Adelaideβs Orange Spot Bakery has proven itβs a force to be reckoned with after claiming the Great Aussie Pastie Competition crown for the fourth year in a row. Australian Baking Business catches up with owner Nick Davey to talk about his tricks of the trade.
Tucked away in the seaside suburb of Glenelg, South Australia, is the Orange Spot Bakery. With a laid-back atmosphere and unassuming exterior it would be possible to overlook the store as being just another bakery. However, a quick glimpse into the trophy cabinet tells a very different story.
There is a lot of variety in the bakery. The cabinets are filled daily with sourdough and plain breads that sit alongside buns, cakes and savoury lines. However, itβs the pasties that have helped to put this suburban bakery on the map, with owner Nick Davey and his team taking out the Great Aussie Pastie Competition four years in a row.
Constructing an award-winning pastie in a different state to where it will be judged could never be an easy process, but itβs one Nick says theyβve got down to a fine art.
βWeβve got the tyranny of distance against us when it comes to this competition. We have to make the pastie here and then take it to the competition the day before [judging], which kind of works against you a bit,β Nick says.
βBut weβve got it down pat. We did a lot of test runs over the years where we sent pasties to friends and relatives interstate and said to them, βgive us a report back on how it got there, how it travelled and, if you donβt mind, a temperature reading as wellβ. So we now know how to chill them down as much as possible without actually freezing them and try to cut it as fine as possible to get to the competition rather than letting it sit around all day.β
Itβs a technique that works and, over the years, Orange Spot Bakery has taken out the top award not only for their plain pasties but also for their gourmet and vegetarian varieties as well.
Steadfastly tight-lipped about the ingredients he uses to create the award-winning products, Nick says he has a few non-negotiables when it comes to creating his pasties.
βThe basic thing is the quality of the ingredients that we use. Let me put it this way; I pay more for a kilo of potatoes than youβd spend buying 5kg of potatoes in the supermarket. We search out the best of the best with regards to ingredients to go into the pasties,β Nick says.
βThe judges always say when they cut into the pastie that they canβt believe the colour that is in there and the quality of the vegetables. The judge last year said in 25 years of judging heβd never seen anything like the pastry we produced, which is a real buzz. That means youβre definitely doing something right when a judge says that.β
Beyond investing in good quality ingredients, however, Nick says constant innovation is key to creating a successful product range in any bakery. And heβs a man of his word, often revisiting some of his products on a weekly basis until theyβre perfected.
βI keep saying to my staff that if we entered the product that won this competition four years ago into this yearβs competition, it would not get us anywhere. You canβt just sit back and rest on your laurels, you have to constantly improve on what youβre doing,β Nick says.
βWeβre forever looking at how we could introduce something new, or we try to work out if thereβs anything we can do better this week than we did last week. It might just be a little change, but a couple of times weβve made massive changes that have paid off.β
Clearly passionate about what he does, Nickβs enthusiasm is contagious and his staff will often bring back goods from other bakeries for the Orange Spot Bakery team to dissect and draw inspiration from.
Likewise, customer feedback and product popularity are also instrumental in deciding what products will line the shelves day-to-day.
βIβm one of those people who go interstate and the first thing I want to do is go to a bakery just to see whatβs happening,” Nick says.
“Iβm not backwards in coming forwards either, so if I see something I donβt understand Iβll ask the baker or go back and buy half a dozen of the product, sit down and dissect them until Iβve worked out what theyβve done.
βThatβs probably the best way to do it, to look at your product versus someone elseβs and it gives you an indication about where you actually stand in the market place.β
A favourite hotspot with locals and tourists alike, the recent addition of a cafΓ© component to Orange Spot Bakery has seen business boom in recent months. But as befits a beachside bakery, the days still tend to be quite relaxed with an emphasis placed on quality over quantity.
Consistently working 24-hours ahead of schedule, the shelves at Orange Spot Bakery are regularly re-stocked throughout the day, which can result in a long day but one that Nick says is rewarding nevertheless.
βI donβt like to rush my work for two reasons. The first is that Iβm getting old, and the second is [I like to say] letβs do it once, but do it properly. Letβs take our time and make sure the product turns out to be the best it can be and then move on to the next one,” he says.
“I donβt want to have to re-do something because someone was like a bull at a gate and the product turns out rubbish.
βWe try to make sure we stock something for everybody, and are also quite well-known in the area for our doughnuts, sourdough breads and huge range of pies.β
But it all comes back to their perfected pastie.
βPeople actually search us out now for our pasties; not just locals but tourists and people from interstate as well. It seems like everyone has heard about us and theyβll come in and say, βoh, we heard this is the best pastie in Australiaβ,β Nick says.
βTheyβll usually buy one and walk out the door before turning around and asking for another one. And thatβs the important thing β itβs one thing to win these awards but youβve then got to reproduce that product every day of the week.
“Thatβs what we aim to do and thatβs why weβve been successful.β
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