SWEET TREATS
Fiona McAlpine listens to true crime podcasts when she’s standing in the kitchen late into the evening baking the sweet treats she’s built her Hobart reputation on. She’s worried that admission will make her sound creepy but this friendly foodie with the slightest hint of fairy-floss pink in her naturally blonde hair is a bubble of veraciousness.
Regulars to the Farm Gate Market will likely remember her welcoming smile and brightly coloured, scarf-wrapped head as she stood behind her sweet treats in a repurposed, butter cream horse float shop front. But in October she said goodbye to her regular Sunday stall and is now selling her cakes, tarts, pastries and cookies exclusively from her Geeveston corner store.
The move, she says, has enabled her to grow from a little bakery business on wheels to a slightly bigger bricks-andmortar patisserie and providore that opened at the beginning of November. The Baker & Co Providore & Patisserie combines all of Mcalpine’s loves: delicious food, timeless design, good quality cookware and gorgeous gifts in one place.
It’s not just about sweet treats anymore — though coffee lovers will still be tempted by mountains of cookies and biscotti and the dessert bar filled with her perfectly-presented sugary goods as they wait for their brew. But they will also be able to pick up freshly-cut flowers by the stem, special gifts McAlpine believes the locals will respond well to. Her favourite books on cooking and gardening, timeless and good-quality cookware such as her grandmother used, bits and pieces including enamel jam pots, as well as stylish, local gifts such as linen tea towels.
She says there’s a plethora of delicious food on offer. The range includes interesting salads, slow-cooked pies, Tassie cheeses and olives, fancy meats, jams, balsamic glazes, granola, gourmet rolls and sandwiches, home-cooked meals and freshlybaked sourdough and baguettes, topped up with some specially-delivered artisan breads.
Almost everything is made on site and as much as possible, McAlpine sources locally. “Local growers will come to my door and I will take whatever they have,” she says. “As much as I can, I buy from growers in the valley.”
McAlpine is nuts about picnics and offers a picnic hamperordering service, prepared to specific budgets and personally designed and gift wrapped in brown paper and string.
She’s baking special occasion cakes, offering a catering service and plans to hold four intimate dinners at the turn of each season run by guest chefs who will match meals to local wines. “There’s nothing like this in Geeveston,” McAlpine says. “Not even in Hobart.”
McAlpine fell in love with Tasmania after a 10-day holiday and moved here with her daughter Ella from the Margaret River region four years ago after owning and running restaurants and catering businesses there. She counts a lot of her Farm Gate customers as friends and extended family and says many have promised to drive the hour from the city to treat themselves.
For relaxation she enjoys flicking through cookbooks and magazines scattered around her recently purchased, Geeveston cottage just down the road. “I don’t get bossed around by recipes,” she says.
“I just love feeding people. I love cooking. And I’m happiest when I’m in the kitchen.”