The History & Tribute to Cheke&Bake

It comes as a surprise to no one that I love to cook. I always have. There is just something about the whole experience. Taking a few ingredients and putting them together in one way to form something unique and then taking those exact same ingredients and making something completely different. That’s always been one thing I’ve loved about food. Even more so the experience of cooking the food itself is obviously the eating. Sitting down and watching people eat your food and looking at the expression on their face can be either daunting or fulfilling. No words need to be spoken. Just a simple grin with their eyes half closed and you know you have a winner dish right there.

After arriving in Korea the first thing I did was look for an oven so that I could continue making the food I enjoyed to eat and not just rice and kimchi everyday. It started becoming a tradition with some of my very good friends; Ana, Jemma & Mairead, to come to my tiny apartment on Sunday for a “Come Dine with Che” experience. Jemma’s first request was Shepherds Pie. Well I had never made it before and to be honest I didn’t reli have much of an opinion about it but I tried it out anyway. Finding Lamb was the hard part. It’s not a very popular meat here. After much exploring and food adventures I finally found the holy grail of Lamb. Right nearby my apartment. It ended up turning out great and I’d just discovered my favorite comfort food in Korea. Shepherds pie became probably the only thing I cooked at these Sunday lunches. It was a real hit. I even managed to get my vegetarian friend to finally try it and she ended up eating 2 bowls worth. Now if that isn’t a success I dunno what is.

The best purchase in Korea

After some time and through the encouragement of a good friend Lumantha. I decided to open up my own home cooking business supplying great homemade dishes that most expats cannot find in Korea. Living in Daegu was great because of the niche market that I could expose myself to. Seoul or even in Busan the streets and downtown areas are riddled with International restaurants and delis. Daegu was an untouched market at the time with only a few if not any of these kinds of places. And hell if I could convert a veggie, maybe I could convert the whole of Daegu.

I started in very humble beginnings. A kitchen the size of most peoples cupboards. Measuring about 2x2metres. I had no idea what the hell I had signed myself up for so I decided to just overplan it all. Story of my life lol. I got one of my amazing friends Loops to even design me a logo for the business. It was perfect. Exactly what I had pictured in my head.

The Cheke&Bake Logo designed by Loops

So Cheke&Bake started to come to life. I found the amazing Baking Shop near Daegu Station where I was planning on buying most of the packaging and materials I needed for my food. Now if you think I love cooking you must know how much I love buying everything for the cooking. I’m literally like a kid in a candy store. Grabbing big bottles of cinnamon, baking pans, cake boxes, chocolate chips. Basically everything and anything I could find that I “might” need. Once I’d paid and headed to find a taxi I looked down at the 2 massive bags I was carrying and it dawned on me. What have I done? Do I really need all this stuff? OMG How much money did I just spend? What if people don’t like what I have to sell? What if I actually can’t do it? What if I fail? It would have all been a complete waste of time and money.

The birthplace of Cheke&Bake

It was a lot to process in the first few weeks but I knew that if I persevered I could do it and I could do it right. The first few weeks were the hardest. Getting recommendations for recipes and ideas and relearning how to make certain things. Trying to figure out how the hell I was gonna cook in bulk in the tiniest kitchen in the world. How I was going to fit everything into the worlds tiniest fridge and how the hell I could run a functioning business while being employed full time and away for 12 hours a day. Compiling a menu that wouldn’t burn me out was the hardest. I just wanted to make everything and at the time I truly believed I could. I even got my good friend John to come and take some beautiful pictures of everything I had made. They turned out stunning and so the visual side of Cheke&Bake had finally been established. I needed my business to be well structured and advertised, but not THAT well advertised. Lol.

After the first few months of Cheke&Bake being opened I started realizing that hey this is actually working. Yes I’ve made a few stuff ups but for the most part it was a success. I had people in Gumi, Gyeongju, Pohang and Busan asking how they could get their hands on my food. I was overwhelmed. News spread and it spread fast. I was getting friend requests from complete strangers asking for massive orders of Shepherds Pies, Vetkoek, Hummus, Pita Bread and my Heart Attack Bread. It was great and then BOOM I hit a wall. I was tired, time was a killer and people started ordering more and more food that required  “Puff Pastry”. My arch enemy haha. Now puff pastry is not a very easy thing to come by in Korea. Especially in Daegu. If u do find it you’ll probably be paying out of your ears for it. So the only solution here was to make it myself from scratch.

Now I’m not a trained pastry chef but hey the people want the pastry so I gotta give them the pastry. I’m sure there are many people who enjoy making pastry so hats off to you. I wish I had your patience. If you have ever made puff pastry you’ll know it’s quite an arduous task. The folding of butter into freshly made pastry and then rolling and folding and rolling and folding, leaving in the fridge for a few hours and then folding and rolling and folding and rolling, going back in the fridge and folding and rolling and folding and rolling until you get to a point where you actually couldn’t be bothered anymore and end up calling your chicken pot pie a chicken pot. My weekends and weekdays were overloaded with everything Cheke&Bake. I was constantly planning my life around when I was going to go to the shops, printing out a schedule of what I needed to make and when I had to send it. I was burnt out. I just couldn’t anymore. Luckily at the time other things were going on in Korea and so Cheke&Bake closed her doors. I was really sad in a way to close that chapter of my life but it had, had a good run.

During the close I got a lot of people begging me to please still cook for them and so I did but very little and in moderation. I was sitting at 2 or 3 orders a week sometimes none at all. I started appreciating my cooking more. It became simplistic and in a way more sophisticated than before. I started trying different techniques and at the time I had also moved into a bigger apartment so I had more space to play. My head was cleared of the rush and panic around pleasing other people and I started to really enjoy cooking again. It was fantastic.

I realized at this point that after all the hard work and craziness that I put myself through I was more determined and focused as ever to make it work this time. And make it work right. So I opened up again. It was one of the best decisions I’d made in those last 2 months of 2012 because I finally got my fire back.

I also decided to attempt posting my orders. Madre was the first person I ever posted a delivery to and if it wasn’t for her asking me to please please send those Vetkoeke and Quiches I don’t know if I would have ever risked it. And so Cheke&Bake expanded. I was posting between 5-10 orders a week as well as keeping up with my Daegu orders. It was great. I was absolutely loving it. Cheke&Bake was back and baby she was back with a vengeance.

Then one beautiful day in June I saw a Facebook posting from a Café downtown talking about a Market Day. I was very intrigued. As some of you know I used to work at the Stellenbosch Organic Food Market in my final year at University and it was some of the best months of my life. The whole vibe that surrounds an outdoor market is difficult to describe in words it is something you need to experience. I was so excited so I immediately emailed the owner Sandy Lee and asked if I could have a table for the market day.

My first market day

Then my head started going crazy mad. Now I’ve signed myself up for more work? I thought I was trying to calm my life down. But hey I always seem to enjoy the pressure. I decided my menu would host the star of Cheke&Bake, The Shepherds Pie as well as a few quiches and some South African goodies. Well the first market day was an absolute success. Even friends from the outskirts of Daegu came to buy my food. I sold out by 2pm. I didn’t know what to feel. I felt numb from happiness. I had no idea it would go off so well. I knew at this point I had to cultivate this new market and keep the awesomeness coming.

Sold OUT!

Through suggestions from friends I decided to attempt making pies. No not Shepherds Pies. But good old fashioned pasty pies. In Korea pies are very hard to come by. And even if u can find a place that does pies; for example Jesters, they just are not up to scratch. They might fill you up and settle the savory dream you were having but they won’t ever truly hit the spot. This is where I decided to come in. Now pies require puff pastry. We all know how I feel about good old pastry but I was willing to just give it a try and see what the demand was like.

After missing the second bake sale due to traveling I knew I had to come back and be remembered. Luckily there were a few customers from Buy the Book who had. I decided to go all out. Guinness & Beef Steak Pie, Chicken & Mushroom Pie and my exciting new creation Kimchi Roast Chicken Pie. The dreaded puff pastry mission had started and I was popping the pies out that oven like nobodys business. The nights leading up to every bake sale were stressful and exciting. I might have been covered in flour all night everyday but I had one hell of a smile on my face. I could do it and I did.

All my love and hardwork

I was also lucky enough to try my hand at making Koeksisters (South African Donuts) as a request from a highly respected South African chef up in Seoul. It was another very exciting time learning new techniques and making dreaded dough but I had already pushed the band wagon so why not keep pushing on?

Koeksister production line. I once made 120 Koeksisters in this little Kitchen

As the successful market days kept rolling on I was asked by Sandy the owner of Buy the Book Cafe If I would like to be a feature chef and run my own menu through the restaurant for a weekend. I was beside myself! I would finally have an opportunity to run my very own restaurant with my very own menu! Absolute dream come true! I immediately started constructing a one of a kind menu and sourcing all my ingredients. Then the next step of figuring out how much of each thing I needed started.

My Menu for the Guest Chef Wknd

Then my brain exploded. How on earth do people run restaurants! It is such a time consuming, ever changing, unpredictable line of work to expose yourself to. Its people with that real passion for it, the real love for all the hardwork that make places like Buy The Book Cafe stay open month after month and year after year. Sandy taught me so much. So many big and small things and the support I was given was astounding. The customers really enjoyed the food and I loved making it. I could barely walk for the next week and my back was in such pain from the constant bending to get things out the oven, the fridge and making my plates look fantastic. I don’t remember a time before that where I’ve ever been so tired. But I was never happier. It was one of the best weekends of my entire life and it opened up my eyes to the kind of world I want to get into. I finally had a taste of what my future could be. Thank you again Sandy & Yatren for that amazing opportunity!

My Number 1 Seller – Shepherds Pie

Dark Choc Mousse with Persimmon

Earl Grey Creme Brulee

Cheke&Bake has been my baby for the last 2 years. It has brought me tears of both happiness and frustration. It’s brought me new friends and business partners. It’s brought me satisfaction and joy. It’s taught me that no matter how small your ideas may be if you try hard and work at them you can turn those ideas into something great, something successful and something meaningful.

It breaks my heart to tell you now that Cheke&Bakes time in Korea has come to an end 😦 My good friend David Mansell with his company Bouche Delivery will be continuing the awesome food dream that I had. So never fear, the pies will still be here 😀

It’s been an absolute honor cooking for you all. If it wasn’t for all of you amazing people my dream would have never taken flight. So thank you from my whole heart. I hope that one day you will come visit me in South Africa where I will have hopefully opened up my very own Café and we can reminisce over our awesome time together.

Keep Happy and Keep Hungry Cheke&Bakers, it’s been wild. Much Love ❤