Sweet Thea » vancouver

Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill

laurie — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

I was fortunate to work for Chef Pino Posteraro at his excellent Vancouver restaurant, so I know him well and have huge respect for him. This book is subtitled ‘A Lifetime of Excellence in the Kitchen’, and that is apt. Pino is one of the only working chefs I know in the city, working at restaurant 5 days week, constantly in touch with his food and his eaters.

Currently Vancouver Magazine’s ‘Chef of the Year‘, Pino has created a beautiful and approachable work, featuring modern Italian with traditional – if you love Italian food, you must own this book. It is stuffed with amazing pasta recipes, risotto, seafoods; I was truly surprised to see that he was sharing so many of his great ideas! The book is well-written, beautifully laid out with wonderful photographs of his remarkable dishes.

I worked for Pino as his Pastry Chef, and so have made all of the dessert recipes in this book (and then some!) I know they all work well, with very satisfying results – Creme Brule, Biscotti, Gorgonzola Cheesecake with Red Wine-poached figs and Port Syrup, Lemon Chiboust with Roasted Pineapple and Almond Milk Sorbet, Tiramisu, Chocolate Terrine with Espresso Caramel Sauce, Tuiles Nougatines, Okanagan Apple Tarte Tatin with Caramel Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream, Macaroons, Organic Lemon Tart with Italian Merinque and Raspberry Compote, Organic Honey Semifreddo with Orange Sauce and Cassis Caramel – I can personally vouch for them all. My personal favorite? Warm Chestnut Cake with White Chocolate Sauce and Maple Syrup Ice Cream – yum!

Cioppino’s (the restaurant) is very expensive, a credit-card buster that is worth every penny; I only go on very special occasions! If you can’t afford it, or can’t get to Vancouver, then this is the next best thing to being fed by Pino himself. Recommended completely.

Golden Anniversary Cake

laurie — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:05:34 +0000

Trisha Schonbrun’s parents didn’t have a wedding cake when they married, 50 years ago. We were thrilled when Trisha asked Thea to make this Anniversary Cake – their first wedding cake ever!

Passionfruit & Fresh Raspberries

Saturday, October 31
Shaugnessy Golf & Country Club, Vancouver, B.C.

Want a sun-drenched wedding party? Try Bridges!

laurie2 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:13:29 +0000

Thea and I met recently with Susan at Bridges Restaurant, and got acquainted with this lovely wedding venue. Bridges has a beautiful waterfront location in the heart of Vancouver, on beautiful Granville Island, and so naturally attracts lots of events — weddings, corporate events, and private parties.

The capacity of Bridges’ is quite large – they can handle cocktail parties for up to 300 guests, and plated meals for as many as 150; their menu always includes seasonal seafood, such as halibut (May through September), or Sablefish (October through April), as well as Atlantic Lobster, Sockeye Salmon, and quality vegetarian, beef, or chicken dishes. Yum! Of course one Bridge’s best features is its sun-drenched deck – I used to work near Granville Island, and spent a few relatively ‘liquid’ afternoons in bliss there!

Susan, the catering manager for the venue, is an old-fashioned romantic at heart, and loves to connect with the wedding party, and always goes out of her way to make sure everything is completely top-notch. We like the fact that it is one of the few venues that does not charge a wedding party a plating fee, for cutting and serving the wedding cake – usually an unshakeable budget item!

Make sure Bridges Restaurant is on your list of locations to check out for your wedding reption, and give Susan a call. I am sure you will be also impressed with this lovely venue!

Gija Lim – Scott Williams wedding (photos by Daniela Ciuffa)

laurie — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Wedding: Gija Lim and Scott Williams

Wedding : Private Residence

Date: 2009-05-16

Reception: 7 pm Seasons in the Park Restaurant, Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver, B.C. (where is that?)

Photo credit: Daniela Ciuffa, Ciuffa Photography. www.ciuffaphotography.com

3 tier square Lemon Drop cake, with dark chocolate brown ribbon and tiffany blue swiss dots and balls on every tier

photographer: Daniela Ciuffa, Ciuffa Photography

Mink Cafe

thea — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Thanks to Marc Lieberman for kindly letting me host several tastings in his lovely Mink Chocolate Cafe over the last two weeks. Mink opened Easter 2007 to considerable acclaim (and it looks like poor Marc has worked there every day since!).

Their coffee is exceptional (I have tried the mocha and americano), but the superb highlight for me is the ‘Drinking Chocolate’ (not Hot Chocolate – they have that too) It is unbelievable – sooooo good – like drinking Ganache – yum!

When you are downtown and need a perk-me-up, the Mink Chocolate Cafe is at 863 Hastings Street in Vancouver. Most certainly recommended!
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McEachern – Dowdall Wedding (photos by Angelo Cikes)

laurie — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:27:44 +0000

Heather & Ross McEachern sent us kind words and great photos of their cake “–soooo yummy.” (thank you Heather!) The bottom tier was strawberry and vanilla mousse with vanilla cake , while the top two tiers are fake cake. They were married at the beautiful Hart House in September – what a lovely location! Congratulations Ross & Heather!

Photo credit: Angelo Cikes Angelo Cikes Photography www.cikesphoto.com

Date: September 7, 2008

Location: Hart House Restaurant, Burnaby BC (where is that?)

guests: 95

top 2 tiers: fake cake

photographer: Angelo Cikes, Angelo Cikes Photography

Photo credit: Angelo Cikes Angelo Cikes Photography www.cikesphoto.com

Talia Designs Fashion Event – May 8th – invitation

laurie — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:41:53 +0000

Here is the actual invitation to Nurit’s fashion show – coming this Friday!!! See you all there!

Daniela Ciuffa, fotografo eccezionale

laurie — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:15:47 +0000

I am blessed to know many excellent wedding photographers in the Vancouver area; a few weeks ago one of them – Daniela Ciuffa, of Ciuffa Photography, came by the house and, with a little wine-and-cheese as reward, took some wonderful photographs of Sweet Thea cakes for the upcoming season. I picked up the results today, and they are simply fabulous!

The title of this post means ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Exceptional’ Photographer in Italian, which is an appropriate way to introduce her! Her skill and talent are very obvious in the shots created for me, which I will be using on this blog and throughout the year. I was so pleased that I re-visited her website, and am glad I did. She has some outstanding work in her on-line galleries, divided into subjects of family, commercial, weddings, portraits, and journalism. Collectively it is impressive work, showing a real talent with keen eye and deft composition skills, and striking immediacy in her journalism work.

Of course, every photographer puts good work in their gallery; and it would be easy to assume that are her best work. It is only when you check out Daniela’s blog that you see that she is routinely taking great photos - outstanding results are standard for her! Here are a few I liked from recent posts – you can tell that children love being photographed by her, and that she has a great ability to capture a moment perfectly -

Photo Credit Daniela Ciuffa ciuffaphotography.com

Thank you Daniela! for the great work for Sweet Thea – I am sure all your clients agree you are one ‘fotografo eccezionale’!

Nurit Perla – designer extraordinaire

laurie — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:00:00 +0000

My great friend Nurit Perla has designed a custom coat for me, so I can update my photo on this site. I have been wearing Nurit’s wonderful creations for a few years now – and I am constantly being asked, ‘where did you get those fabulous clothes?’

I just love the coat – I asked her for a combination of contemporary and classic for a ‘Sweet Thea’ look, as I do wedding cakes for both young moderns and older conservative brides; so I wanted to look funky but not TOO funky lol

Nurit is heading to Israel today, for her annual 3 week vacation. She has lived in Vancouver for 7 years, and misses the tight bond of family back home… Her company, Talia Designs, is named after her darling daughter.

I will post photos of what she has designed for me here soon. Meanwhile, why don’t you check out her website Talia Designs?

from Nurit

from her 2006 collection

On My Bookshelf

thea — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:00:00 +0000

All us foodies love to talk about food; amateur stay-at-home cooks or professional high-end chefs, we all share this great passion.

Many of the questions I am asked revolve around the same thought – where did you get that idea? How did you decide what goes with what? Where can I get a great recipe for ______ ?

Experience is a great teacher, but every cook truly owes a huge debt of gratitude to those dedicated foodies who have meticulously documented their work by writing about food, giving us the benefit of their mistakes, successes, experiments and flashes of genius.

I have been studying, collecting, and depending on food books since I was a student. I add to my library constantly, looking for new ideas and ways to improve my work – I am always looking to improve my sweet dough recipe, for example.

That is why I am starting this regular feature, called ‘On My Bookshelf’. I am going to regularly review books that I use, and try to give you some idea of their value to me and my work. My reviews won’t be scholarly, with researched details about the writers, or history, or any of that; it’s not my goal here to become a professional book reviewer – there are lots of places to go for that kind of reviews. Rather, I will just let you know about each book’s usefulness to me, so you can decide for yourself if you need this book on your bookshelf.

I am going to use three basic criteria to tell you the pros and cons of each book, and determine whether I recommend it – the book’s content, it’s usefulness, and it’s ability to inspire me.

Content – I will try to let you know what kind of book it is, and what makes it different from other books available out there. I will let you know if it carries classic recipes, or modern techniques, or any other important information you may need.

Usefulness – I am a pastry chef, and i don’t really have much time for books which are not useful. When I was in school it used to bother me to hear the saying ‘pastry is a science, cooking is an art’, because I feel I am more an artist than a scientist! But as I get older, I realize it is true – pastry is completely reliant on recipes. So I will try to always let you know if the book is useful to me, and how it is useful; or what need it fills. I will tell you if I refer to it often, or hardly at all; and most importantly I will tell you whether the recipes work or not.

Inspiration – this is very important to me, and to most advanced chefs – it is why some pastry books sell for hundreds and hundreds of dollars! Does the book have new ideas or techniques that I have used? Does it give me ideas that I can use in other situations, and add to my skill set?

After looking at these factors, I will rate it, and let you know if I recommend it.

The first book I am going to review is my latest favorite, the Flavor Bible; then I will add new reviews as I can. If you have any books that you want to recommend to me, or any comments on how you feel about these books, please let me know!