RC December 2014

Restaurant Catering

DECEMBER 2014 $6.95 GST incl.

Official Journal of

Restaurant & Catering

How Muse Restaurant’s Troy and Megan Rhoades-Brown went from hard-

working employees to award-winning restaurant owners in just 12 months

Hunters & gatherers

Land loversGetting the best from local Australian produce, page 10

Special report Back-of-house technology, page 38

Go your own wayBeing the only restaurant in town offering something unique can be a winning formula. Learn more, page 14

I get to work a lot with the apprentices and oversee their training. This business can be hard and antisocial given the unsociable hours, so I make a real effort to help them enjoy it.”Stephen Mercer, Mercer’s Restaurant, Melbourne

Christmas Ice Cream Pudding with hot Chocolate Sauce

for recipe visit www.philly.com.au

Christmasnever lookedso delicious.

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Contents

In this issue ...Upfront4 From the Association

John Hart takes a moment to acknowledge the people who make the industry great, and Matteo Pignatelli on the impact of the Restaurant Australia campaign

6 News & eventsA new process for South Australia events’ liquor licences is good for tourism and hospitality; Peter Gilmore’s new venture; a global young chef competition and more ...

Wisdom 10 One direction

With more emphasis than ever on local produce, many restaurants are developing direct relationships with local farmers, resulting in a profound impact on menu choices

14 Carve your nicheAs if starting up a restaurant wasn’t challenging enough, a few brave souls take on the Herculean task of doing it without an obvious blueprint

18 What I’ve learntStephen Mercer, owner of Mercer’s Restaurant in the Melbourne suburb of Eltham, shares the perfect foundation to a stellar career

Stuff24 New products

The latest and greatest stuff

27 Product guideRestaurant & Catering magazine’s Innovators Product Guide

38 Special reportTechnology that integrates with the POS system for back-of-house staff

40 DrinksWhat to consider embarking on your own wine cellar

42 DetailsArchitect Pascale Gomes-McNabb has reinvented Penfolds Magill Estate Restaurant in South Australia

December 2014 $6.95 GST incl.

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Head hunterFew eateries will experience the level of recognition and respect that Troy Rhoades-Brown’s Muse Restaurant in the Hunter Valley has enjoyed. But even fewer will have to work so hard for his success

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, Samantha Trenoweth, Chris Sheedy, John Burfitt, Emma Kean, Jenneth Orantia

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

On the shoulders of giantsLet’s take a moment to acknowledge the people who have made our industry great.

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

Last month I had the pleasure of attending the Hall of Fame dinner in Perth, celebrating the induction of Patrick O’Brien into the WA Hall of Fame. Through the West Coast Institute mentoring students as well as coaching Culinary Olympic teams is very impressive.

These awards are an important recognition of the contributions made by those who work so hard for our industry. Just like our Lifetime Achiever program, the Hall of Fame provides an opportunity to recognise the contributions our industry stalwarts make.

The industry has grown so much in the last thirty years. It has matured from a fledgling to—according to Tourism Australia data—the number one food and wine market in the world. This success has been achieved by those industry contributors we recognise in the individual awards.

Our Lifetime Achievers awards this year recognised Warwick Lavis (WA), Greg Doyle (NSW), Nino Miano (QLD), Frank van Haandel (VIC) and Jim Carreker (SA). All worthy recipients and great contributors to our industry’s successes.

It’s often said the restaurant and catering business is all about people, however we seldom take time to recognise those who make us what we are.

As we celebrate the end of 2014, let’s toast our industry champions.John Hart,

CEO, Restaurant & Catering

RestaurantCatering

4 RESTAURANT & CATERING

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

/savouraustralia@savouraus

/savour-australia

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

Among the influencersIn a year of highlights, one of the most exciting was the Restaurant Australia campaign launch

This year has been an amazing year for the Association and for the industry—the Restaurant Australia campaign has certainly been part of what has defined 2014. This important international campaign has highlighted to the world our wonderful food and wine assets.

At the launch in Hobart, international food media were treated to a spectacular dinner at MONA (the Museum of Modern and New Art), created by Ben Shewry, Peter Gilmore and Neil Perry as a showcase of our nation. Journalists were treated to a custom itinerary of food and wine locations from the Tamar to Margaret River, eating and drinking their way around the country in fine style.

The campaign represented a real coming of age. While back in the Hoges ‘shrimp on the barbie’ era, we understood inviting the world to come to Australia for great produce, the message has now nuanced to the people, product and place of food and wine. There’s now a sense the message is right for attracting high-yielding visitors who we need to get a return on our tourism investment.

The other aspect of the campaign that has worked is the engagement and commitment from so many of you. Thank you for you support of Restaurant Australia. I hope to see the overseas media light up with all of your great stories.

See you in 2015.Matteo Pignatelli

President, Restaurant & Catering


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News&events


A simplified liquor licence application process for stallholders participating in South Australian festivals will significantly reduce red tape and costs

for organisers and participants, according to peak industry association, Restaurant & Catering Australia (R&CA).

R&CA chief executive officer John Hart said the decision to allow one single liquor licence application to be lodged for events listing all stallholders rather than requiring individual stallholders to complete separate applications makes good sense and will benefit the state’s $5 billion tourism and hospitality industry.

“Festivals and events such as Tasting

Australia, Crush, McLaren Vale Sea & Vines and WOMAD are major economic drivers for the state. They attract overnight visitation and additional expenditure in metropolitan and regional South Australia. They also provide a great opportunity for local producers and businesses to showcase the fantastic food and wine the state is synonymous for,” said Hart.

“The simplified structure means participants can get on with promoting the outstanding food and wine South Australia has to offer.

“This is a best-practice example of how simple changes by government can make a huge difference for operators by making the liquor licence application process less cumbersome and costly. I would hope this model would be adopted across other states as a means of facilitating the efficient operation of major events and festivals,” Hart said.

He said that while government is doing its bit to cut red tape and administrative burden, it raises concerns over the failure of some event organisers to ensure stallholders are compliant with the appropriate health and safety and workplace relations requirements.

“Festivals and events offer an excellent opportunity to experience food and wine in a new way, with the popularity of food trucks, stalls and pop-ups increasing tenfold.

“However, some festival organisers are foregoing the proper checks to ensure all stallholders meet the minimum health and safety, payroll and insurance requirements.

“For established bricks-and-mortar businesses, this places them at a disadvantage as they bear the full cost of meeting these requirements, including health inspections, PAYG and superannuation contributions for staff. Festival organisers need to ensure a level playing field by checking their stallholders meet their obligations,” Hart said.

R&CA recently released its Food Truck Guidelines, a best-practice guide for the operation of mobile food vendors outlining four key principles that should be adopted in the operation of mobile food vendors.

“Continued support for businesses, providing specific regulation around the hours of operation and location of mobile food vendors, and ensuring compliance with all applicable regulations that govern regular food businesses is a simple way of ensuring stallholders and surrounding hospitality businesses benefit from events,” Hart said.

Southern comfortA new process for SA events’ liquor licences is good for tourism and hospitality

Peter Gilmore to take over Opera House restaurantCelebrated chef Peter Gilmore (left) will take over the Bennelong restaurant site at the Sydney Opera House under an agreement that will span a decade.

In conjunction with the Fink Group, owners of Quay and Otto Ristorante, the chef will execute an offering pitched at different price points, spanning fine dining and a more casual eatery. It is expected to be open by June 2015.

"Bennelong is such an incredibly special site that I couldn't pass up the opportunity," Gilmore said in a statement.

"I will be celebrating Australian produce from the very tip of Queensland right

down to Tasmania and where better than in Australia's most iconic building."

The three-hatted chef will open a 'signature Peter Gilmore dining experience' on the main lower level of the complex. The middle section will be pitched as quick eats with a focus on oysters, fish and pickled vegetables. And a more casual restaurant/bar will reside on the top level aimed at pre-and post-show dining.

Gilmore will stay on as the executive chef at Quay in addition to the new project. His senior sous chef at that restaurant, Robert Cockerill, will become head chef at Bennelong.

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Tasmanian salmon producer Tassal has achieved Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification across all its salmon

farming operations. A first for any salmon company in the world, this achievement puts Tassal at the forefront of responsible global salmon aquaculture.

Tassal has been moving towards reaching full ASC certification since 2012, working in partnership with WWF-Australia to develop its responsible aquaculture practices. WWF recognises ASC certification as the highest global standard available for responsibly farmed seafood, providing credible, third-party validation for practices that reduce impacts on the marine environment, protecting local surroundings and wildlife, and supporting local communities.

Global first for Australian salmon producer

News&events

JOB21576 Restaurant Ad (c).indd 1 23/06/2014 7:26:42 PM8 RESTAURANT & CATERING

Global young chef competitionS.Pellegrino, the world-renowned sparkling water brand, and advocate for fine dining, is proud to introduce an exciting new global initiative to find the Best Young Chef of the World. This unique contest continues S.Pellegrino’s strong commitment of the brand to supporting emerging talents.

Until December 15 2014, all young chefs from around the world can submit their application together with their signature dish on www.finedininglovers.com. Applicants must be professional, under 30 years of age and have worked in a restaurant for at least one year in the position of sous chef, chef de partie or chef.

Between January 16 and February 28 next year, the 10 finalists from each region will compete in a local contest. Each region will have a jury composed of three leading independent chefs, who will judge each dish and select the best one.

By February 20, the 20 best local young chefs from each world’s region will be announced as official finalists. The winner will be chosen by an international jury next June during Expo Milano 2015.

Thu 1Keep the volume low, the downlights dimmed and the wait staff patient as fragile customers slowly recover.

Fri 2Even though this isn’t a public holiday, be prepared for a customer onslaught—who can resist an extra day off on a Friday?

Wed 7Fans are all shook up over the Elvis Edible Art Competition, part of the Elvis Festival in Parkes, NSW, on Jan 7-11. parkeselvisfestival.com.au

Fri 9Corporate hospitality packages include VIP marquees at the Sydney Festival on Jan 8-26. sydneyfestival.org.au

Mon 12House of Arras Grand Vintage 2004 won Tasmanian Wine Show’s Best Wine of the Show last year. This year’s judging starts today. taswineshow.org

Tue 13The extensive Master of Italian Cuisine program in Calabria includes 25 hours’ training on desserts and gelatos. On Jan 12-April 12. italianculinary.it

Thu 15Music and food are both on the top billing at the MONA Mofo festival in Hobart on Jan 15-18. mona.net.au

Fri 16Gourmet hamburgers are a menu must during the Tamworth Country Music Festival on Jan 16-25. tamworthcountry music.com.au

Sat 17A celebrity wine-spitting competition entertains visitors during today’s Harvest Festival in McLaren Vale, SA. harvestfestival mclarenvale.com.au

December 2014—January 2015

DECEMBERMon 15James Beard award-winner Allen Susser produces zesty dishes at the Spices of the Caribbean Food Festival on the island of St Lucia on Dec 12-16. jademountain.com

Wed 17‘Perfect turkeys and stuffing’ is a timely cooking class at Piper Street Food Co in Kyneton, VIC. piperstfoodco.com

Thu 18Penfolds Magill Estate Restaurant (see back page) won the Australian category of Restaurant & Bar Design Awards 2014. Apply for 2015 at restaurantandbardesignawards.com

Sat 20Jimmy Barnes rocks the vineyards at Yarra Valley’s Rochford Wines, part of A Day on the Green festival. adayonthegreen.com.au

Mon 22Delicious Produce Awards celebrates its 10th year. Applications for nominations are open until March. taste.com.au

Wed 24Make sure your gift vouchers are on display and staff are keeping their cool as panicked shoppers take a break at cafes, restaurants and wine bars.

Thu 25Merry Christmas, R&CA members!

Fri 26Discover Australian chefs’ suggestions on how to cook up dishes with post-Christmas offerings—on the National Leftovers Day site at foodwise.com.au

Sun 28The Taste of Tasmania in Hobart is a week of food markets, cooking classes and restaurant specials. On Dec 28-Jan 3. tastefestival.com.au

Wed 31The countdown begins … New Year’s Eve is one of the busiest days for caterers and restaurant owners.


What’s on

Sun 18International Green Week Berlin on Jan 16-25 displays a raft of organic products and fresh produce. gruenewoche.de/en/

Mon 19Set a spell, take your shoes off, and indulge in the local cuisine during the Murray River International Music Festival on Jan 19-30. artsmildura.com.au

Sat 24Food fever with today’s Ballarat Beer Festival (ballaratbeerfestival.com.au) and Crush 15 (crushfestival.com.au) on Jan 23-25.

Sun 25The inaugural International Street Food Festival celebrates our multicultural talents at the Melbourne Showgrounds on Jan 25-26. isff.com.au

Mon 26Keep those craft beers chilled. It’s Australia Day! Thu 29Neil Perry reveals his tips to grow US visitor numbers during Tourism Summit on Jan 20-30, all part of the 10-day G’Day USA event. gdayusa.org

Fri 30Get ready for plenty of pretzels, sausages and beer at Adelaide’s famous German festival, Schützenfest, on Jan 30-31. schutzenfest.com.au

Sat 31Food & Wine Expo boasts more than

150 exhibitors at the Gold Coast on Jan 30-Feb 1. foodandwineexpo.com.au

JANUARY

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directionOne

With more emphasis than ever on local produce, many restaurants are developing direct relationships with local farmers, resulting in a profound impact on menu choices. By John Burfitt

The lemon tart at Paul Smith’s Green Zebra cafe in Albury in southern New South Wales has been a fixture on the menu for 15 years and it is a morsel

that Green Zebra is famous for.Smith claims his sweet treat is so

popular that, “we go through a tonne of fresh lemons, barrels of them to make the tart. That’s one of the reasons our relationship with the local Tiandi Grove orchard is so important, as it is the fresh taste of the lemons that makes the tart so popular.”

Which begs the question: what came first? The idea for a lemon tart, or the ready supply of farm-fresh lemons?

Smith laughs as he responds, “The lemon tart, as we introduced it at a time when every cafe had one on the menu. But what makes ours unique is that we have the lemons growing only minutes down the road.”

The relationship between Green Zebra and Tiandi Grove orchard is just one example of the effective payoff of direct relationships between the chef in the kitchen and the food producer on the land.

In this age of increased attention on the ‘paddock to plate’ process, there has been significant focus in recent times placed on relationship building between the restaurant and the farmer. With some products, there has been a natural return to the traditional method of dealing direct and leaving the middleman out of the equation.

In doing so, the chef not only has a guarantee of the freshness of the produce, but is also gaining insights into the items from the people who have reared them, usually from the soil up.

And any valuable conversations about that process can work both ways, adds Tiandi Grove’s Robyn Taylor.

“They can give us valuable feedback, both good and bad, on our produce,” Taylor says. “We can find out what it is they need and what we can offer to fulfil their requirements. It really just comes down to doing smart business.”

Dealing direct with the men and women on the land can also have a profound impact on the chef planning the menu, adds Steven Adams, owner of Brisbane’s Moo Moo restaurant. Moo Moo has long had direct relationships with local farmers for the supply of items like cheese, truffles and rabbit.

“It’s important as you’re learning more about the products and how they ended up on your kitchen bench,” he says. “That knowledge then impacts on the way you cook it, serve it, what accompaniments you use, and the various ways you can use that item.

“It might also come down to the simple fact that as you have a personal relationship with those farmers, you benefit from increased quality as they are sending you the best of the best. And the value that adds to your own brand when you have a steady supply of excellent, top-end quality products can not be underestimated.”

After working in venues along the east coast, Tony DaBurger moved to Perth and started as head chef at the Best Western Premier’s Terrace Hotel restaurant six months ago.

He says one of the things he likes most about working in the Western Australia capital is that some of the best food producers he has ever encountered are on the rural fringe of the city limits.

As a result, he has developed direct

relationships with farmers like A. O’Meehan & Co

through the supplier, Ryan’s Quality Meats, as well as local fishing fleet crews.

Spending time with the farmers to see how the stock is raised and with fishermen as they reveal details about their latest catch has proved invaluable, DaBurger says, to making choices when designing a menu.

“It has a profound impact,” he says. “When you speak with a producer, you get the inside scoop—what varieties are at their peak, what products will remain consistent, and gain an awareness of any new developments within the market. It gives you a greater insight that does influence you.

“By knowing the history behind my products and suppliers, I am assured of reliability and quality control, and can pass that on to our guests. So, when we are serving something like our lamb assiette, understanding the way that each lamb has been fed, aged, and processed plays heavily in the eventual quality and taste of the dish.”

A producer can also explain the limitations of the product, adds Simon Arms of Table Top Gardens, Green Zebra’s suppliers of figs.

“Each variety can have limitations, and you can’t treat all figs the same, or you will be disappointed in stock

“The value that adds to your own brand when you

have a steady supply of excellent,

top-end quality products can not be

underestimated.” Steven Adams, owner of

Brisbane’s Moo Moo restaurant


When you speak with a producer,

you get the inside scoop.

that was probably perfectly fine—it just should not have been used in a particular way,” Simon says.

“I can explain that directly to the chefs I work with, but a wholesaler simply does not have that kind of information to share. I also feel like I have more control over the delivery of good product as there is no middle person to tamper with it along the way.”

Playing a part in the local economy and offering fresh produce that the chef knows the story behind just makes good business sense, says industry consultant Ken Burgin of Profitable Hospitality.

“It comes down to that ‘L’ word that everyone is talking about, and what everyone—the restaurateur, the farmer and the customer—all responds to. And that word is ‘local’,” Burgin says.

“There is a hunger for something more genuine and authentic. It is a matter of having two or three local items on your menu that the diner can relate to. If that means the carrots were


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Management

grown on a farm down the road and you picked them up on the way in, then that makes an impression.

“As soon as you make that information on the left-hand side of the menu with descriptions and details more genuine, the information on the right side with the prices becomes far more understandable. This then adds to your positioning and where your customers see your business.”

Expanding existing relationships and developing new ones can be as simple as investing time at the local farmers’ markets or even asking suppliers for an introduction to the people who are the first point in the supply chain.

“It can pay off for

pricing sometimes, or it just might lead to a different ranges being offered,” Moo Moo’s Steven Adams adds.

“The reality is that you can’t do this with every product, but to do so with a few producers is good for your venue and for your brand. Sometimes it can be as simple as picking up the phone and making a small effort that could have a big pay-off.”

Playing a part in the local economy just makes good

business sense.

Industry Partner Gastronomy Partners

MELB FOOD WINE FESTThe 23rd Melbourne Food and Wine Festival presented by Bank of Melbourne will reach new frontiers of flavour in 2015. Grab your fork and your glass and venture forth upon an epicurean expedition to Melbourne’s first-rate food and wine venues, featuring the world’s most celebrated culinary provocateurs and vinous revolutionaries, over 17 inspiring days. Here’s a taste of this year’s highlights, where you’re bound to discover something new.

Watch the masters at work as they prepare exquisite dishes and listen as theyshare their secrets. Then sit back, relax, and taste the results. Featuring Jamie Bissonnette (Toro and Coppa, Boston and Toro, NYC), Bill Granger (Bill’s, Sydney, Seoul, Honolulu, Tokyo and London), Ruth Rogers (River Café, London) and Janice Wong, pictured (2am:Dessert Bar, Singapore). Full day and weekend tickets include a recipe book and lunch at Testing Grounds.

A three-course, shared plate lunch featuring talks from a handful of the Festival’s international guests, including Eric Werner (pictured, Hartwood, Mexico), Rodney Scott (Scott’s Bar-B-Que, USA) and Ryan Clift (Tippling Club, Singapore).

Industry only event.

Date: Sat 7 Mar, Sun 8 MarTime: 10.00am – 5.00pm

Date: Sat 7 Mar, Sun 8 MarTime: 10.00am – 5.00pm

Date: Mon 2 MarTime: 2.00pm – 4.00pm

Where: The Langham, MelbournePrice: $160 half-day $320 full-day incl. lunch $595 full weekend incl. lunch

Where: The Langham, MelbournePrice: $50

Where: Festival Artisan Bakery and BarPrice: $55 incl. lunch

LANGHAM MELBOURNE MASTERCLASS – CHEF MASTERCLASS

TICKETS ON SALE NOWmelbournefoodandwine.com.au

Prices exclude booking fee.

CHEF JAM - SUPPORTED BY HOSTPLUS

Featuring: Sushi Train(ing) with Shaun Presland (Sake, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney) Advanced Mixology with Matthew Bax (Trink Tank, Melbourne)Winning Friends with Salad with Matt Wilkinson (Pope Joan and Hams and Bacon, Melbourne)

LANGHAM MELBOURNE MASTERCLASS – THE ESSENTIALS

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Marketing


Carve

nicheyour

Find your nicheThe first and most crucial tip is to identify the right niche for you, and the best way to do that is to follow your bliss. If you do what you’re best at and are most passionate about, then you’ll have more energy for the project, which will rub off on everyone—staff and clients. Brian Lizotte is well aware of this …

Lizotte came to restaurants after 10 years as Australia’s first high-end caterer to the music industry. Tired of the road, he opened a small restaurant on the Central Coast, north of Sydney. However, a year or so into the business, he missed the music scene, and set out to revive the old Chequers-era concept of dinner and a show. “I was marrying two of life’s greatest pleasures, and two of my greatest pleasures,” he recalls.

Spirit House restaurant and cooking school, in the hinterland west of Noosa, in Queensland, was also born of a passion. Helen and Peter Brierty had been living and working in Asia, where they’d become fascinated by regional Thai cuisine. Back in Australia, they bought acreage in Queensland (where so many Asian ingredients are grown), planted a rambling tropical garden and opened their dream restaurant, serving contemporary Asian flavours among waterfalls, ginger blossom and lily ponds.

Be courageousEvery one of the niche restaurateurs that we spoke to cautioned that this was not a task for the feint-hearted.

“We were nervous when we started,” Helen admits. “It was a huge risk and everybody told us it wouldn’t work. This was 20 years ago. We were in our

fifties then and it was going to be a semi-retirement hobby, but it’s grown into the biggest business we’ve ever had. We have 50 staff and we’re busy seven days a week, all year round.”

Welcome changeAll the restaurateurs admitted to opening-day nerves and conceded that they had, at various times, been forced to compromise or diversify to keep their dream afloat.

Wendy Johnsson is co-owner and manager of the Gardener’s Lodge, a tiny cafe in a heritage-listed sandstone cottage in Victoria Park, beside the University of Sydney. Johnsson and her business partner, Aboriginal elder Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo, are both involved with Koori Job Ready, an Indigenous training program nearby in Eveleigh. They opened the Gardener’s Lodge, in part, to provide work experience for the program’s graduates.

The initial plan was that the Gardener’s Lodge would be a cafe, pure and simple, serving modern Australian fare with an emphasis on bush ingredients. However, reality hit with the first downpour and the realisation that turnover at the park-side Lodge would fluctuate with the weather. Johnsson thought fast and diversified. She now runs a successful catering business, as well as the cafe, out of the kitchen there.

“We’ve been catering events for the

City of Sydney and Sydney University, University of Technology, Sydney, the ABC, the Fred Hollows Foundation,

Qantas, Lend Lease, and I’m gearing up to do a lot

more. We also host events in the

evenings: birthday and engagement parties. We’ve had to diversify to get a cash flow that’s sustainable.”

Helen and Peter Brierty

have also added several strings

to their bow. Spirit House restaurant has

expanded to include a cooking school and their son Acland, a fluent Thai speaker and foodie, leads regular Spirit House tours of Thailand.

Think locallyBrian Lizotte has recently decided to downsize. He’ll be jettisoning his Kincumber and Dee Why restaurants to focus solely on Newcastle, where Lizotte’s has given new life to a hundred-year-old Art Deco theatre. The most important lesson he’ll carry with him to Newcastle, he says, is to think locally—and that means local produce and local tradespeople, as well as building relationships with the local community.

“We have always supported local bands and musicians,” he explains, “and local schools as well. We’ve put on music showcases for over 45 schools, and we’ll keep doing that in


As if starting up a restaurant wasn’t challenging enough, a few brave souls take on the Herculean task of doing it without an

obvious blueprint. They try to carve out their own unique niche. It sounds like madness, but it can actually work. This issue, Samantha

Trenoweth talks to three restaurateurs who have seen the ups and downs of marching to a different drum. They offer some tips, some

encouragement and just a few warnings

“It was a huge risk and everybody told us it wouldn’t

work. This was 20 years ago.”

Helen Brierty, Spirit House restaurant and cooking school

Newcastle, as well as supporting local suppliers, tradespeople and growers.”

CommunicateLizotte has also built an impressive database made up of local regulars and music buffs who have been willing to travel to experience his unique brand of culinary and musical entertainment. The data base, which now reaches 70,000 clients, is his best form of promotion. “I can sell out a show in a day from my database alone,” he says. It instantly reaches the heart of his niche market.

Wendy Johnsson believes social media is becoming increasingly important. “It’s not an area I’ve focused enough on yet,” she explains, “but I will move that way. I’ve noticed that the most successful niche cafes and restaurants are very social media savvy.”

Find fellow dreamersJohnsson’s staff don’t give her too many surprises—after all, she’s trained them—but she agrees with Helen Brierty that it’s crucial to find staff who share your dream, or at

least understand it—then treat them well. “Having the right people is absolutely

crucial,” says Helen Brierty. “Our cooking school chef is a natural teacher—she’s been with us from day one. She’s extremely knowledgeable about Asian cuisine and loves passing on all her years of learning and experience. Then, when you have good staff, you need to look after them. If you treat your staff well, it flows through the whole business. You get back what you give and your clients are the end beneficiaries of that goodwill.”

Maintain your enthusiasmFinally, making a niche restaurant work requires dedication. “It’s not something you can put part of yourself into,” Helen explains. “It’s a full-time, seven-day-a-week business. I’ll be 72 at Christmas. I still work here three days

a week and our sons are now involved in the business as well. You have to be prepared to put in the hours and do the work, which means that really, you need to love what you do.

“You also need to be a bit philosophical and take a long range view. Don’t get too bogged down in the daily problems. Solve them and get on with it.”

Making a niche restaurant work requires dedication and enthusiasm.


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What I’ve learnt


I wasn’t one of those chefs who knew they were going to be cooking when they were five years old. I took on an apprenticeship when I was 16 and it was through those teen years that I really developed a love for food and cooking. I went on to work at a Michelin-starred dining room at a hotel in Frankfurt and that was where I met my girlfriend Ute—now

my wife and business partner—who was working on reception. From there we went to The Dorchester hotel just as it was reopening after two years of renovations. They’d pulled in the best chefs in London, and being surrounded by such talent was a great opportunity.

That’s why I tell my apprentices they should go overseas when they move on. Why not use your career to travel, to expand your mind, to expand your style of cuisine? I also think it’s a great advantage to go somewhere non-English speaking—to come out bilingual is a massive bonus for anybody.

I’d always wanted to own my own restaurant but was very aware that I’d spent all my time in hotel fine dining rooms, and they usually lose money! Coming back to Australia, I wanted to be cooking quality food in a business that worked, so I went to Jacques Reymond’s restaurant in Windsor for two years before getting my first head chef role at Adams of North Riding. Going to a place with a team that’s a similar size to the restaurant you’re planning to open is a good move.

You have to think carefully about location. Ute and I looked around for quite a while because we wanted to stay out of the CBD. Crown Casino opened around that time and we were aware it would affect city restaurants. We opened Mercer’s in 1997 and have been here for over 17 years now, which is an unusual thing for the Melbourne restaurant scene. It’s a really difficult market and you’ve got to get it right. So many international names have had a go and most of them haven’t worked. Guys like Wolfgang Puck, Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver … I don’t think they realise how competitive it is here.

For many restaurants in cities, the first year is the busiest they ever do because they get all of the press early on and for a restaurant to hit its capacity early isn’t the healthiest thing. It’s much better to have a business that grows steadily over time.

That said, there’s always an element of luck in any venture and I’ve seen some very good chefs not get it right. Sometimes it’s their own doing, sometimes not. Sometimes it’s the environment, sometimes the location. We’re in a very

uncool location really, in the outer suburbs. It’s not where you set up for fame and glory. But

then we don’t live and die by the press like many city restaurants do.

People tend to focus on me, but Mercer’s is very much a partnership and I couldn’t have a better partner than Ute, who does most of the bookwork and a fair bit of the management. I’m

very lucky and very grateful that it works the way it does.

That also means I get to work a lot with the apprentices and oversee their training. This business can be hard and antisocial given the unsociable hours, so I make a real effort to help them enjoy it. We take them out and dine with them and involve them in industry activities.

Investing in yourself is the best investment you can make in terms of knowledge and training. I was never particularly worried about what I got paid in Europe. Even when I got back, it was about targeting the right jobs, not the money. You learn an awful lot in any good kitchen.

When I started my apprenticeship, the guys in the kitchen would say, ‘This is a fun industry but you wouldn’t want to be cooking behind the stove when you’re 40’. Back then I was thinking the same thing, but after almost 30 years in the business, I still enjoy cooking. It’s actually the part of the job I enjoy the most!

MercerThe owner of Mercer’s Restaurant in Melbourne’s suburb of Eltham says working at a Michelin-starred dining room in Frankfurt and then at The Dorchester in London was the perfect foundation to a stellar career

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“After almost 30 years in the

business, I still enjoy cooking. It’s actually the part of the job I enjoy the most!”


Stephen

Few eateries will experience the level of recognition and respect that Troy and Megan Rhoades-Brown’s Muse Restaurant has enjoyed. But even fewer will have to work so hard for their success, discovers Chris Sheedy


Head

Cover story

hunter

Just one year after it first opened its doors, a restaurant that began as a wild dream of a young chef and his restaurant manager wife earned its first glowing reviews from

the most influential newspaper critics. That establishment was Muse Restaurant at Hungerford Hill Winery in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley. The owners were Troy Rhoades-Brown, ex-head chef of Roberts Restaurant, and his wife Megan who had also spent several years at Roberts. In today’s fast moving and constantly changing restaurant environment, it would be safe to assume that Muse Restaurant’s success was immediate, that tables were filled from opening night and that foodies travelled from far and wide to experience the magic of this new Hunter Valley icon. But nothing could have been further from the truth.

Even six months after the critical accolades, a full 18 months after Muse Restaurant’s doors had opened, Troy and Megan were struggling to make ends meet. That struggle, however, had a very positive side. “With no financial backer and a loan from the parents-in-law for some new chairs, we opened the doors in March, 2009,” Troy says. “We hadn’t actually planned to open a restaurant that big. Opening a new fine dining restaurant in the middle of the financial crisis with very little running capital had the potential for a catastrophic ending. Our market, or 95 per cent of it at least, was people from Sydney visiting on weekends and we simply had no money to advertise to them. So we really had to rely on word of mouth.”

“The first 18 months was really tough. We started with 12 or 15 staff compared to the 33 staff we have now. We were quiet and were doing 15 to 30 covers


“Having a very busy start and being flat-out all the time can lead you into a false sense of

financial security.”Troy Rhoades-Brown, Muse Restaurant chef/co-owner

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on a Friday night, when we needed to be doing 60 to 80. But we were super motivated and were so young at the time. I had just turned 24 and was still growing into my own style of food.”

The period spent without full houses, without cash flow and without financial security, Troy says, helped him to develop a business with longevity rather than one that is on-trend and potentially only successful for a few years.

“It was a crucial time for me to grow as a chef and restaurateur, time for us to warm up, polish and evolve our offering,” he says. “It turned out to be a good thing. Having a very busy start and being flat out all the time can lead you into a false sense of financial security. You have a huge influx of money at the start and you can get carried away with purchasing and with staff, etc, then business may slowly drop away. But with us, it was the other way around. It was a rolling ball effect and the momentum definitely helped us measure the capabilities of the restaurant.”

Muse Restaurant is now “basically full every night”, Troy says. Friday and

Saturday nights are regularly up at around 90 to 100

covers. Word of mouth did the

job—it just took a little longer than expected.

What did it

take to get through the difficult period? Troy says it had a lot to do with his healthy competitive and creative streak. As a child growing up in Valentine, by Lake Macquarie, he used to enjoy presenting fancy meals to his friends when they came to visit. Those days, when he was nine or 10 years old, such dishes usually involved crackers with ham and cheese, peppered with spices and dolloped with tomato sauce. He didn’t realise at the time he had an interest in food and flavours, but instead simply enjoyed the creative process.

“By the time I entered high school, I knew I was interested in food,” he says. “I jumped into an apprenticeship at a local Italian restaurant called Pasquale’s. The head chef, whose name was Pasquale, was 60 years old when I joined and had been working in kitchens for over 40 years. He had done his training in the Italian army. It was a great grounding for me. It wasn’t fancy, but was wonderfully humble.”

After three years, when Pasquale retired, Troy moved on to Roberts Restaurant (now called Roberts Circa 1876) as a fourth-year apprentice. “I wanted to get into the fine dining side because it was the most creative side of the restaurant business,” he says. “Also, I’m a competitive person and Roberts was the restaurant everyone was talking about. It was the busiest and the best.”

The ever-changing menu, the creative environment and the ability to work

Troy and Megan Rhoades-Brown (opposite page) opened Muse

Restaurant in 2009. Troy (right) says most nights are now fully booked.

hunter


with a brigade of chefs inspired Troy to new levels. Within three years, he was the sous chef at Roberts. Megan [the pair met at Roberts] was the restaurant’s manager. But a major change was on the horizon. In 2005 Troy won the coveted Brett Graham Scholarship, which included a trip to the UK and two weeks working in the Australian chef ’s Michelin-starred London restaurant, The Ledbury. Troy and Megan then spent several weeks traveling around Europe and came back with a clear idea about what they wanted to do next.

“Having been a part of Roberts, we had experienced an amazing restaurant business working under Robert and Sally Molines but one that had become quite corporate after their departure,” he explains. “We wanted to offer a unique dining experience to customers, one that was purely our idea. We wanted to give customers a reflection of us. We wanted it to be our ideal dining experience. In order to do that you really need to just go and do it yourself.”

So they did. But the original idea, and one that very nearly reached completion, was a small, family-style restaurant that would seat perhaps 30 or 40 diners. That way the pair could manage costs, put their own stamp on the place and not feel overwhelmed by their new business. Then along came a new opportunity.

“We got to our final lease meeting for a little restaurant down the road, and then the Hungerford Hill kitchen became available,” Troy says. “It had always been owned by the proprietor of Hungerford Hill, James Kirby, and he had always employed the chef. This was the first time the building had ever been leased out.

“I remember walking into the kitchen and it was just massive, the size of a regular dining room. The dining room itself had an impressive 40-foot vaulted glass ceiling. There was a grand stone

Cover story

I was also very competitive and I saw it as a challenge that I wanted to jump at.”

Amazingly, Troy and Megan had only two weeks between finishing their jobs at Roberts and opening the doors of Muse Restaurant. Troy laughs when he recalls the madness involved. “I was having vinegars and preserves delivered to the back of my car at Roberts the week before we were opening,” he says. “It was controlled chaos. Actually, it wasn’t controlled chaos, it was pandemonium.”

Once they got the ball rolling, the entrepreneurial pair continued to reinvest and evolve their new business. This has meant constant training and investment in the staff as well as the menu and the physical space.

Troy says he has encouraged an obsession with consistency, including service, food and experience. “If somebody comes to the Hunter Valley and has a great experience then comes back six months later and has a bad experience, it is unacceptable,” he says. “It has to be spot-on every time. There has to be enormous focus on attention to detail. If we don’t make customer’s feel special, we haven’t done our job.”

That same attitude has gone into his more recent venture, Muse Kitchen. A smaller restaurant that can seat around 40, and more when the weather is fine and outdoor seating becomes available, it is located at the Keith Tulloch Winery and has a distinctly

fireplace through to a lounge area and a beautiful, big foyer. There was a 2000-bottle, glass-faced, temperature-controlled wine cellar. The enormous scale of the whole restaurant was impressive but very intimidating.

“Megan’s father, who had been in business for about 25 years, came to check it out and said to me that the smaller restaurant will make a great family restaurant and had the potential to provide us with a nice lifestyle. ‘But this place here,’ he said, ‘will give you and Megan the opportunity to be truly successful.’ That resonated with me. I was young and although inexperienced,

Muse Kitchen (above) at the Keith Tulloch Winery is the most recent venture. Another recent addition to the family is son, Hudson (left), in Megan’s arms.

Recent awardsMuse Restaurantn 2010 Restaurant & Catering Awards for

Excellence, NSW Regional Restaurant of the Year

n 2011 – 2014 Good Food Guide one chef hatn 2012 Restaurant & Catering Awards for

Excellence, NSW Regional Restaurant of the Year

n 2014 Restaurant & Catering, Restaurant in a Winery, Hunter region

n 2014 Restaurant & Catering, Contemporary Australian Restaurant—Formal, Hunter region

n 2015 Good Food Guide two chef hats

Muse Kitchenn 2013 – 2015 Good Food Guide one chef hat

Troy Rhoades-Brownn 2014 Electrolux Appetite for Excellence,

Young Restaurateur of the Year

European flavour. Muse Kitchen has been awarded a Good Food Guide chef hat for the past three years.

“I was able to bring in a lot of my experience from Roberts and Pasquale’s for Muse Kitchen,” Troy says. “It has also been great for the staff. We all bounce back and forth and do shifts at both restaurants. For them to be able to see two different working menus, and to see how seasonal ingredients can be put on the plates in different ways, is wonderful for the staff involved and I thoroughly enjoy it, too.”

The impressive Hungerford Hill building features a 40-foot vaulted glass ceiling, a grand stone fireplace and a beautiful, expansive foyer (top).


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New products


There is no need to worry over the refrigeration requirements for your next project. With SKOPE’s new refrigeration product selector tool the process of making selections and then refining your options from our extensive range of chillers and freezers is simple.

From restaurants, bars and commercial kitchens to supermarkets, convenience stores and everything in between, SKOPE have it covered.

SKOPE will help you find the right refrigeration solution for your business.

“SKOPE has recently launched a product selector tool; this will allow SKOPE customers to easily filter through products on our website to find suitable options. Interactive, jargon-free and visually appealing—the product selector is designed to offer a richer and more user friendly experience for new and old visitors to our site.

The product selector will help SKOPE customers find the right product based on their needs and preferences. Designed with business owners, procurement specialists, and decision makers within the food and beverage industry in mind, it will help find the right product by asking a series of questions to

determine the needs and preferences. As users answer the questions the product selection is narrowed and only products that fit the user’s needs are shown.

The SKOPE product selector has also been developed to help deepen the engagement with customers and remove frustration by allowing users to find products quickly and serve up a better user experience on the SKOPE website.

Visit Skope.com/product-selector to see just how easy it is to find the right refrigeration unit for you”.

SKOPE Product Selector- Finding the right refrigeration unit for your business is easy

In a local food industry dominated by major multinationals, it’s getting harder and harder for independent Australian businesses to carve out a share of the market. So when a small Australian-owned food business like Birch & Waite secures a space under the spotlight, it’s good news for local producers everywhere.

“Today’s food business is very tough, so you must be constantly innovating to maintain a competitive edge,” says Birch & Waite General Manager David Charles.

Proving it can hold its own against the industry’s big guns, Birch & Waite is the only Aussie-owned and run food business to be listed in BRW’s 50 Most Innovative Companies for 2014.

Birch & Waite placed 48th on BRW’s list, putting it in the company of multinationals like Coca Cola Amatil—no small achievement for an independent family

business which started out in 1980 with just three staff.

Birch & Waite manufactures fresh-chilled mayonnaises and sauces as well as a range of bulk sauces, portion-controlled condiments, desserts and salad dressings for both the retail and foodservice markets from its plant in Marrickville, Sydney which employs 110 people.

BRW recognised Birch & Waite for its innovative manufacturing solution to meet the evolving needs of the airline catering industry, which has taken to comissioning famous chefs to improve

food presentation. These chefs requested dressings which had separate oil and vinegar-based components in the style of traditional dressings which need to be shaken prior to serving.

To fulfil this requirement, Birch & Waite found an overseas manufacturer able to custom-build a machine to meet these demanding requirements.

BRW also recognised Birch & Waite for its pioneering innovation within the ‘fresh chilled’ mayonnaise and sauce category. “Our fresh chilled range is growing 29 per cent year on year, and is now over 55 per cent of the total business,” says David Charles. “We are number one in fresh chilled sauces with chefs*.” Birch & Waite maintains a commitment to supporting local industry, featuring locally sourced Australian ingredients wherever possible. All its products are certified to global standards including HACCP, ISO9001:2008, SQF 2000 and Halal and local standards of Coles, Costco, WQA and YUM Star. * Source: Galkal Research survey comissioned by Birch & Waite, 2014

Independent Australian food producer makes BRW ‘Most Innovative’ companies list, holds own against major multinationals

Part of the Birch& Waite foodservice range of products.

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Number One For All Your Uniform Needs

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Innovators Product Guide

Product Guide

Restaurant & Catering magazine’s guide to the hospitality industry’s innovators of 2014


Innovators Product GuideADVERTORIAL


DUALPAK®s the name implies, DUALPAK® dual-ovenable paper board trays can be used in microwaves and conventional ovens, withstanding temperatures between

-40°C and 220°C. Manufactured from food grade board with a moisture resistant PET coating applied to the interior, DUALPAK® pressed paperboard trays are ideal for many food applications as an alternative to plastic takeaway containers.

The range of Confoil’s DUALPAK® trays is extensive, ranging from a single serve pie right through to large catering trays. That, combined with environmentally friendly and recyclable qualities (containers free of food residue can be placed in some home kerbside recycling bins), make DUALPAK® a versatile option.

Lamanna Direct in Essendon have been benefitting from using DUALPAK® for many years, ever since the business began its own kitchen facilities which manufacture their “Chef in a Box” meals. According to Mick Costanzo of Lamanna Direct, “the fact that (DUALPAK®) can be used in the fridge and freezer, oven and microwave, is very important to our customers”.

The convenience aspect of DUALPAK® is also reinforced

by the availability of either the easy-peel film lidding or clip-on-lids, meaning that DUALPAK® can be used for heating, reheating as well as storage of food including salads. This has been well received by restaurateurs, caterers and cafeteria managers and is growing in popularity in the home delivered meals segment.

Confoil also have the ability to supply DUALPAK® with customised print/logo’s as well as manufacture speciality shapes (MOQ’s apply).

According to Steve Flaherty, Marketing and Retail Manager at Confoil, the printing capabilities at Confoil have increased dramatically, “allowing our customers the opportunity to enhance their product offering to their customers, by including high impact graphics”. This capability provides effective product differentiation and reduces the need for further outer packaging.

(DUALPAK®) can be used in the fridge and freezer, oven and microwave

• Freezable to -40˚C• Microwavable• Conventional Ovenable to 210˚C

• Custom Printable• Environmentally Friendly• Heat Sealable



Atron – Australia’s Branded Beef Specialists

W ith three beef processing opera-tions situated in the heartland of Aus-

tralia’s cattle farming regions, Atron Enterprises processes over 2500 head of cattle each week, sourced from the finest livestock, to deliver a world-class range of award-winning brands.

Atron is a branded beef specialist, producing premium quality beef products for Australian and interna-tional food service and retail markets. With a focus on outstanding quality, consistency and world-class service, Atron’s high-end brands have caught the eye of some of the world’s finest chef ’s, including Head Chef at Marco Pierre White Grill Dubai, Terry Styles.

Atron has an outstanding track record for supplying domestic and export markets and boasts a swag of awards to its name. Forging direct supply chain partnerships to maintain full quality and control of brands from pasture to plate is what sets Atron apart from other processors.

Atron’s Managing Director, David Larkin, is somewhat of a ‘meatrepe-neur’, with an Australian Meat Indus-try Council’s Distinguished Australian of the Year title to his name—given in recognition of a person’s leadership and innovation in the meat industry.

Cooperative marketing is what drives Atron’s innovative offer. David firmly believes that there is strong differential advantage to be gained by marketing exclusive brands. “Brand-ing an offer backed by sophisticated marketing strategies, and knowing what your customer wants—these are our basic business principles”, he said.

Condabri is the flagship brand of the innovative family-owned com-pany. The premium grainfed brand, which added Gold to an impressive collection of Royal Fine Food Medals at this year’s Sydney Royal Fine Food Show, is family-farmed by fourth generation cattle producers, Simon and Kylie Drury at Condabri Station in Queensland.

Having one of Australia’s premium beef brands named after your opera-tion would seem like the ultimate for any cattle producer, and for lotfeed-ers Simon and Kylie, it’s certainly a mark of immense satisfaction. But it also sets the bar very high and leaves zero margin for error in a game now dominated by very tough trading conditions.

Since its inception 11 years ago, Condabri feedlot has been based on one philosophy—consistency is king. “Just like you can buy a bottle of coke in Sydney and expect it to be the same as the bottle you had in San Francisco, the cattle we turn off have to be peas in a pod,” Simon said.

Working in close partnership, The Drury family and Atron harness over 30 years industry experience to de-liver outstanding quality, consistency, tenderness and flavour with the added appeal of complete traceability.

In an effort to maintain brand integrity at every stage of the sup-ply chain, Atron’s expert Marketing & Communications team work in partnership with restaurant and catering partners to drive increased sales by providing a tailored range of quality grass and grainfed brands with continuity of supply, competitive prices—all backed by a sophisticated

and compelling range of promotional material tailored to suit specific cus-tomer needs. These promotions act as a ‘pull’ strategy to drive awareness and sales within the channel.

Custom DesignedStone Hearth Ovens

Duck Ovens

Char GrillsParillas & ChurrascosCustom Designed Grills

*Ratings do not apply to all ranges



Beech Ovens are the world leader in the design, development, manufacture and installation of spectacular cooking equipment including wood fired stone hearth ovens, gas stone hearth ovens,

electric stone hearth ovens, pizza ovens, duck ovens, tandoors, rotisseries, bread ovens, standard and specialty char grills (churrascos, teppanyaki, shawarmas and parillas) and custom made fireplaces.

Beech Ovens products are highly sought after worldwide due to their high performance, superior quality and durability. Clients are leading restaurateurs, luxury hotels, kitchen designers and franchise chains across the globe. Beech Ovens’ clients demand and receive bespoke, quality products with design excellence from our experienced engineering team who combine technology and innovative design to create high performance traditional products for the modern display kitchen.

The Beech Ovens range of stone hearth ovens are acknowledged worldwide for their superior cooking ability, efficiency and flexibility of design and are our most popular product. Not just a pizza oven, the Beech stone hearth oven is incredibly versatile and can be used to roast, grill, bake, fry,

sauté, steam and much more. They are available as wood fired, gas fired or a combination of wood and gas. Company contact: Stephen TroodDirector of Sales and Engineering. Tel: +61 7 33970277 Email: [email protected] Web: www.beechovens.com.

Beech Ovens – acknowledged worldwide for their superior cooking ability

Bespoke quality


O perators are expected to multitask every minute of the day. So when do operators have time to

take a step back and see how their business is going?

When accuracy determines the profitability of an operation—a point of sale system is a must for increased efficiency and better management. A comprehensive solution like OrderMate will give operators the ability to keep track of the average dollar per head, margin analysis, wage cost and stock control.

But when everything is moving at 100kph and there is barely enough time to eat and wish your loved ones a

goodnight–point of sale alone is not enough.

Introducing Control Centre, OrderMate’s new live mobile reporting App. With the click of a button, operators can have a comprehensive snapshot of their business. As orders are put through the POS, the sales figures in Control Centre will increase simultaneously, giving operators the vital information they need to make important decisions on the fly.

Check in with Control Centre. Assess the business vitals. Take action. Stay in complete control.Issue: Average dollar per head is lower

than average. Response: upsell drinks and dessert. Issue: The revenue per labour hour ratio is low. Response: Send one of the staff home early. OrderMate’s state of the art reporting App ensures that operators stay in control of their business without having to be there 24/7.

Out of the venue. Not out of the loop. Enjoy the summer!

Happy holidaying with Control Centre Make a coffee. Take the bill out to a table. Clear the dirty plates. Greet newly arrived guests. Around you go, on the merry-go-round of daily tasks.


www.hlaustralia.com.auCall Us 1800 620 041

H&L Australia - making all things POS, possible!

www.hlaustralia.com.auCall Us 1800 620 041

H&L Australia - making all things POS, possible!QUALITY

H&L Australia - making all things POS, possible!



Many businesses don’t have time to update systems, according to H&L’s Director, Burt Admiraal.

“Tedious and time-consuming tasks such as calculating stock levels, pay rates for public holidays and reduced prices for food specials can be a headache. That’s why we’ve invested our resources in a solution that simplifies these processes, so owners can focus on growing their venues, with a system that will focus on reporting the gross operating profit ” Mr Admiraal said.

Using H&L Management Solution, venues can maximise their gross operating profit (GOP) through improved cash control, accurate inventory counts and labour control. Users can monitor sales by location, revenue group, products and staff.

“Venues can control labour costs by improving workplace productivity and scheduling employees based on forecast revenue with forecast labour percentage. For example, ensuring you’ve got the most efficient staff on at your highest peak trading times.”

The solution is operated through Sysnet software, a software that drives the POS system and enhances inventory management capacity. Venues can also save time on inventory control. When venue operators receive inventory, product data and pricing models are automatically updated through the Sysnet software. For venues with multiple locations, pricing can be allocated for each venue.

While Management Solution offers many benefits including customer control and remote management, its main strength lies in its ability to integrate with POS solutions.

“Integrating our POS and Management Solution gives you full control of your venue. You can identify

which products are being undersold and determine whether your gross profits are being met. Giving you management access to 'real time' information, in-house or remotely, you can see who is using your POS terminals, monitor all activities and generate information such as sales, profit, non-sales and inactivity to further grow your business,” Mr Admiraal said.

Hospitality venue operators wanting to learn more about H&L Australia’s POS Management Solution can visit http://hlaustralia.com.au/solutions/management-solutions.html or scan the QR code

Full name: Burt Admiraal Position: Director, Business Development, and Sales & Marketing Company: H&L Australia Contact number: 1800 778 340 Email address: [email protected]

Software that puts you more in touch


T hink square saucers, distinctive handles and blocks of pure colour and you will get a taste

of Noritake’s vibrant bone china

collection Contempo. Noritake, established in 1904 in

Nagoya, Japan and now recognised internationally as one of the few brands to continue using the finest materials

and the most highly qualified artisans, has developed a tableware range that reflects the current trend towards more contemporary casual dining.

Noritake Contempo offer four colour choices: Gris, a warm, muted grey; Verde, a citron green; Amarillo, a golden yellow; and Azul, an ultramarine blue. Each colour is used in tandem with

a clean white, creating a refreshingly bright canvas for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Each piece in the range is sold separately so you can choose to create a single colour story or mix ‘n’ match different colours and pieces to create a unique tabletop that defines your style.

Square saucers, round plates and bowls all feature a wide band of colour at the outer edges; cups, mugs and tea pots have a signature decaled ‘tail’ on the handle; and each piece features an exquisite coloured line at its rim.

Noritake Contempo is crafted from bone china and its body is surprisingly robust and chip resistant.

It is also completely microwave and dishwasher safe. For more information, visit www.noritake.com.au/hospitality

Artisan splendourContemporary dining collection by established tableware brand Noritake

For more information call 1300 530 509 email [email protected] visit www.vectron.com.au

“ It works, it’s powerful and staff is comfortable with Vectron POS. We can manage and keep track of all our venues through one system.”- GERARD ANDERSON, CABOOSE CANTEEN

“I have come to rely on Vectron for the best in Hospitality systems. Their mobile devices have driven sales beyond expectations! ” - DANIEL QUATTROCCHI, GIORGIOS

ADELAIDE | BRISBANE | MELBOURNE | PERTH | SYDNEY

Innovators Product Guide

POS in your pocket

ADVERTORIAL

I n the fast paced hospitality industry, it can be a juggle to manage your business and personal life. In today’s’ modern

world, having immediate access to information at your fingertips can help support a flexible and versatile approach to managing both.

That’s why Vectron provides access when you need it, where you want it. Optimised for all platforms; desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile, you can access live data about your business anywhere in the world. We understand you want to keep you finger on the pulse, but in a way that frees you up to manage your time efficiently.

All sales-data will be tracked directly from the POS terminal and made available in real time to your devices. As every business is different, you can create personalised dashboards to

display critical information relevant to your needs throughout the day. Or, if you want prompting, you can simply set up email or SMS reports to be sent each day, at the same time and in the format you need.

Additionally, you can create your own custom audits based on any transaction information giving you complete control over daily operations. Whether it is a change in price, or detecting suspicious activity, you can now stay on top of things when they happen, as they happen.

The whole reason for employing a POS system is to automate, alleviate and translate data. At Vectron, the

pursuit of translating this data into top quality information for reporting and analysis is at the heart of what we do. Unlike systems where you have to dig to find actionable data, Vectron provides deep visibility into your business so that you can make immediate decisions at the right time.

Contact Vectron systems for more on POS mobile reporting and alerts functionality.

At MGI we help make that dream a reality by working with you to:

• Assessthefinancialhealthofyourrestaurant• Developyourfinancialreportingregime• Identifyyourgoalsandaplantoachievethem• Minimisethetaxyoupay• Achievecompletefinancialpeaceofmind

Gotbigambitionsforthefuture?Withmorethan30years’experiencehelpinggrowAustralianbusinesses,youcantrustustohelpmakeithappen.

Call 1800 709 500 today to learn how we can help, and take advantage of a complimentary business structure review.

Dreamofbeingasuccessfulrestaurateur?

accountants + business advisors

www.mgiaust.com


A restaurateur once said to me “opening a restaurant is the easy bit; making money out of it is the hard bit”.

One of the key challenges for any business owner is learning to work on the business, not just in it.

The reality is that many restaurants are started by chefs because they have a passion for what they do. There is therefore a risk that the focus is on what you do best, with little focus on being a “CEO”. There are generally three broad areas for most businesses:1. Operations – getting “the stuff ” done. In a restaurant, this generally includes anything to do with servicing your customers. Often, a restaurateur will spend most of their time in this area because this is what they know.

2. Marketing – it’s one thing to be able to serve your customers well. It’s quite another to get them in the door. Understanding the difference between strategy and tactics is crucial, as is the advertising “message” you want to promote. 3. Financial – this includes ensuring that you get accurate, timely financial information so that you are able to monitor patronage and ensure appropriate staffing levels, review and improve margins and manage your costs.

I often find there is a lack of planning and monitoring overarching these three areas.

MGI works with business owners to look at where your business is now,

where you want it to be and how to get there. This can involve helping you develop a simple plan through to coaching your management team to make decisions, take action and remain accountable.

As the saying goes “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road (or recipe) will get you there”.

If you are serious about running a profitable restaurant, talk to your local MGI office today. Call 1800 709 500.

Strategy the key ingredient for successful restaurateursBy Grant Field, MGI Accountants and Business Advisers

Special report

Technology


Nobody likes change, especially if it means you have to alter the way you run your restaurant. But what if that change meant

you could get detailed reports on menu items that aren’t selling, ensured that everything put on a table or handed over the counter was paid for in full, and reduced the number of staff needed per shift?

These are just some of the benefits that a fully integrated back office solution can bring, and in the increasingly cut-throat restaurant business, having this sort of system interfacing with your cash register, till or point of sale system has become essential to stay competitive.

Back office systems used to be a luxury reserved for big chains and expensive fine dining institutions due to the high cost of hardware and implementation. Now, however, these systems have become very cost competitive, enabling all sizes of restaurants to perform detailed analytics and forecasting in the background.

“Some people think it’s going to cost a fortune and that they’ll have to mortgage their house to finance one, but far from it,” says James Verlaque, national sales manager of Vectron.

“We’ve done some site conversions or system setups for venues for as little as three or four thousand dollars, and some venues can get a return on their investment within a few months.”

Verlaque recalls a recent client who transitioned from an old-style system to a fully integrated system, including tablets on the floor to take orders. The 300-seater restaurant was able to increase revenue by 26 per cent on the first day the system went live, and he says the increase has remained consistent from that day onwards.

With various back office solutions available, there are certain key things a restaurant owner or manager should look out for.

The beauty of a back office system versus the old-fashioned manual processes is that it gives you all the tools you need to keep an eye on what’s going on in the restaurant. The breadth and quality of these tools will vary between systems, but at the very least you should be able to get a big picture view of how much money the restaurant is making. You should also be able to generate reports that give you more information about finer details of the business, such as which parts of the business are the most profitable, which items are selling and not selling, and how many hours your staff has worked.

The more advanced systems can also send out instant alerts that enable managers to make decisions in real-time. “If, for example, you have a staff member who works the till and does a ‘cancel no sale’ to take some money out of the till without ringing up a transaction, for example, our system will automatically SMS the owner or the manager and say, ‘Hey, James has just done a cancel no sale and taken $50 out of the till’,” says Verlaque.

Josh Franklin, general manager of Revel iPad POS Australia, says this type of real-time intelligence can extend to stock control, where the system prompts relevant parties automatically when the restaurant needs to order or replenish ingredients to get through the next few days or week.

Reckon you know how much everything on the menu costs to make? You may have a general idea, but a back office system can automate this procedure and give you the exact dollar amount, enabling you to make informed decisions about how much to charge for each item.

“Using a recipe creation system, you can put all of your raw, individual ingredients in, such as a kilo of flour, a kilo of butter, etc. When you then make a certain pastry, the system knows you’re using 100g of flour, 50g of butter,

Jenneth Orantia looks at how back office systems can benefit your business—no matter what the size

Back to front


50g of sugar, etc, and it will automatically know how much

the pastry costs in total to make,” says Franklin.

He still sees plenty of smaller restaurants and cafes using paper-based systems, and says that when it comes to the end

of the day, all the owner knows is how much cash

has been taken into the till. “They’ve got no depth of

knowledge as to how efficiently that business is running, and they have

to perform time-consuming manual calculations for everything,” he says.

Upgrading to an integrated back office system isn’t only about making the existing processes more efficient— it can also bring in additional income by introducing completely new functions like order ahead, online ordering and the ability to run customer loyalty programs.

Verlaque says a well-designed customer loyalty program can help a restaurant re-initialise customers and

produce more revenue. “You can run a report that says, ‘Hey, give me all of my customers who haven’t visited me for the last couple of months’. The system can then automatically send them an email saying ‘Hey, we haven’t seen you for a couple of months. Have a coffee on me next time you’re in’.”

Finally, choosing a system that’s easy to use (for both the front- and back-end) and has a vendor that offers strong customer service and post-sales support will ensure that the transition occurs as seamlessly as possible. The fanciest and most high-tech back office system won’t get much use if you or your staff members can’t figure out how to use it, in which case you may as well have stuck with a simple cash register. While there are plenty of vendors that are happy to sell you their software from offices overseas, finding a vendor with a strong local presence will ensure you get access to things like training programs for all staff, access to an on-site technician during critical phases of the roll-out, and 24/7 support in case the system goes down.

“We’ve done some site conversions or system setups for venues for as little

as three or four thousand dollars.”

James Verlaque, national sales manager of Vectron

Investing in a wine cellar can be an expensive and possibly bankrupting dream for any such wine-crazed restaurateur. Besides the financial factors which seem to count against the practice, there are also changing cultural aspects surrounding today’s wine consumption—diverse ingredients and more informal dining habits do not nowadays necessarily demand

a 10-year-old bottle of Bordeaux with every main course. Indeed, and as far as I can tell, your average 55-year-old Australian real estate agent now drinks rosé—and openly, too, in restaurants, taking a ‘selfie’ as he does so.

Be that as it may, a niche may exist and a case may be made for branding your wine list ‘cellared’; but let’s consider the hurdles and impediments first.

ConsThe obvious one is capital expense. The $$$. All of them sitting in a cellar waiting for the day, which might be a decade away. When so many hospitality enterprises revolve around the very simple principles of a cash business, with money constantly coming in, the notion of a high cost inventory item sitting in a costly critical care facility (ie. a proper cellar), well, it’d be a tipsy accountant who’d too readily give the green light …

This touches on the second problem you face after buying the wine. You need to store it properly, in the right conditions. A cellar is not by definition a lot of six-packs of

Ben Canaider muses the rewards and challenges of having your own wine cellar


Drinks

posh wine sitting in a storeroom. Wine spoilage through poor storage conditions has been one of the lowlights of the post-cork era. Before screwcaps came along—at least with regard to Australian wine bottles—cork taint was the big factor in all wine presentation. (Although how many customers actually detected cork taint and sent the offending bottle back is another question.) Now that screwcaps so dominate wine bottle closures, it isn’t cork taint, but storage spoilage that’s affecting wine. One summer and a hot restaurant’s even hotter back-of-house facilities will literally cook the wine in the bottle, making it taste prematurely and badly old, no matter how it is sealed.

So, if you’re going to establish a cellared wine collection, you need to make sure the wine is kept in the right condition: a lowish temperature and a humidity around 65 per cent (too low and corks can dry out; too high and labels can turn mouldy or peel off). This requires investment in climate control systems,

adding to the capital expense of the whole thing.Even if you do have the capital reserves to invest in wine for cellaring, and let’s say your premises

afford proper cellaring conditions, you still have to have a customer who wants to buy the wine. With diversity and eclecticism being the self-entitlements of the modern restaurant goer, our contemporary wine and drinks mood seems to hinge on everything but the traditional. It used to be white or red, but now, as alluded to

above, there is a third wine—rosé. What’s more, bottles of wine don’t even own the

delivery logistics anymore—by-the-glass is as big as it is mandatory on any wine list. There are

Your average 55- year-old Australian

real estate agent now drinks rosé—

and openly, too, in restaurants, taking a ‘selfie’ as he does so.

Vintagewhine

half-litre carafes making a comeback; there is the unstoppable vogue of imported wines; there are sommeliers preaching about the delights of ‘natural’ wines; and there’s a general customer pathology for wine that’s fresh—if it wasn’t made yesterday they don’t want it.

Yet if you can afford to buy and cellar wine and underwrite the storage specifics and find the customer who wants to drink and pay for the cellared wine, you’ve also got to bring a lot of service theatre and protocols to the game. Decanters, stemsware, staff, time, effort—and the monologic post-dinner wine analysis that the customer seems to think comes with the cellared bottle’s price.

Yet there’s the rub. Such customers do exist. And if you can or even like standing around in your own restaurant at 10.30pm on a Thursday night ‘discussing’ the indisputable vagaries of the 2002 vintage in Coonawarra so far as it affected terra rossa cabernet sauvignon then maybe you are the right sort of hospitality industry professional to throw in your lot with cellared wine and make it your mark, your belief, your brand and your calling. Now it’s time for the positive, or opposing, side of the cellared wine ledger.

ProsOne thing a cellared wine selection on your wine list does offer is choice. And choice is one of the mantras of our on-premise age. Cellared wine also hints at something special, a little like Champagne does. So rather than focusing on your wine drinking customers’ fickleness, why not see them as a developing and evolving wine cognoscenti, who are attracted to intelligent and thoughtful wine lists and cellared wine—the sort


of wine they can’t get at home.There’s a good working theory behind this positioning:

whereas once it was only glowing reviews or high-profile chefs that brought in the customers, nowadays it is also the wine list. It attracts the posher wine customer.

In this regard a cellared wine list can be an impressive long-term marketing tool. As word grows then more and more of the high-net-individuals who can afford and who like cellared wine will treat your business as their special wine home. Having such a cellared wine list is impressive, and will undoubtedly build up your wine-set and wine industry regulars, but it is a long-term strategy. As one Hong Kong restaurateur once all too frankly put the risk to me: “Well, if my plan goes wrong I can always drink the wine!”

Or sell it on the secondary market. Blue-chip wine investments—whether they be treated like share scrips or used in your own businesses wine inventory—have been not unimpressive profit centres in recent years. Live-ex, a London blue-chip wine index which annually calculates the value of the world’s 100 most prized wines reckons that such wines’ worth is up over 150 per cent over the past decade, even taking into account Bordeaux’s falling value over 20011 to 2013, which saw a general plateauing in the secondary wine market.

The good news though is that Live-ex reckons prices are on the rise once more, as increased Chinese investment in blue-chip wines kicks in more strongly. Of course, the other thing that’s on the rise is fine wine fraud which, when you think about it, is probably the keenest indicator that fine wine is indeed a good investment. Perhaps cellared wine is money in the bank? Or is it a niche too far.

n Made of Star Glass lead free crystaln Featuring XLT stem break resistance treatment

n Made in Italyn Designed for Commercial use

“In 2012, the Penfolds team invited me to reinvent their flagship Magill Estate restaurant in Adelaide. The

building was originally designed by Allen Jack + Cottier, built in 1996. The glass pavilion is a gentle nod to Mies van der Rohe’s modernist oeuvre.

“My design concept was built on the oenological notion of terroir. I drew inspiration from the landscape, the surrounding vineyards and the existing heritage winery.

“During the two-and-a-half year project, I worked with the Penfolds team interviewing and researching what they required and expected for their restaurant. The new interior design concept had to work with the existing structure. The raised well-designed pavilion offered views of the vineyards, the lush hills and the city lights in the evening. I selected durable, local

materials, particularly blackwood, metals, stone, cork and leather.

“The interior has a sumptuous yet casual feel. The intention was to create a unique experience where every element was designed and custom made in Australia, especially for Penfolds, from the red glass door handle, to the uniforms, 90 per cent of the furniture (chairs, banquettes, tables, etc), waiters stations, feature lighting, and the carpet.

“The journey of dining here is an unfolding of the various designed components and curated areas in which to experience the best of Penfolds’ wine and food.

“Feature lighting are clusters of hand-blown glass spheres suspended above the dining tables. They’re reminiscent of grapes and the twinkling city lights in the distance at night. I worked closely with artist Emma-May Lashmar to create this work. Other feature elements


Details

Penfolds Magill Estate Restaurant

INT

ERVI

EW: K

ERRY

N R

AM

SEYPascale Gomes-McNabb

85 Chetwynd StreetNorth Melbourne VIC 3051Tel: 03 9326 5175W: pascalegomesmcnabb.com.au

Architect Pascale Gomes-McNabb had no fear when reinventing a famous restaurant, situated in South Australian’s most hallowed vineyard

were made by craftspeople I have a close and continuing working

relationship with.“The design creates

different experiences for diners. While the

restaurant has muted neutral earthy tones, the bar has an intense concentration of various reds—a direct reference to the hue of the famous Grange Hermitage. Diners can view and select rare vintages from the purpose-designed Heritage cabinet.

“In the restaurant, the ritual of sommeliers decanting and serving benchmark wine is on full display at the theatrically inspired sommeliers station. Mirrors and diaphanous materials open and soften the space.

“The dining experience is intended for degustation fine dining. This is a Penfolds journey that’s begun once the threshold is crossed. Every aspect of the design is intentional for it to dovetail with the hospitality offer. It’s relaxed yet meditated—champagne in the red bar to begin, peruse the Heritage cabinet for vintage wines for dinner. Dining tables and seating options are designed for intimacy or larger groups; there are waiters stations for wine decanting, handbag tables for your handbag. Nearly every detail for a fine dining experience has been thought through.

“As much of the original fit-out as possible was repurposed or reused. The floors and ceiling panels were reused, the bathrooms refreshed and updated, the cellar was adapted and enhanced to be used as an additional wine tasting space. We added layers and other elements to reconfigure the pavilion to be commensurate with this new and exciting Penfolds hospitality offer. The space now has many different aspects to it, yet there’s a continuity to it through the design, the use of materials and the new feature elements.”

THREE ON THE TROT

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RC December 2014

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