Making Ends Meet

It was quite the ordeal gaining and then retaining my resource consent to use VdV as a public venue. (see also my last update) From fighting to get out of widening Tram Road and adding a turning lane outside our gate, which would have been astronomically and prohibitively expensive, to paying various unnecessary consultants because the council insisted on reports and a very particular presentation of the application which was some kind of secret code I was not privy to. My first attempt to submit the application on my own was met with scoffing and eye rolling so I had to resort to a consultant to write it for me. The consultant also worked at the council part time so he knew exactly what they wanted to see, but, the conflict of interest was not lost on me at the time either. Unsurprisingly I nearly went mad! I have to say though, that the new people at the council have been much more helpful and understanding than those I dealt with 5 years ago when I started this journey. Anyway, now, in theory, I can open a café here (albeit under very restricted hours and conditions but lets not go into that right now)

I do still have a few hoops to jump through in order to comply with all the conditions of the consent, two of which are a kitchen separate from the house and a wheelchair accessible toilet. We’ll be making these mobile so we have the flexibility to place them wherever suits best on the day. I used to have my home kitchen registered with all the formalities and paperwork but when I found out this wasn't necessary for the number of cakes I was making I decided to save the considerable amount in fees and inspection charges not to mention the painful paperwork. So now I'm not registered because I don't need to be right now. Rest assured I'm still a professional and nothing has changed except the fees and the extra work writing up food control plans. At some stage, hopefully not too far away, I will register my mobile kitchen so that I can offer more; think coffee in the courtyard, long Italian lunches under the olive trees, 5 course dinners, 1920s cocktail parties...

In the meantime though, I need some revenue to keep things ticking over. You may look at the price of my cakes and think I'm doing pretty well out of it but when you consider a cake can take me anywhere from 6 to 12 hours from start to finish (my last wedding cake was 16 hours) and butter alone is worth its weight in gold these days, there's not a lot of profit in it. I can't make enough cakes to add up to a living wage - it’s just not something that can be mass produced. So I need to find a solution and fast. Even though I'm not allowed to sell food as a proper café or restaurant yet (because I'm not registered) I AM allowed to fund raise for non business related expenses. In other words I can make food to raise funds for the upkeep of the Villa and garden, which is in fact the very reason I started all of this in the first place. I tried to do everything by the book but turns out I didn't actually need to go to so much trouble! Agh, so frustrating. So long story short I am able to host an Easter brunch or a Mother's Day tea or a Midwinter Christmas lunch. Therefore when you see ‘all proceeds go to the upkeep of the villa and gardens’ this is why. Each event will have a minimum donation that gets you an invitation to a free thank you which will not disappoint. It’s an experience that’s a bit different and fun and it helps me to keep things afloat before I can open the café.  It’s in the spirit of the supper clubs which started in London so that ‘ordinary’ individuals could share their love of cooking without being out of pocket or working for free.

The garden is too much to keep for just ourselves and we love having people here to share it with. The same is true of the villa, we just need to knock it all back into shape so that it’s not quite so ‘Abandoned Places’ I’m aiming to be open fully next spring so I need all the support, visits, cake orders, and referrals you can throw at me.

Photo credits: Warren Campbell-Trotter except for the VdV sign