Geraldine is a lovely rural town in South Canterbury in the South Island of Aotearoa, New Zealand and it is also home to the family-owned business, Barker's. Barker's have been filling kiwi pantries since 1969 and their products are still made on the family farm in Geraldine. I remember Barker's blackcurrant syrup and Barker's jams when I was growing up, but they have so many more products than that now: chutneys, sauces, compotes and meal bases. I was pleasantly surprised when I was walking down Park Street in South Melbourne to see the Barker's Footsore and Eatery sign and had to go in. The cafe stocks a lot of Barker's products and chef, Elle Casta's menu showcases them. Elle started her cheffing career a little later after working as a paralegal and then in advertising. She always loved cooking for her friends and, after apprenticeships at Ocha in Kew and Vue de Monde, her love for cooking only grew and there was no looking back. She now very happily works day shifts and particularly loves her loyal following of the Barkers dogs for whom she bakes big batches of peanut butter and oatmeal cookies every day.
Conversation with a chef: Nice to see you again, Elle.
Elle Casta: It has been so busy today.
Are there busier days than others?
Normally, we're busy mostly on the weekend, really busy. Weekdays can be busy, but not like today. Today was super busy, like the weekend. I'm by myself here. I work in the kitchen, cook, clean, prep, dishwashing, everything. The barista does all the coffees and takes orders and stuff like that. It's so hard to predict. One day you'll be like so quiet and then other days it's busy.
It must be really hard to know how to plan for that, then, in the morning when you're doing prep.
I have such a small fridge, everything is prepped fresh in the morning and if I have to during service. For example, like, avocado toast. I don't do my avocado before. I cut to order. Same as the lime.
The other day when I came in, I was intrigued by the fact that it's Barker's from Geraldine, and I'm from New Zealand. You were telling me about how the menu is all based around the Barker's products to showcase their product. So canyou tell me about some of the dishes where you use those products.
Each dish showcases a different product. One of my very favourite popular dishes is the three cheese omelette. It showcases the green tomato chutney. And the idea of it, especially for the new customers is that they will eat it and like it and then they can buy the product to take home. I would say our customers are 90% local and a lot of puppies here as you can see. All my regular puppies come in to see me as well, like, Dougal, Bro.
And you make dog biscuits for them as well.
Yes, I make them from peanut butter, oatmeal, and a little bit of flour just to bind it. Then I cook them fresh every morning. It's like a little cookie. It's actually a human recipe.
How many of those would you go through in a day?
I would say 500 grams a day, give or take, depending which dogs come in. Bro can eat a lot of biscuits.
How do you work that recipe out? How did you know that was a good one for dogs?
Because I know for the fact that oat is good for their skin and all dogs love peanut butter. The main ingredient is the peanut butter. I did one time without the peanut butter, just oats. They wouldn't eat it.
How many different Barkers products have you got here? It's a lot more than I remember.
We have at least 200. We have five different flavours of compote. At least ten chutneys.We sell a lot of products online as well. We go through a lot of product. Every three months, we have to restock a pallet.
You were saying you went over to Geraldine and visited the factory and farms.
Yes. I've been with them since we opened, which is for two years and three months. I told them, I really wanted to see the factory and the one main store. The one in Geraldine is even better. As soon as you walk in, its full of product.
What did you notice when you were there? What was interesting about actually going to the factory and seeing it?
Oh, just to see how they actually sell tons and tons of the product. Woolworths and Coles also use their products. Especially in the bakery. Tons and tons of product. They're actually developing another factory right now.It's really, really big in New Zealand. Not so much in Melbourne yet, but we have a lot of regular customers now who know about it. But at first, when we opened, a lot of people thought Geraldine was my name.
And the fruit and vegetables, are they are they all grown locally in Geraldine?
In New Zealand.
Where's the other factory going to be?
Next to it. Just side by side.
It's a big menu. How often how often would you change the menu?
Every 3 months. But I keep the popular dishes, like, the three cheese omelette and the avocado toast. I have regular customers coming in just for that. So I can't really change it.
What's the Barker's farmhouse breakfast, is that like a big breakfast?
Yes. I'm showcasing Barker's red pepper chili jam in there.
Do you have a favourite product?
Yes. My favourite product is the green tomato chutney. It's sweet and a bit spicy.
When I was at uni, I used to go out with my friends on Saturday night. By Sunday morning, we would end up at someone’s house, and we were hungry. I’d go to their pantry and start cooking and putting dishes out. My friends said to me, Elle, you need to pursue this career. I think you have a talent there. You really need to do this. I liked cooking at home, but I never thought it would be a career. My friends were amazed at how I could turn food from the pantry and the fridge, and we were uni students to begin with, so we didn’t have a lot of ingredients to play with, and make it into dishes they loved. I’m glad I listened to them. ~ Elle Casta, Barker’s Foodstore & Eatery
Before working here, where were you working?
I did my apprenticeship at Ocha. It's a modern Japanese restaurant. At the time, it was a one hat restaurant in Kew. I worked with Yasu San. He was really strict and that's where I picked up all the good things: work ethic, how strict we are, how clean. I was with him for a year and then I tried to apply for another apprenticeship because I wanted to learn modern Australian. I was lucky enough get chosen Vue de Monde. So I started my second year apprentice with Vue de Monde at Caf Vue at Heide Museum. I think it was 11 years ago now. It was beautiful. Once a month, we would work with the gallery, and if, for example, the gallery was showcasing the colour green, the head chef would create a menu that has the colour green in it. Shannon Bennett would be there for wedding functions. We had weddings every Friday, Saturday night during spring and summer season. Even as an apprentice, we were not allowed to go on holiday or anything. They lock you in for 6 months. After Caf Vue, I learned a lot, so they moved me to Bistro Vue.
After three years I finished up my apprenticeship, I got my certificate. I was really happy.
It was really hard work for the two and a half years when I was there, but it's really good. We learned a lot. We didnt mind the long hours because it was so good. I'm still in contact with all my friends that I used to work with there through Facebook and Instagram. Three years later, I came back as the head chef Jardin Tan, which belonged to them as well. It was modern Vietnamese with French technique. When I was an apprentice, I had a teacher called Richard, and he came to see me once a week just to learn theory. He was so surprised when I came back as the head chef of Jardin Tan.
That was quite fast then to become a head chef. It's a big step up from being a commis or a sous chef to being a head chef. What was the most challenging thing for you?
People. People are the most challenging. But if you're kind to them and you don't treat them like you are superior to them, then there's no problem. All my chefs that I worked with were like brothers and sisters at the time when we worked together. We looked after each other. Most of my friends that I used to work with, all the apprentices, they have become somebody now. For example, Jodie. I think you had her on your podcast. She and her boyfriend opened a restaurant in Warragul. We did our apprenticeship together. And Justin James, used to be our executive chef, and he was from Eleven Madison Park. Right now he is working at Botanical in Adelaide. He's about to open his own restaurant. Clinton Mciver from Amaru was my sous chef and now he has a three hat restaurant.
Where do you get your inspiration? Is it from talking to other chefs, or is it from YouTube? Do you look at books?
From chefs I look up to or from Instagram. I follow a lot of famous restaurants. I always like dishes that are not too complicated. Simple, but done right.
Yes. It's quite different to be working in a daytime cafe rather than fine dining. What do you like about working here?
What I like about breakfast and brunch, is the hours. That's the best part. Im an early person. I like to wake up early. But I do miss cooking fine dining food. I do miss cooking beautiful dinners where there's more technique involved. With cafe food, you can't really do that kind of food. You don't have the labour, you don't have the ingredients. Because if we do those dishes, it would be $50 per dish.
What do you do to feed that desire or to stimulate that need to cook fine dining? Do you cook for your friends?
I cook at home. I love cooking at home. My boyfriend is my guinea pig. We live in a studio apartment, so it's a little bit hard to invite my friends. But that's how I started my apprentice as a chef. I wasn't a chef at the start. I was actually working for a paralegal company, dealing with a lot of state revenue offices and title offices. I was there for three years until I decided it wasnt what I wanted to do. I decided to go back to uni to study advertising. I always wanted to do advertising. When I was young, I would tell my dad to buy me VHS tapes so I could tape all the ads instead of the show, because I was fascinated by the ads. I did my uni and once I finished that, I did an internship for six months and I realized maybe it wasnt for me. I didn't like the office culture. It was quite toxic. And I was young at the time as well. When I was at uni, I used to go out with my friends on Saturday night. By Sunday morning, we would end up at someone's house, and we were hungry. I'd go to their pantry and start cooking and putting dishes out. My friends said to me, Elle, you need to pursue this career. I think you have a talent there. You really need to do this. I liked cooking at home, but I never thought it would be a career. My friends were amazed at how I could turn food from the pantry and the fridge, and we were uni students to begin with, so we didn't have a lot of ingredients to play with, and make it into dishes they loved. I'm glad I listened to them.
How long have you been cooking now?
Almost 12 years.
And you're happy with that choice?
Yes. I don't think I'm going to chase any more careers. This is it. This is the career I would like to do. Eventually, Id like to move more towards being a salesperson, selling Barkers products to professionals. Once my body is not as young.
It's a hard job. You're on your feet all day. I mean, we say that, but to actually think about someone being on their feet all day, it's a big deal.
And with working with this place, it's even harder. I'm not just cooking. I also take the food out to the customer. So it's like a front of house and back of house job combined in one.
Did you ever think about having your own place?
Before Covid, definitely. After Covid, I see a lot of businesses opening, closing, opening, closing. Its very hard.
It feels a little bit like here, you've got the best of both worlds because, lots of people when they've come in, they know you and if you're coming out and talking to customers as well when you bring the food out, that's a really nice way of doing things.
That's how I become friends with a lot of my older customers. Most of them are retired people. And they love it. They love talking and chatting about anything.
Do you go out to eat?
Yes. I love it.
What's your favourite kind of food?
I love food that is not too complicated, like modern Australian. Yesterday, we had a Christmas party with this group. We went to Bistro Guillaume, the French restaurant. It was really, really beautiful. Just simple, but done right. Thats what I learned at Vue de Monde as well.
Given that you didn't come straight into the chef industry, and sometimes when we start things a bit later in life, you learn in a different way. What would your advice be to people who are starting out as chefs?
I think it's actually better to start later because you take it more seriously. If you're really passionate about it, once you pursue it, you can pick it up very quickly because you put your heart into it and you have a work ethic. You can become somebody when you start as a mature apprentice. If you start at 18, you probably think you want to be out with your friends drinking. But I had done all that. When I started, I had passed that 18 years old party life. I didnt feel like I was missing out on the party. I would say it's the best to start at 21or 22.
Barker's Foodstore and Eatery, 231-233 Park Street, South Melbourne