Week beginning April 16th - Our Chef Jared

The advert read something like 'Inspirational Chef de Partie required for Australian Style Cafe'. We had a few applications, but the best by far turned out to be our lead chef for the past two and a half years, Jared Bryant.

I met him in the Scandinavian Kitchen as we were not even open yet, and we discussed his prior experience in Australia and New Zealand, working in similar cafes and also for a while in the Womens Weekly test kitchens in Sydney.

I brought him across to see his 'kitchen', which was was being used as a construction area in the final building stages, and he said 'yes, I will take on the job, when do I start?'

It really wasn't much of a kitchen to start with, our cooker was a four top domestic electric oven, a three door and a two door undercounter fridge and a pretty poor sink area, not much shelving and not much equipment.

Jared worked by himself, six days a week for at least the first six weeks until we became busy enough to justify a second person. I can't remember all that he did in those first few weeks, or how the kitchen really was, but am sure he can. It will make a good story one day.

However now, we have a six burner electric stovetop, 2 commercial ovens, an extra 600 litre stand up fridge and a 400 litre freezer, and a proper sink area and dishwasher, a seperate dry store cupboard and on busy days up to four staff in the kitchen.

We also needed to install 3 phase power to be able to cope with all the electricity he was wanting to use!

A lot of people say we are all about coffee, with a name like Kaffeine why not, but really, and very importantly, we are also equally about food. Food is a very important part of our business, on an equal par with the coffee we serve and the service we provide, and Jared has been absolutely the 'inspirational' chef I was looking for in July 2009.

The way he combines ingredients that you may think would not work but somehow do, into our salads, our sandwiches, or our muffins is amazing. He has a real talent in putting together ingredients to make something special, something different.

We change our salads each week and I think this gives him the opportunity to show that creative flair and to use our suppliers and market conditions to the best possible use.

We are often asked will we do a recipe book and are also asked for recipes for such favorites such as lamingtons, ANZACS, friands and salads. A recipe book would be something Jared especially would really love to do, and we do hope to achieve that one day.

We are lucky because a lot of his recipes are able to be enjoyed via his fabulous blog site which is here.

http://redjarcooking.blogspot.co.uk/

Jared is an integral part of the history, the reputation and I hope the future of Kaffeine and I have much to thank him for. If anyone knows anything about publishing a recipe book, we look forward to hearing from you.

And you must try his new creation, the blueberry friands, amazing....

Breakfast
Porridge - served w choices chopped dried fruit, muscovado sugar, golden syrup or honey 2.70
Traditional bircher muesli with rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.30
Granola muesli with pomegranate molasses and rhubarb and raspberry compote 3.30
Fruit salad (pineapple, mango, strawberries, grapes, passionfruit, peach) 3.50
(add 30 p for granola or yoghurt)
Ciabatta Roll with omelette, pancetta, rocket and tomato salsa 4.70
Ciabatta Roll with courgette omelette, rocket and tomato salsa 4.70
Croissant with Italian roast ham, talleggio cheese, spinach & plum tomatoes 4.70
Croissant with gruyere cheese and plum tomatoes 3.90
Seven seed bakery bloomer toast with homemade preserves 1.70
Cinnamon and raisin toast 2.30
Banana Bread 2.20


Pastries by Seven Seed bakery
French butter croissants 1.70
Pain au chocolat 2.30
Almond croissants 2.70

Baked Treats
Nectarines and wine sweet muffins 2.00
Red onion and parmesan savoury muffins 2.00
Blueberry friands 2.00
Super moist chocolate brownies 2.30
White chocolate blondies 2.30
Portuguese tarts 1.90
ANZAC cookies 1.70
Afgan biscuits 1.70

Lunch

French retro baguettes 4.70
Manchego cheese, plum tomatoes, baked bramley apples, aioli and rocket
Coppa cotta ham with red onion, gherkin, spinach and gruyere

Foccacias with sea salt and rosemary crust 4.90
Roast chicken with brie, salsa verde, spinach
Plum tomato with courgette, peppers, mozzarella, oregano, mayo and rocket

Salads 4.90/5.90
Pulled pork belly on candy beetroot and castel franco
Sea beet with heritage tomato salad
White broccoli served with garlic, chili and rosemary syrup

Tart 4.00 or 6.90 with salad
Jersey Royal rusty