HAPPY EASTER!!

Hi again,

Well to think its been 12 months since we said that last. The last year has been fantastic for Kitchen Couture with our sales steadily growing as more people hear about us - thanks to all of you. Our ad in this month's Delicious has also brought in a good response from professionals and foodies alike.

Easter always has a special place in our hearts as its' the busiest time of the year for Bakers & Pastry Cooks everywhere. Forget your Buche Noels and Xmas Pud - the humble Hot Cross Bun reigns supreme in the quantity stakes. Buns are both the love and bane of bakers & pastry cooks. Seemingly, they are great fun to make until you reach the 500 dozen mark, then the shine (or glaze) wears off. So for those of you who never want to see a HCB again, here's a celebration of the other Easter treat taken from Anthony Bourdains 'No Reservations - Spain'. This is really amazing - well worth watching by anyone remotely interested in the fine art of the Chocolatier. A Cadbury Bunny it ain't!!!

And...... we do it with brioche, we do it with Pannetone, we do it with croissants so why not do it with Hot Cross Buns? Here's a great idea for using up the ones you're left with. A great idea for cafes and patisseries.

Happy Easter to you all and let us know if  you make the Trifle as I can't see us ever having leftovers!

The Team at Kitchen Couture

A COUNTRY TOWN NO MORE

Hi Folks,

The Signature Brekkie at Flutes Cafe

The dust has barely settled after our recent trip to Brisbane. Queensland has always been our strongest state for KC sales, so we decided to take a little trip to check out if all the fantastic stories we're hearing about the Brissie food scene are true - and I must say we are very, very suitably impressed.

We started the day with brekkie at Flutes Cafe in Coorparoo. This cafe has had some very mixed reviews on Urbanspoon, but I have to say we couldn't fault it. Friendly staff, great coffee and a really interesting brekkie menu which lived up to its best reviews. Molasses bacon - yummmmm!          


After calling in to see a couple of our wonderful customers, we caught the Cat to Bretts Wharf. a treat in itself, even if there wasn't lunch waiting at the other end. What a wonderful way to get around the city. Lunch lived up to the fine reputation Alistair Mcleod has built over the years. My asian inspired Prawn & Spanner Crab Salad with grapefuit, Vietnamese mint, chilli and peanuts  was delicious and the other half loved the Duck Salad with lychees, hearts of palm, coriander & ginger. A side of sensational house made chips with just enough rock salt to let you know you're not doing yourself
any favours (but too delicious to care) completed the meal.  

After a trip back to Riverside on the Cat, we had a leisurely stroll around the city, doing a full circle and ending up at the beautiful La Bon Choix Patisserie for coffee and cake. And what cakes!!! This has to be some of the best work in Australia. Exquisite cakes which actually taste as good as they look. We tried La Rivale, the Opera Slice and L'Esparence. Have a look at their website lebonchoixbakery.com.au for full descriptions of these little pieces of heaven.

A swim, a sleep and off to dinner with a couple of our customers. Alfresco dining doesn't get any better than at the Jetty at Southbank on a balmy Brisbane evening. Stunning views of the river and city skyline at night

The view from The Jetty Southbank

To Roz, Elliot and staff , we hope you enjoyed the evening as much as us tourists did.Thanks for your order and we'll see you again soon.

To anyone who hasn't been to Brissie lately, it's well worth the effort of jumping on a plane. Brissie has grown into a glorious city.

Cheers,

The Team at Kitchen Couture.

Canticle Bakery Cafe Contribution

Hi folks,

It's always nice to see our product in action. Thanks to Phil Peterson of The Canticle Bakery Cafe in Croydon Hills for sending in some happy snaps of him and staff in our tees. Canticle has won numerous awards for its wood fired baked products, in particular its legendary sausage rolls which won the best in Victoria in the BIAV awards a couple of years ago.

The Canticle has been around for many years and is an institution in the local area. Though it had an existing logo, Phil asked us at Kitchen Couture to fine tune the medieval sun for transferring onto polos and tees for both his front and back of house staff. The Canticle is located in McAdam Square Croydon Hills Ph: 97237275 and is open Monday to Saturday.

Phil working hard at the wood fired oven.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Hi  again,


We've read some pretty interesting restaurant reviews lately where the journos have really waxed lyrical over the dishes put in front of them. "Explosion from heaven" was one term used to describe a cup of coffee recently.  It pays to remember though that food and coffee appreciation is not a new phenomonon. Writers and foodies have been waxing lyrical for a very long time.

Here's a few quotes from the first foodies who put mouth to paper. 



If any man has drunk a little too deeply from the cup of physical pleasure; if he has spent too much time at his desk that should have been spent asleep; if his fine spirits have become temporarily dulled; if he finds the air too damp, the minutes too slow, and the atmosphere too heavy to withstand; if he is obsessed by a fixed idea which bars him from any freedom of thought:  if he is any of these poor creatures, we say, let him be given a good pint of amber-flavored chocolate... and marvels will be performed.  ~Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin


This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a general commotion.  Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the Grand Army of the battlefield, and the battle takes place.  Things remembered arrive at full gallop, ensuing to the wind.  The light cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the shafts of with start up like sharpshooters.  Similes arise, the paper is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.  ~Honore de Balzac, "The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee"


A little bit of Latte Art to lighten the mood.


Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water.  ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674




A cup of coffee - real coffee - home-browned, home ground, home made, that comes to you dark as a hazel-eye, but changes to a golden bronze as you temper it with cream that never cheated, but was real cream from its birth, thick, tenderly yellow, perfectly sweet, neither lumpy nor frothing on the Java: such a cup of coffee is a match for twenty blue devils and will exorcise them all.  ~Henry Ward Beecher


Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company.  ~Author Unknown


If you find any interesting ones, we'd love you to send them in.


Cheers,


The Team at Kitchen Couture 

AND THE HEAT GOES ON..........

Perth - we're really feeling for you at the moment. Temps are high enough in Melbourne at the moment but being Melbourne, we know a change will be right around the corner. Continuous temps in the 40s are a killer and have resulted in lots of orders from the West for our KC ladies singlets. The first time they have ever out sold our best selling item - the ladies Barista Tee. We're currently having plenty of singlets and Barista tees printed as it seems it's going to be a long, hot summer right across the country.




A big thank you to the Hospitality Department of Cedars Christian College in NSW who have fitted out the students in their Coffee Course with our Barista Ladies Tees. We've also had orders from Coffee Cart operators, such as Bean Cruising from Kallangur, looking for a professional look. If you see a KC Barista Tee being worn by a mobile coffee vendor - stop for a coffee. This person takes their coffee seriously! As we say - Look the Part. Act the Part!


Our new Artisan Bakery designs will be finalised soon and we'll keep you posted.


Keep Cool in kitchen.


The Team at Kitchen Couture.

WE LOVE A SUNBURNT COUNTRY

Hi Couturiers,

Well, we certainly do live in a sunburnt country with drought and flooding rains.... and heat and more heat. The recent high temperatures across the states have brought a lot of new customers to us. Chefs in particular wanting to get out of their European traditional jackets. It just doesn't make sense to wear a uniform meant for cold northern winters in our sunny climes. It's more a punishment than a uniform.  I was recently in the kitchen of one of Victoria's most awarded cafes where the chefs regularly melt into unconsciousness (seriously - passing out is an occupational hazard in this kitchen) The guys are now decked out in our tees and are looking a whole lot happier. Many thanks to Gizmo and your crew, Sarah J from Newcastle and Sara B from Perth for putting the Kitchen Couture stamp right across your kitchens.

Passing out from the heat in a kitchen has always been a fairly common occurrence in Queensland and the NT. (We've worked in some of those hottest kitchens - trust us!) With global warming creeping up on us, it's time to take a serious look at getting all our hard working chefs, kitchen hands and dishies into something far more suitable.Of course flaming your wok like as below really doesn't help matters!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hi Couturiers,

Happy New Year. Hope 2012 is a great year for you all.

It seems our Cafe & Bakery customers are in full new year resolution mode at this time. Many of our customers are talking about renovations and new fit outs which happily include Kitchen Couture. Daggy black or white tees are so 2011! One restaurant owner who bought a large number of Utensil tees for his chefs last year has placed an order for generic Kitchen Couture tees for his dishies and kitchen hands. Fantastic - it's about time ALL the kitchen brigade was looked after!

So, if you're throwing a new coat of paint on your cafe/bakery walls or buying new display cabinets etc - don't forget your staff are the first thing any customer notices when they enter. A professional look is paramount!

Now that 2012 is underway, our printers are back at work and our new designs will be hitting our online store soon.

How hot was the Monday after New Years Day! Our thoughts went out to chefs all over the country sweltering in traditional chefs jackets. Our customers wearing KC tees may not have breezed through the heat (who could?) but at least they would have been a lot cooler than most of their brothers in arms.

Till next time.

The Team at Kitchen Couture.