Matty & Cass
All love has a defining moment. That split second when time stands still and you realise that the person standing in front of you is the one that you are meant to spend the rest of your life with. Our defining moment occurred almost eight years ago and fittingly, was the direct result of a citrus tart. When Matty arrived on my doorstep bearing gifts of delicate pastry cups containing delicious, lemony gold, there was no denying it; I was purely and simply in love.
We were not each other’s first true love, however. Our separate love affairs with food began long before our initial romantic interlude and today, food remains the third person in our relationship…and happily so. With fifteen years hospitality experience, Violets and Vinegar is our food baby, our joint homage to all things delicious in life.
As the story goes, we were married in the breathtaking Kangaroo Valley on a picturesque family farm. During the lead up to the wedding, Matty became incredibly anxious about who was actually going to feed the masses on the day. We did not want to settle for the typical alternate drop of the overcooked and underwhelming. This wedding was to be about the food and if it was not to the desired standard, I knew I would hear about it…daily… until death do us part. In the end, I succumbed to the worry and agreed to the long-standing argument that Matty should do it himself. If he did it, there was no doubt; it would be exactly what we had dreamed of.
And it was.
Pure, simplistic perfection. Beginning with an antipasto table filled with local cheeses, imported cured meats, sourdough breads, homemade relishes and chutneys, the tone was set. Guests were not attending a wedding reception; they were having dinner with us, just like they would in our home. They were eating food that we had prepared with love, especially for them. We transported our loved ones to our dining room, where food was shared and stirred excitable conversation. Long banquet tables were littered with our favourite dishes for all to graze upon and enjoy. The closing act was a magnificent dessert table in the form of a ‘bake sale’ complete with a violet-covered, carrot and walnut wedding cake, a gift from my groom.
This was the first wedding we catered together as Violets and Vinegar, but it was not to be our last.
People often ask us how we manage to work together in the kitchen. Who is the ‘Violet’ and who is the ‘Vinegar’? This is indeed debatable and diplomatically we leave the answer up to individual interpretation. Typically though, when we are creating in the kitchen together, it is far cry from the manic scenes of reality TV cooking shows. You won’t find a war-zone of banging pans, sleeves on fire or spaghetti splattered walls. The kitchen is where we are our happiest; we are together and with our first true love, food.
