Big things from tiny start
FRANCA Zingler’s first food sales in the Huon were in 2015 from a 1972 Kombi van selling fresh waffles at the Mid Winter Festival at Willie Smith’s.
Later Asher Gilding joined her “flipping burgers” from the same tiny quarters.
Together, they moved on to running a tiny diner in Cygnet’s main street, which morphed into a catering business.
“It was just the two of us,” said Franca.
“And then when we had a gig on, we would get staff for just a few hours.
“We were walking around here the other day, and said to each other ‘look at this, there are so many people here’. “It’s a very different set-up.” “Here” is the cavernous former canning factory that quickly became the backbone of Cygnet employment after it opened in 1939.
Their diner would seat 16, The Port Cygnet Cannery can seat 110 – and another 100 when the courtyard and grassed beer garden open.
And that is only half the site, because at the other end, Paul and Gilli Lipscombe of Sailor Seeks Horse will do their winemaking and have their barrel room and cellar door.
This will also be the function room.
There will be no more
outside catering but Asher says they are expecting to host many weddings.
The Cannery has been open for two weekends now, feeding more than 500 people between
4pm Friday and 4pm Sunday each time.
Asher’s father and stepmother Paul and Michelle Gilding became owners of the building four years ago, and
Michelle began managing the complicated and expensive job of turning the building, that used to house coring, peeling, juicing, drying and canning machinery for apple pie filling, into an exciting eatery.
Franca says her in-laws (she and Asher married in the Faroe Islands last year) began with “just a feeling it could be something nice” rather than a plan.
Michelle confirmed that the first idea was to let the space to different businesses, “but we always knew it was going to be an agricultural and food thing; we wanted it to be true to its roots”, she said.
About a year ago Asher and Franca and Dante the Inferno all came on board.
Dante is a pizza oven from Italy. It weighs three tonnes and
needed a specially hired forklift to move it around.
“People try to pigeonhole new places, but we are just cooking food that we like eating,” said Asher.
“We’re not Italian, not pub food. It’s based around the wood fire.”
There is the pizza oven and they cook wallaby skewers over the charcoal grill.
Their scorched pizzas owe more to Japan than Italy.
“I have tried pizza in Naples and Tokyo and pizza in Tokyo is better,” said Asher.
The pizzas are sparsely dressed. They use organic flour and a sourdough starter.
Or you might like Gardeners Bae pizza – Gardners Bay being where the Cannery Farm is, and bae a pop culture nickname for girlfriend or boyfriend. It features kale, spinach and greens from the farm, topped with house-made ricotta and more herbs.
“It looks very healthy but is very cheesy as well,” said Asher.
Asher is pleased with how popular the flathead has been.
The fish is brined and smoked and served with a spicy peanut sambal, pickled eggplant, coriander and samphire picked in the bay out the window.
The staff reflects the mix of tastes.
Restaurant manager Tina Soggemoen is from Norway via Melbourne. A bartender is from Sweden, a cook from Lymington down the road.
Brett Clifford in the kitchen and Phil O’Donnell running the farm, are both former Fat Pig Farm employees.
Franca said: “We have pulled together a really nice team of people who know the community very well and people who have just moved here but have lots of hospitality experience.”
So far, apples do not feature on the menu.
They are not in season yet and I can’t imagine, despite the genesis of their enterprise, Asher or Franca reaching for a can of pie filling.
This is my last word until early next year. Enjoy your summer feasting.