Behind the scenes at Edible Tapestry Tales
Some insprirations: weaving yarns dyed in house at the Australian Tapestry workshop
After stopovers in Dubai, Colombo (Sri Lanka) and Singapore it was finally touchdown in Melbourne on Saturday 17th July. The cold came as bit of shock, having gotten used to the humid heat in Singapore and Summer having already kicked off in Paris, but there was no time to warm myself up by a cosy fire. It was all go go go from the start with my partner in crime, Frankie, having flown in on the same day from Sydney. We hadn't seen each other since the Edible Immigration Tales in March and even though we had been skyping and emailing regularly our ideas, cooking experiments and designs. It's still not quite the same as having a face to face conversation.
Australian Tapestry Workshop in the 'normal state'
A week before the 3 nights, 7 courses, 24 people a night Edible Tapestry Tales kicked off we had the longest a never-ending list of things to do. The first couple of days involved finalising the menu, going to lots of random places in Melbourne (at one point we had to cross a motorway by foot to get to a supplier) and buying all the equipment we were missing.
Work in progress
Unlike the Edible Immigration Tales this event required a whole different level of organisation. The event was part of the State of Design festival, as well as taking place at the Australian Tapestry workshop. We had to hire a kitchen (no oven or hob at the Australian Tapestry workshop but they did have a dishwasher :-) ), crockery, find the waiting staff, deal with the bookings...plus so many other little administrative things that it's impossible to list them all. And all this from not actually being in Melbourne.
We were fortunate enough to have found a wine sponsor, Mollydooker who provided us with some delicious wines and Tanqueray 10 providing the gin for the cocktail. Plus we were hosted by some great friends who helped in every way possible (i.e. being mad enough to let me drive their car around Melbourne ;-) ).
Australian Tapestry Workshop's kitchen before we took it over.
By mid-week the hardcore food prepping kicked off with an enormous order from the butcher (free range/local beef cheeks for 75, smoked bacon, duck breast and toulouse sausages), several visits to South Melbourne market which was also in handy walking distance from the workshops and also had a lovely coffee shop where they serve the perfect remedy i.e. coffee for late nights/early mornings and some super yummy muffins.
At the same time we had all the little objects and accessories to make for the table (mini cardboard looms, hand stitching serviettes and facts, making recycled candleholders and placemats).
Handmade tealight holders made out of recycled jars and leftover weaving yarn.
On the day of the first night we literally took over the workshop. All the weavers had to stop their work as the large looms had to be pushed to the sides to make space for the tables. Everything in the kitchen was cleared away (so no coffee machine and microwave for the staff) aswell as their coffee table area too. Luckily the people at the tapestry workshop were more than accomodating. Once everything was set up. It was last minute or last hours rush to get all the prep done.
Dessert inspiration: punchcard for Jacquard loom
We had worked hard to develop a menu which could handle only one oven and 2 gas rings which meant a lot of switching things around, making sure that one dish didn't need an oven at 80°c and the one immediately after didn't need to be in the oven for 5 hours before the event. So the menu not only had to be delicious, tell the tapestry tales and something Frankie and I could produce but also deal with the limitations in the kitchen.
Making feta macaron to go with Elderflower cocktail.
We were lucky to have two lovely waitresses, plus some brilliant volunteers from the State of Design festival who came in early and helped us out otherwise we would have never finished. Fifteen minutes before the start Frankie was madly rolling out the fresh saffron pasta and absolutely covered in flour....
Frankie making saffron pasta
....Edible Tapestry Tale to be continued.
