About Mary & Steve.

In 1978 Mary and Steve started out making healthy lunches for local Carlton primary schools. 42 years later, Mary and Steve still work in the business along with their daughter Gina. The first employees of the business were the Italian nonna’s living on our street. The strong Italian heritage of our local area still shines through our food and community ties.

The initial ethos of the business was to use seasonal and locally sourced ingredients to make lunches for school teachers. Everything was made on the day from the best raw ingredients available at the Queen Victoria Market. This dedication to freshness, Victorian food production and innovative, tasty cooking remains the backbone of our business today.

Our family business extends beyond the blood relations (although plenty of those work in the business!) – most of our employees have been with us for decades and we have interwoven our lives around a passion for food, family and balance.

Creative, Colourful and Seasonal Food.

We have always made our food from the freshest ingredients available. Our experienced kitchen staff have a diverse range of talents. We make everything on site including our own breads, pastries, stocks, sauces and preserves.

We do not use any prepared frozen products or outsource to any third parties so our menus evolve through our collective interest in creating new ideas.

Starting early in the morning, we make everything on the day it is consumed, for example our unbleached organic flour rolls and baguettes. This ensures our food is always exceptionally fresh, visually appealing and nutritious.

 

 

 

Painting by Mary Ferrier. 

View our menu samples

Our Environmental Commitment.

Since our operations started in the 1970’s, we have always been keenly focused on minimizing our environmental impact.

Our waste management includes our onsite composting system, extensive recycling program and distribution of leftover food to several local not-for-profit organizations. Through our sourcing of ingredients, suppliers, services and utilities we are constantly looking for ways to lessen our carbon footprint.

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Supporting Victorian Food Production.

We source from local suppliers, keeping organic where possible, and endeavour to keep low food miles. The Queen Victoria Market is our main source of ingredients where the suppliers are either the farmers themselves or source from local growers.

Through this method of sourcing, we are able to support Victorian food production as well as consistently use ingredients of exceptional standard. We source directly from farms where possible – for example, our olive oil, honey, mushrooms and berries.