Patisserie Pop-up

Tell us about your upbringing and what led you to Mohua Golden Bay?
I grew up in Tūrangi in the central North Island where my father was a GP. Both of my parents grew up on sheep and crop farms in the South Island, and when I was a teenager we moved back to Mid Canterbury. I studied landscape architecture and science at Lincoln University, then went on to do a PhD in ecology. I met my husband, Corrigan Sowman, while I was there. Around that time Corrigan’s parents sent out an SOS for help on their dairy farm in Golden Bay – as in, “If you want to come back home, now’s the time.” We hadn’t been together long, but we thought, “Oh well, let’s move,” and I finished my PhD up in Tākaka.

Where did your interest in baking and patisserie come from?
While I was at university one of my jobs was working for a wedding and special events catering company, so that was the beginning. Early on I did some short courses in patisserie, but mostly I have worked it out myself. I hesitate to say self-taught, because we base a lot of what we do on others’ work. I am also a cookbook addict and have a vast collection of patisserie books from all over the world for inspiration. Plus, I am very lucky to have a friend, Maxine Scheckter, who runs the Sugar Flour Pastry School in Wellington – I have attended many classes with her, and she has been a wonderful mentor for me.

Where did the idea come from to start a pop-up patisserie?
There used to be a chocolate shop in Tākaka township, and they approached me, initially wanting someone to run their cafe. What eventuated was my business partner, Susie Bassett, and I taking over the cafe on Fridays to run a weekly pop-up event – hence the name Fix on Friday. After the chocolate shop closed, De-Lish cafe in town offered to host our pop-up, which we now do on occasional Saturdays. I love the buzz around having a pop-up event – we often get a line of people waiting for us to open.

How do you create the menu for the pop-up?
The creativity is a big part of the enjoyment for me – coming up with different flavour combinations. I start with seasonal inspiration, then try to bring a balance to the menu. I think about what’s going to be interesting and different, that people may not have experienced before. A lot of the time I’ll take a recipe and make tweaks, and by bringing elements together I’ll turn it into something that’s my own. There’s an awful lot of trial and error.

I’m particularly proud of my Gingernuts in Milk Entremet. Inspired by dipping gingernut biscuits into milk – my grandfather called gingernuts “dunkers” – it consists of a ginger biscuit madeleine, soft ginger caramel, a vanilla mascarpone mousse, milk glaze and a caramelised chocolate crunch. I feel like it captures the experience of eating a dunked gingernut – soft but a little bit crunchy, sweet but a bit spicy and comfortingly milky, plus it has a nostalgic feel. I served this at an event on our farm where we hosted staff from our local Fonterra factory – every element felt very special.