out. New bakery designs coming in the New Year. We'll keep you posted! We love to keep the old vintage bakery prints alive to represent the timeless skills and traditions  of Bakers & Pastrycooks, past and present.

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

WELCOME CAIRNS COUTURIERS

Hi Couturiers,

It's hot - it's cold - it's hot - it's cold. Just any old day in Melbourne really. As they say if you don't like the weather in Melbourne - just wait a few minutes - it will change! One place where it's always hot of course is Cairns and we'd like to send a big thank you to Tammi & Max in Cairns who have just outfitted their front and back of house staff in Kitchen Couture. One of the few places where short sleaved Tees are applicable 12 months of the year. Cool gear in a hot climate makes for happy staff!



We've had alot of requests from people who've bought the limited edition Macaron Tee wanting to buy more for Xmas presents for foodie friends. Sorry, guys they're all gone but we MAY do another run of them around Xmas if demand keeps growing. We'll keep you posted.

Our representative in France, Jake McDonald has promised to send us photos for our blog but we can't seem to drag him away from the pleasures of Paris long enough to follow through. Watch this space.

Hi Couturiers,

Well the Fine Food Fare, this year held in Sydney at Darling Harbour, has come and gone for another year and it was fantastic to catch up with a few of our customers in the flesh. It's great to put faces to the names of those who support us and now we can visualise you in our gear! It's also great to learn which areas of hospitality you all come from. The show was bigger than ever this year and people travelled from all points of the compass to attend. We're looking forward to next years show in Melbourne.

As we speak, we're bundling up our first sale to New Zealand. Twenty assorted Bakery designs are on their way to the South Island. Thanks very much Bro!

Macaron T Shirt Update - We still have a few t shirts left and I do mean just a few. So, if you would like to grab one of the very last, email us for size availability.

Our Seafood/Chippery T Shirt is currently out of stock but we're doing a new print run this week. So they won't be far away. Thanks for your patience Dayle from Redcliffe and your order is at the top of our list.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION (with apologies to Gene Hackman)

It is with great pleasure we announce Mr Jake McDonald as the new agent for Kitchen Couture in France. Jake will be promoting our range to cafes and bars in Paris. Jake comes from a background in hospitality having worked in the liquor industry across Paris in the past. Stay tuned for photos and stories of misadventure in the city of love.

We'd like to say 'welcome on board' to the discerning people at Simply the Best Cafe in the Barossa Valley. Martyn  has decked his staff out in the Barista and Utensils range. We look forward to popping in when we are in South Australia next.

For those of you in the Baking industry, check out our ad in "Australasian Baker" Issue 12 Aug/Sept 11.
Many thanks to Brianna for her help.

GREAT FACE FOR RADIO

A DOG AND HIS BOY. (WHICH ONE HAS THE TAIL?)

MASTERCHEF MAGAZINE

Hi Couturiers,

Well our ad in Masterchef magazine has worked a treat bringing a whole new range of customers to our site. Our most popular item over the last month has been the Utensils design which seems to appeal equally to professional chefs and home cooks. Coming in second, for a change is the ladies Barista design and the most popular amongst the baking fraternity as usual was the Bread Head design.

With the success we've had from the Masterchef and Delicious campaign we're looking at dressing one of Australia's home grown celebrity chefs. Watch this space!

OUR MATES AT GILLIES PIES.

When we delivered our last order of promotional gear to Rob at Gillies, he very kindly took us on a tour of their new state of the art manufacturing facility. Very Impressive! Rob and his team have spent a lot of time and effort to design a highly efficient workflow area to meet the demand of the growing business. Remember, if you want to get your hands on a collectors item whether it be a Polo or an Apron featuring the iconic Gillies Pie Boy logo, just give the girls at Gillies office a call on 03 54412791.

OUR POSTER BOY - No not the guy at the right - the guy underneath.

Hi Couturiers,

We've had a few requests for more piccies and info on our company mascot Darcy. So here he is in all his glory. We apologise if nudity offends. (But can you really be considered nude when wearing antlers?) He's been very busy lately getting into the Christmas in July party mode.

Our boy is a Broad Head Staffie and while he may look a bit pudgy in the piccie, he is all solid muscle.

MACARON TEE SHIRT UPDATE.

Our limited quarterly release (see previous blog) is now down to 28 tees remaining from 50 so be quick. Stocks won't last. See our website to order.

KITCHEN COUTURE MEETS IMPORTS OF FRANCE

Hi Guys,

For those of you in Melbourne, keep your eyes open for the lovely Virginnie from Imports of France getting around town wearing our Macaron Limited Edition and the ever popular Barista Womens Tee. French inspired tee shirt being worn by a French woman selling French produce to French inspired cafes and restaurants in Melbourne!  Napoleon would be proud!

Check out the Imports of France website for great mustards, vinegars, macarons and things digestibly French. Ask for Michelle - oui!

GLOSSY MAGS NATIONAL ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

Hi Couturiers,

Many thanks to Brianna (Australasian Baker) and Rebecca from Delicious & Masterchef Magazines for all their help in formatting our artwork and putting our ads together. Response from both has been fantastic!

The July edition of Delicious features four of our designs in the ad and in the September edition of Masterchef we will be showcasing our Limited Edition Macaron Tee. Don't forget - this will be a limited edition - so get in quick.

HIGH TEA SOLD OUT!

Hi all,

To all of you who keep in touch with us,  the limited edition High Tea T-Shirt has been a great success - to the point that we have sold out! We love getting your suggestions, so keep them coming.  As per our previous post, we'll have another limited edition released soon. Macarons are coming your way!! ( And yes, we do mean MACARONS not MACAROONS as they are often called in Oz. MacarOOns are of the coconut Swiss meringue variety not the little French treats we love.)

Winters coming, so grab your Beckham/Pitt style beanie and get ready to fight off the opposite sex!.(Scientifically proven to increase your attraction to the opposite sex)

HOT BEANIES FOR COOL HEADS

Hi again bloggers,

Winter is upon us now and Beanie sales have really taken off. Who said hospitality workers lacked headspace fashion sense! Feedback has been very good on the warmth provided by our slouchy. When the words 'Beckham' and 'Pitt'are mentioned in the same sentence as our beanies we know we're on a winner.

Out of interest, Adrenalin Gym in Mornington approached us this week - liking the slouchy so much -to supply our slouchy with their logo empbroidered on it. Peter Djkercovic, owner of Adrenalin, one of Victoria's best hard core body builders gyms, sells a range of his own gymwear and needed a beanie to round off the range. No challenge here, Kitchen Couture meets Adrenaline Gym. Result - the world's strongest beanie! Only available over the counter from Adrenaline Gym, Mornington.

Gillies Pie Boy Update ......

A Victorian Institution

Due to demand, Gillies has ordered another shipment of of the Pie Boy, this time in Polo Shirts, to accommodate the chilly winter months, along with bib aprons emblazoned with their logo. Call Rob at Gillies in Bendigo to purchase your piece of Victorian culinary history. 'Still the best pie in Victoria'..... The Bruce.

Look out for our ads in the July issue of Delicious magazine, September addition of Masterchef featuring our limited release Macaron T-Shirt and in the new addition of the BIA journal.

Wenouree Wholesalers are running a promotion this month..........the promotional reward being a very,very limited edition Macaron Polo Shirt. Call Peter at Wendouree Wholesalers to qualify.

Keep warm and toasty.

The Crew at Kitchen Couture

LIMITED RELEASE MACARON TEE IS COMING!

Hi all,

Well, our Macaron T-Shirt is another step closer. Our design has been finalised and printing will start in the next couple of day. ONLY 50 of THIS DESIGNS WILL BE MADE - so get in quick to order yours through our website or for those of you in the Victorian Western Districts, contact our distributor Wendouree Wholesalers.

The limited release of 50 will keep the product unique and answers the call up of foodies for a collectors item. So already the crew here are going into artistic overdrive to top the Macaron idea.

This is our second limited release since we started the business and our previous one was very well received, selling out in just a few days.

Happy cooking.

The Team at Kitchen Couture

CORPORATE IDEAS - THE PIE BOY IS ALIVE AND WELL!

Hi All,

When we started Kitchen Couture we envisioned our sales would be primarily to individuals working in the hospitality industry and a small part to the corporate sector wanting us to design for them. Well, as with most assumptions, guess what! The corporate sector has become a big part of our business. This month we have created a new look for for the iconic "Pie Boy" logo for Gillies Pies. He now features proudly on a polo shirt and aprons. Rob Lagoun, the chief at Gillies, plans to use the polos and aprons as promotional give aways to his customers and for his sales reps to wear around the traps. It's a great logo with a vintage look which may have become a distant memory had we not encouraged Rob to get it into print. Very cool! Soon to become a collectable item. Go Pie Boy, Go!

Our concept has become organic and we love this side of the business.

INSPIRATION FOR OUR NEXT LIMITED RELEASE DESIGN.

After spending several days in Sydney and eating our way through Adriano Zumbo's Manly store, we've gone Macaron mad!!!!. The following these little French treats have generated is amazing. Has a sweet treat ever generated as much interest and brought attention to our well deversed Pastry Chefs across Australia. (Didn't get to try the Pigs Blood versions - Monkey Brains next time maybe?)

As a tribute to this great little cake, the people who bake them and its fan, we will be releasing a limited edition Macaron design Tee. Release date TBA and to those who have preorded through info@kitchencouture.net.au - the ink is drying!. In the meantime here's a little clip from Beverly Hills Pastry Chef Paulette presenting her take on this famous morsel.
Yours in buttercream and meringue.
The Team at Kitchen Couture.

MORE MACARON MOJO!

CORPORATE QUESTIONS ANSWERED

We've had a lot of enquiries recently regarding our corporate services. Yes, we will design your very own logo incorporating your company colours etc. We will also print our designs without the Kitchen Couture logo for a minimum order of 50 plus tees. Fees to include your own artwork will obviously apply and may vary depending on the size of your order. Contact us by email or our Contact Us facility on our website.

We would also like to thank Shane Delia for the opportunity to quote on the supply of uniforms for his new venture St Katherines. We wish both Shane and George Columbaris every success in their new venture and look forward to eating there soon.

Many thanks to Kerry and Tim on their recent purchase of staff uniforms. The Barista and Utensils look great on both your front and back of house staff.  VERY COOL!

Also, a big thanks to Phil from the Canticle Bakery for another purchase. We love the mediveal look of the sun in your logo. It was a challenge to find such a specified look but we got there in the end.

A huge thank you to our American friends, we thought sales would really fall off due to the currency rates at the moment but you've prooved us wrong. (we loved being prooved wrong at times like this!) Thanks to Tiffany from Seattle for your bakery's purchase. It's great to know that all garments got there so quickly.

A little bit of down under in the home of Grunge!

The Team at Kitchen Couture

THE HISTORY OF EASTER BAKING

THE HISTORY OF EASTER BAKINGOriginally Easter was called Pasha after the Hebrew word for Passover, a Jewish festival.
that happens at this time of year. It was replaced by Easter, a word which is believed to have evolved from Eostre, the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility and springtime. The date of Easter is determined, like its pagan festival equivalent, by the lunar calendar.

Simnel cakeLent is the period of 40 days which comes before Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday. For many Christians, this is a period of fasting and repentance in preparation for Easter, culminating in a feast of seasonal and symbolic foods. In the late 17th century, girls in service brought a rich fruit cake called simnel cake home to their mothers on the fourth Sunday of Lent. The cake was enriched with marzipan and decorated with 11 marzipan balls representing the 12 apostles minus Judas, who betrayed Christ.

Hot cross bunsThe Greeks and Egyptians ate small cakes or buns in honour of the respective goddesses that they worshipped. Buns marked with a cross were eaten by the Saxons to honour their goddess Eostre - it is thought the bun represented the moon and the cross the moon's quarters. The Saxons also carved a symbol of an ox horn into their bread as part of the ritual. To Christians, the cross symbolises the crucifixion.
The hot cross bun can be seen to symbolise the Crucifixion - but in earlier and more superstitious times, bread was marked with a cross to keep the Devil away from the oven.
Of course, the word "cake" has been around for a long time, but what is meant by it has changed over the centuries. A cake can be anything that is smoodged together (technical term, there) into a kind of patty. Think of a cake of soap. The earliest examples were found among the remains of Neolithic villages where archaeologists have discovered simple cakes which were made from crushed grains, moistened, compacted and probably cooked on a hot stone. A modern survivor of this early manifestation would be oatcakes, though now we think of them more as a biscuit or cookie. As time passed the variety of goods that could be made this way grew, some were leavened while some remained more simple.
Baking was always a haphazard affair, however. The elements required had to be carefully gauged, and in ancient times it was difficult to control such items as heat and moisture. The ancient Egyptians, as with so many other things, were the first to regard baking as an art. They developed reliable cooking methods and early ovens in which they prepared a great variety of breads that served all kinds of functions within the meal. Many were sweetened with honey and eaten as desserts, but although we have plenty of evidence of the baking process from tomb paintings and we know the ingredients from those found in tomb offerings, it is difficult to know exactly what their breads tasted like. The Classical era is another matter.
The Greeks called cakes "plakous," which comes from the word for "flat," and their cakes were usually combinations of nuts and honey. Chrysippus of Tyana gives the recipe for a honey nut cake that he tasted in Crete. To us, it still has more in common with oatcakes, but is very good. Chrysippus' cakes are unusual, in that he gives us a fairly thorough recipe. In most cases it's much more difficult to determine what the dishes actually tasted like, as the accounts are vague and refer to only one or two key ingredients.
Once we enter the Roman period things become a little easier. The Latin for cake was derived from the Greek and became "placenta," but there were other words for cake too, such as "libum." Cato gives a recipe for libum in On Agriculture (75 AD), and it seems to be a small cheesecake sweetened with honey. Libum was primarily used as an offering to the gods, though there are examples of larger versions being made for general consumption. Placenta was more complex cheesecake, baked on a pastry base, or sometimes inside a pastry case. It too was sweetened with clear honey and was often presented as an offering at temples. On a more basic level was the "satura," a flat heavy cake that hearkened back to the earlier Greek recipes, featuring barley with raisins, pine nuts, pomegranate seeds and sweet wine. The Romans weren't limited to such simple fare, however, and in the later Empire they became skilled with yeast. The northern and western barbarians also leavened their bread, though in their case they used barm, which is a foaming yeast drawn from the top of beer. As time went on the terms "bread" and "cake" became interchangeable. The words themselves are of Anglo Saxon origin, and it's probable that initially the term
"cake" was used for the smaller breads. They didn't stay small for long, however, and soon came to resemble what we know call fruit breads; raised with yeast and including raisins, butter, cream, eggs, spices and honey or sugar. There are still plenty of examples of this kind of cake around, including such British staples as tea cakes, which are actually lightly sweetened fruit buns.

During the renaissance, Italian cooks became famous for their baking skills and were hired by households in both England and France. The new items that they introduced were called "biscuits," though they were the forerunner of what we now consider to be sponge cake. The earliest sponge cake recipe in English was recorded by Gervase Markham in 1615. These sponge cakes weren't exactly your Betty Crocker behemoths, though - they were most likely thin, crisp cakes, more like modern cookies. Macaroons were developed during this period, as were spiced buns such as the Easter staple, hot cross buns.
By the middle of the 18th century, yeast had fallen into disuse as a raising agent for cakes in favor of beaten eggs. The cooks of the day must have had arm muscles like Schwarzenegger - it takes an awful lot of beating by hand to do what we can accomplish in a few minutes with an electric mixer! Once as much air as possible had been beaten in, the mixture would be poured into molds, often elaborate creations, but sometimes as simple as two tin hoops, set on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. It is from these cake hoops that our modern cake pans developed.
Amazingly, it seems that the idea of cake as a dessert was particularly late in coming. Initially, they were served as a snack with sweet wine, much as madeira cake still is. Large, elaborate cakes would often be made as part of the display for banquets, but these were rarely eaten. The style of eating since the Middle Ages had required a selection of dishes to be on the table all at the same time. These would be removed and replaced with another vast array, but in the mid-nineteenth century the fashion changed and Service à la Russe became all the rage. Now the meal was served by servants, bringing diners individual dishes (similar to modern restaurant service), and while such a performance wasn't within the reach of most people, it did result in a feature that everyone could enjoy - the dessert course. Now the decorated cake that we all know and love finally put in its appearance.
There was only one thing to be dealt with - all that pesky whisking. We'd have to wait quite a while for electric beaters, but bicarbonate of soda made its first appearance in the 1840s and was soon followed by baking powder. Easier access to white flour, granulated sugar and shortening all added to the cake's popularity and such favorites as the Victoria Sandwich became familiar sights at tea time and at dinner tables. Victorian ingenuity also brought us ovens with reliable temperature control (though my mother can remember my great-grandmother gauging the temperature of the oven by sticking her hand in it), which brought complex baking within the reach of the ordinary housewife.
From the middle of the nineteenth century cake baking, along with pastry making became one of the main tests for the new housewife. Was she a cook? Could she make an airy sponge, a sinful chocolate confection…or would the family be spending a lot of time buying buns at the bakers shop?

Have a great break. Stay safe. Many thanks to those of you who have bought from us lately.

The Team at Kitchen Couture.

EASTER BAKING TRADITIONS

We all love Easter! Five days off for those of us in Australia! Here are a few recipes to keep the baking tradition alive.

A variety of traditional Easter breads and baked goods are made and served in many different parts of the world. Here are just a few that you may like to try.

• Swedish Nut Cake
• Koolitch-Russian Easter Bread
• Holland Paasbrod-Easter Bread
• Tsourekia- Greek Easter Bread
• Portuguese Easter Bread
• New Zealand Easter Spice Biscuits
• Traditional Hot Cross Buns
• Italian Easter Dove Cake
• Russian Pascha
• Pastiera

With Hot Cross Bun production now in full swing, we here at Kitchen Couture appreciate the time and effort (been there done that for many years with our own bakeries) Bakers and Pastry Cooks around the world are putting in at his time of year. Support and salute your local hardworking bakers and pastry cooks!

Easter is the time to spend with family, whether it be attending Easter Services or having an Easter egg hunt, whether you use a new recipe for Easter or stick with a traditional family recipe, remember that Easter is a time of reflection and new beginnings. Please be careful on the roads and take the time to enjoy and relax over the break.

Wendouree Wholesalers Ballarat Has Joined the Kitchen Couture Team.

We'd like to take this opportunity to announce Wendouree Wholesalers as our first agent for Kitchen Couture, servicing the Western Districts of Victoria. Wendouree Wholesalers are a foodservice distributor with a strong focus on the Baking and Restaurant Industries. Peter Ward(Managing Director) feels the Kitchen Couture range will be complimentary to the large range of products he currently handles.

Peter had advised us interest and enquiries via his sales team has been very positive. For those of you in the Western District, pop into Wendouree where you can see our range or call and ask for one of the sales team. Phone - 03 53355901.

What We've Always Known About Hot Cross Buns But Were Too Afraid to Ask

 A BIT OF HISTORY AND INFO YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT THE HOT CROSS BUN.

According to the Reverend E. Cobham Brewer in the Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, hot cross buns date back to pre-Christian times when round buns called ``bous" (representing the full moon), topped with a cross (representing the four quarters of the moon), were made by the ancient Roman priests in honour of Diana, Roman goddess of the moon and hunting and protectress of women.


It is not clear when hot cross buns became traditional Christian fare, but it is believed the Easter custom evolved in 1361 when a monk from St Alban's Abbey gave cakes resembling hot cross buns to the poor on Good Friday. The idea was so well received he continued to give them each year.


Goodman Fielder's baking division, Quality Bakers Australia, bakes about 12 million hot cross buns each year, and about a third of its total sales are made in the week of Easter. How do bakeries accommodate the huge Easter demands?


Twenty years ago the Bread Research Institute's baking manager, Bill Hogan, was a production manager for a large commercial bakery. In preparation for the busy Easter period, he says the bakery would start making hot cross buns at the beginning of the New Year and then freeze and defrost as required.


Hesitant to comment if such practices continue today, the brand manager at Quality Bakers Australia, Lorna Bruce, says: ``We start planning for Easter in July of the previous year and trial bake before the season commences. When necessary, our bakeries put on extra shifts to cope with the demand and will also call on other local bakeries to help meet the increased requirements."


At the independent bread shops, Hogan says, bakers ``just work their guts out over the Easter period", and it is not uncommon for bakers to work 18 hours straight in the lead-up to Easter.

At Brumby's Bakeries, where everything is baked daily on the premises, the Thursday before Good Friday is known as ``Bun Thursday". It is Brumby's largest trading day of the year and all hands are on deck to keep up with demand.


``Most people traditionally eat hot cross buns over the Easter weekend so virtually all our stores are operating 24 hours beforehand to bake the product required," says Brumby's marketing manager Astrid Rickard.


In an attempt to get a larger slice of the hot cross bun action, some bakers are diversifying away from the traditional spicy fruit-loaf recipe. Brumby's and Banjo's Bakehouse offer chocolate hot cross buns with choc chips instead of fruit, and Coles supermarkets seemingly cater for every hot cross bun idiosyncrasy imaginable, including buns with extra fruit and buns with no fruit, mini-buns and buns with no peel.


Specialist bakeries such as Uncle Rick's and Silly Yaks are also baking gluten-free alternatives.


Some commercial hot cross buns contain preservatives to prevent mould, in particular preservative 282 (calcium propionate), which, according to Sue Dengate, a food intolerance counsellor and author of Fed Up, may cause behavioural problems such as irritability, restlessness, inattention and sleep disturbance.


Highly recommended are Canticle Bakery's (Croydon Hills) hot cross buns. Canticle has been using the same recipe for the past 19 years.




RECIPE

Hot cross buns

500g unbleached white flour

1 teaspoon bread improver

1 teaspoon salt

30g butter

150g dried fruit

3 teaspoons dried yeast

2-3 teaspoons sugar

65g (1/2 cup) skim milk powder

1 teaspoon mixed spice

340ml warm water

Place all dried ingredients (except mixed spice) in a bowl. Rub butter into flour. Knead by hand for five minutes. Add the mixed spice. Knead for another five minutes and then add fruit. Return to bowl, cover with a plastic bag and rest in a warm place for 15 minutes. Knock down and divide dough into two equal portions. Form each piece into sausage shape. Cut each sausage into eight pieces then roll each one into a ball. Re-roll each ball to improve the shape. Place the rolls on to a warm greased tray, cover with plastic and prove for about 50 minutes. Make flour and water paste for crosses, then pipe a cross on to each bun. Bake at 210 degrees for 20 minutes. Glaze buns immediately when removed from oven.

Cross mixture:

65g (1/2 cup) flour

65ml (1/4 cup) water

1 dessertspoon oil

Paris Patisserie

Oriol Balaguer

The Poilâne Bakery in Paris | euromaxx

Part Two of the History of Baking

More for you Foodies to get your teeth into.

Part two - The History of Baking

The distinction between sweet and savory is quite recent, dating from the 19^{th century. The medieval baker pastrycook employed a very different range of flavors for cakes and pastries. Pies and pasties ( known around the Mediterranean region as pastilles, from the Roman word paste meaning pastry) have been around since before medieval times and are some of the oldest delicacies of European cuisine, dating back at least to ancient Greece and also some of the most exquisite, combining meat, wheat and the flavors of honey, nuts and flowers.}
The pasties described by La Varene (a master pastry chef from the 17th century) are made with meats like hare and goose seasoned with a sweet spice which consisted of two parts ginger, one part ground peppercorns, grated nutmeg, crushed cinnamon and cloves. The fever for spices in Europe originated with the Knights Templar who brought them back from the Crusades. They also brought back the beignet, or doughnut. In Syria, during one of the last Crusade battles, St Louis was given doughnuts flavored with cinnamon. Spices weren’t needed to preserve food, salt did the trick and though they added flavour, their real function was social prestige. (The original foodies!) A taste for spices was part of the new manners by which the metropolitan elite distanced itself from the peasantry.

Something for Foodies to sink their teeth into.

A little history lesson for those of you with flour in your veins.

 The French word Patisserie comes form Pistores, the Roman name for bakers. The Romans didn’t distinguish between bakers of bread and bakers of cakes. But cakes require special techniques. To this day they denote a special, often ceremonial occasion. In the middle ages, that meant they were linked to religion. For many centuries, only nuns and monks had the time and expertise to produce cakes and biscuits. The madelines of which Proust was so fond were probably first made by monks. With the development of towns, some bakers started to specialise in cakes. By the end of the middle ages these bakers had formed into guilds, and in 1410 they successfully petitioned to deny bread bakers the right to bake cakes.
A description of the wares of late-medieval patisserie comes from the "Patissier Francois", one of the world’s rarest cook books, published in Amsterdam in 1665 by Louis and Daniel Elsevier. The two brothers had already published a successful book about gardening, the "Jardinière Francois", and surmised that a manual of French cake making would be profitable too. The author was a certain Francois Pierre, known as la Varaine, master chef to the Marquis du Exelles. The "Patissier Franscois" became rare because it was a manual handled by generations of sticky fingered apprentices. The crinkled yellow pages of surviving copies are covered in brown smudges, butter and traces of milk dried into opaque circles like the age rings of a tree. La Varaine denotes several chapters to cooking ham en croute and when they were in season stag, wild boar and deer. Rivalry between bakers and pastry cooks sometimes became a triangular conflict with butchers, who objected to pastry cooks selling ham encased or rolled in pastry saying it infringed on their trade because the ham had already been cooked. To this day in France a pate en croute can only be bought from a chartcutierer (butcher) or traiteur (a take away shop which sells savories).
Part two next.

Cheers,

The Bruce & Magster

First Impressions

Hi Couturiers,

We picked up the latest edition of Leading Edge Bakery/Food Service Journal this week and found a very interesting article about first impressions. The article asks the question "Out of the many visual stimuli a customer sees on entering your cafe/bakery/restaurant eg: food displays, product packaging, signage etc. what will make the most impression on them?

Answer - the presentation of you and your colleagues.

How true! Customers want to see staff looking like staff. It's great to have this reaffirmed as this is what we've always believed and what Kitchen Couture is built on.

We had an order from Canada this week. Would have thought it would be too cold over there for t-shirts at this time of year but we guess a hot kitchen is a hot kitchen anywhere in the world once the ovens start pumping. Thanks Jace - it's a thrill for us to think of our lines winging their way around the world.

That's all for now Couturiers. Thank you for flying with 'Sky High Pie Airlines'.

The Bruce & The Magster

The Birth of Kitchen Couture

Hi Couturiers,

Was asked at a bar-b-que last night - where did we get our ideas from and indeed the whole KC concept.

All of our team have worked in Hospitaliy in one form or another for too many years to remember. Recently, two of us have worked in sales to the industry and have probably visited every bakery, cafe & restaurant in the state in the course of our jobs. The difference in presentation between alot of these businesses is enormous. Neat, tidy and professional versus 'threw on whatever was at the foot of the bed". (Hence our motto - 'Look the Part. Act the Part' ) Smaller businesses do understandably not want the expense of paying a graphic designer to create a logo for them, buying clothing and having it printed. Time, effort and money. Uniforms are usually the last thing on an owners mind after the expense of setting up their business, yet staff presentation is one of the first things a customer notices.

Traditional European Chef wear certainly has it's place. But what about today's funky, buzzy cafes, bistros, bakeries and casual restaurants. Tradition is fine - somethimes breaking tradition is even better.

We saw an opportunity for a visual concept which means staff have one less thing to worry about. No more - Eeeek! What am I going to wear today. It's hard enough in our social lives, who needs it in our worklives!

Why the Winged Pie? Tell us your interpretations, we'd be interested to hear.

Lastly before we go. Mr Darcy 'Grunties' Punginton-Smythe, our broadhead Staffie is now officially the company mascot. Stay tuned for photos!

Cheers,

The Team at Kitchen Couture

"Who Wears Wins" wings it to London!

Hi Couturiers, it's the end of our first week of trading online and we are thrilled to have our first sale overseas already. Our Winged Pie is winging it's way to London as we write. Many thanks, Sally from Tesco. It was a pleasure dealing with you.

Thanks also go to our new customers in Noosa. Suitably picked and yes, we are thinking about a range of umbrellas!

Starting a new online business can be thwart with danger and intrigue - not unlike the hospitality industry.
The gremlins in our website have been ironed out. Many thanks to all of you who phoned through your orders and especially to those who had technical advice to share with us.

Keep the input coming. We are keen to know what our customers want and yes, Natalie we will look at creating a designs specifically for Dishies and Pantry Hands. (Well picked Nat.)

Cheers,

Kitchen Couture

Welcome to Kitchen Couture Blog

QUALITY, AFFORABLE HOSPITALITY APPAREL FOR PROFESSIONALS AND PASSIONATE FOODIES.

The Kitchen Couture range of contemporary designs, reflects everything from front of house to the bar, kitchen, table service and on to the barista. From pastry to pasta, cooking, caterers, cocktails, seafood and more, Kitchen Couture has everyone covered.

Presence, professionalism and pride

Taking pride in your presentation starts with your staff. Well orchestrated, consistent presentation of your staff, instills confidence in your customers and pride in your service personel. With Kitchen Couture hospitality apparel your frontline service staff are clearly identifiable to your customers, and with your food services personel seen as proud professionals.

Corporate Ideas

Our creative team can develop a logo and branding for your business that'll be right at home on your new Kitchen Couture apparel. Call us, we're ready discuss what you have in mind.

Visit http://www.kitchencouture.net.au/