It was a crisp morning in June that we drove out to the Mornington Peninsula in search of the Red Hill Kitchen and its baker, Bernie.
There was next to nothing online about Bernie and his kitchen, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. What we did know was that he makes and sells baked goods and provisions on a cherry-picking farm in Red Hill.
So when we pulled up to the quaint weatherboard where Bernie lives with his wife and two children, and saw the sign out front stating the open hours were Friday and Saturday, until sold out, we were glad we’d come early.
The small shop was tightly packed with locals stocking up on duck pies, pork rillettes, chutney and quiches for the weekend. Bernie was behind the counter, chatting to a neighbour about what he might do with the five ducks in the chicken coop.
The walls were lined with shelves of quince paste, watermelon and rose petal jam, and persevered lemon and spiced carrot chutney next to kitchen bric-a-brac like a rusty bottle holder, an old meat mincer and a basket of wooden rolling pins that Bernie had hand turned himself.
When the shop quietened down a bit we sat down with the baker for a cuppa to wash down a buttery Monte Carlo he’d made early that morning.
NM: This is the kind of place you’d only know about from a local; how do people find out you’re here?
B: I like working, cooking and talking, so it’s all word of mouth; and through people who live here. We’re in a really good area, it spreads pretty well.
How many people come in every day?
At the moment, probably about 20 people – but we’ve got fairly reasonable sales so we don’t need a lot people. It’s all I can manage now, doing the serving and cooking myself.
Does that mean you’re baking all week?
We do the wholesale orders at the start of week. Then I’ll start getting things and prepping things up for the rest of the week, to make it easier when I have to make all the pies, cakes and tarts. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are fairly busy.
What are your specialties?
Oh, gosh… everything! This morning it was the orange mousse tarts and this is a chocolate pastry I’m making now – it’s very short but has a lot of butter and a lot of cocoa, just egg yolks and no water or anything. So it’s very short and tasty; short as in crispy. It’s beautiful.
What are the best sellers here?
Pies. We’re only open for two days and we sell about 150, which is more than adequate. If it started to go more than that, [we’d] have to change the way [we] work. The smaller the volume the better, and it gives me variety. It allows me to make different things every day, and the enjoyment level is a lot higher.
The Red Hill Kitchen
69 Prossors Lane
Red Hill 3937
(03) 5931 0186
|
