Ebony from Garden Eats

In this episode of the vegan cooking and nutrition podcast, I am interviewing the gorgeous Ebony of Garden Eats. Ebony graduated from the vegan chef training in 2016 and worked as a head chef for a few years in a café in Woolongong before establishing her own café in her home town of Dwellingup Western Australia. 

Here is Ebony’s story.

The vegan chef training 

Interview with Ems and Tenzin www.veets.com.au/18

For full show notes go to www.veets.com.au/26

Hope you enjoy this episode 

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Follow Veet on https://www.facebook.com/VeetKarenVegancookingandnutrition/

Have a delicious week 

with gratitude Veet 

https://www.veets.com.au/vegan-chef-training

Ad for sensational eBook

https://mailchi.mp/veets.com.au/healthyfunsensationalebook

Transcript

Introduction

Welcome, welcome, welcome, wonderful listener.

This is podcast number 26 of the Vegan Cooking and Nutrition Show. And today I'm interviewing the gorgeous Ebony. 

Ebony graduated from the Vegan Chef Training in 2016. If you've been to Dwellingup you'll know of Ebony's place. Over in Dwellingup in WA, she has the most beautiful café called Garden Eats. I am so delighted to be interviewing Ebony today.

I visited Garden Eats in 2022. I took my Mum and Dad and they are not vegan. They do love vegan food though. They were so impressed with the food there at Ebony's, the service and the environment was something they really enjoyed. It was a delight to go and visit. I'm very much looking forward to introducing you to Ebony and to see what she has to say about running a café in Dwellingup and also what sort of vegan foods she loves to cook.

Veet: Welcome, Ebony. It's so wonderful to have you here.

Ebony: Hi Veet. Thank you for having me.

Veet: You're so welcome. I'm so glad we could catch up because it's been a couple of years since I've seen you out at your gorgeous Café, Garden Eats.

Ebony: Yeah, it's been a while. 

Veet: I just thought we'd start the interview by you telling us what you've been doing since the graduation of the vegan chef training. You graduated in 2016 with Tenzin and Emily, who I've also interviewed a few weeks ago, in episode number 18.

Ebony: Yeah. So, wow, I can't believe it's been that long. It's been nearly 10 years, which is crazy. Right after I finished the course, I moved down to Wollongong and I was working there in a café for about four years. And then, when COVID happened, I came back to WA, moved back in with my parents and then we started the café pretty much in the middle of COVID, which was a bit crazy. But it's all worked out. We've grown slowly along the way. And, yeah, it's been good.

Veet: Yeah, great. And I remember visiting you at the café that you were working at in Wollongong and you weren't just working there. You were managing it.

Ebony: Yeah, yeah. I was kind of managing the kitchen there, which was great. Like I learned heaps doing that and that kind of gave me the inspiration to have my own cafe too. You know, do all the things that I want to do and, have my own creative input and everything.

Veet: Fabulous. I remember the menu was quite impressive to me because it wasn't a vegan cafe, but everything on the menu had a vegan option. And I just thought at that time especially, that that was quite revolutionary.

Ebony: Yeah. It was awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I loved it.

Veet: Yeah. Great. And your café. Like I said in the intro, I've been to your café. Do you want to tell us about your café, where it is? And, there's been an exciting new development with the café as well, which I didn't mention.

Ebony: Yeah. So my café, Garden Eats, we're in Dwellingup in WA, just south of Perth. It's a tiny little town. There's only about 400 people. When we opened we were maybe the second café to exist in the town. And now there are quite a few more that have popped up, but we have got a great community supporting us, locals and everything. And we get a lot of tourists come in on the weekends. So that's kind of when we get really busy. But yeah, our little café, Garden Eats, it's fully vegetarian and heaps of gluten free. My parents own the property and my Mum's an artist. So she's got her art gallery that's attached to the café. And then, just in the last few months, we've been expanding the café into the gallery. So the gallery has been cut in half.  The front half is still the art gallery. And then the back half we've made into the café , because before we were just in the outside area. We had the little horse float that we were doing coffees and stuff out of. We had a kitchen out the back, but now it's all inside. We've got a lot more space. We've got inside seating.

Veet: Oh, that's great for the wintery months. I think we came out in the winter and it was so beautiful sitting there in the garden, but we were nice and rugged up too. 

Ebony: It's going to be a game changer, having the inside seating now, when winter comes.I think the first couple of years we didn't even have a cover over the horse float and over the seating area. It was just all out in the open. So any rainy day, we wouldn't get any customers. But then we got the outside area re-done. So it was covered, but still pretty open to the elements. So winters were always a bit slow if it was raining or windy or anything. So it's going to be a lot cozier having the seats inside.

Veet: Beautiful. And are you still enjoying it as much as you were when you first started?

Ebony: I love it. I have my days where it's hard, but you know, there's always something that brings me back to why I love it. Every day, I can't believe how lucky I am, that I get to do this every day. It's exciting because we do keep evolving and growing. There's always something to look forward to and an improvement that we're working on. It's been good because every time I get a bit stagnant or feel like things aren't progressing we just change it up a little bit and then it makes everything exciting again.

Veet: Oh, that's great. Yes. Businesses are great when they keep evolving. What's your favourite thing about running a café?

Ebony: Oh, my favourite thing is definitely the community that we've built around it. We have a really solid crew of locals and even non-locals who come a lot. All the people that I work with, we're all friends, the community gets in and helps out. We just have fun. It's just always fun because, you know, no matter who's there, there's always someone, there's always a character coming into the café. We're always having fun, we're always having a laugh. It's great also, when new people come in, people who haven't visited before, and they're vegan or vegetarian or they're gluten free. They tell us that they saw us online or on Instagram or something and that they came all the way to Dwellingup just to come to our café. So I love that as well. So I think it's the people, that is my favorite thing.

Veet: Oh, that's fabulous. Yeah. So you've created such a community for other people to come and hang out in. You forget, I forget that coffee shops or cafés are not just places to go and get food. They're places to socialise and be, feel part of a community, and great things happen in cafés.

Ebony: Yeah. That was a really important thing for us to focus on. I think we didn't want to be just somewhere that people pass through. Like we want to create a space that you're welcome to come and sit there for hours or come and have a chat. You want it to be a space that people just want to stay or come back. And yeah, we've definitely got that created.

Veet: It's so stunning the way you have it now. It's so beautiful with you surrounded by all the artwork on the walls.

Ebony: Yeah. Incredible art.

Veet: Talking about food, because I know we love to talk about food. What's your favourite food to cook in the café, or that you have on your menu?

Ebony: We make this stuff that we call rice paper bacon. It's been done before, but we've had it on our menu since the very beginning. It's an alternative to bacon, but made out of rice paper. We've made our own kind of marinade sauce thingy. We cut the rice paper into strips and we brush it onto the strips, then bake it. And it goes all nice and crispy and crunchy and people love it. And I really like making it. It's kind of fun to make because, you know, you've got to cut all the strips, and line them up on the baking sheet and get a little brush. I think that's my favourite thing to make. And we get questions every single day, people come in and they see it on the menu and they're like, what is that? And then I have to explain it to them what it is. Most people haven't heard of it and they're like, I'll give it a try. And then they try it and they're like, oh my God, that was amazing. They love it.

Veet: You explaining that reminds me about how methodical and particular you were and how good you were at doing things in the chef training, because I make that rice paper bacon and I do love making it, but I'll often burn bits of it. And I can just imagine you don't do that very often.

Ebony: Well, I definitely burn it. Cause you know, you only have to put it in the oven for about five, eight minutes maybe. But if we're in the middle of a rush and we forget about it in the oven and then it comes out, we smell it. Oh no, the bacon. 

Veet: Because you did do the chef training with me and you were one of the first people to graduate. And I just wondered how the chef training has helped you with setting up your own café.

Ebony: Oh, it helped me immensely. I often think about the course that I did and I talk about it a lot, and for me, I was only 19 when I did that course. And I didn't, at that point, really know that I wanted to have my own café. I just knew that I loved cooking and that I was very interested in vegan cooking. And yeah, it was just very inspiring for me, learning all this new stuff and meeting, the other people on the course. And I remember we had a day where we had to write out what we would put on a menu if we had our own café. 

Doing that was really fun. That was maybe the first  seed that planted the idea of, maybe one day I will have a café. Cause you know, it was fun, thinking what would I have on the menu? I think doing each module in a different kind of kitchen and just being with everyone else and we were always bouncing off each other's ideas, having a great teacher and it was always just fun and inspiring. Then, obviously, when I finished the course and I went to work in a café, I had all this knowledge and tools. And then that's when I really started thinking, maybe this is something I could do one day.

Veet: You've done it so well. I remember your mum rang me first, I think, and then she had the idea that you wanted a café. I just thought it was so sensible that you didn't do it straight away, but you have got one now. I just always knew somehow that you would have your own café. 

Ebony: Yeah. I'm very grateful. I'm grateful for my Mum, she gave me the idea to do this course with you. And I remember her showing it to me and just being, I think you should go and do this. And then I did it and it was just like the start of a really great journey for me. So yeah. Yeah. Great. Yeah. My mum's always got good ideas.

Veet: Is there any advice you have for anyone who wants to start their own food business, whether it's a café or any type of food business?

Ebony: The advice I would give is probably; don't expect that you're going to make much money at first. To start with, we're five years in, and we're still not making much money. We make enough to pay the staff and pay the bills. You have to do it for the love, and you have to do it for the passion, because it's a lifestyle. It's not like a normal job. 

So I think, yeah, you have to, if you want to start a café, you really have to have passion and love for what you're doing. Because there will be, you know, there's a, we have a lot of really tough weeks where the financial side of it is not fun. But you just make do and you keep going, and it's the special moments that make it all worth it. So I don't know if that's good advice. Maybe that was a bit negative.

Veet: Well, that's exactly what Tenzin and Emily said, but they have now, you know, they've been six years in and now they're starting to make good money. And I remember, I think it's with any business, when I first started my business, people were telling me, you won't make money until after two years. I was making enough money to pay the rent and to go on holiday, but not enough to show a big profit from my business. And after two years, it still wasn't there. And so someone, I spoke to, someone else, said, no, Veet, what they've told you, it's wrong. It's three years. And after three years someone told me, no, it's five years. And yeah, someone said it's seven years. And I can tell you after seven years in my business, it was the game changer. If I had left before seven years in my business, I wouldn't be reaping the benefits. And now I look back on everything I've done financially in my business and it has been a great success, but it does take time and consistency. 

Like they say, you know, you see on Instagram that people have made this money overnight, but it's very rare. There's no instant success. We have to put the work in. And if we leave before then, we miss out on the benefit of it.

Ebony: Yeah. Yeah. It was the exact same story for me. After our first year, I'm like, oh my gosh, what are we doing? And people are like, no, no, you're going to wait. It's two years. And then after three years, yeah, it was the exact same thing. So now I know we've just got to put in two and a half more years. We'll get to seven and then we'll start seeing success in that way. But, you know, success also can't all be measured in how much money you're making. It's about what you're doing and the othe ways that you, you know, for being fulfilled, that make it worth it.

Veet: Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I noticed because, you know, I follow you on Instagram. I'm not stalking you. And I noticed that you seem to really manage having a life outside of the café. Well, like it's not all about just working in the café. And I just wondered if you could share how you do that.

Ebony: Yeah, I really, I really try to have a balance. It's been really tough at times. There were times where I was working every single day and I would barely have a day off.  Because the café is only open from Wednesday to Sunday, Mondays and Tuesdays are my days off. That's my weekend. But my friends who have normal jobs, their weekends are Saturday and Sunday. So I miss out on a lot of things, and it got to a point where I was so burnt out, and I was just drained. And I was like, I can't keep doing this. I need to set boundaries for myself and have real time where I actually switch off. Because even on days when I wasn't working, I was still working. My brain is still thinking about work. I'm still doing work. I'm not physically working in the café, but you know, it never turns off. I really just had to do a lot of work within myself to allow myself to have a holiday, or have a weekend off and just leave, put trust in my team to run the ship. And I still struggle with it a bit. If I have a weekend off, I do find myself checking up on the café. If it's busy or if you know anyone needs anything. But it's still something I need to work on, because with my Instagram, I’m posting the highlight reel, so I definitely have been able to have a couple of little holidays or have weekends away from the café. But it is hard because I still feel, if I take a weekend off, then I check up and it's really busy and they're having a stressful time and I’m not there to fix everything, I  feel really guilty. So that's something I’m trying to work on. 

Veet: Oh, that's great.

Ebony: Having faith, which I do. My team are amazing and I have complete trust in them to run things without me there. But it's more just that I feel bad. I'm like, what do you mean I'm off enjoying myself for a weekend? 

Veet: No it's great. I know, it's so hard. It took me a long time with my catering, but in the end I could go for a whole retreat and not be there because I was teaching on the chef training and they ended up doing just as good a job as me. 

Ebony: Yeah and you have to relinquish control and just have faith and trust that everything's gonna be fine if you're not there. 

Veet: Yes, absolutely, and not feel guilty about it. Yeah, and if I were to come again, or if any of the listeners want to go to Garden Eats at Dwellingup, what do you suggest we should order off the menu? 

Ebony: Oh, we do a really good brekkie burrito. That's probably our most popular item. So we've got like beans and rice, avocado salsa, barbecue sauce and a chipotle sauce, tofu scramble and spinach, it's really good. I love that one. So probably that one, or we have our early riser, which is a bagel. It's got the rice paper bacon on it that I mentioned before. You can have it with tofu scramble and avocado, a hash brown, so it's just like a big hash brown with a breakfast bagel.

Veet: Oh yeah, I want to come and have those, they sound divine. And just lastly, I know you would recommend the vegan chef training to people, but is there any particular reason why you would recommend it? 

Ebony: I absolutely would recommend it to anyone who loves cooking and is serious about doing it. Even if you're not serious, or if you know you've got a career already and you just really want to get better at cooking, or if you want to go into the industry. Then I absolutely would recommend it. It was so inspiring because we went through so many different kinds of styles of vegan cooking, which I loved. You can really find the things that you are particularly drawn to, but you get a kind of taste of everything, and I think, just working with a group of like-minded people and sharing ideas and just all learning together. It was really very inspiring and very fun. I still think about it a lot, nine years later. I'm really grateful for the experience. 

Veet: great, thank you, thank you so much, Ebony for your time. I know it's your day off, so I don't want to take too much of your time, but thank you for sharing. 

Ebony: No worries, my pleasure. Thank you for having me. 

Veet: Oh you're so welcome. 

Oh, silly me, I’ve forgotten about the recipe. Before we go Ebony, are you able to share with everyone one of your recipes? 

Ebony: Yeah I would love to. So this recipe, it's like a beetroot relish kind of thing that we do. It's really quick.  I wouldn't even call it a relish. I don't know how to describe it. I’ll just tell you the recipe and you can make it. 

So you just grate up the beetroot and just set that aside. Thinly slice some red onion and then you just want to fry that quite well, almost caramelise the red onion. Then we throw in some mustard seeds, nigella seeds, salt and fennel seeds. Then you just mix all that up with the onion and then put the beetroot in the pan and a bit of balsamic vinegar or, if you've got it, the balsamic glaze. 

Veet: Oh yum, yes, a bit of sweetness.

Ebony: Or if you don't have that balsamic vinegar then a bit of brown sugar. Just mix that through and then turn the heat off and just put a lid on it so that it just steams the beetroot. So you're not even really cooking it, it's just steaming it. You just leave that to steam for maybe 20 minutes. Then you can just toss it through with the onions and the spices, and that it.

Veet: Oh, that sounds delicious, yum. 

Ebony: Yeah it's so yummy and it's still quite fresh because you've barely cooked the beetroot, so you can just put it on anything. You can mix it in with a salad or just put it on the side of your dish, or in a toasty even, and it's really good.

Veet: Oh, in a toasty it would be amazing. Thank you so much for your generosity and sharing that recipe.

Ebony: Oh my pleasure, bye. 

Veet: Bye. See ya. Thank you.

Veet: Yum! Doesn't that recipe sound amazing? I just love beetroot relish. I remember having it at Garden Eats when I went to visit Ebony in Dwellingup. It was delicious alongside the breakfast that I ordered.

I just loved interviewing Ebony and she did talk about what advice to give to someone who's starting a food business. She did say not to go into it if you're just wanting to make money. I know that Tenzin and Emily also said that, and that is true of any business. I feel if you have passion for your business and you want to be doing it for a long time, any of these businesses, any business, there's very few businesses that you get rich and make a million dollars in the first year. But definitely, food businesses are not where that's going to happen. You do need to be in it for the long haul, and yeah it really is not the reason for starting up a food business.

What I see from most food businesses, mine included, when I started my catering business, and also with the cooking school, is the community that you get around whatever you're doing with food. Because food is not just about eating, it's about making friends, telling stories and just being community-based. So I think that's something that's very beautiful and that I'm really acknowledging it and that really touched me deeply, that people who do create cafes also create an incredible community around them.

So thank you for listening and I hope you have a sensational week. If you're wanting to try out a version of the rice paper bacon, I do have that recipe up on my website, so you can go over to the show notes and get that recipe.

If you want to work further with me and learn how to cook sensational food that will always be super delicious, then check out the vegan foundation course. That is also a start to the chef training, and the chef training also is starting very soon. It is online these days; it's not in person like the one that Ebony did, but it is in a group so you will still have that group support and that group feeling.

Okay, thank you so much. I am so grateful for you listening to this podcast. Bye-bye.