Monday, February 23, 2009

Summer Kitchen Wood Fired ,Ranlegh, Tasmania

Here we are in tghe middle of Tasmania. It seems like we were destined to find another A/S wood fired brick oven.
Here are some pictures of our short visit there.















The ancient electric oven that Summer Kitchen used befroe the brick oven was built.

Red Velvet Lounge, Cygnet Wood Fired Bakery Tasmania

Cygnet, Tasmania. The Red Velvet Lounge, an eclectic bakery/cafe. Wood floors, pressed tin ceiling...and great food. Of course there is an original brick oven in the back!


The Red Velvey Lounge

Manual sheeter!



The oven, (excuse the blur)





RVL from the street

Tasmania, Pritchard Family, Hobart, Tafe and Agrarian Kitchen

I went to "Tassie" because Alan Scott the late great brick oven builder promoted it as "Vancouver Island South".
He was not wrong. I am saddened that he passed before I could tell hom personally.
I was well looked after by Graham Pritchard and his familly. Graham, and Maedi run the Sourdough Companion Web Site.





































































































































I also enjoyed a very instructive morning at the local college in Hobart, which run an excellent baking and pastry program.














I will upload some pictures now and edit them later.

Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne


This was a week after the fires...the haze produced this remarkable sunset. WHen the moon came up, it was red as well.


Marscapone stuffed figs



Very bust market on a Saturday


Olive Cornucopia



Deli corner...amazing cheeses

Firebrand Melbourne

One of Melbournes oldest wood-fired brick ovens, still in operation. The bakery was operated for a while by John Downes.

Front Door


In the oven

Old beast of a mixer


Front of the oven

Baker D Chirico

A good review of Daniels wonderful Bakery can be found at this link
http://www.danlepard.com/content/pages/dchirico1.htm
Wonderful Bakery, Wonderful Bread!


Just a tiny retail space but choc full of wonderful baking

No refrigeration here..but everything sells so fast there is no need!


One way to alleviate the storage problem is to stack the flour in the retail area!











Janine Lyon, a graduate of VIU's baking problem enjoying the visit to Chirico's


Tons of banettons

Daniel and Janine
Quiet in the day this is a crazy area at night!

Brunetti's Melbourne OMG!!!!!!!!

After walking in the Brunetti Bakery in Melbourne I was struck by the impulse to turn around, come home and take up another career! Gorgeous pastries, Gorgeous shop! Meters and meters of full-on display cases














































Why this blog.....

My photo
January to March 2009. I was on Professional Development leave from my teaching Job at the Culinary Institute of Vancouver Island Universtity. I chose to take a 3 month leave to visit bakeries and teachng institutions in Australia. Thank you to VIU and my union (BCGEU) for supporting this venture. The aim of this blog was to keep an ongoing diary of my experiences and share them with my students and colleagues. This sure beats coming up with a report and slide show months later. I mean "FRESH" is what baking is all about! Learned to bake back in 1978....making granola...but that is another story. .