December Snow!

We've been open now for almost a month!

There have been lots of teething problems - most of which are now resolved, and Peppercorn Kitchen Cafe is truly beautiful. We are loving working here- lighting the logburner every morning is a delight and customers are really appreciative of the cosy warmth and crackle as they eat their lunch!

Lisa has been off on maternity leave for a couple of weeks now, and she and Ben were expecting their baby on December 8th. However - in true Lisa style - she simply couldn't wait, and Lila was born on November 29th at 6-45pm She weighed in at a sprightly 6.5lbs and the whole family returned home to Marazion the same evening!!

Whilst Lisa is off - our fabulous manager- Amy- is sharing the responsibilty of running the cafe with me; and Lisa is dealing with all the admin. from home. We also have a wonderfully efficient, hardworking and understanding staff for whom we are very, very grateful. Happy days!!

Today, however we have a slight hitch. I am completely snowed in at home in Towednack!
We have had about 8 inches of snow now. It looks extraordinarily beautiful and I love it - but I am truly stuck! Amy, Lisa and I chatted this morning and decided that since the snow has hit most of West Penwith- it seems foolhardy for Amy to open the cafe. No one will be out and about today, so I'm staying warm at home and making a vat of vegetable and split pea broth with dumplings. That should fill a few hungry tummies tomorrow- if we can open.....

Meanwhile - I may just have to go and play awhile in the snow.....









see how snowy it is in my garden!


At work, Amy and I have been busy making meringues for Eton Mess - and we reckon that a delicious variation for Christmas would be Brandied Apricot Eton Mess - mmmmmm! The problem with meringues is the amount of left over egg yolks; however, we decided to make lemon curd to flavour the Eton Mess (Lemon amd Almond ) and to offer with our freshly made scones with clotted cream, as an alternative to strawberry jam. We have also made some Ricciarelli biscuits to offer with coffee or hot chocolate over the festive season.
Speaking of the festive season- our winter opening hours from Monday December 6th will be 10am to 4pm.
We will be opening on Christmas Eve and  Boxing Day from noon until 4pm and the remaining bank holidays and New Year etc will be 10am 'til 4pm as usual.

We shall be offering our regular menu alongside our specials, which will include warming stews and broths (venison stew being a perennial favourite) as well as our local bangers and mash, fish cakes on a minted pea puree and sweet potato cakes with parmesan mash and salad to mention but a few. You can always 'phone us on our landline 01736 719584 or the mobile 07907 691 639 to find out what the specials of the day will be.

Hope to see you soon- maybe for carols around the tree in Perranuthnoe on Friday December 17th? Check the Perranuthnoe Vilage website for details.

Peppercorn Kitchen Cafe is Open!

The new premises are complete!  Jenni and I have been moving in and cooking all week with lots of help from the team and from the villagers.  We have loved every visit; Barbara and Mary coming to hang pictures, Rob and his tool bag arriving to hang blinds and plumb in the washing machine as well as many visitors coming to wish us well in our new venture.

Tomorrow (Friday 5th November), there will be an open afternoon from 2pm - 5pm and we'll be offering drinks and cake on the house to anyone who wants to drop in to take a look and have a chat.  We look forward to seeing you!

Time to prepare for the off!

We have now spent 4 months in the Summer Cafe at Lynfield Yard and now we need to concentrate on preparing to move in to our beautiful new Peppercorn Kitchen Cafe. We have therefore decided to close for the meantime, to give ourselve the time (and energy) to deal with all the administration, research, budgeting, purchasing, design, furnishing and staffing issues involved in the final push.
The last few weeks have been busy- particularly for Lisa - because she and Ben have moved house and got married, all within a fortnight; and of course their baby is due at the beginning of December. Why do things gradually when you can do it all at once!?



So, whilst we are busy planning, spending and sweating, here are the latest photos of the cafe development. The builders have always been key to the success of this project, but we really cannot praise these guys enough. The speed and quality of their work is something that neither of us has seen before, and they have been such fun and so supportive and protective of us both. We shall really miss them.
Amongst the pictures are several of the lovely Scott - he felt he'd been neglected in previous posts!

September progress

the window representing the old tractor shed door



Ben attending t the block work.



The terrace



The main entrance



Ian - doing some work!



Ray from St Day



The kitchen



The front door



fire door from the kitchen



looking out....



our very own office.

                            The door to our current kitchen          and Emily inside  - note NO COOKER!            

Another month!

I can't believe that a whole month has gone by and we haven't managed to update the blog once!

So much has been happening:-

• The build of Peppercorn Kitchen Cafe is nearing completion. It is going to be beautiful - thanks to the energy and skill of Ian, Scott, Ben and the rest of Ian's lovely crew at Property Care Services. Of course the design itself is stunning; and for this we must thank Andrew Dart, the talented architect to whom we are eternally grateful.
• We have had so much support from locals in the village as well as regulars from further afield - we have been asked to cater for art courses, anniversaries, birthdays, dinner parties, staff barbeques, three weddings (and NOT a funeral!), a music festival, an Arts Conference, a charity event and goodness knows what else. The work has been coming out of our ears - it's been fantastic!
• It has been a real challenge working without a kitchen! The laborious process of buying ingredients, carting them back to my house, cooking there (whilst paying staff to run the cafe for us) and then transporting the food back to the cafe and/or the catering event- it's taken it's toll on us and we've both been feeling pretty shattered and stressed at times. It will be so WONDERFUL to be in our new, commercial kitchen; cooking delicious food and able to chat to our lovely customers at the same time. We've really missed seeing everyone.
• Lisa and Ben get married on Sunday 26th Sepetmber - we are all very excited about it. We've decided to close the cafe for the day because we're all going to the wedding, 'photos to follow shortly!

Our website

Okay, we'll make it easy for everyone - we announced our new website but failed to supply the address.  You can find us at http://www.peppercornkitchen.co.uk/ and if you click on the 'news' button it takes you straight to this blog.  Isn't t'internet amazing!

More exciting news....

More exciting news -( apart from the fact that the roof is now on our new cafe - it looks fantastic!) our new website is up and running.
 Andrew and Sarah have created the website of our dreams. It has some gorgeous photos taken by the lovely Amy (who will be working with us in the kitchen at Peppercorn Kitchen Cafe all year - hurrah!) and it includes Peppercorn Kitchen Cafe, Peppercorn Kitchen Catering and Peppercorn Kitchen Spice- our very own on- line spice shop- check it out!

The build this week - on goes the roof!

The Perranaz performing at the Arty Party

The latest photos! Wednesday evening Arty Party - August 18th 2010

Val from Village Crafts- our neighbours in Lynfield Craft Centre

Arty Party Wednesdays at Lynfield

Last night we had our first open evening in the yard from 6pm - 9pm, and we all agree that it was a great success!  Stewart gave an excellent demonstration on how to recognise a very fresh fish and then how to fillet and souse mackerel.  Anna tempted quite a few villagers and visitors to taste her selection of wines, and we did a steady trade in selling our wraps - pork and lemon polpettini or goats' cheese with honeyed pecans and caramelised nectarines.  We also put out a small mountain of rosewater and almond meringues that disappeared in a flash!  Claudia soothed away customers' troubles with a relaxing head massage and Emily from Pure Nuff Stuff filled the yard with the delicious perfumes from her soaps and bathroom luxuries.  We're looking forward to next week when we'll all be back along with some exciting new stalls.  We'll keep you posted.

Jenni and I set aside today to make apricot ice cream, lemon muffins, chocolate and cardamom meringues and cauliflower and cumin soup.  We did all of those but whilst at Thorne's the Greengrocers on Causewayhead, Penzance we came upon trays of juicy sticky figs and couldn't resist.  So, we've also made a very fragrant fig, cinnamon and ginger jam.  The meringues are still cooking, the lemon muffins are filling the kitchen with their delicate aroma and the ice cream maker is working overtime!  The cauliflower soup is chilling in the fridge ready for the lunch menu at the cafe tomorrow.

August rain.....!

Raining today, so we can't open.
 It's really tricky when your only cooking facilities are two electric hotplates on a trestle table al fresco; we are pretty good at improvising but when it rains- there's not a lot we can do!
 So - home to make giant rosewater and almond meringues, lavender and honey ice cream, fig jam and, if there's time (and energy) apricot and vanilla ice cream too.

 There's so much ripe and fragrant fruit available at the moment so whenever there's an opportunity, we make ices, jams, cordials and sauces to try to capture the fresh summery flavours to give those dismal, dark winter months a litle bit of a zing!

Tomorrow is the first of our six Summer Evenings at Lynfield Yard.
 We've joined forces with The Cowhouse Gallery, Village Crafts, The Victoria Inn and several local musicians and craftspeople (is that a real word?) to create a weekly event offering food, wine tasting, acoustic music, arts and crafts and hopefully some masssage too!
The evening starts at 6pm and closes at 9pm and we're hoping for fine, dry Wednesday evenings until mid September at least.
We are selling wraps filled with pork and lemon polpettine and salad - or goats' cheese and nectarines fried in butter with a tangy sauce (yet to be invented!), along with our puddings, cakes and drinks, of course.
Stewart Eddy will be giving cookery demonstrations at 7pm- this week it's seafood- all available to buy afterwards; and Anna will be hosting a wine tasting ( that's where I'll be...)
We also have music from Rosie McGahan and Jake Terry, Annie and the Perranners, Kirk and Liam, and there will be more...
We must remember to take photos.

Sweet and savoury specials at Peppercorn Kitchen today

From Acorns...

It was like being on the set of a spaghetti western when the flat-packed sections arrived and the men began to assemble them, but it was amazing how quickly the building started to come together. Jenni and I practised serving in the kitchen area, and I was pleased to find that despite pregnancy bump that I can turn around in our broom cupboard of an office!

We've had such an exciting week at Peppercorn Kitchen. Ian from Property Care turned up on Tuesday afternoon with what looked like a load of Ikea wardrobes, but within minutes it seemed the timber frame cafe began to take shape. We had to keep a watchful eye between customers to make sure that we recorded each stage of construction, and that was pretty difficult with the speed with which the men were progressing. It seems that bacon sandwiches on site are a good incentive!

Speaking of food, Jenni and I are pretty pleased with our blackcurrant ice cream, our lemon balm and marjoram sorbet and our cardamom chocolate mousse. Last week was definitely the week of puddings. This week, Jenny from the hairdressers in the yard gave us a marrow, which set us thinking. So, we de-gorged and fried marrow slices in olive oil, added a schnitzel coating with gluten free breadcrumbs and then topped it all with feta and olives marinated in oil infused with fennel, mustard and black onion seeds. We really must remember to take pictures of the food.

The way that the day works at Peppercorn is very different from down at the beach café. There is a gentler pace; people seem more inclined to linger over lunch, taking time to enjoy a pudding and a second drink. We knew that we wouldn't have the surge of orders for take aways that we had down the road and this change has given us the opportunity to think very carefully about the menu and to come up with food that excites us. We hope our customers feel the same!

Long time no post

Oops! It seems that the last time we wrote anything was over a year ago! What a very busy year it has been! Jenni and I have gradually built up the events catering side of the business to include corporate catering, wedding anniversaries, birthdays, weddings and music festivals. We have also been dealing with the end of our lease at the beach cafe and the need to find new premises. The other iron in the fire is that we're in the process of setting up a site to sell our spice blends over the net. More to follow on that one.

We are definitely feeling our way but we are trading and it's lovely to see so many loyal customers and of course, we always welcome new faces! We have kept many of our favourites on the menu including our smoked mackerel pate (currently seasoned with a spice blend we've prepared based on 'bizar a'shuwa' from Oman - lots of lemony cardamom), the hoummous of course, and filled rolls made to order. Our specials board is still going strong - today we offer smoked salmon salsa, spicy beanburgers and a hearty vegetarian chilli with aubergine. We've also started making a smoothie for breakfast - local strawberries are sweet and juicy right now and make a lovely start to the day mixed with banana and a splash of apple juice.

All of our food can be eaten in the yard or packed into bio-degradable containers and taken to the beach. Jenni and I are delighted to be at Lynfield and very excited about the new cafe. The site has been cleared and the footings are in! So, with an excellent team of builders and lots of encouragement from us in the form of fresh coffee and bacon rolls, the build should be done in no time! We'll keep everyone abreast of progress.

Our website, www.peppercornkitchen.co.uk is being updated as we speak to include all the changes.