CHEF’S CAKES ARE NOT GOING TO WAIST
CHEF Nigella Lawson coined the hashtag #fattenthecurve when she admitted that self-isolation saw her eating a sharing-size bar of chocolate every evening.
The Twitter hashtag has seen people posting their own stories of over-indulgence, and has also spawned another phrase – the Covid stone – as people comforteat in these harrowing times.
But it has also been the saving of a Dublin patisserie which faced disaster when its usual customers – hotels, airlines and weddings – crashed virtually overnight thanks to the coronavirus.
Robert Bullock, of the awardwinning business Le Patissier, said his €30 mixed boxes of gourmet goodies were flying out of the doors, together with chocolate fudge cakes and large lemon meringue tarts.
He said: ‘I started this business eight years ago, and now I have had to let all my staff go. There were 16 of us, doing corporate hospitality for Croke Park, the Aviva stadium, a lot of hotels – that all died down far quicker than anyone could have expected. I was left with no choice but to announce shortterm lay-offs.’ Robert said it was now just him, working in a 4,500sq ft kitchen in Mulhuddart, Dublin 15, but that social media exposure had seen his orders surge.
He said: ‘You could argue it’s a non-essential business. But I’m at work anyway, and people are clicking and collecting.’
With the closure of the Krispy Kreme outlet nearby, he has also created some upmarket doughnuts filled with chocolate mousse, raspberry and passion fruit, and a crunchy praline crémeux – which are definitely not for the kids.