Burch and Purchese Sweet Studio

EXCLUSIVE! Afternoon Tea Sessions At Sweet Studio

2012-02-01T13:08:00.001+11:00

I are extremely happy to announce that we are now taking bookings for the most exclusive afternoon tea in town. One table only, one session only on Saturdays and Sundays here at Sweet Studio.

Traditional afternoon tea will be turned on it's head with an adventurous set menu blurring the lines between savoury and sweet.

The experience includes a tour of the studio, beautiful tea and mineral water and of course exciting and delicious tastes from a menu designed by myself. Ideal for treating someone special or for a birthday or other event.

We can accommodate a table of up to four people on both days.

For more details click here or book now to avoid disappointment by emailing us at events quoting afternoon tea in the subject header you can also give us a call on 03 9827 7060.

I hope to see you here for the hottest ticket in town!

Constructing chocolate building blocks

2012-01-30T18:05:00.000+11:00

A few images of the construction of our chocolate building blocks, they are back in store due to huge demand.

Flavours are Raspberry (Red), Lime (Green), Mango (Yellow) and Blackberry (Blue), all of the blocks have been topped off with the appropriate jellies and finished with our signature chocolate velvet spray.

Matheus, one of our senior chefs, is pictured putting the finishing touches to these desserts which are sold as a minimum block of four. For more information on these fun cakes and details on how to order please see our party cakes range by clicking here.

A couple of new desserts available now at Sweet Studio

2012-01-24T18:37:00.001+11:00

Summer is in full swing here at the Studio and Christmas and New Year seems so long ago now, we have been working hard to create some special desserts for your summer entertaining.

Stone fruit have been sensational this year and to celebrate we have come up with a double peach and wild strawberry cake paired with our ever popular and versatile pistachio cake.
The sketch above shows the construction of the slice with moist pistachio sponge as a base and rose petal and strawberry jam is then applied before a layer of yoghurt sponge. Both of the sponges have our home made marzipan incorporated and the aroma when baking is amazing.

We try make this dessert in the smallest size batches as possible to ensure that the pastry kitchen has a regular supply of amazing baking smells for us to pump out into the retail area.

The yoghurt sponge is topped off with a luscious white peach set cream and then we puncture the cream with domes of blood peach & peach schnapps mousse. This is all then topped off with a silky smooth wild strawberry and white chocolate mousse and rippled for effect before finishing with our white chocolate velvet spray. The cake is then portioned and topped off with some strawberry clay and a peach and wild strawberry macaroon.

The sec on new dessert that seems to be very popular in the short time it has appeared in our cabinet is our Pineapple, Mango & Chocolate dessert. We are blessed here in Australia with the best of both worlds especially in Victoria in the summer as we have an abundant supply of berries, stone fruit and other summer treats. We also have the supply of exotic fruits from Queensland which include, unbelievable mangoes, pineapples and bananas.

This dessert highlights the exotic varieties of fruits using mango, pineapple and pairing them with coconut and chocolate.

I have discovered a really cool trick a while ago concerning preparation of pineapples. I have found that when making my spiced pineapple jam it is easier for the pineapple chunks to break down in the pan if the fruit has been frozen first. This technique has also brought about a surprising and versatile by product. After the pineapple has been cut into chunks it is placed into a non metallic container and frozen down in the deep freeze for a minimum of 24 hours. After this time it is removed from the freezer and placed into the fridge to defrost, this usually takes 36 hours depending on the quantity of pineapple flesh (I do around 25 pineapples at a time). A huge amount of clear pineapple liquor then appears from the defrosting fruit and I have to say it is an amazing ingredient to work with. The juice is very clear and has a great flavour to it, quite strong. I use the juice to make pineapple cream and jellies which garnish the dessert above. The construction of the dessert is as follows:
Coconut Sponge
Spiced Pineapple Jam
Mango Mousse
Quenelle Chocolate Mousse 64%
Burnt Pineapple Cream
Mango Curd
White Chocolate Velvet Spray
Pineapple Jelly
Chocolate Eyelashes
Mango Jelly Spheres
Fresh As. Freeze Dried Pineapple Chunks

We are working on more delicious desserts and now starting to test recipes for our dessert dinners in March as part of the Melbourne Food & Wine festival http://www.burchandpurchese.blogspot.com/2012/01/book-now-for-exclusive-dessert.html which is getting very close now. Hopefully you can stop by and have a sample of our desserts if you are on Chapel Street. See you soon, Darren

Book Now!! For an exclusive dessert degustation at Sweet Studio

2012-01-18T10:34:00.001+11:00

We are very pleased to announce two very special dates for your diary. As part of this years 20th Melbourne Food & Wine Festival we are holding an exclusive dessert degustation dinner here at Sweet Studio on consecutive nights.

The night includes four of my newest dessert creations, matching champagnes from Gosset and a few surprises along the way. The studio will be reconfigured to allow seating in our kitchen with full view of myself and my team creating and plating some special dishes. We will be using fresh, seasonal ingredients and modern techniques that fuse "science with sweetness" and the menu will run from less sweet creations to a fuller dessert experience towards the end.

The night is intended to be informal, educational, fun and of course the most enjoyable food experience of the festival.

Number are limited to 40 per night and we encourage you to book early as quite a few seats have already been sold for both nights.

More information on this event can be found at the Melbourne Food & Wine page http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/event/2873 but enquiries and bookings should be emailed to events@burchandpurchese.com with 'Sweet Revolution' in the header, alternatively you can call our direct line on 03 9827 7060

Dates: Monday 12th March & Tuesday 13th March 2012

Venue: Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio, 647 Chapel Street, South Yarra, Melbourne 3141

Price: $160 pp inclusive

Time: 8.30 pm until late

Dietary: Please note that due to the nature of the dishes created for these evenings, strict vegetarians or vegans cannot be catered for. Gluten free dishes can be created if we are notified at the time of the booking.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you at Sweet Studio on one of these very special evenings.

Darren

Gas.tron.o.mad Magazine Issue 7

2012-01-16T12:13:00.001+11:00

The latest issue of the excellent food publication Gas.tron.o.mad dropped into my inbox last week. It's free to view and you can subscribe to have the issues delivered to you when they are made available. I will be publishing links to the previous issues later on in this blog but for now here is issue 7.

Note: I do not have any affiliation with this company, I just enjoy reading and I wanted to share.

New Interactive Foodpairing Tree: Avocado

2012-01-09T20:54:00.001+11:00

Here is another interactive tree this time focusing on 'Raw Avocado' as the ingredient of which you can match flavours. This tree and the data attached inspired our popular Avocado, mint, apple and cucumber dish available in at Sweet Studio. Have a look at the tree and see how we came to this conclusion.

New Interactive FoodPairing Tree: CUSTARD APPLE

2012-01-09T20:24:00.000+11:00

Starting this year I will be uploading interactive FoodPairing trees from our friends at foodpairing in Belgium. As you may be aware I have been using this very helpful tool for some of my dessert and dish constructions. I am very happy to announce that I will be holding classes at Sweet Studio later on this year focusing on foodpairing and the possibilities in cuisine of using this tool. For now have a look at the ingredient matches for Custard Apple and start your own unique combinations.

Cool video of Chef Jordi Roca presenting 3 of his desserts on Masterchef UK

2012-01-09T12:51:00.000+11:00

Being from the UK I have been watching Masterchef for most of my life, it was no surprise when the phenomenon caught on over here in Australia (although the format was a bit different at the time). My parents back home keep me up to date with the UK version and I had to search for this piece of video when she mentioned Jordi Roca from El Cellar de Can Roca was on making some of his desserts. I have been lucky enough to have sampled all three and I can tell you they are amazing.

REOPENING UPDATE - REVISED

2012-01-05T13:04:00.001+11:00

Sorry! Whoops, we are now not reopening this Friday (06.01.12)!! A few unexpected jobs have come up for us since our post yesterday and because we are a small team we have decided to delay our opening to THURSDAY 12th JANUARY. We are sorry for anyone who was planning to visit but we promise to make it up to you xx

See you next week, and thanks - Darren & the team

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of our friends

2012-01-04T22:51:00.000+11:00

Well the holiday season is now over and the doors to my Sweet Studio are reopening to the public this Friday (06.01.12). We will be running a limited cake cabinet for a couple of days as I try to get some new ideas and flavours together. I hope you all had a fantastic time over Christmas and I wish all friends of Burch & Purchese a Happy and healthy 2012.

This year is shaping up to be a very exciting time for myself and my team with the following events already in the pipeline:

We will be holding dessert degustation dinners at Sweet Studio during certain times of the year, each with a theme or special surprise so keep an eye on this blog, twitter and Facebook for updates.
A sell out Masterclass during the biggest Melbourne Food & Wine Festival yet
The publication late in the year of a new book with some of the recipes, tip and tricks from Sweet Studio
A complete redesign and new look of this blog with more interaction, recipes, photographs and stories
Reworking of classic recipes and desserts in a new range of desserts in store, look our for new eclairs and choux - could be the next BIG thing?

All this and lots more, so while I get back to the kitchen to prepare for our reopening I hope you will keep an eye on this page and tell your friends about us.

See you all soon at Sweet Studio and have a Happy New Year!!

2011 Christmas Hampers Now Ready To Order

2011-11-14T14:16:00.001+11:00

We are now taking pre orders of our fantastic Burch & Purchese hampers for this coming Christmas. The collection of sweet treats make this a truly memorable gift for that special someone! We have two tiers of hamper on offer this year and each one will have a signed certificate from Darren Purchese explaining the contents and a uses for some of the products.

ORDER YOUR CHRISTMAS HAMPERS NOW

email - info@burchandpurchese.com

phone - 03 9827 7060

or in store - 647 Chapel Street, South Yarra, 3141

AVAILABLE FOR COLLECTION FROM THE 1st OF DECEMBER 2011

Ourtrademark B&P gift boxes are crammed packed full of our most delicious anddecadent creations

THE SWEET STUDIO CHRISTMAS GIFT BOX $120

CITY HONEY HONEYCOMB – 100 g

Try ourwonderful homemade honeycomb made with honey from our very own roof top bees.

BURCH & PURCHESE GOLD BULLION BARS – PKTOF 6

Our famoussalted caramel encased in dark Spanish chocolate finished with golden lustre

PISTACHIO, LEMON & WHITE CHOCOLATE PERSUADERS– PKT OF 12

The namesays it all…this is a deliciously persuasive biscuit.

STRAWBERRY, MINT & WHITE CHOCOLATE RUBBLE– 150 g

Freeze driedstrawberry & mint in Spanish white chocolate pieces….Christmas is here.

CANDIED SEEDS, NUTS & COCOA NIBS – 180 g

Delicious toeat on their own…..outstanding with fruit and yoghurt….’off the charts’ insalads

RASPBERRY & DRAMBUIE JAM – 250 g

Last summersraspberries with a generous tipple of Drambuie make the perfect holiday spread

CHRISTMAS PUDDING – 500 g

Our secretrecipe pudding is going to turn heads this year

SALTED CARAMEL 250 g

One littlejar – one hundred uses! Heat gently for a spectacular caramel sauce, rollthrough ice cream for an instant sundae or smear between layers of yourfavorite chocolate cake

CANDIED GINGER & DARK CHOCOLATE BAR – 100g

Generouschunks of crystallised ginger

THE SWEET STUDIO EXTRAVAGAZA $160

CITY HONEY HONEYCOMB – 100 g

Try ourwonderful homemade honeycomb made with honey from our very own roof top bees.

BURCH & PURCHESE GOLD BULLION BARS – PKTOF 6

Our famoussalted caramel encased in dark Spanish chocolate finished with golden lustre

PISTACHIO, LEMON & WHITE CHOCOLATEPERSUADERS – PKT OF 12

The namesays it all…this is a deliciously persuasive biscuit.

STRAWBERRY, MINT & WHITE CHOCOLATE RUBBLE– 150 g

Freeze driedstrawberry & mint in Spanish white chocolate pieces….Christmas is here.

CANDIED SEEDS, NUTS & COCOA NIBS – 180 g

Delicious toeat on their own…..outstanding with fruit and yoghurt….’off the charts’ insalads

POPCORN & HONEYCOMB RUBBLE – 15O g

Thisscrumptious concoction is bound in milk chocolate…BEWARE it’s wickedlyaddictive.

RASPBERRY & DRAMBUIE JAM – 250 g

Last summersraspberries with a generous tipple of Drambuie make the perfect holiday spread

SWEET STUDIO BRITTLE – 175 g

Generousslabs od toffee & nut brittle dipped I dark chocolate

CHRISTMAS PUDDING – 500 g

Our secretrecipe pudding is going to turn heads this year

SALTED CARAMEL 250 g

One littlejar – one hundred uses! Heat gently for a spectacular caramel sauce, rollthrough ice cream for an instant sundae or smear between layers of yourfavorite chocolate cake

CANDIED GINGER & DARK CHOCOLATE BAR – 100g

Generouschunks of crystallised ginger

SWEET STUDIO LOLLIPOPS x 2

White &dark chocolate lollipops studded with surprises

Darren Takes Part In Masterchef/Second Bite Dinner

2011-11-07T16:47:00.000+11:00

Darren with George, Matt, Gary and the Victorian Premier Hon. Ted Baillieu

Darren's dessert

Visit www.secondbite.org for more info

Presenting the dessert course

85% of the dessert course was food saved from waste

All guests took away a gift from Sweet Studio

Main course is served

The menu

I was very flattered to be asked to take part in a prestigious fundraising dinner last month for a charity called Second Bite. Second bite are an organisation that reclaims and receives donations of food destined for landfill and they then pack up and distribute this to organisations that help the less fortunate. You can find out more about Second Bite by clicking here www.secondbite.org/about_us/

The dinner was held at the Sacred Heart mission on Grey St, St.Kilda here in Melbourne. The mission are one of the grateful recipients of perfectly good food donated by the Second Bite team and it provided the perfect setting for this event.

Masterchef Australia's Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan were on board to take part and they asked of my assistance for the dessert course. The canapés were designed by Matt, the first course cooked by George and his team from The Press Club and main was cooked by Gary Mehigan and his team from Fenix. The brief from Second Bite was to ensure that as much food as possible cooked on the evening was food destined for landfill, this was to highlight the obscene amount of perfectly good food that goes to waste every year. I am happy to say that we filled the brief and a staggering 85% of all of the food served on the night would have gone to waste.

On a personal level, I was extremely impressed with the work that Second Bite do and the work that St.Kilda's Sacred Heart mission do to help those less fortunate than us and I am happy to say that 90% of the food I used in the dessert was saved from Second Bite.

I produced a dessert that seemed to be well received by the guests including the Victorian Premier himself and his charming wife. The dessert was Banana, Caramelised White Chocolate, Avocado, Coffee and Passionfruit. I must say thanks to my chocolate sponsors Chocovic for the generous donation of chocolate that only had two weeks left on the best before date.

The night produced a stunning result for Second Bite and enough money was raised to provide 200,000 meals to the local community. Here at Burch & Purchese we now donate any of our unsold cakes to Second Bite and we are confident that someone deserving appreciates our efforts.

Thanks to the following for helping make the night a success

George, Gary & Matt
Sacred Heart Mission St.Kilda - www.sacredheartmission.org/
Peter Jones Events (especially Eliza) - www.pjse.com.au/
Bright Young Things - www.brightyoungthings.net.au/
Donna Le Page Communications
Chocovic - www.cocoaalliance.com/
Rachelle Davey Photography

Tickets On Sale Tuesday - Melbourne Food & Wine Festival 2012

2011-10-17T12:35:00.000+11:00

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the always brilliant Melbourne Food & Wine Festival in March next year and to coincide with the release of presenters and tickets tomorrow (Tuesday 18th October), we were invited to an intimate gathering of friends. To see what happened and the big surprise given to us click on the video above.

Don't forget to check out the line up for the festival which is released tomorrow and look out for some amazing events from us here at Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio. We can't wait for March 2012 and pretty soon you'll see why!

Visit http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/ tomorrow for more details.

'In The Mix' - New Recipe Book From Thermomix Featuring Darren Purchese

2011-10-15T09:16:00.000+11:00

Monday 10th of October was the launch of the highly anticipated new book from Thermomix written by the extremely talented Dani Valent. The book features recipes from some of the best chefs here in Australia and worldwide and we have had a sneak peak and can say it is fantastic.

Here at Sweet Studio we use multiple Thermomix machines daily and could not live without them. To emphasise our continued support with Thermomix Darren Purchese happily contributed a dessert for the book along with an impressive roll call of chefs, food writers and bloggers.

Some of the chefs that have contributed are Melbourne's Ray Capaldi, George Calombaris, Matt Wilkinson and our own B&P manager extraordinaire Cath Claringbold.

International chefs include our Spanish friends Ramon Morato and Paco Roncero, UK chefs Sat Bains & James Petrie and loads more.

To get your hands on a copy it is retailing form $60 and available from www.thermomix.com.au or by calling 1800 004 838

Latest News & Products From Sweet Studio

2011-09-27T15:22:00.001+10:00

Our NEW! Spring Racing Carnival 12 Dessert Hamper Pack

We have been working on new eclair flavours

Cocktail size desserts for weddings and other celebrations

Pigging out on your birthday

NEW! Dessert: Avocado, Mint, Cucumber, Apple, Yoghurt & Lime

Our new raspberry eclair

First, apologies for the absence of a post for the last few weeks. It has been very busy at Sweet Studio with lots of massive projects on the go for us.

We have been working on some new flavours for the cake cabinet and taking lots of new orders for the impending wedding season. We have also been working on a fantastic new hamper for Christmas and details will be posted here soon and to our database.

Spring is here! and we are excited by the change in season. This years Spring Racing Carnival here in Melbourne is such a great festival and to mark the event we have come up with the ultimate accessory to be seen with at the races. Our 12 dessert hamper pack is sure to make the other racegoers green with envy. We are now taking orders for these packs and require just 24 hours notice to have them ready in time for you. Flavours are: banana, caramelised white chocolate & passion fruit; raspberry, lychee, honey & nut; violet, white chocolate, pine nut & lemon and; dark chocolate, pear & hazelnut. Email info@burchandpurchese.com for enquiries or orders.

We have been in talks as well with Melbourne Food & Wine Festival about a couple of really exciting events during next years highly anticipated 20th Anniversary festival. The details will be revealed next month here and on the Melbourne Food & Wine site and the tickets are also due for release to the public in October.

In all things are going great here on Chapel Street and we hope you can find the time to pop down and try one of our new eclairs or our new creation pictured above, (second from bottom).

Thanks and see you soon.

We now stock Fresh As. retail packs

2011-09-01T11:55:00.001+10:00

After so many of our customers have enquired about the availability of freeze dried fruits we are now pleased to announce that we stock a retail range from the excellent Fresh As. We have been using these unique ingredients in our dessert range for some time and find them an amazing addition to our signature textured creations. If you want to try your hand at 'pimping up your pud' then pop down to Chapel Street and we will be happy to help.
Fresh As. http://fresh-as.com/

New Signage

2011-09-01T10:28:00.001+10:00

Now you can find us a little more easily! This week we got to work on a more prominent display for our sweet studio after a few comments from new customers that they had trouble locating us. The old facade has been painted over and a more defined logo painted on the exterior. We have also added a huge blade sign which will be lit at night. We are also in talks with the council about some seats for the outside of our store as Spring has now arrived and the days are becoming warmer and lighter. We hope you can stop by sometime, you can find us at 647 Chapel Street, South Yarra 3141.

Burch & Purchese Use The Foodpairing Technology From Belgium

2011-08-22T15:45:00.003+10:00

This is to follow on from our post of 1st August 2011: http://burchandpurchese.blogspot.com/2011/08/whats-been-happening-at-sweet-studio.html of the latest news at Sweet Studio and including a bespoke cake design for a client. We have been in dialogue with the creators of the fantastic Foodpairing website in Belgium who posted one of their excellent Foodpairing trees on the flavours chosen for the cake. Foodpairing is a technology created by Bernard Lahousse whereby individual ingredients are subject to scientific testing at Firmenich and the University of Leuven. For more information of the process and thought behind this essential tool for chefs read here http://www.foodpairing.com/en/the-science-behind/. Bernard and his team got to work on compiling a breakdown of one of the ingredients in the cake to test our food pairing ability here at Sweet Studio. We are pleased to say that our ingredient matches were spot on and we also received favourable feedback from our client. We are impressed with the thorough investigation of ingredients from Foodpairing and are currently in talks to use their ingredient database to help with the design of new cakes and desserts for our range as well as using the tool in assisting us design and create special bespoke celebration cakes for our clients. Here at Sweet Studio we are extremely excited by the possibilities of working with Foodpairing and we hope to bring the information closer to our readers in the form of future demonstrations or events to be held here which will showcase the excellent work compiled by our friends in Belgium. Please check out the blog post from Foodpairing here on our Orange, White Chocolate & Gin cake http://foodpairing.blogspot.com/2011/08/foodpairing-view-on-cake-by-burch.html
Keep checking here for updates on our new relationship with Foodpairing and you can view or register for their database here http://foodpairing.com
NOTE: We are working on size integration for interactive Foodpairing trees to be included in this blog but for now please check the very bottom of this blog for an example of an interactive food pairing tree on cooked pumpkin. Have fun creating your own unique dishes/creations.

Reverse 'Fried Egg' Using Polyscience Anti-Griddle

2011-08-13T11:11:00.001+10:00

We are having a bit of fun in Sweet Studio this weekend playing with our new Anti-Griddle from Polyscience. We have made a new dessert based on the eggs and bacon idea and it is available this weekend in store. The Anti-Griddle is a cool piece of technology which has a surface which cools to around -30C. It allows us to instantly freeze or chill small quantities of food which is convenient for so many applications it is hard to list. On this occasion we made a Swiss meringue of egg white and sugar and whisked until stiff peaks, we then let the meringue down with a solution of coconut puree, vanilla, ascorbic sugar syrup and fresh lime juice. This mixture was stabilised with gelatine and reserved for use at room temperature. We made a mango curd as per a normal curd recipe but used reduced mango puree for an accentuated flavour. This curd/yolk was piped onto the griddle as in the image and then we poured the coconut lime mixture over the top. What happened was a sort of reverse 'frying' of the egg. The curd hardened and the coconut ran away slightly before setting due to the low temperature. We left it to sit for a minute before sliding it off with a palette knife. The perfect sunny side up! For the dessert special on today and tomorrow we made a vanilla infused custard and soaked toast shape pieces of brioche. This was then fried in clarified butter before being glazed with icing sugar. Once cooled the egg sits on top of the toast and is garnished with our own maple cured bacon and a raspberry & tomato ketchup! As we write this blog, we have had greta interest from this and lots of people have asked about the technique, hence us compiling this information now. It shows that it is an exciting time to be in the kitchen with so many great technologies being introduced all of the time. This Anti-Griddle is so versatile, we have been using it for chocolate work, mini dessert canapés and now this. If you are in Australia and you want more information on this piece of equipment, you need to contact the official distributor Sous Vide Australia, our contact there is Dale Prentice and he will be happy to help you with your enquiries.

What's Been Happening At Sweet Studio

2011-08-01T13:09:00.001+10:00

A specially designed birthday cake with an alcoholic surprise.

Lots of cool birthday cakes commissioned by clients for our team to create.

We stayed on the theme of gin and had a bit of fun with this special in our cake cabinet.

Our new 'Smoked Chocolate, Coffee, Aniseed & Lemon' creation is really popular at the moment and a staff favourite.

We are close to updating our raspberry & champagne dessert - details to follow soon.

Chef Mazza creates a scary centre piece for a birthday cake.

Lots happening here at the Studio, we have been very busy with lots of cool cake commissions as well as updating a few of our desserts in our large and individual cake range. Chef Mazza created a scary haunted castle centre piece for a child's birthday the other week which seemed to go down a storm.
We have refined and are happy with our coffee, smoked chocolate, aniseed & lemon individual cake and are reworking our raspberry, lychee creation to include more fruit. The top two images are of a fantastic creation for a client who's brief was that the cake should contain alcohol and that it should be orange in appearance. Layers of lemon cream were sandwiched between yoghurt sponge and topped with a gin & tonic jelly. This was all encased in a silky smooth white chocolate & vanilla mousse and sprayed in orange flavoured chocolate. Cool little marshmallows sat on top and once bitten into revealed a soft set gin & tonic jelly. Other projects that are happening here in the studio are: the introduction of new desserts (to follow), working on a special jewellry themed event for a big client, increasing numbers of bespoke cakes commissioned by our wonderful clients/customers and work started on a massive project of which the details will be revealed here very soon. We have also sent out our first newsletter to our database and if you would like to be added then email info@burchandpurchese.com or click here to subscribe http://us2.forward-to-friend1.com/forward?u=12c2f06686378aa052e128bc7&id=530e3f267f&e=af392ad9bd
We will try to keep you updated as regularly as possible and thank you for reading.

Chocolate Lego For "Art Of The Brick"

2011-07-19T14:43:00.001+10:00

Really cool exhibits at "Art of the Brick"

Our own giant chocolate blocks (chlocks?) of Lego

Chef Razza spraying away

Set up inside the exhibit - opening night

Lemon & raspberry bricks

These proved to be too popular to keep up with production

T-Rex

Very clever stuff

Aussie icons in Lego too at the Melbourne exhibit

Even Warnie was impressed

New York based artist Nathan Sawaya creates amazing art from the versatile Lego brick. Recently his phenomenal exhibition "Art Of The Brick"came to Melbourne and we were asked to design and create a chocolate Lego installation to mark the events opening.

As a consequence of this event some pieces of chocolate Lego found it's way into our cake cabinet and they proved to be BIG hit with our customers. Well due to production issues (ie. sticking individual jelly pieces on by hand - made us go dizzy!) we are stopping the Lego for now. It WILL return though at some stage and we will let you know when it comes back in the Studio.

For now enjoy the images above and we will endeavour to get the Lego back ASAP, thanks so much to all of those who have enquired and apologies to all of those who missed out.

You can still catch "Art Of The Brick" here in Melbourne though and you should if you can because it is great fun for all the family.

Starlight 5 Chefs Dinner Images 16.06.11

2011-07-10T11:07:00.001+10:00

Just a quick post to let you all have a look at some of the images from a very successful and rewarding 5 Chefs Dinner for Starlight Australia last month. Ian and Darren worked hard on impressing the 500 guests in attendance with their dessert "White Chocolate & Vanilla Mousse, Spiced Pineapple Jam and Yoghurt". Huge sums of money were raised for this extremely worthwhile charity and it was a humble experience to help in a small way to improving some lives. We hope to be asked again and applaud the event organisers and the very talented bunch of chefs also in attendance that night. Well done Shane Delia, Frank Camorra, Dan Hunter & Jason Camillo it was great to work with you all.

LATEST SWEET STUDIO IMAGE COLLECTION JULY 2011

2011-07-10T10:29:00.001+10:00

B&P Cranberry, Almond & Freeze Dried Plum Nougat

Our ever popular chocolate flower displays.

Darren meeting Chef Tomas Keller on the set of Masterchef Australia

Persian Delight Chocolate Bar 60%

Coloured white chocolate spheres.

A fairly new dessert: Smoked White Chocolate, Coffee & Aniseed

Sorry for the delay in between posts lately, we have been concentrating solely on improving the range, layout and production of Sweet Studio and it is taking up almost all of our time. The store is looking fantastic and business has significantly improved over the last month or so. There is still lots to do and we are working on a few new desserts to implement into our range. For now though here are a few images from the last month or so to whet your appetite, thanks to all who follow this blog and for all our fantastic customers. See you soon.

MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA SEASON 3 DESSERT RECIPE

2011-06-21T07:37:00.001+10:00

After Darren's close call in the chef challenge against Kate last week on Masterchef the sweet studio has been buzzing with all things caramel, banana & rum. We have had lots of inquiries for cakes and we are struggling to keep up with demand for the reworked version of the dish for the cake cabinet. We have also had masses of keen amateur chefs asking for the recipe and for tips in recreating their own version. Here is a link to the Masterchef website which has a pdf of the recipe for you to download. Give it a go and see if you can do as well as Kate did the other night. Please feel free to post comments or questions and we will get back to you with answers and solutions as soon as we can. Good luck!

Recipe:
http://www.masterchef.com.au/caramelised-white-chocolate-mousse-banana--vanilla-and-passion-fruit.pdf

http://www.masterchef.com.au/caramelised-white-chocolate-mousse-banana--vanilla-and-passion-fruit.htm\

MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA SEASON 3 DESSERT THE EVOLUTION - Sweet Studio Cake Cabinet - Banana, Caramel, Rum

2011-06-14T18:21:00.004+10:00

Large version of the evolved dessert featured on Masterchef.

Cross section of the current version of the dessert.

Individual portions of the dessert on offer at Sweet Studio

Where science meets sweetness!

Caramelised white chocolate before & after.

Close up of the garnish used on Masterchef - no longer used on the current version of the dish

Experimentation with different finishes continues.

Well most of you reading this will have watched this evenings episode featuring Darren in the chef vs amateur immunity challenge. We hope you enjoyed this as much as we did, we can assure you it is not as easy as it looks under the lights and in the spotlight! The dish above is the current version of the dish that was prepared on the show, as with all things, especially in Sweet Studio, our dishes are evolutionary. We start with an idea and then pretty soon some experimentation of flavour matching starts, then early versions of a dish start to materialise and then we have a finished dish. It does not stop there though as tweaks here and there can enhance a dish for the better and it is rare that we create something and stop there being content with the finished product as there is always room for improvement. So the dish on Masterchef tonight has evolved into the current version on sale at Sweet Studio right now.

Components:
Macadamia & B&P Spice Blend Speculos Pastry
Zingy Passionfruit Jelly
Caramel Bananas Cream
Caramelised White Chocolate Mousse With Vanilla
Caramelised White Chocolate Velvet Spray
Caramelised Milk Solids
Ascorbic Syrup & Dark Rum Jelly

So the changes that are immediately obvious to the version on Channel 10 are:

The omission of the coffee sable (for the speculos) - we did not want a polarising flavour to deter some customers.

The frozen items have been removed - for cake resale in a shop rather than dessert in a restaurant.

The banana straight banana has been removed and incorporated inside the mousse, the jelly now sits alone on top.

We hope that this current version is as popular as ever and hope that you can pop down to 647 Chapel Street, South Yarra to give it a try. We have LOTS more in store and you can view our current product list here:
http://www.burchandpurchese.com/media/1990/product_list_june_2011.pdf

and our June cake selection here: http://www.burchandpurchese.com/media/1987/cake_list_june_2011.pdf

BIG THANK YOU to all of you for the support shown to Darren on tonights show and we hope that it has inspired some of you to give a few tricky desserts a go.

For more information on Burch & Purchese call +61 3 9827 7060 or email info@burchandpurchese.com

Sweet Studio To Open This Monday Public Holiday

2011-06-12T15:21:00.001+10:00

Hi all this is just a quick post to advise that Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio is open this Monday 13th June (Queen's Birthday). We will be open for our normal trading hours of 10am-6.30pm and we will have the cake cabinet fully stocked. So if you are in the area of 647 Chapel Street then please pop in and say hi. We hope you are enjoying this long weekend!

Burch & Purchese Wedding Cake & Celebration Cake Enquiries

2011-06-08T13:45:00.001+10:00

Three tier dark chocolate & hazelnut sponge & mousse cake with flavoured edible flowers.

Single tier thirteen layer cake with silver & blue chocolate centre piece on designed clear acrylic stand.

Royal Wedding Cake - Violet & Lemon produced for The Circle channel 10.

Pistachio & Lemon Cake 100th birthday celebration.

Cake sketch design is done freehand by Ian or Darren.

An example of the sketch a client will receive.

Choose from over 300 flavours, texture or finishes from our unique flavour & food pairing wall. (image. Dean Cambray)

We have been busy with bespoke cake creations almost from the very first day of Sweet Studio and we get large amounts of enquiries as to how to go about designing your own cake. This post will help explain some the the intricacies and answer some of the frequently asked questions.

Of course we do the designing but we take into consideration the following points before a quotation:

The event - to establish themes and appropriate design direction.
Number of persons - for scale and size of creation.
Is it for dessert or for a smaller piece with coffee - again for scale & size.
Favourite flavours - we can create any flavour combination but if you had anything in mind..
Will it need to sit out for a long period of time - to determine the composition and structure of the creation
Is a stand required - we can design and produce our own clear acrylic stands to suit and recommend this option
Is there a design in mind or is the client happy to leave it to our creative side - we are very happy to use our years of experience to create a one off for you
Any allergies to consider - we are able to produce vegan and vegetarian creations, make sponges without gluten and creams without dairy. We can produce nut free creations but we advise that the cake will be made at Sweet Studio where we use nuts so we cannot guarantee the absence of traces.
What sort of decoration is in mind - We specialise in chocolate cakes and the finishes to our cakes are predominantly chocolate velvet sprayed with bespoke chocolate spheres or chocolate piece however we are not limited to this.
Is it to be delivered and installed by our team or picked up at the studio - We are happy to deliver, set up & install. Additional charges apply.
Any other information that might be of use to us as designers - Give us as much information as possible and we will tailor to your requirements.

This procedure can be done face to face during one of our late night Thursday cake consultations at Sweet Studio or via email. Once all of the information is collated we will send a free quote & sketch design to the client. We want to give a personal service to our clients and provide them with a stunning, practical and unique creation.

All initial enquiries for our unique service should start by emailing info@burchandpurchese.com or calling 03 9827 7060 or popping into the studio to make an appointment.

We hope we can make your celebration truly spectacular.

Burch & Purchese present 'Sweet Architextural' - new video compilation

2011-06-07T15:34:00.001+10:00

Thanks goes to Ian Ritter at http://www.ianritter.net/ for his work on recording our event in March and for the editing and uploading of files.

Sweet Studio Cake Cabinet: Chocolate, Mandarin & Murray River Salted Caramel

2011-06-07T15:11:00.001+10:00

This is one of the most popular cakes in our range since Sweet Studio opened just before Easter this year. It is set to be a favourite that stays on the menu with the only changes being a tweak here or there.
The base of the cake is a light aerated chocolate shortbread and that is topped by our very own St. Clements orange & lemon marmalade. The marmalade is available for retail in our studio if you wish to try your own creation. One of our signature creams a 'burnt mandarin cream' sits on top of the marmalade and a generous layer of golden caramel flavoured with pink Murray River flakes is added on top of the cream. The layers are encased in a silky smooth chocolate mousse made with Chocovic's Kendari 60% dark chocolate. The entire cake is glazed with our mirror like shiny chocolate glaze and we garnish with one of our coloured chocolate spheres. The cake is available in 18cm and in an individual portion size but we can tailor to your needs.
Some combinations of flavours are just so good together and we are struggling to think of a better match than chocolate, orange & caramel, we hope you can come down to the Studio to try it out.

Event Information: Starlight Foundation 5 Chefs Dinner Melbourne

2011-05-30T12:15:00.001+10:00

We are extremely proud to have been asked to participate in this years prestigious 'Five Chefs' Dinner at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne. The event is organised by the Starlight Children's Foundation of Australia as a means to raise funds for this important charity. This years dinner will be held on 16th June and we are honoured to be included in an amazing chef line up.

Chefs Line Up 2011

Dan Hunter - Royal Mail Hotel
http://www.royalmail.com.au/Pages/Food___Wine/People.aspx

Frank Camora - Movida
http://www.movida.com.au/

Shane Delia - Maha
http://www.shanedelia.com.au/

Jason Camillo - Grand Hyatt Melbourne
http://fivechefs.org.au/?page_id=224

Ian recently cooked for and attended a special preview of the menu for a selection of food media as a launch to the event. The food was spectacular and you can read a review of the lunch here on respected blogger Melbourne Gastronomes page:

http://www.melbournegastronome.com/2011/05/starlight-five-chefs-gala-dinner-2011.html

The dessert we have devised is fairly simple in execution to cope with 500 diners but complex in flavour profile, we have opted for a clean finish to a beautifully balanced meal. We are preparing a white chocolate mousse with yoghurt sponge and spiced pineapple with a pineapple & Vietnamese mint Jelly. An image of this can be found on the blog link above but we will take pictures on the night.
We are looking forward immensely to this dinner and hope that our dessert and auction prize on the night goes some way to helping those who need it.

http://fivechefs.org.au/?page_id=104

We Have A New Website! Visit www.burchandpurchese.com

2011-05-26T21:32:00.002+10:00

www.burchandpurchese.com

Quick update, we are pleased to announce that we have a new website up and running. It features cake images from our current range plus pdf downloads of our product range and cake menu. It also has a link to our You Tube page, Facebook & Twitter plus essential info on Sweet Studio. We will still be continuing with this blog for more in depth information on events etc but we will load the web page regularly with details on our upcoming cooking classes and other exciting stuff. Thanks to Robert Foster on his work, he can be contacted via his blog http://refactored.com.au/blog or through his Twitter page Robert Foster http://twitter.com/#!/robertjf72 Thanks to all for your continued support, the Sweet Studio is going from strength to strength and we are close to announcing some more exciting news in the near future, but for now we hope to see you at 647 Chapel Street sometime. Ian & Darren

Event Summary: Food For Thought - National Stroke Foundation

2011-05-16T13:53:00.001+10:00

We were fortunate and honoured to have been asked a while ago to present the dessert course at the National Stroke Foundation's annual fundraising dinner, 'Food For Thought'. This event occurred last week and we were in the company of some talented chef's and saw some amazing food being prepared for around 250 guests who were there. The night was to raise awareness and funds for such a worthy cause and we were happy to donate our services and hope that we helped in a small way to improving a sad situation. Our course which were prepared and presented on stage was in the same vein as one of our cakes in our collection. We made a 60% Kendari Chocolate Mousse infused with Tonka bean this had a liquid caramelised pear centre and was velvet sprayed and finished with a hazelnut crumb, chocolate twigs and pear jelly as well as our version of 'Nutella'. The service went smoothly and the feedback was great so thanks to all that attended and enjoyed. Some generous guests also 'won' an exclusive afternoon tea experience for four people at Sweet Studio worth $500 in the live auction for charity. We can't wait until we whip up something spectacular for these people and we will let you know how it goes. If successful we may start a weekly afternoon tea experience at Sweet Studio for our customers so watch this space. We will leave you now with the menu and links to the respective other chefs involved of whom it was an immense pleasure to work with.

National Stroke Foundation - http://www.foodforthoughtmelbourne.com.au/

MENU

'Old school eggs'
Scott Pickett, The Point
http://www.thepointalbertpark.com.au/restaurant/chefprofile.php

Superfood Salad, quinoa, Mt Vikos feta, avocado & broccoli
Nathan Johnson, The Millswyn
http://www.themillswyn.com.au/

King Salmon, verbena, cucumber, cauliflower
Michael Fox, Cecconi's Cantina
http://www.cecconis.com/

Roasted chestnut gnocchi, black leek, mussels, prawns & shellfish oil
Riccardo Momesso, Sarti
http://www.sartirestaurant.com.au/

Wagyu Wellington, wild mushrooms & truffle jus
Mathew Macartney, Chateau Yering
http://www.chateauyering.com.au/dining-chef.asp

Sweet Studio Cake Cabinet: Mango, Toffee, Almond, Chocolate & B&P Spice Blend

2011-05-16T11:00:00.002+10:00

This is the second in a new series highlighting the offerings in our cake range, we are committed to providing the details of all of our creations in order for us to quickly convey to our customers the intricacies of the cakes on offer. Again we have produced an individual version of a larger cake so that you could purchase a couple for an intimate gathering or invest in a larger one for a dinner party of 8 people. This post focuses on our Mango, Toffee, Almond, Chocolate & Spice creation. It has lots of interesting texture contrasts and flavours (not least our special spice blend) and is finished in our signature chocolate velvet spray.

The components are as follows: (bottom to top)

Almond 'Drunken' Sponge
B&P Special Spice Blend Syrup
Mango Mosaic Jelly
Spiced Toffee Cream
Crunchy Spiced Kendari 60% Chocolate Wafer
60/40 Smooth Chocolate Mousse (Nayarit Milk 37% & Kendari Dark 60%)
Chocolate Velvet Spray Finish
Almond Microwave Sponge Dehydrated and Sprayed In Chocolate
Phial Mango Streusel
Phial Spiced Syrup

This cake is perfect for the cold weather already upon us here in Melbourne with the spice blend particularly seductive and warming. We prefer to blend our own spices in order for us to achieve the absolute precision in the taste of our creations. We have created two general use spice blends, a Garam Masala and a Christmas spice which we will be retailing very soon in the studio as part of our 'Pimp up your pud range'.

We hope that if you live in the Melbourne area that you can come down and see us and we look forward to providing you with a real chocolate treat for your next dinner party or gathering.

Sweet Studio Cake Cabinet: Coconut, Passionfruit, Ginger & Mint

2011-05-05T22:04:00.002+10:00

This post is the first in a series of spotlights on some of our most popular desserts in our cake collection. Things have been pretty hectic since the opening of our studio a couple of weeks ago and we have been receiving loads of great feedback on our range. One of the cakes that has really caught our customers eye is our Coconut, Passionfruit, Ginger and Mint creation, it is texturally enticing and the presence of four bold flavours really works together. As always with our creations there are multi layers of components which all come together to make a whole.

The components are as follows: (bottom to top)

Salted Oat & Ginger Crumb
Passionfruit Curd
Coconut Caviar
Passionfruit Jelly
Coconut Mousse
Crunchy White Chocolate (Chocovic Jaina 31%) & Mint Wafer
Coconut Mousse
Brilliant White Velvet Spray
Mint Chocolate Blush
Ginger Macaroon With Passionfruit Curd
Mint Jelly
White Chocolate 'Coconut'

Our cakes are presented in two sizes, large 18cm (8 persons) or individual, this is the same with the entire range and we also retail some of the individual components and ice creams and sorbets to complement so that you can 'pimp up your pud' at home. What we mean by this is that you can recreate quality restaurant style plate ups at home to really impress your dinner party guests.

We really are enjoying life in our new home and our creative juices are flowing, we will run with the current cake range for a while but we are working on some new techniques and flavour combinations for the future ranges. We will highlight all of the cakes in the cabinet to record our work and allow you the reader to be fully up to date when you visit the Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio.

First Week Was A Massive Success - Thanks To All Of Our New Friends

2011-04-27T09:29:00.001+10:00

Where science meets sweetness!

Our stunning range of individual desserts.

Chef Razza working hard as always!

More delicious treats.

Mazza our chocolate spray girl - we have now built a special room in the studio for all her spraying needs.

We have a huge selection of large cakes also on offer - or you could design your own with us!!

What a week! Finally after a few false starts and a couple of years in the planning we completed our first week of trading. We had a sensational response from old and new friends and we want to take this opportunity to express our gratitude for all of the custom in week 1. We thoroughly enjoyed creating some pretty spectacular dessert designs and we are really enjoying our new kitchen space. The Studio is looking great and we plan on making regular changes in the design of the store, edible art, product range and desserts so please come back as often as possible. There a some fantastic Burch & Purchese events coming up in the near future that we will tell you about in the next post and we are planning a few surprises in the Studio as well so it is exciting times and we are happy to be your first choice for cake designs. We will update this blog on a regular basis from now on, twice or three times a week will be the standard as we have so much to say! Thanks again to all who supported and we look forward to welcoming you into Melbourne's newest Sweet Studio.

647 Chapel Street, South Yarra, 3141

03 9827 7060

Tues - Sun 10.00 - 18.30
Late night Thursday cake consultation by appointment

EASTER NEWS

2011-04-22T14:34:00.002+10:00

What a fantastic week we have had...we opened the doors of our Sweet Studio for the very first time on Tuesday morning at 10am and had lovely people drop by and visit us right away. We are loving our new home and have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement of our friends, family and well everyone generally...A BIG THANK YOU TO YOU ALL.

We almost missed Easter this year but we are working hard to catch up and have closed today, Good Friday, to restock the Sweet Studio with Easter Eggs and our signature B&P cakes, ice creams and general goodness so we can reopen on Saturday. Our trading hours will be from 10am to 6.30pm and we are planning a few special surprises so if you are in the neighbourhood please stop by and say hello, we would love to see you.

After Saturday we will close the Sweet Studio for the remaining days in Easter and will reopen again on Wednesday the 27th. We want to use this time to develop some new ideas and create some surprises for you all.

For those of you who saw our giant egg in the front window and wonder what happened to it, we donated it the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal in the hope that it will raise some much needed funds. The plan we believe is for them to auction it on Ebay in the days to come, follow its progress at www.facebook.com/royalchildrenshospitalfoundation.

From all of us at Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio we wish you a very happy and safe Easter

Ian, Darren, Cath, Cara, Marie, Renee, Laura & Eugenia x

Getting Ready For A Massive Week! Sweet Studio Opens Tuesday

2011-04-18T00:26:00.002+10:00

Well the wait is nearly over and production has started in our brand new kitchen. The doors to Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio finally open on Tuesday 19th April. We are so excited to be opening the studio after a few false starts and we can't wait to fulfil all of your sweet dreams. In our stunning new retail space you can expect to find a huge range of desserts from our Autumn collection as well as ice creams, jams, chocolate bars and garnishes and components developed for you to 'pimp your pud'! Have a peek at our stunning chocolate flower wall and check out the massive 22 kg 100% chocolate Easter egg. Pop down and say hi if you are in the are as we would love to welcome you in store. We would just like to say thank you to all of you who have supported us on this blog and facebook & twitter.

BURCH & PURCHESE SWEET STUDIO

647 CHAPEL STREET

SOUTH YARRA

MELBOURNE

VICTORIA

3141

+61 3 9827 7060

Opening times:

Tuesday to Sunday 10am - 6.30pm

Thursday night by appointment for celebration cake consultation

Sweet Studio Delayed Until Next Tuesday - Water Damage!!

2011-04-13T02:06:00.003+10:00

We have been working very hard to get our first store up and running and are sad to announce that due to the heavy rains in Melbourne on Monday night we sustained water damage. This has forced us to delay our opening to the public until Tuesday 19th April.

OUR SMALL LAUNCH PARTY TO THE PRESS WILL STILL BE GOING AHEAD AS PLANNED

We apologise to all of our friends and customers who were expecting a big unveiling this week but urgent repairs are needed back of house and in the retail area to ensure an amazing experience for all. This has been a blow but we want to be at our best when the swish sliding doors finally open. Other than that we are on course and hope to give you the ultimate dessert experience, we have been making jams, chocolates, taking orders for celebration cakes and we are working very hard to get a unique range of Easter eggs ready in time. We will keep you updated as things progress but for now we hope you are not too disappointed and we hope to see you in a week. Thanks to all of you who expressed concern and support today.
Darren & Ian

Follow Us! We Open Next Week On Chapel Street

2011-04-07T08:27:00.002+10:00

After a fantastic month or so at our temporary home in the city, we are packing up again to move in to our permanent residence at 647 Chapel Street. Big thanks to Careers Australia for their support in helping to make our Melbourne Food & Wine Festival events and pop up stores such a success.

We have been busy making a limited range of our Studio range of desserts for pop up and they went down extremely well so we have to say so thanks to all of you who came down and said hi. We are now gearing up for our official opening next week and of course Easter.

Latest on the Sweet Studio is that we have had a number of minor setbacks in the opening, these things are to be expected but we wanted to say thank you for your patience. We are now opening next week with a date still to be confirmed but it is looking like the later part of the week.

Most of our equipment has arrived and the finishing touches are being done to ensure Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio is the only place to go for individual desserts, large desserts, cakes, ice creams, garnishes, chocolate and our signature chocolate celebration cakes.

Above are a couple of images of our work in the last couple of weeks, from our 'Follow Us' Easter eggs, individual raspberry & lychee desserts to a stunning centre piece for a 21st birthday cake and finally our popular 'Coconut, Passionfruit, Mint and Ginger cake.

We will let you know as soon as possible the opening date of our store but it WILL be next week at some point so we look forward to meeting old and new friends.

Thanks all for the support, we will keep you informed via this blog as soon as we can.

Pop Up Studio! - We're Doing It All Again 196 Flinders Street

2011-03-29T21:25:00.003+11:00

Wow! What a fantastic response to our first 'pop up sweet studio' last week here at Careers Australia building, 196 Flinders Street.

We had loads of our friends, blog readers, twitter & facebook friends down to the store last week on Thursday & Friday, so many in fact that we underestimated production and run out of delicious cakes on both days.

We even had an angry bird visit us and claim its prize of a coconut, ginger, mint & passion cake (thanks foodsze!! www.foodsze.com)

So......we're doing it all again and this time we have made MORE of everything. Also by popular demand we have started production on individual serves of the four flavours of cake we have on offer. We found last week that some of our customers were only after a couple of portions so come down to see us again this week and you won't be disappointed.

FOR TWO DAYS ONLY VISIT OUR 'POP UP' BURCH & PURCHESE SWEET STUDIO.

For the second week in a row!

Careers Australia Building, 196 Flinders Street, Melbourne

Thursday 31st - Friday 1st only

Open from 10 am - 6 pm

SPECIAL SWEET STUDIO CAKES OF THE WEEK ARE:

RASPBERRY, LYCHEE, WHITE CHOCOLATE & CHAMPAGNE

Champagne Jelly, Raspberry Champagne Mousse, Raspberry & Hibiscus Jam, Yoghurt & White Chocolate Sponge, Exaggerated Raspberry Cream, Puffed Wheat & Freeze Dried Raspberry & Lychees, White Chocolate Velvet Spray

COCONUT, PASSION FRUIT, GINGER & MINT

Coconut Mousse, White Chocolate & Mint Wafer, Passion Fruit Jelly, Coconut Caviar, Passion Fruit Curd, Salted Oat & Ginger Crumble, Brilliant White Chocolate Velvet Spray, Ginger Macaroon

DARK CHOCOLATE, PEAR & HAZELNUT

Tarakan 75% Chocolate & Vanilla Mousse, Caramelised Pear, Hazelnut Cream, Pear Pastry Cream, Chocolate Hazelnut Brownie, Hazelnut Milk Jelly, Dark Chocolate Velvet Spray, Gold Leaves

CHOCOLATE, MANDARIN, MURRAY RIVER SALTED CARAMEL

Kendari 60% Chocolate Mousse, Murray River Salted Caramel, Burnt Mandarin Cream, St Clements Marmalade, Aerated Chocolate Shortbread, Azabache Mirror Glaze & Orange Zest

All cakes are 18 cm (serves 6 - 8) and sell for just $45

PLUS

All varieties are available in individual portions for the amazing price of $8

Come down and see us or place an order by calling Cath on the number below

WE ARE ALSO OPEN FOR BUSINESS FOR BESPOKE CELEBRATION CAKES AND SPECIAL FUNCTION REQUIREMENTS - TO DISCUSS OR ARRANGE A CONSULTATION WITH OUR TEAM PLEASE CALL CATH 0417 010 728

Each cake is constructed in our signature style of intricate and delicious layers.

The feedback on our creations last week was amazing so make sure you don't miss out.

Burch & Purchese on The Circle

2011-03-29T19:57:00.002+11:00

We were very happy last week to be invited onto the popular Channel 10 show The Circle. We conjured up one of our sensational desserts using cream from Jonesy's dairy and Heilala Vanilla. An earlier segment on the show touched on the plight of farmer and local producers in Victoria who have had a dreadful time of late with drought, bushfire and flooding. Jonesy's were once of the many producers highlighted and as we are big fans of their cream and milk we were pleased to be asked to cook up something to tie in with the theme. We produced a silky smooth vanilla mouse with 'cow print' apple & rhubarb jellies and they went down a storm with the crew. We were also able to showcase our chocolate flower cake and one of our unique chocolate celebration cakes, these were a great hit judging by the orders we received following the episode. We wanted to say thanks to our new friends at Channel 10 and we are expecting a stampede from them as 'Sweet Studio' is just across the road from the studios. Click on the link below for the recipe to the dessert which is on the Channel 10 website, you can also view the episode if you missed it! Enjoy.

Recipe & Episode - http://ten.com.au/the-circle-white-chocolate-vanilla-mousse.htm

Jonesy's Dairy - http://www.jonesysdairyfresh.com/

Heilala Vanilla - http://www.heilalavanilla.co.nz/

Sweet Architextural - Feedback has been amazing!

2011-03-27T17:33:00.002+11:00

Cricket Battenburg

Ian, gorgeous ballerinas and the famous chocolate flower cake

The crowd waits with anticipation for the 'Big Dessert Reveal'

Explaining the night with the help of Masterchef's Matt Preston

Those jellymongers with a wobbly Flinders Street Station

We wanted to say thanks to all who attended our night at the Espy earlier this month as part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. We had so much fun with the jellymongers and meeting all of our friends on what was THE event of the festival. It seems everyone who attended enjoyed themselves as well and we have made lots of new friends with some special people. Some of them have been very kind and written some beautiful words on the night and we wanted to share those links here on this page. We have been blown away by the response and the following blogs really made it all worthwhile and we wanted to say a BIG thanks to those responsible for taking the time to write such kind words.
Check out the following links to blogs with full run-downs on the night and stunning photography that really captured the atmosphere.

Foodsze - http://www.foodsze.com/2011/03/sweet-architextural-night-a-sugary-fanfare.html

Lee Tran Lam - http://www.theunbearablelightnessofbeinghungry.com/2011/03/sweet-architextural.html

Inside Out - http://blogs.homelife.com.au/insideout/article/sweet/

Gina B - http://daintycakes.blogspot.com/2011/03/sweet-architextural-with-burch-and.html

Mrs Cake - http://www.mrscake.co.nz/2011/03/sweet-architextural.html

Ms I-Hua - http://msihua.com/2011/03/sweet-architextural-burch-purchese-with-bompas-parr-mfw-2011/

Our new friends are very special to us and we thank you very much, we hope to thrill, amaze and delight all of you in future events.

SWEET STUDIO OPENS! - IN OUR TEMPORARY HOME IN THE CITY

2011-03-21T21:40:00.002+11:00

SORRY WE HAVE BEEN NEGLECTING YOU! It has been manic at our temporary home at Careers Australia, 196 Flinders Street, Melbourne but we have some good news for you all.

FOR TWO DAYS ONLY VISIT OUR 'POP UP' BURCH & PURCHESE SWEET STUDIO.

Frustrated by a few delays in construction at our South Yarra Studio and dying to do what we do best, we have decided to just start baking and have some fun!

Careers Australia Building, 196 Flinders Street, Melbourne
Thursday 24th - Friday 25th only
Open from 10 am - 6 pm

SPECIAL SWEET STUDIO CAKES OF THE WEEK ARE:

RASPBERRY, LYCHEE, WHITE CHOCOLATE & CHAMPAGNE
Champagne Jelly, Raspberry Champagne Mousse, Raspberry & Hibiscus Jam, Yoghurt & White Chocolate Sponge, Exaggerated Raspberry Cream, Puffed Wheat & Freeze Dried Raspberry & Lychees, White Chocolate Velvet Spray

COCONUT, PASSION FRUIT, GINGER & MINT
Coconut Mousse, White Chocolate & Mint Wafer, Passion Fruit Jelly, Coconut Caviar, Passion Fruit Curd, Salted Oat & Ginger Crumble, Brilliant White Chocolate Velvet Spray, Ginger Macaroon

DARK CHOCOLATE, PEAR & HAZELNUT
Tarakan 75% Chocolate & Vanilla Mousse, Caramelised Pear, Hazelnut Cream, Pear Pastry Cream, Chocolate Hazelnut Brownie, Hazelnut Milk Jelly, Dark Chocolate Velvet Spray, Gold Leaves

CHOCOLATE, MANDARIN, MURRAY RIVER SALTED CARAMEL
Kendari 60% Chocolate Mousse, Murray River Salted Caramel, Burnt Mandarin Cream, St Clements Marmalade, Aerated Chocolate Shortbread, Azabache Mirror Glaze & Orange Zest

All cakes are 18 cm (serves 6 - 8) and sell for just $45

Come down and see us or place an order by calling Cath on the number below

WE ARE ALSO OPEN FOR BUSINESS FOR BESPOKE CELEBRATION CAKES AND SPECIAL FUNCTION REQUIREMENTS - TO DISCUSS OR ARRANGE A CONSULTATION WITH OUR TEAM PLEASE CALL CATH 0417 010 728

Each cake is constructed in our signature style of intricate and delicious layers.

Reinterpreting Dessert Der Raum vs. Burch & Purchese 7th + 8th March 2011

2011-03-21T21:03:00.002+11:00

Image used from http://www.stylesage.co.uk/hers/der-raum-vs-burch-purchese/

Here are a few images from our sold out two night appearance at the world famous Der Raum cocktail bar in Richmond.
We paired five of our sweet dishes with five of Der Raum's signature cocktails and thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration with Matt Bax and Matthew Rees and the rest of the talented team.
Ian whizzed up some fancy apple sugar tubes for one of the courses which contained burnt vanilla cream, explosive hazelnut crumble and acidulated apple. Other highlights were our mint mousse sphere with lime shortbread, mint tapioca, compressed cucumber and sugar mint leaf and our liquid centre Mojito marshmallows.
The boys at Der Raum produced absolutely stunning drinks pairings and we look forward to further events and collaborations with them in the future - watch this space for details! For a further review of the night check out the excellent blog Style Sage at http://www.stylesage.co.uk/hers/der-raum-vs-burch-purchese/ and thanks to those guys for some great images as well.

Melbourne Food & Wine Festival - PHEW!! All Over For Another Year!!

2011-03-15T22:11:00.003+11:00

Bompas & Parr with Burch & Purchese at our pop up 'Sweet Studio'

Sweet Architextural at The Espy was a great success

Progressive cocktail & dessert matching with the team at Der Raum

Open day at our temporary home brought lots of onlookers

Mr Preston making an exclusive appearance at our event

Sam & Harry with Flinders Street station reproduced in wobbly jelly

Well! Another Melbourne Food & Wine festival has been and gone, it is always a whirlwind of demonstrations, special events, and catching up with old and new friends. The team at Burch & Purchese were of course right in the thick of things with an impressive series of events and there were some real highlights that we can't wait to show you here on these pages.

The jellymongers arrived from the UK and brought with them a great humour and work ethic as well as some amazing creations! Thanks to Sam & Harry for everything and we look forward to the return in London sometime in the future.

We will be publishing in depth accounts of all of the events and other stuff over the next week or so as we collate our media files. We are looking forward to letting you know about the following highlights:

Sweet Architextural - THE event of the festival at the Espy. We will publish photos, video, menus and recipes from the event the whole of town is talking about!
Reinventing Dessert - Unforgettable cocktail & dessert pairing combinations with the team at the world class 'Der Raum'.
Our open day at our temporary pop-up sweet studio at Careers Australia building on Flinders Street in the city.
Our view of the festival stars from what we saw behind the scenes, including cooking for Nigella Lawson, meeting some of the international chefs, dinners with some of Australia's most decorated chefs and more.
A round up of press and blog mentions on us and Bompas & Parr and other related matters.
We will also be letting you know the progress of our much anticipated Sweet Studio on Chapel Street, including an insight to what you might find and a definitive opening date.

We would just like to say a BIG thanks though to the following for all of their invaluable help during the festival. Without these people and organisations we would not have been able to achieve all that we did.

Cath Claringbold, our business manager & events coordinator.

Bompas & Parr, we can't thank you enough Sam & Harry.

Der Raum, unbelievable standard of bartending. Thanks for two unforgettable nights.

Matt Preston, very much appreciated.

Melbourne Food & Wine Festival - To all of the team we look forward to the BIG one next year!

Scott Robertson and the team at Careers Australia at our temporary home at 196 Flinders Street.

Steve Molloy, our lighting man at the Espy for services above and beyond.

Chocovic - Our sponsor, in particular Adele & Joel and massive thanks for the generous supply of chocolate.

Heilala Vanilla - Thank you for the association and supply of vanilla for our gift bags. We look forward to working closely with you in the future.

Thermomix Australia
Jazmine Thom - Our photographer.

All of our supporters, friends, bloggers, twitterers and all others involved including Mrs Burch and Catherine Wallace xxx

Stay tuned for a new post every day this week!! Darren & Ian

NEWSFLASH! - Pop Up Studio Open Day Set For Weds 9th

2011-03-06T23:15:00.006+11:00

We are pleased to announce that we have set up a temporary Sweet Studio at the smart Training Centre at 196 Flinders Street in the city. We have been well accommodated and have made a great start to the mammoth prep list for our events for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival 2011.

The new Careers Australia Training Centre is located right in the heart of Melbourne, next door to St Paul’s Cathedral and opposite Federation Square and the Flinders Street Train Station. This state of the art campus offers 6,000m2 of classrooms, computer labs, commercial teaching kitchens, clinical nursing skills labs, student common areas and other facilities. The Melbourne campus provides training for apprentices, trainees and full time students across a range of study areas and we are happy to have this association.

We have been inundated with requests for tickets to our sold out event at the Espy on Thursday this week and we are sorry for those who could not attend. By way of a gesture we would like to announce that the Careers Australia Training Centre at 196 Flinders Street will be open for those of you who would like to pop down and have a sneak peak of production. The kitchen will be hard at works and we promise beautiful chocolate pieces to admire, decadent tastings of some of our creations and a chance to see Bompas & Parr at work creating iconic Melbourne buildings out of jelly!

So tell your friends and family to come down between 2.30 pm and 3.30 pm on Wednesday 9th March, we hope to see as many of you as possible there will be plenty of photo opportunities and as we said a few sweet treats on offer.

In the meantime we will be based in the city for the entire festival and work is well on its way, we have even had the pleasure of Mrs (mum) Burch making an appearance, travelling all the way from the UK to lend a hand!

For now enjoy the rest of the festival and we hope to see you on Wednesday this week, also keep an eye on the blog for updates, news and feedback and images from our 'Reinventing Dessert' nights at Der Raum on Monday and Tuesday this week.

Burch & Purchese Hits The City! - and a surprise is in store!

2011-03-04T22:45:00.001+11:00

Due to building works at our Sweet Studio taking longer than anticipated, and needing to get stuck into preparations for our very special Melbourne Food & Wine Festival events, the Burch & Purchese team have set up in some very smart kitchens in the city.

We are so excited that the festival is now upon us and we are extremely happy to be working away at our very special 'pop up studio'. Preparations have been underway for three days now on our 'Reinventing Dessert' nights at Der Raum and our 'Sweet Architextural' night with Bompas & Parr at the Espy and we have an exclusive surprise in store for all followers of this blog.

Our kitchen is buzzing with anticipation and exciting deliveries, Chocovic our sponsor have delivered over 200 kilos of chocolate for the events and we have taken hold of 60 bottles of Hendricks gin for a special boozy jelly! Jonesy's milk, Heilala Vanilla, Organic Roses from Blumin and Green Eggs have arrived to complete an all star ingredient cast and it's all hands on deck getting it prepared for next week.

All events for Burch & Purchese have now SOLD OUT so thanks to all of you who have purchased tickets, we hope you enjoy what we have planned, but for those who missed out, don't despair. We will reveal here on this blog on Monday details of our whereabouts in the city and also announce a time and date for an exclusive open day. We will open up the kitchens of our sweet roadshow and invite everyone along to sample some sweet delights, meet our team and view some spectacular chocolate creations. The British jellymongers, Bompas & Parr will also be on hand making their trademark jellies.

We are also close to announcing our opening day for Sweet Studio and we have a few other fantastic announcements in the next couple of weeks. So please stay tuned to this page, our Twitter feed and Facebook updates on this special unique event and all the news from the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.

Thanks for all of the messages and support we have received in the last few weeks and we hope to see you at our kitchen next week!

Darren, Ian, Cath, Cara, Marie & Razza

Melbourne Food & Wine Festival Update - Theatre Of Ideas Tickets Still Available

2011-02-13T12:25:00.003+11:00

A three Michelin-starred chef who, along with her father, interprets modern Basque cooking with often astounding technique, Elena is the fourth generation of the Arzak family to head the kitchen at their inspirational and ground-breaking restaurant. Her approach to food is equal parts chef, historian, scientist and alchemist. “We like taking risks because without risks you don’t move forward”, she says. She could also have added that without risks, you won’t be counted among the world’s best.

Sam Bompas and Harry Parr, have been called “the most fashionable figures on London’s food scene right now”. The self-titled jellymongers invented a walk-in cloud of breathable gin and tonic, created a jelly banquet for 2,000 people, flooded a building with four tonnes of cognac punch that visitors then boated across before drinking and have made the humble jelly a substance of subtlety and wonder.

We are very pleased to announce that our spectacular jelly event with the Jellymongers, Bompas & Parr has now SOLD OUT! The Espy will be packed out on the 10th of March this year and we want to thank everyone who has supported this event. Sorry to anyone who has not been able to secure a ticket, we tried to extend the tickets for the event but it is now full and we have a waiting list that is growing.

All is not lost though if you had your heart set on seeing Bompas & Parr as there are still a few tickets available for the hugely popular 'Theatre Of Ideas'. Plus, not only will you get to see the Jellymongers but Chef Elena Arzak from the feted 3 michelin restaurant, 'Arzak', will be making the long trip from her home in San Sebastian to attend as a special guest.

Here is an official comment from Melbourne Food & Wine and we hope to see you there!!!

Theatre of Ideas presented by LifeStyle FOOD Channel

Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 March, 9.30 – 12.30PM

Theatre of Ideas rolls into town during Melbourne Food and Wine Festival dishing up a titillating selection of names that are kneading and shaping the world of food as we know. Enjoy a morning of cerebral gastronomy and food-meets-kooky-art starring Elena Arzak and Jellymongers Bompas & Parr. A chance to get up-close and personal with the London food scene's hottest tickets and a woman regarded as the "most exciting female chef on the planet."

Limited single session tickets to this exciting event are now available. Book now!

http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/gastronomy-masterclass/masterclass-events/theatre-of-ideas

Victorian Flood Update - Supplier Spotlight: Jonesy's Milk

2011-02-08T14:57:00.002+11:00

Jonesy's flooded farm in Kerang, Victoria.

Where does your milk come from?

Well the weather has really given Australia a battering in the past few months or so. There were the devastating floods and cyclone Yasi in Queensland, ferocious bushfires in Western Australia, there were heat waves in Sydney and massive flooding in Victoria. It has been a terrifying time for many people and huge amounts of the population are experiencing varying degrees of hardship attributed to these natural disasters. Although we were thankfully safe and relatively dry here in Melbourne a number of our suppliers and associates bore the full brunt of nature's destruction. Banana crops were devastated in Queensland as were sugar plantations, these will take a massive effort and a long time before they are back up and running. This will also affect pricing of these products across the country. We are due to open our 'Sweet Studio' in March and have to factor all of these issues into our start up costing and plan. Here in Victoria, the flooding has crippled local producers and the knock on effect of supply, quality and pricing of fruit, vegetables and other items will be significant. Our fantastic supplier of milk and cream, Jonesy's, were unfortunately hit extremely hard in the recent rains. As you can see from the top picture, not too much is left of their main farm. Jonesy's produce fantastic dairy produce and pride themselves, rightly, on their superior milk and cream products including non-homogenised goods. The flavour is far superior to anything you can find in the supermarket and we wholeheartedly endorse buying these sorts of ingredients from local quality producers. Below is a message from the team at Jonesy's on the recent troubles and their plans to carry on trying to produce fantastic milk!

To All Our kind customers who have been enquiring about us, thankyou so much for your thoughts and wishes during this difficult time, it has helped enormously to know there are people concerned about our welfare here, We are all a bit shell shocked at the scale of the flood.
As you can see from the photograph our main farm 2500 hectares is under water, our sons’ house along with one of the houses on the dairy have been flooded as well as the “Jonesy’s office” we have lost most of our hay and silage, a good crop, all pasture, shearing sheds, equipment, fencing, and are contending with a large amount of damage across the farm. We travelled by boat between the farms all the way without having to get out due to the depth of the water, and we believe a lot of the water will need pumping to disperse it. We have chooks, dogs, sheep, cows and even a kangaroo resting in what little land you can see in the photo in our backyard, as they all migrated to the only place above the water. Thankfully our house was built some 100 yrs ago on what appears to be the highest point on the property. Given “Tragowel Estate” was one of the biggest properties in its day around 50,000 acres, this was obviously not an accident. We currently have family living with us, Christie and I have moved the office also to the house, and we are trying to make the most of it.
Thankfully our dairies did not flood, and the “Jonesy’s cows are safe, and we are making alternative arrangements to move them to a new home so they can keep their feet dry!, as their paddocks are under water and feed is going to be an issue.
There is a large amount of damage right across the area, and we feel for other families who have lost houses and dairies and most likely their livelihoods, we are more fortunate than most and count our blessings, even though our losses are heavy.
A big thankyou to Melinda and Christie and the team for keeping things running as normally as possible, Christie had to evacuate with her family as well, and she took her computer, mobile, and work with her so she could keep your deliveries going, as opposed to taking her own belongings. Thankfully her house was safe when she returned!, but it is this attitude and help that is keeping us going. A big thankyou to all of you for being patient with our limited phone lines etc, and any disruption that have occurred, we are most grateful.
We are trying to set up a newspage on our website to post more photos and information about the farm, as we would like to keep you all informed. The Jonesy’s concept is about helping farmers and giving you a good product to sell, it is your involvement not just as customers but as friends that motivates us, and we are always thrilled to hear how much people like your coffees’ etc., or a new customers comes on board, and although we are small we want to continue to give you the best and better service. We have had numerous offers of help and to our amazement the offer of a fundraiser, and it is really giving us the strength to face it all so again thankyou all so much and stay in touch.
Thankfully Yours
Wayne & Rhonda Somerville and the team at Jonesy’s
PS. Drink lots of milk!

We hope you all understand the importance of local producers such as Jonesy's and try to support them wherever possible. Here at Burch & Purchese we will try, wherever possible to procure and promote, fine local produce and pass that on to our customers in 'Sweet Studio' in 2011. Our thoughts go out to all persons affected by floods, fires, cyclones and the rest here in Australia.

http://www.jonesysdairyfresh.com/index.html - Jonesy's Milk

Interview With Bompas & Parr in Feb 2011 Gourmet Traveller

2011-01-27T13:28:00.001+11:00

There is now only just over a month to our event with the Jellymongers: Bompas & Parr at the Espy. The Melbourne Food & Wine festival is always a highlight on our calendar and this year is set to be our biggest and most important with our events at Der Raum and the big one at the Espy coinciding with the launch of our new 'Sweet Studio'! Ahead of Sam (Bompas) & Harry's (Parr) arrival to these shores, the guys at Gourmet Traveller interviewed them on their work and the upcoming event with us on March the 10th. Click on the link below to the article and please use the links below to purchase tckets for any of the events.

The BIG COUNTDOWN starts soon!!

Gourmet Traveller - Feb 2011
http://gourmettraveller.com.au/bompas-and-parr-at-the-melbourne-food-wine-festival.htm?rcid=9784&mode=rcid

Sweet Architextural - Mar 2011
http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/gastronomy-masterclass/masterclass-events/chef-winemakers-dinners/bompas-parr-sweet-architextural

Reinterpreting Dessert
http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/event/1475

Bompas & Parr
http://www.jellymongers.co.uk/

New Year, New Start & Fresh Expectations

2011-01-17T10:35:00.001+11:00

The holiday season seems like so long ago now, we have a feeling that this year will fly by. Lots of preparation is in being put into place for our grand opening of 'Sweet Studio' later on this year. We have been working on all aspects of the business from staffing, overseeing building works, training manuals, packaging..........the list goes on and on.

With all of this happening we managed to take some time last week to work on the cakes for the shop.

Refining finishes, compiling a photographic library and recording recipes and weights for food cost were on the agenda and we were very excited with the results.

A big thanks must go to executive chef John Savage at the Sofitel hotel in Melbourne for the use of the facilities in the culinary academy, we appreciate the help and support we have received from John and look forward to welcoming him into our boutique once we have opened.

So much was gained from working through all of our cake range last week and we have lots of changes to implement, sometimes as a chef we are clouded in judgement on certain products or dishes. Valuable feedback can be gained and it is imperative to have non chefs try out your food. Many points were raised that sometimes you don't see as you have been working to closely for so long. So with all of the feedback on board from our tasters and with working out better production methods and practical finishes we hope to have an outstanding product to present to the public by the time the doors are open.

We are so excited by what this year may offer for Burch & Purchese and we will work extremely hard in many areas in order for us to achieve our goals.

We plan on working on, in no particular order and not limited to:

Improving ourselves as pastry chefs and as business owners.
Ensuring our customers receive the very best product we can provide.
Working hard on training our staff and promoting our trade.
Taking nothing for granted and appreciating our opportunities.
To try to give back to those who are not as fortunate as ourselves.
To collaborate and partner with talented businesses and individuals to enhance our brand, their brand an our industry.

We hope you enjoy the images and we will keep you updated as always on the progress of our opening.

QUICK REMINDER! We still have a few tickets left for our 'Sweet Architextural' event at the Espy in March and we have some very special surprise guests in store for those who plan on attending. Check out the link to the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival here for more details.

Happy 2011 To All Our Readers

2011-01-04T12:14:00.004+11:00

Well the silly season is all over for another year but that does not mean the fun stops! We are preparing ourselves for our busiest and most exciting year to date. Plans for our 'Sweet Studio' are well under way and builders have started to construct, we expect to be open on time and as you can imagine it is pretty full on here at B&P HQ. We will reveal more about the retail store later on this month but we can tell you it will be a very exciting year for all involved with Burch & Purchese.
We are also working on our events with Der Raum and Bompas & Parr for the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival in March and we have added some new and wonderful special surprises for the latter. Tickets are still available for the 'Sweet Architextural' event at the Espy with Bompas & Parr and enquiries should be directed to cath@burchandpurchese.com.
Summer is well under way here in Melbourne and we have been taking advantage of the fantastic produce available to us by making light and summery desserts and jams, spreads and cooling sorbets. We have also been working on a caramelisation technique for Jaina white chocolate from Chocovic. This is achieved by caramelising the milk and yoghurt solids in the chocolate and works fantastically well in a plated dessert with a sharp yoghurt ice cream (see above).
We wish all of our readers a fantastic 2011 and we will share with you more information on our opening as soon as we can. HAPPY NEW YEAR from Darren & Ian xx

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM BURCH & PURCHESE!!!!

2010-12-22T13:22:00.003+11:00

We just wanted to say MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of our readers, customers, pastry lovers and supporters!! It has been a massive push to the end but we are working hard to open a SPECTACULAR shop in the first part of 2011. Plans are going well and we are refining and improving on our product every day.
Here are some images of our seasonal work including our white chocolate snowmen, our modern take on 'Yule Log', our chocolate Christmas trees and some of our images from last year. We will post once more in 2010 in between Christmas & New Year but for now have a fantastic time and eat lots of yummy things, MERRY CHRISTMAS & lots of love Darren & Ian xxxx

Latest Wedding Cake Creation 12.12.10

2010-12-17T11:12:00.002+11:00

Wow! What a busy month, they don't call it the silly season for nothing. We have been flat out with orders for our chocolate celebration cakes and here is a shot of one of the latest for a wedding between a lovely couple John & Helen. A summery theme of lemon, vanilla and pistachio was chosen by the happy couple. We have layered Heilala vanilla & white chocolate mousse with fresh silky lemon curd and a crumbly moist Iranian pistachio sponge. It was sprayed with our signature velvet chocolate spray and finished with one of our 'avant garde' chocolate pieces. We hope John & Helen had a fantastic day, which we are sure was fantastic as it was held at Hellenic Republic (yum!), and we wish them all of the best for the future.
We will post some festive desserts and chocolate pieces that we have been working on in our next instalment, but until then, enjoy the season.

Official Melbourne Food & Wine Festival Guide OUT NOW!!

2010-12-03T16:58:00.003+11:00

The official Melbourne Food & Wine Festival guide is out now! Loads of fantastic foodie treats for everyone to enjoy we believe that there are over 250 delicious events - so get planning and booking. Of course Burch & Purchese are featured in the guide with our two events with Bompas & Parr & Der Raum. These events are sure to sell out VERY quickly so if you are interested in 'Sweet Architextural' with the Jellymongers or in 'Reinterpreting Dessert' with the Der Raum then click on the links below.
We hope to see you at our events and hope you get to enjoy some of the world class food offerings at the festival in March 2011.

'Sweet Architextural' with international Jellymongers, Bompas & Parr

'Reinterpreting Dessert' with cocktail kings, Der Raum

View the full festival guide here!!!!

It's Official!! Burch & Purchese To Open Early 2011

2010-11-23T07:20:00.006+11:00

We are delighted to announce today very special news to all of our readers. 'Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio' will have it's first retail outlet in South Yarra, Melbourne opening early 2011. We have been working hard for a number of years, refining our concept and searching for a site and we are very pleased to say that we are not far away from finally opening the doors.
You may have seen snippets in the Australian press recently so this is to confirm the stories are true and we look forward to sharing our passion for contemporary dessert designs with the residents of Melbourne.
Keep checking here for regular updates and follow us on our Twitter & Facebook pages.

The Australian 23.11.10

Wedding Cake 14.11.10

2010-11-15T11:04:00.002+11:00

Phew! Another weekend and another few cakes, this one was really fun. It was commissioned for a lovely couple who were married on Sunday, they designed the flavours and a few of the visual element and we put it together for them. The cake consisted of 'Tarakan' & 'Nayarit' chocolates from Chocovic made into a mousse. It also had raspberry mayonnaise, tarragon crunchy meringue, brownie and Murray River salted caramel. We also produce a specially designed antique chocolate piece for the top of the cake and each guest had a mini version of the main cake to prevent all that unattractive cake cutting that so often happens. We wish the couple a happy life and look forward to making more delicious creations such as these. Thanks to Kate from Bright Young things and the owners of the Emerald Peacock in the city for all of their help.

Bright Young Things http://www.brightyoungthings.net.au/
The Emerald Peacock http://www.theemeraldpeacock.com/

Alcoholic Architecture by Bompas & Parr

2010-11-14T13:03:00.003+11:00

Bompas & Parr Jelly Film - See who's coming to town!!

2010-11-14T13:02:00.003+11:00

Event Information! ARCHITEXTURAL: A Collaboration with Bompas & Parr

2010-11-14T12:30:00.006+11:00

We are VERY excited to announce our latest collaboration for 2011. International 'Jellymongers' Bompas & Parr are bringing their eccentric skills to Melbourne next year as part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.
We have organised an exclusive 'one night only' event in The Gershwin Room at the famous Espy Hotel in St.Kilda. The event is being named 'ARCHITEXTURAL' and pairs the extravagant architectural jelly making skills of Bompas & Parr with the multi textured cuisine of Burch & Purchese.
If you don't know much about the 'Jellymongers' then check out their excellent website www.jellymongers.co.uk and view some of the amazing events they have worked on in the last couple of years.
These have included an artisanal chewing gum factory in a shopping centre, a walk in cocktail of vaporised gin & tonic, a Futuristic Aerobanquet and a 'sugar cave' for London Fashion Week.
The night at the Espy promises to be a fantastic match between two creative forces and will include drinks, laughs, jellies, music and BIG SURPRISES! We can't tell you too much as we don't want to spoil the night but we can tell you that famous & iconic Melbourne structures may be recreated out of jelly and that Burch & Purchese will provide some specially designed sweet dishes throughout the night.
Music & entertainment is on the cards as are special guest MC's and exclusive goodies to take home.

Tickets are now available, and if you want to be part of this unique and entertaining night which is sure to be a highlight of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival 2011, you should email cath@burchandpurchese.com for more details. We hope you decide to join us on the 10th March 2011 and we will update you on announcements on this and other events here as they happen.

Wedding Cake 06.11.10

2010-11-14T11:04:00.002+11:00

We have been very busy with our unique designer wedding cakes lately. It seems we are doing at least 2 events a week at the moment which is great fun and the feedback we have had has been sensational. The creation above was an adaptation of one of our mousse cakes we created a couple of months back. The original was a smooth and silky white chocolate and Heilala vanilla mousse on top of set lemon cream, pistachio custard and crunchy green tea meringue. This was the basis for the clients choice of wedding cake with all of the original elements added plus a few extra. The cake was garnished with one of our signature white chocolate pieces and a few green tea macaroons. We wish the clients well for the future and hope they enjoyed the cake as much as we did making it.

Event Information! Der Raum vs Burch & Purchese - Cocktail/Dessert Degustation

2010-11-08T11:11:00.003+11:00

Matthew Bax - The Man Behind Der Raum

This Event In Conjunction With The Melbourne Food & Wine Festival 2011

We Will Be Showcasing 5 New Desserts At Der Raum

We are very excited to announce our first collaboration for 2011 with news of two nights at the amazing Der Raum cocktail bar here in Melbourne. Der Raum has established itself as one of the most exciting and innovative bars in the world with a list of awards to rival any bar. Matthew Bax and his head barman Matthew Rees and their team will present cocktail matching to 5 new Burch & Purchese creations as part of two nights of cocktail matching during next years Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. The event is being billed as Der Raum vs. Burch & Purchese and will be held at Der Raum on the 7th & 8th March 2011. We are thrilled to be working closely with such a talented team at Der Raum and this announcement is the first in a series of exciting collaborations and developments in our business planned for 2011. Tickets will be available soon from Der Raum and the information will be on their website at http://www.derraum.com.au/

Latest Shots From Burch & Purchese

2010-10-25T10:34:00.003+11:00

Classic Opera Cake

We love revisiting old classics every now and again, we are working on a new version of this for a special event later on this year.

Part of the decoration for the latest chocolate celebration cake produced for a client.

The cake was as spectacular on the inside as out with many contrasting layers of texture & flavour.

Back to the classics with our Battenburg cake made with freeze dried raspberry & lemon.

Some cool salted caramel & pistachio popcorn to garnish a new dessert.

Getting ready for an outside function we picked up. Fun to do these chocolate 'bombs'.

We are bursting with excitement at the moment as we are waiting to announce the latest developments in our business. We really want to let everyone know our news but have to wait until an official press release is sent out. So keep coming back and we will let you in on the latest as soon as possible. We also have two fantastic collaborations with two international talents that we will let you know about in the next couple of weeks. Sorry to leave you hanging but we will update you on here, our Facebook page and by following Darren Purchese on twitter. Cheers and have a great week.

Visit To William Curley London

2010-10-13T15:50:00.003+11:00

On the way home from our recent trip to Madrid we stopped of at London, the city where we first made our name in pastry. There are many fantastic food store, markets, restaurant and chocolate shops and it was great to drop in to an old friend and mentor Chef William Curley at his second outlet in Belgravia. William has among other things been the pastry chef of Marco Pierre White, Raymond Blanc and Pierre Koffman but it was during the time that he was the executive pastry chef at The Savoy Hotel that we first met. William has an unrivalled knowledge of pastry and chocolate and has been awarded UK chocolatier of the year in the past four years. We learnt so much from William during our time at the Savoy and he has been a great friend since. We dropped in to catch up and William gave us some valuable advice for our first business and also some amazing chocolate and pastry items to take away. William's wife Suzue, is also a very talented pastry chef and together this pastry shop/dessert bar in the centre of London is a must visit. William's original shop is still in Richmond and is also well worth the detour, the patisserie and chocolate works are as good as you will find anywhere in the world. Check out William's website and blog from the links below and pop in if you get the chance.

William Curley http://www.williamcurley.co.uk/engine/shop/index.html

William's Blog http://www.williamcurley.co.uk/engine/shop/page/Curley+Blog

Madrid Tales 8 - Last Day & Coming Up!!

2010-09-30T07:59:00.002+10:00

Beautiful fit out at this smart Madrid chocolate shop.

Large selection of chocolate bars in dozens of flavours.

Hand dipped pralines.

Plenty of selection.

Cacao Sampaka in Madrid.

Packaging is superb and the store neat and tidy.

Large selection of Champagnes, Sherries, Ports and Sauternes for sale.

Probably the best beer in the world?

The general strike in Spain and austerity strikes across Europe gave us an unexpected extra day in Madrid. This gave us the opportunity to visit the Madrid branch of Cacao Sampaka, we visited the Barcelona branch last year and love the brand. The store is fantastic, and has a large selection of chocolate items, alcohols, books and houses a smart cafe. Cacao Sampaka is located at Calle de Orellana, 4 28004 and is well worth a visit. Tomorrow we return to London on business and we will be catching up with talented individuals in the world of cuisine. We will let you know who they are and how it goes in our next post, but for now it is time for a last beer in Spain. What better than the special edition Estrella on which chef Ferran Adria contributed! Saludas Madrid, see you next year!!

Cacao Sampaka http://www.cacaosampaka.com/

Estrella Cerveza http://www.estrelladamminedit.com/es/index.html

Madrid Tales 7 - Research Completed

2010-09-30T07:11:00.002+10:00

Chef Paco Roncero was a great host, allowing us use of his innovation lab at Casino de Madrid.

A highlight was working for two days with expert food scientist Professor Peter Barham.

We learnt a lot about food production with Peter and his knowledge of ingredients was astonishing.

Getting a few last jobs done for the day.

Chef Adam Melonas with Chef Paco Roncero, it was great to work closely with Adam and we hope to do so again soon.

Beautiful dining room at Casino de Madrid.

Well our time is up here in Madrid, we have been working hard on a big research and development project and are very happy with the results. It has been great working with so many inspirational food experts and highlights include, working closely with Adam Melonas, Peter Barham and Quico Sosa. Paco Roncero was a perfect host and we even met chef Joan Roca in the lab last week. We made two trips to Leatherhead Food Research in the UK to discuss new technologies in confectionary and that was inspiring. We are looking forward to returning to Madrid and exploring more of this fantastic city.

Under Construction!

2010-09-22T08:58:00.003+10:00

Just a quick insight into a new dish we are in the process of constructing, it is going to be a lime and vanilla cheesecake creation. We are currently working on components and balance and will reveal all once it has been worked through. Just thought you would like to see the start of a process.

Madrid Tales 6 - New Cookbook Shop In Madrid

2010-09-19T02:54:00.002+10:00

On a day of for us from our project here in Madrid, we managed to track down this new cookbook shop/cookery school. Open for less than a year, A Punto Libreria is situated at Calle Pelayo, 60, 28004, and is a treasure trove of quality cookbooks. Most of them are in Spanish (of course!) but there are English titles available as well, we owned all of them so opted for a classical Spanish pastry book. We were shown round the shop by one of the owners and she allowed us to take a peek downstairs at their small cooking school. Courses range from Sushi making, pastry, wine tasting and cocktail events. If you are ever in Madrid you should book for one of the events/courses or just pop in for a look at the books.

Just an update on proceedings here, we are making progress in our research and positive results have started to present themselves. We still have until 29th September here in Madrid before moving onto London for 5 days. Next week sees the arrival of world renowned food scientist Peter Barham to help in our studies, we are really looking forward to meeting Peter and hearing what he has got to say. We are also returning to Leatherhead Food Research next week for a follow up on this weeks meeting. So lot's still to happen on our travels.

We will of course keep you updated and we are hoping the Melbourne weather will be brightening up nicely for our return on 7th October.

A Punto
Centro Cultural del Gusto
Calle Pelayo, 60
28004 Madrid
www.apuntolibreria.com

Burch & Purchese Dishes 26 - Banana, Rum, Molasses & Puff Pastry

2010-09-17T07:43:00.003+10:00

This is our latest creation which we are still refining and improving all of the time. Banana has been soaking in a vanilla ascorbic syrup (thanks to Adam Melonas for the syrup recipe) for 1 week and then drained and lightly glazed with a rum jelly. It sits on top of a base of caramelised puff pastry in the top photo but for the dish it is along side. The dish comprises of a banana cream and a molasses mousse in between two thin sheets of caramelised puff. A burnt butter micro sponge garnishes and adds contrasting texture and chocolate eyelashes and coffee crumble complete the dish.

Madrid Tales 5 - Leatherhead Food Research

2010-09-16T06:22:00.002+10:00

During our research and developments of new products here in Madrid we were presented with an opportunity to return to the UK to visit the world renowned food research facility in Leatherhead, Surrey. This was an exciting opportunity and a very informative trip in both this project and future ones. Unfortunately we cannot divulge the reason for our trip and the information gained due to confidentiality agreements, also the camera had it's lens firmly on as photos of the department are forbidden to protect client secrets! We have another trip planed for next week in further developing our new products with modern techniques, we can say that we are looking in the areas of aeration, moisture retention, stability of recipes and other matters. The trip provided us with the opportunity to pop in and say hi to Mum & Dad who live close by in the village of Farncombe, it was a bit surreal just popping in for dinner and then leaving again but it was nice to catch up albeit briefly. Mum & Dad are keen gardeners and the beautiful tomatoes they lovingly grew were a real highlight! Mum kindly allowed us to take photographs of these, but we had to sign a tight contract so please no reproduction!!!

Leatherhead Food Research http://www.leatherheadfood.com/

Burch & Purchese Latest Creations

2010-09-16T05:48:00.004+10:00

We have been working hard on increasing our future product range with the invention of this new creation designed for Spring. We have created a twist on the traditional hazelnut daquoise and replaced the nut with pistachio and have layered it with pistachio mousseline and then a layer of our fresh lemon curd. This has all been topped off with the most silky smooth white chocolate and vanilla mousse. The mousse was made with Heilala vanilla and the whole piece was textured and then sprayed with white chocolate fine spray. A green tea macaroon with green tea clay is the garnish as well as our lemon chocolate eyelashes. We hope you enjoy this piece and we have more to come

Madrid Tales 4 - Produce & Our New Favourite Pastry Shop

2010-09-13T04:20:00.004+10:00

One of the most popular cheeses here - Tetilla, this version is smoked - delicious!

It is found on most restaurant plata de queso - it is called tetilla because it is shaped like a.............

Our new favourite wine - a Crianza called Arzuaga (pronounced 'Arthwayga')

These eggs were found in the local supermarket, free range, fresh and delicious. Each box has a certificate of authentication and less than Aus$5 for a dozen.

We found this stall at a local market, selling only fresh and natural fruit jellies (pate de fruit) with no colours or preservatives.

Everywhere you go! Not complaining!!

Paleta Iberica is the less expensive front leg of the Iberica pig, it requires and extra chew but the flavour is amazing.

Air dried beef - fantastic.

Our new favourite Chocolate/Pastry Shop on Calle Alcala, 5 mins from our hotel.

The shop smelt amazing and had a very high quality selection of entremets, chocolates and viennoiserie.

All of the large gateaux were sold out within an hour but beautiful individual pieces were still available.

All items are baked and prepared on premises by a very talented chef called Ricardo Martinez Velez.

Check them out if you come to Madrid www.moulinchocolat.com

Every flavour of Macaroons that you can think of...and you MUST try the canelle!

It has been a real education looking at all of the local and regional Spanish produce and there is so much quality in shops that don't have international recognition!

Madrid Tales 3 - Tapas de Paco Roncero

2010-09-13T00:33:00.002+10:00

The entrance to Estado Puro where Tapas de Paco Roncero is situated.

Cool interior and Chef Melonas on the phone again.

Classic Tapas selection but very modern in interpretation.

The best croquettes made with real Jamon Iberica.

Pork belly fat 'airbread'

Pigs feet with cep mousseline & shaved squid.

The waitress needs to cheer up, but apart from that very good!

We enjoyed the hospitality of Chef Paco Roncero recently after a hard days testing new techniques. Accompanied by Adam Melonas & Quico Sosa, we were invited to try some of the new dishes on the menu at Tapas de Paco Roncero at Estado Puro, situated near the Museum Prado. Lots of dishes were tried and they were all very good. There were quite a few on the menu that Adam Melonas developed during his time as Paco's lab chef, and we can report that the croquettes were the best we have had (and we have had a few)! Other highlights were the slow cooked pig foot, with ceps and shaved squid, sticky and delicious and the 'airbread' was a nice technique as well as tasty. It was all washed down with Mahou the local beer and although it was fantastic, it left us no room for dessert. Which gives us a good reason to return!! On Monday 13th we are off to the UK to work with the food scientists at Leatherhead Food Research which will be fascinating and productive to our project. They also house one of the biggest cookbook collections in the world so we will be bringing the camera and promise to report back on the quick trip back home. Will be nice to have dinner with Mum & Dad and go home even if it is for such a small time.

http://www.leatherheadfood.com Leatherhead Food Research

Madrid Tales 2 - Inside The Lab!!!

2010-09-10T08:26:00.002+10:00

First day in the test kitchen - getting set up for the next month!

Cool domestic combi steamer is part of the kit for us to use.

The dehydrator is getting a work out.

Lots of goodies for us to test out.

Senor Sosa himself gets to work on some emulsifying techniques.

Here comes the science part!

Great to hook up with Quico Sosa again.

La Terraza del Casino - restaurant shots

Stunning dining room.

Immaculate table decoration - world class.

Hopefully I can find time to dine here before I leave.

Making sure the chairs are comfy.

On the famous Terraza!

The tasting menu at Paco Roncero's 2 Michelin star La Terraza del Casino in Madrid.

Back in the lab, Chef Adam Melonas does his stuff.

After a hard day it's time for something to eat!

Well we have been hard at it for nearly a week now and our project is on course to be a great success. We have been working alongside Grande Chef Adam Melonas at a test kitchen situated in Casino de Madrid. Lots of progress has been made and new techniques discovered. We were fortunate enough to meet up again and work with Quico Sosa the owner of Sosa products and his knowledge and enthusiasm is infectious. He demonstrated some cool emulsifying and stabilising techniques and helped us troubleshoot some obstacles that we have come across. We really are fortunate to work with such true and talented professionals and we can't wait to bring this knowledge back with us to Australia. We pinched a little time during the third day to have a look at the stunning dining room of the Terraza del Casino. Chef Paco Roncero has been charming and hospitable and his restaurant was an amazing site. Fully deserving of the highest accolades it is simply one of the best dining rooms we have seen and the famous terraza is bathed in glorious sunshine. We are trying to squeeze a meal in before we leave for London on the 29th and if we do we will let you know how amazing it was and of course what the desserts were like. Madrid is getting better by the day and we have some cool excursions to come that we will inform you of as they happen. If we have time, tomorrow we will post pictures of our visit to Paco's tapas bar. Until then..Adios!!

Madrid Tales - Part 1

2010-09-08T07:08:00.001+10:00

Mercado de San Miguel

Jamon Iberico

Palacio Real

The gardens at Palacio Real

Stunning architecture

La Violeta Bombones

Violet Sweets

The English version (which we love by the way)

Boutique Oriol Balaguer

Some of Oriol's product

Fantastic local dishes at Maceira

Restaurant Botin - Famous for two things, suckling pig......

........and it's the oldest restaurant in the world!

Well it is great to be back in Europe and Spain in particular! It is steaming hot here in Madrid at the moment but we are settled and have already had some amazing moments in this city. As you know we are over on consultancy and we will post some information on this in our next post. We have been eating the finest Galician seafood and enjoyed a couple of stunning glasses of wine. Our first stop as soon as we landed was a trip to Mercado de San Miguel, Madrid's equivalent to Barcelona's La Boqueria. Although it is not as vast as the Catalonian version, it is still a special place and we tried some of the famous Jamon which we have been missing after last years trip to Barcelona. Chef Adam Melonas of Madrid Lab was our guide and he took us through this beautiful city on foot and the architecture is stunning. The Palace is spectacular as are the immaculate gardens and everywhere you walk there is something historic and interesting to see. We stumbled upon a cute violet sweet shop and the smell reminded us of violet sweets as a child. On the other end of the pastry spectrum we visited Oriol Balaguer's Madrid boutique and the fit out and packaging (not to mention product) were very impressive.
Lunch was Almejas en Salsa de Albarino (Bi-valve clams in local white wine sauce), and Pulpo a la Gallega (local octopus dish) at restaurant Maceira. This place is always busy and produces stunning simple, traditional dishes at an amazingly low price, we were full but squeezed in a few sweet things to end. So we have had time to settle and work started Sunday on our project, this will be a very informative and innovative period for us and we are relishing the coming month here. Possible trips to London and Barcelona may be necessary and we will update you as and when this happens. Tomorrow we will post as much as we can on our work at Chef Paco Rochero's lab at Casino de Madrid which has been hired for the month, but confidentiality means it will be an ambiguous overview. Check out the links below to what we have seen already and check back regularly for a more in depth analysis of food and pastry in this magical city.

http://www.mercadodesanmiguel.es/
San Miguel Market

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_Real_de_Madrid
Madrid Palace

http://www.lavioleta.es/
La Violeta

http://www.oriolbalaguer.com/
Oriol Balaguer

http://madrid.salir.com/maceiras_huertas
Restaurant Maceiras

http://www.botin.es/web/?q=en
Restaurant Botin

http://www.casinodemadrid.es/sp/gastronomia/rest_terraza/index.htm
La Terraza at Casino de Madrid

What's The Latest News & Gossip?

2010-08-31T10:43:00.003+10:00

Spain here we come!

Bernabeu Stadium.

Ben doing his thing.

Ben Shewry's 'Terroir".

Royal Mail chef Dan Hunter

Clean, precise and exquisite food at The Royal Mail.

Matt Bax cocktail king.

Der Raum.

Selvatica range of chocolate from Chocovic.

Lots going on at the moment, apart from a significant increase in orders for our celebration cakes we are excited to announce that we leave for Spain again today. Madrid is the destination this time and we will be working on an exciting new project of which we cannot divulge information at this time. Confidentiality is paramount on this new project but we will try and let you know bits and pieces as time progresses. We will however be blogging from the Spanish capital on other subjects such as the cuisine, pastry shops and chefs from this gastronomic heaven. Top of our list of places to visit will be Restaurant Diverxo, David Munoz the talented chef from there has been doing great things for a while we hear. We are also looking forward to the cafe's, pastry shops, the chocolate and hunting for our elusive Albert Adria 'Los postres de El Bulli'. The main focus of this trip will be working hard in a kitchen/lab on our brief but who knows, we might have time to visit the Galactico's at the Bernabeu! We'll keep you posted!
Last night in Melbourne was the annual 'Good Food Guide' awards and we wanted to take time to say congratulations to two of our friends who picked up huge awards.
Ben Shewry the talented chef at one of our favourite restaurants, Attica, claimed the prestigious 'Victorian Chef of the Year' award. His cuisine is right up there on the world stage and he is rightly getting the recognition he deserves.
Dan Hunter our friend and former colleague was honoured as The Royal Mail Hotel, in country Victoria won the coveted 'Best Restaurant' award. This award hardly ever goes to a restaurant outside of Melbourne so well done to Dan and his team. Although we have not eaten there, it is on our radar, we know first hand how exquisite his food is whilst working alongside him a number of years ago.
Big Congratulations to both Ben and Dan, great ambassadors for Australian Cuisine!!
We are also close to announce details of our upcoming collaboration with one of the world's best cocktail bars Der Raum. We will be working with owner Matthew Bax on at lease two special events to be announce for early next year. Matt is also co owner of The Tippling Club in Singapore and we are very excited to be working with Matthew and his head barman Matthew Rees, These boys are extremely talented in their field and their work is very much admired by ourselves.
We are also in dialogue with our sponsor Chocovic on some exciting events in the planning for early 2011 which could include chocolate demonstrations and talks - we are happy to have an alliance with Chocovic and look forward to some pretty special events.
So, a few teasers for you all but we will inform you in detail when we can of all of our projects and an exciting announcement towards the end of September. In the meantime, we will update the blog next from Madrid, adios!

Links:

Restaurant Diverxo http://diverxo.com/
Attica http://www.attica.com.au/
Royal Mail Hotel http://www.royalmail.com.au/
Good Food Guide Highlights http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/good-food-puts-country-towns-on-the-culinary-map-20100830-147ah.html?autostart=1
Der Raum http://www.derraum.com.au/
The Tippling Club http://www.tipplingclub.com/
The Cocoa Alliance http://www.cocoaalliance.com/

Top 50 Cookbooks Of All Time, Our Favourite Cookbooks & What We Are Waiting For & The One We Can't Find!

2010-08-24T09:50:00.003+10:00

Richard Olney's 'The French Menu Cookbook' Came Out On Top

David Thompson Was Australia's representative In The Top 10

The UK's Guardian newspaper recently published it's annual list of the top 50 cookbooks of all time. This of course is highly subjective and is understandably English-centric coming from the UK, but it does raise the question 'What makes a good cookbook?' A good cookbook is different things to different people, our choices and reasons may differ from another persons, and who's to say who is right?

As you may know if you have followed this blog for some time now, we are passionate about our cookbooks, especially pastry orientated ones. This does not discount the fact though that our favourite books of all time are often from the savoury side. Heston's 'The Big Fat Duck Cookbook' is one of our absolute favourites but it is not found in the list published by the Guardian. This may be because of its accessibility to the home cook (and most chefs!). This exposes flaws in 'lists' and reinforces the fact that one cannot generalise a vast genre into one list. So with that, check out the link to the Guardian articles and if your favourite books are not on there, so be it! They are valuable to you and that's all that matters.

Guardian Article Top 50 Cookbooks 50-11

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/13/50-best-cookbooks-ofm

Top 10

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/15/top-10-best-cookbooks

Here is a list of some our favourite cookbooks (in case you were interested) and in no particular order.

Ramon Morato signing us copies of his 'Chocolate' cookbook.

Chocolate by Ramon Morato http://www.amazon.com/Chocolate-Ramon-Morató/dp/3875151135/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282605420&sr=8-1

The Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal http://www.amazon.com/Big-Fat-Duck-Cookbook/dp/1596915501/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282605546&sr=1-1

Sous Vide Cuisine by Joan Roca http://www.amazon.com/Sous-Vide-Cuisine-Joan-Roca/dp/8472121127/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282605630&sr=1-7

Essential Cuisine by Michel Bras http://burchandpurchese.blogspot.com/2009/05/burch-purchese-recommended-books-1.html

Fusion Chocolate by Frederic Bau http://www.amazon.com/Fusion-Chocolate-Frederick-Bau/dp/8472121178/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282605834&sr=8-1

Natura by Albert Adria https://secure.elbulli.com/elbullibooks/

We could go on all day with this and we are fortunate enough to have an extensive library, which is difficult as cookbook collecting can turn out to be an expensive hobby.

One book that you will just HAVE to save your pennies (LOTS OF PENNIES!!) for though is Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold and colleagues.

You know when a book is going to be really special (and pricey), when it has its own website! http://modernistcuisine.com/

This book is really going to be something, out in December 2010 it should encompass everything you need to know about modern cookery. Stunning photography and top quality printing along with years of research will make this a must have for us.

2400 pages of pure information and essential images and recipes, this is the one we have been waiting for. Chefs Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal wrote the forewords and we are putting our money away and counting the days to is release.

One book that does elude our collection though is Albert Adria's first release 'Los postres de El Bulli', this is a very rare book indeed and was deleted a short time after its minimal release in 1998. We have only ever seen one copy (two actually - bit greedy!) and that was in Ramon Morato's collection (above) when we visited him at Chocovic in Spain.

Ramon's TWO!! copies.

This is the elusive book that we will continue to hunt down - so if anybody has a spare that they would like to sell, then drop us a line and we promise it will go to a good home!!

Enjoy your cookbooks everyone, hopefully we will have one out one day if we continue to learn, work hard and persevere!

Cake Tasting

2010-08-17T16:36:00.002+10:00

When we are asked to commission a special creation for a client we often provide them with a tasting. It is generally a smaller version of the proposed finished product and sometimes has a small sculpture or a feel of how the cake will look as well as the exact flavour profile. The cake above was delivered as a tasting last week to some clients who had expressed an interest in Burch & Purchese creating their wedding cake. The brief was to have a multi-layered creation with chocolate (of course) being the star. We were pretty much given a black canvas to create something rustic, earthy and delicious. We came up with this and the layers inside include hazelnut daquoise, hazelnut brownie, salted caramel and pear jelly. We garnished the tasting cake with chocolate flowers, toasted hazelnuts, hazelnut cream and charred poached pear. We'll let you know how we go once it's been approved or revised.