Page 20 - foodservice news - July 2018

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DINING
Owning a business was eye-opening in every sense. “From the stress of cash flow and rising costs to keeping staff happy,
I don’t think anyone ever fully knows what they’re signing themselves up for.” He recalls being an employee and simply throwing out whole desserts if they weren’t up to snuff.
Wildfire, but the owners turned it down. “When Greg said he was going to serve fried chicken, I said: ‘I have the perfect dessert for you.’”
That was more or less the beginning of what you would now call Bowden’s much-imitated style. Freed from the confines of fine dining, supported by Llewellyn and spurred by the relaxed approach to dessert championed by Christina Tosi at Momofuku Milk Bar in New York, it all kinda clicked. Necessity also shaped the creative process. “With the volume of desserts we were turning out, it wasn’t possible to fiddle around with time-consuming components and make everything perfect,” he explains.
A few specials outside of the four-strong line-up and the dessert impresario quickly found himself inventing whole new pies and soft serves on a weekly basis due to popular demand. “It was a lot of work, but I like constantly using my brain,” says Bowden. “Some Thursday nights I wouldn’t have an idea for the next day and customers kept asking for their favourites. But I’m pretty sure in two-and-a-half years I never repeated a flavour [combination].”
Clockwise from left: The ‘Mini Cake “Izzy”’; Bowden outside his Enmore cafe, Saga; and a selection of Bowden’s pastries and treats.
The cakes, the best-loved amongst Bowden’s extravagant creations, ironically spelled the end of his days at Hartsyard. “I never thought I’d be in a position to have my own place, but the cakes took on a life of their own.” Copious orders were being turned down and what Bowden could make saw him working beyond the industry’s already untenable hours. “Greg thought I either had to do cakes full-time or get rid of them. It was the longest I’d ever stayed at a place, but leaving had to happen eventually.”
He speaks wistfully of his mentor. “As a pastry chef, you always take a back seat in a restaurant. If someone does a great dessert, they ask who’s the chef. At Harstyard, Greg always pointed to me.”
Next stop, flying solo. Well, sort of. Bowden admits he didn’t have the confidence or capital to open up shop quite yet and fielded a number of opportunities, including working under a bigger venue. Gelato Messina, who’d become friends over the years, told him to stick to his guns. Or verbatim, “Dude, if you can make enough money making cakes, you can use our production facility out of hours.” Which he did, along with a pop-up in their soft serve bar.
After a year, restlessness set in. Enter Saga, aptly named for the ‘next part of the story’ and co-owned with Howes, his life partner and former Hartsyard manager. “I didn’t want a standard cake shop,” says Bowden vehemently (as if that was ever on the cards). “Maddison liked cafes and I wanted to cook savoury again.”
He also thought he’d get his life back, but failed to factor in cafes’ 5 am call times. Owning a business was eye-opening in every sense. “From the stress of cash flow and rising costs to keeping staff happy,