Designing Kitchens for Cooks that Cook!
Hey Team!
Not many people know this… but, a few years I was selected as one of the top 5 in Tasmania to audition for Great Australian Bake Off.
It was a surreal and bizarre experience. To have the opportunity to bake with some incredible people and take time off work just to bake!
To be chosen out of over a thousand people was such an honour and humbling experience. I was contacted via my facebook page and email -they chased me! Such an ego boost I can tell you. I had to apply online and upload some images of past works. Of course, I had to put up one of my favourites -My Tree Frog Cake.
I was selected to go to Melbourne and Audition.
I took a week off work and baked my heart out. Add in the fact I had 2 cakes due that same week and had to practice savoury baking -not my strong point!
We had to bring a showstopper and a savoury bake along with some bread rolls made with a recipe provided to us. This took a lot of logistics to get them to Melbourne -an early flight meant late night proving bread (hot tip! overnight in the fridge works a treat!) I had to be up early to roll and prove the dough and then bake AND have time for them to cool before packing them up to take on a plane.
That was the first time I travelled with an actual cake on the plane. A large box checked-in with FRAGILE signs all over it! It survived thankfully, only a small bump to fix up.
My Showstopper cake was inspired by our native island state, the blue coastline was of my favourite part of Tas, the East Coast, Freycinet Coastline, down to including my home area of Sandford. The top cake is Apple Spice cake, while also making my own caramel sauce with local leatherwood honey -oh SO GOOD. The base cake was my amazing Chocolate Mud Cake made using chocolate from local An’vers in Latrobe.
Poor hubby only gets the offcuts [insert constant ‘you never make me cake!!’], his fave being Caramel Mud…*drool*…
For my savoury I made a drunk salmon tart, the filling was Tasmanian feta and salmon infused with local Gin…I love my Tassie Gins! And I managed to make puff pastry for the first time! 😊
What has this got to do with Design you say?
Well, I had to answer a few questions about what got me into baking and my attributes in the kitchen -one of my answers was that I am a fast mover -I whip around the kitchen and HATE people in my way. Everything must be where I plan it to be -bins close by, a good dishwasher, easy clean benchtops and cupboard drawers, lots of bench space and space for my appliances. DON’T ANYONE DARE touch my cake equipment!! (it has it's own special cupboard).
So if you want to learn good kitchen design -take it from someone who actually spend a lot of time IN the kitchen, working the kitchen and designing the kitchen -it’s all in the details. Taking the time to look at how you (or your client) functions in the kitchen, what are the pain points and careful consideration of the special design points. These are all things we cover in our online course, Creative Kitchens: Detail and Design Custom Kitchens.
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See you soon!
Trish
