Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man, find me a job as fast as you can!

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The Bakehouse at 124 opened in August 2015 but already feels as though it’s been there forever.  Just over a year since opening & it’s already been nominated for ‘Café of the Year’ in the Kent Life Food & Drink Awards!  It’s beginning to become more than just a bakery: we’ve had pizza nights, pop-up chef nights are planned for later this year and there are other exciting plans ‘in the proving drawer’.    We’re featuring them this week as they have two positions available; the shop manager role could work as a job share with the right applicants. Read on if you knead some dough…(sorry, had to get dough in there somehow!)  More jobs on offer on the Eat Around Tonbridge Jobs’ Board.  Good Luck! Eat Reviewer Trainee Baker Fancy a change of career? Willing to learn and work hard?  Love food and working in a team? Well why not think about joining the team at The Bakehouse? The Bakehouse is a supporter of The Real Bread Campaign and as such uses slow bread methods to create fantastic sourdoughs, British sweet doughs and all vennoiserie made in the open-plan on-site Bakehouse for sale and consumption within The Bakehouse but also wholesale.  With the expansion of wholesale and evening events the Baker will be joining a team to support this exciting expansion of work.  The mixing and preparation work is carried during a day shift with the baking of goods completed prior to the shop opening at 8am; there is a rolling shift pattern, shared with the other bakers in the team.  There will also be scope to support pizza evenings which have proved such a great success and other planned events. Work to include:  Feeding starters  Mixing and shaping all doughs within the time constraints of a busy bakery  Mixing and producing vennoiserie doughs for pastries, croissants etc, brioche product and    traditional British sweet dough products  Preparing all inclusions for all baked products  Baking all products and finishing to a high, consistent standard  Test baking new products  Being part of a team and with that joining in where necessary other parts of the business  Keeping accurate HSE records     Maintaining a high level of clean working practices Salary:  POAHours:  Rolling shift pattern based on an 8 hour working day, 5 day working week to include Friday and SaturdayPlease contact Clare on 01732 360382 or email info@thebakehouse124.co.uk Shop Manager At The Bakehouse we believe that service is key to our customers, whether that is giving a welcoming greeting, helping to seat them with their drinks, ensuring that their dietary requirements are understood or being able to explain all about the bread, food, cakes and pastries that we sell. Since opening The Bakehouse has become a community meeting place and we wish to encourage this feeling whether it’s a U3A group, young mums, business meetings or just friends chatting. SO Do you have experience in Hospitality Management? Do you know how to motivate and manage staff to get the very best from them? Do you have experience of a good Health and Safety programme within the food industry? Do you have an appreciation of Speciality Coffee? Do you love food? Are you good with people? The shop management includes:   Being the Front of House face of The Bakehouse, welcoming customers and ensuring they have a good experience during their visit  Managing all staff throughout the day to provide sufficient cover whether on the counter, in the shop or helping our teams in the bakery or prep kitchen.  Manage all staffing issues, whether recruitment, holiday or salary issues  Liaising with the Bakery Supervisor with regard to product “sold” from the bakery to the shop.  Ensuring the shop is set up ready for the opening time  Working on incentive schemes for the staff  Helping train our Shop Supervisor  Participate in all shop cashing up procedures  Participating in menu choices for the shop  Ensuring that all opening and closing procedures are adhered to  Ensuring that all Health and Safety Procedures are undertaken and recorded correctly Salary:  POAHours:  Up to 48 hours, 5 day working week to include SaturdayPlease contact Clare on 01732 360382 or email info@thebakehouse124.co.uk

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Guest Blog – Finding a pallette to suit your palate

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This week we have a guest blog by Anna Ward from Furnished by Anna .  Thank you Anna! We know that what we wear, how we look, ‘our style’, says a lot about us.  And the same applies to eating places.  In a previous Eat Around Tonbridge blog, Jennie Kenny of Beyond the Grounds explained how, when designing her café, she wanted it to feel homely, as if you are entering someone’s sitting room.  Restauranteurs and café owners know how they want customers to feel and work with designers to create that look.  Eat Reviewer has invited me to write a guest blog to discuss how the interior of a restaurant or café wants to make you feel… Wood, metal and muted tones – that’s what stands out to me when I walk into Graze. The tables are wooden but look slightly worn and weathered, with sturdy, ‘functional’ metal legs; the floor is wooden; and there is wood panelling on the walls.  The metal accents continue with the chairs, the bar & the vintage, grey pendant lights, the soft greys picked up in the choice of wall colours too.  The exposed brickwork behind the bar provides texture and draws the eye, marking it out as different to the rest of the restaurant.      The large, original windows overlooking the High Street let the natural light stream in and ‘natural’ is the theme which brings all these details together.  The place feels rustic, stripped back, calm; it feels homemade.  To the consumer this says, “Eat here, the food is fresh, natural, made on site, ‘just like mother used to make’”.  You’re not stepping back in time in Graze at all, but in this world of ‘bling’ we live in, the nostalgic ambience with a modern twist is a winning formula: look at Cook!, Gregg’s and even KFC in Tonbridge.  All of these places have recently undergone a refit and have incorporated wood and exposed brick.  And they’re not alone; this style is global, making us feel safe and secure in what we can expect, even when abroad. Let’s wander up the High Street to Havet.  It also uses grey but this time to create a classy, modern exterior – the double fronted large restaurant creates quite a statement.  Havet’s interiors are not subtle, they’re clamouring for attention, saying fun, glamour, affluence & decadence.  How do they achieve that?      You walk into a cool marble restaurant which stretches a long way back – the light bounces off the marble, making the space feel even larger and creating a sense of opulence.  They use rich, bold colours (teal and tan) & luxurious leather for the seating.  The marble is a muted grey as at Graze but at Havet, it’s offset with matt gold detailing – understated glamour.  And guess what?  At Havet they also have stone tiled walls (shades of grey) and wood detailing, a nod to their ethos: ‘fresh food daily’.  Two restaurants on Tonbridge High Street that have opened in the last year – contrasting styles but using similar themes to create distinctive eating experiences.   Anna can be found on Facebook, Twitter @fbainteriors and Instagram furnishedbyanna.

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A little birdie told me….all about Finch House, Tonbridge

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Tonbridge has a great deal of energy at the moment and some of that is thanks to the foodie scene and the people who are taking a leap of faith and going for it.  Daron Goldfinch was one of those people four and a half years ago.  If you hadn’t already realised from the name, Daron is the man behind Finch House, the café that brightened up our High Street & kick started the boom that we’re now enjoying.  Despite the growth of Tonbridge’s café culture since then, Daron has managed to stave off competition and remain a stalwart on our High Street thanks to the high quality of his food and service, two of Daron’s passions.  Daron trained as a surveyor but then decided to follow his dream of working in the food & drink industry.  This journey saw him training with Starbucks (before we knew who Starbucks were); learning about coffee in Italy; opening some coffee shops of his own and then consulting for Konditor & Cook, the cult London cake bakers. During this time he realised that there was a gap in the market for a café that served “the best quality food, sourced locally, made fresh that day”, he tells me.  He returned to his home town, and despite the nay-sayers telling him “he was mad”, opened Finch House.  “Made by Us” is award-winning Finch House’s slogan which concisely sums up their ethos.  Quality of taste is very important to Daron & they do use produce sourced as locally as possible – Kent cherries, Sussex Ham & Owlett’s juices to name but a few – in their diverse menu full of tempting small dishes and treats.  Their coffee is a bespoke blend (using coffee beans that are also found in some of the country’s Michelin starred restaurants) and all the mouth-watering cakes and pastries are made on site. The Finch House experience could also be described as “Made by Us”.  The quality of the customer service they deliver is tested month on month by mystery shoppers who document their findings in detailed reports (praised staff members are awarded vouchers).  Daron is a great employer (don’t worry Daron didn’t tell me this himself – I have my inside sources) and is repaid with loyalty –  many of his staff has been with him for a sizeable chunk of his four and a half year tenure.  And Daron, the ‘good egg’, doesn’t stop there.  He is keen to support local events such as the Tonbridge Half Marathon and the Dragon Boat Racing, local schools (he supports three around the town) and local charity Porchlight – at the end of each working day, any surplus food is donated to them.  Porchlight tell me that “this really helps young people who are struggling with money, people who are on benefits and perhaps have to wait for their benefits to come through….we also use the food for our outreach programme.  We’ll take some of the food with us to give to homeless people .” Daron was the first Tonbridge foodie pioneer, in my opinion, and he has paved the way for many more eating places.  He really fired up people’s imaginations about what Tonbridge could become.  Finch House is constantly striving to improve and evolve not only within its café but as a brand itself – there is now a Finch House Orpington and a third one is in planning.  This birdie is spreading its wings…  It’s great that Tonbridge can say it hosts the flagship café of a very successful, homegrown brand. Good luck to Daron & the team at the Kent Life & Kent on Sunday Food & Drink Awards on Monday- they’re entered in the Best Cafe’ category!     If you’d like to learn more about the charity Porchlight, click here. Daron has kindly donated a prize for the Eat Around Tonbridge ’12 Days of Feastmas’ competition so remember to keep checking the website, Twitter (@eat_tonbridge) or Facebook page.  I’m also now on Instagram- eat_tonbridge. To read about Tonbridge’s other foodie pioneers in their fields, click here for Ben Sulston of Sulston’s Kitchen and here for The Old Fire Station.          

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Nancy’s Tea Rooms, Lambert’s Yard, Tonbridge, 22 September 2016

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Nancy’s Tea Room opened in August, after teasing us with its makeover for quite some time (previously there were some public loos there!).  It’s a quaint looking bright white, timber building near the river, Tonbridge Park and the High Street.  The signage is traditional and the overall effect is one of nostalgia for tea rooms of my childhood, before the arrival of the coffee chains. Katie, the owner – the tea room is named after her daughter – offers a simple menu of jacket potatoes, sandwiches, paninis and the like, and of course, home made cakes.  My friends and I sat upstairs, which is larger than it looks, and ordered sandwiches and a cream tea. Cheese and pickle The service was very prompt and attentive and the sandwiches didn’t take long at all to arrive.  I ordered one of my childhood faves of cheese and pickle and I was not disappointed.  The sandwiches were very generously filled (my friend’s tuna mayo sandwich was too) and really tasty.  I appreciate it’s hard to go wrong with a cheese and pickle sandwich but some places do, providing limp, sparsely filled offerings where the cheese is sliced and not grated…little things like that matter.  The cream tea came with plenty of cream and jam; I had recently tasted a bad scone (overwhelming margarine taste) so my taste buds were piqued with anticipation but there was nothing to worry about, this one was fine. Always forget to take the pics! Red velvet, chocolate fudge, orange and lemon cakes were on offer and I plumped for a slice of lemon and a slice of orange to takeaway (to share with my children I hasten to add).  The cakes were moist, although I think the orange and lemon flavours could have been a little stronger so that you really experience a citrus hit.  They were perfectly decorated with just the right amount of icing, adorned with a candied orange/lemon slice.  We thoroughly enjoyed them!  Nancy’s has found a niche in Tonbridge I think and has differentiated itself from some of the other cafes gracing the High Street with its simplicity and nod to a bygone era – these qualities make it feel easy, welcoming and homely.  I will definitely return.        

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