Homemade, rustic, and created with love…

We can look forward to great food from Simmone Logue at the festival. She sat down with us to answer a few questions:

Q: Fabulous book. Congratulations. The title of your book “In the Kitchen” is very evocative. It conjures up so many images, as well as memories of pungent aromas and tastes. What inspired the name of your book?

A: Once I found my language this cookbook was so easy to write.. It was like a positive purge of 30 years of all I have collected and learned culinarily in my journey of becoming a cook and business women in the world of food .. The title on the other hand was not so easy .. Originally I wanted to call it “the engine room” as it was a book based around my kitchens at work, although sadly somewhere in the world this had been used before .. My publishers, colleagues, family and friends all racked their brains to come up with a title which best represented the pages inside .. Finally we decided on ” in the kitchen “.

Q: Your business is now part of Sydney food folk lore. Can you tell us how you got started?

A: I started my cooking career/business in a small kitchen in my flat on the north shore in Sydney. I would bake a cake and walk it up a steep hill and sell it to the nearest cafes.

I found inspiration from both my grannies who were excellent cooks and bakers and that is where it all began.

I also stumbled across a niche in the market where chefs and cafe owners didn’t have time, expertise and resources to create their own desserts.

Enter Simmone Logue. My business very quickly took off when I created a range of puddings with accompanying sauces. Homemade , rustic, and created with love, it was a no brainer.

Q: Making the transition from excellent cook to excellent business woman with a multi-million dollar business is leap that many people would have found daunting? What do you consider have been the key components of your success?

A: I have had my ups and downs and hit many speed bumps along the way although I am sure passion, drive, tenacity and a no fear attitude contributed greatly to my success today. I am an incredibly positive and optimistic person also and my high strength is recognizing what the market needs and motivating my team.

I also subscribe to the believe you need to keep ahead of your game and keep reinventing yourself and your products. You must stay true to your brand and your values and surround yourself with people that are expert in what you are not.

Q: Is your passion for creating wonderful food still as strong as it was in the beginning? What keeps driving you?

A: I am a crazy foodie .. I spend about 50% of my time with my boots on in one of my kitchens and the rest of the time in business development and mentoring my team… I am very passionate about business also and love watching my team and my brand grow .. It takes a team to build a dream and many of my people have come on the journey with me from when I started out to now. That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Q: We are delighted that you will be catering for the St Albans Writers’ Festival.  How will you approach the challenge of catering in a bush setting?

A: Catering for the St Albans Writer’s Festival will be challenging although I love the idea of taking beautiful, nutritious, vibrant and tasty food to places you may not expect to get it because of its geography or lack of infrastructure. Challenges are fun and rewarding and this is an opportunity for me to introduce my food, my book, my brand to a new family.

Q: Finally on a more personal note. How you like to spend your days off.

A: On my days off I love going to the cinema, playing in my veggie garden , going fishing and cooking of course!