Book Now For This Years 5 Chefs Dinner In Melbourne

This year I’m proud to be taking part in the Starlight Five Chefs Dinner in Melbourne on Thursday 14^th June at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre.  This prestigious event raises money to support the work of the Starlight Children’s Foundation and brighten the lives of seriously ill and hospitalised children across Australia. 

At the Starlight Five Chefs Dinner guests will enjoy the ultimate dining experience through a five course degustation menu with matched wines, wonderful chefs and top class entertainment. All this peppered with stories of inspiration and hope - it is a night that truly makes a lasting impact. I’m donating my time and support and I’d love you to join me on the night .

 Visit www.fivechefs.org.au for more information, or contact Chris DiPetta at Starlight on 03 9468 2024. 

Afternoon Tea At Langham Melbourne

Myself with Gorgi Coghlan, Chef Tsang (Langham Hong Kong) and Langham Melbourne Exec Chef Anthony Ross at the media launch for my afternoon tea series

Mini Chocolate, Mandarin & Salted Caramel on the menu

Dessert Table at the launch

Another angle

Even the GM can't resist!

Langham are taking bookings now

It was very exciting for all of us at Sweet Studio today as it was the first in my three exclusive afternoon tea sessions at the beautiful Langham Melbourne Hotel.

I have teamed up with this prestigious hotel to present some of my signature flavours in miniature to be enjoyed in the opulent surroundings of their fabulous Melba restaurant. I am pleased to say the feedback was excellent today and from the media launch last month and it was fully booked out today.

On the menu today were our famous Chocolate, Mandarin & Salted Caramel cake, our NEW tube dessert: Explosive Raspberry, our decadent Black Forest Eclair and a few more of our sweet favourites including our passionfruit clouds. All this accompanied by the Langham's famous sandwiches and scones.

Don't worry if you missed out on todays event as there are still a few tickets for the event on the 4th May and tickets are also on sale for the last confirmed date on the 1st June.

Click here to go to the Melba website to find out more or to book.

Darren

"The Sweetest Thing" Melbourne Food & Wine Festival Event 2012 IMAGES

Getting ready for the first course of dessert

'Recycled Dessert' thanks to SecondBite

Great night in store

Dessert nearly ready to go

Finishing touches

Dessert is served

85% of the ingredients were destined for the rubbish

2nd dessert course from Mr Hive's Daniel Fletcher "White Chocolate Creameaux, Coconut, Mango & Basil 

Pierre Roelofs prepares his "Caramel, Apple, Brie, Dried Apricot & Hazelnut"

Guests enjoying the unique surroundings of Joost's Greenhouse

Having fun!

Luke Whearty from Trink Tank/Der Raum executing his "The Berry And The Bee"

I really enjoyed working with these talented pastry chefs on the night

On the 14th of March this year I was invited to produce a course for an exclusive dessert dinner as part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. "The Sweetest Thing" was held at Joost's amazing recycled restaurant project The Greenhouse and involved some of the most talented pastry chefs in town.

The Greenhouse is a truly inspiring project that has really taken off in other cities in Australia and you can read more on this here. As the theme was recycling I decided to take a different approach to my dessert course. I have done work with the excellent charity SecondBite before at last years Masterchef dinner at St.Kilda Mission and I enlisted their help to try and raise their profile on the night. SecondBite collect unwanted food from all sorts of places including supermarkets and distribute it to missions and organisations who are able to process the produce to feed people who need it. I asked them to bring some of their produce to me to create a dessert from and they were happy to do this for some exposure.

I recieved some amazing produce that was deemed not good enough for the supermarkets due to blemishes etc, I was amazed at the quality of plums, nectarines, peaches and lemons and was happy to get some free range eggs and other bits with which to work with. I produced a "Recycled Dessert" consisting of plum sable, nectarine compote, lemon curd, peach jelly and a honey mousse made from Rooftop bees. It was served on a recycled mini cake stand which was designed to be served on recycled timber and eaten from the stand. All of the left overs including the stand and cutlery was dumped in the compost at the end of the course to continue the theme. I was happy with the guests reaction and proud to say that 85% of the dessert was recycled food and material and I have to thank SecondBite for all of their support.

In all it was a fantastic night and an honour to work with such great chefs in unique surroundings while helping out a worthwhile charity.

Thanks also to Amanda Fordyce for the fantastic photography of the event.

Darren

A Short Video on Burch & Purchese by Milkbar Magazine

Burch and Purchese from Milk Bar Mag on Vimeo.

I really enjoyed collaborating with the guys at Milkbar Magazine for the first video on a series of Melbournians doing interesting things.

The scenes are beautifully shot and I hope viewers get to understand a small part in the construction of my desserts and get a feeling of the special creative space that we have all worked hard on and are proud of, namely our Sweet Studio.

We are honoured to be the first in this series and I hope you enjoy the video and look up Milkbar's excellent site as they will be capturing other interesting and creative locals on their site very soon.

Sorry For The Lack Of Posts……………..

Langham Melbourne Masterclass Chefs 2012

Myself with Langham Melbourne General Manager Ben Sington and Gorgi Coghlan from Channel 10 at the media launch for my afternoon tea

Sweet Studio turns into a dessert bar for 'Sweet Revolution'

Dessert buffet at the Langham Hotel

…………I have been so busy! Phew!! What a month or so, Sweet Studio has been buzzing with Food Festivals, visiting chefs, external events and exciting news.

Apologies again for the lack of updates I am behind on all levels of social networking, even Twitter and Facebook has proved difficult to keep up. I am happy now to reveal that even though we are in full chocolate easter egg production I will have time to post on all of the past fantastic events that we were lucky to be a part of. I will update our social network accounts and thank all our new followers and 'likes'.

In the coming posts I will expand on and review the following subjects:

• Melbourne Food & Wine Festival Events - including 'Sweet Revolution', 'The Sweetest Thing', my Langham Masterclass and the excitement of having the talented Rosio Sanchez from Noma working at Sweet Studio 

• My exclusive residency at The Langham Hotel for afternoon tea and the media launch of that event 

• The launch of a fantastic series of videos from those clever people at Milkbar mag including a feature on dessert making at Sweet Studio 

• Update on exciting news from inside the studio including the launch of our 'Sweet Studio Sessions' a series of dessert nights held inside our Studio as it is transformed into a licensed dessert bar!!

Thanks again to all of my readers for your patience and continued support and I hope to see you at our Chapel Street store very soon.

I will leave you with this elegant video produced by Melbourne Food & Wine which reviews the past few weeks.

Darren