13 June 2009

Burch & Purchese Latest News




The next couple of months are pretty hectic for Burch & Purchese, there will be many exciting highlights which we will bring to you here.

First we will be taking over the pastry kitchen at a top restaurant in Melbourne, Burch & Purchese will be installed as the new pastry team next week with Ian spending most of his time there. Ian will work with the executive chef, developing new desserts and dishes and helping to mentor staff while Darren will provide support from the Burch & Purchese research kitchen plus days onsite. We will also be producing an exclusive range of products to be sold through an outlet in the restaurant, these products have been designed by us and will feature our signature preserves as well as a few new treats. We will reveal the new restaurant name as soon as we can, but it promises to be an exciting new phase in the development of Burch & Purchese.

In July Darren will travel to Barcelona with his wife Cath (another food professional), to embark on a food trip of some significance. The trip will provide us with invaluable experiences from some of the top food operators in the world. Darren will bring back ideas, flavours and techniques to showcase to the Australian public.
Highlights of this trip include:
  • Meeting up with our friend Ramon Morato at Aula Chocovic and a tour of his premises. Ramon is an amazing pastry chef who Burch & Purchese worked with at this years Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and his book 'Chocolate' is a favourite of ours.
  • Meeting pastry chef Jordi Puigvert who has his own pastry company Sweet 'n' Go and is a demonstrator for Sosa Products.
  • We have arranged a tour of Espai Sucre through Jordi Puigvert. This renowned dessert restaurant in Barcelona is owned and operated by Xano Saguer & Jordi Butron and we will be lucky enough to meet these two true professionals and we are keen to gain an insight into this successful business.
  • We will be meeting up with the Roca brothers from El Cellar de Can Roca for a tour of this legendary restaurant prior to a dinner reservation.
  • A dinner reservation at elBulli has been obtained and we hope to meet with Ferran Adria. Dining here is an ambition and we are very excited about this.
  • We will be visiting Albert Adria's tapas bar 'Inopia' and Oriol Balaguer's patisserie as well as other famous patisseries and food stores.
  • We will de dining at Restaurant Sant Pau, the home of celebrated chef Carmen Ruscalleda. Her food is inspirational and we hope to meet this talented lady.
All of these exciting highlights will be reported on this blog for your enjoyment and education.

3 comments:

eatnik said...

I am so jealous of your elBulli restaurant booking, none of my booking attempts have been successful! I went to Inopia last year, it was actually really good. I thought it was going to be over-hyped and underwhelming but was incredibly impressed. Perhaps it helped that the staff were as gorgeous as the food :)

Unfortunately Oriol Balaguer's patisserie was a bit disappointing. The concepts were great but the execution was a little patchy and it felt like I was being sold pretty packaging rather than delicious sweets. I do have a recommendation for churros though: Xurreria Trebol, tiny hole-in-the-wall in the Gracia district (Corsega 341). Delectable churros and chocolate (or xurros amb xocolata).

Looking forward to reading all about it - good luck and safe travels!

Darren Purchese said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Darren Purchese said...

Thanks for the tips, I will Twitter my travels and provide a full report upon my return. Thanks for your interest.

Best wishes
Darren