Raw Harvest’s Lizi Maskiell on opening cafe for special dietary needs
Newborough’s Lizi Maskiell wanted to make food that catered for people with dietary needs, and also support other local businesses. This is how she made the vision a reality.
WHAT a time to be turning five.
Normally, nutritionist Lizi Maskiell wouldn’t have bothered with a big party for the birthday of her Newborough cafe business, Raw Harvest. It would have just been a cake, and maybe a few drinks with the team after work.
But when a pandemic has limited everyone’s reasons to celebrate, turning five definitely becomes cause for a (socially responsible) party, complete with balloons and a DJ parked out the front. Especially when it also marks your return to dine-in.
“We pushed it back an extra couple of weeks, just to see what was happening,” says Lizi.
“We were worried we could be shut down again, so we kept it takeaway only — it was going really quite well — and then we decided to coincide our fifth birthday with resuming dine-in.”
Lizi, who grew up in Newborough, started the business to cater for people with intolerances and also to support healthy lifestyles. She also wanted to support other local businesses in the process. The 31-year-old is familiar with the implications of intolerances not just because of her job. Lizi was diagnosed as coeliac — an immune disease that causes inflammation and damage to the intestines when sufferers eat gluten — when she was a teenager.
In Raw Harvest’s early days, Lizi rented the kitchen at the Trafalgar Football Netball Club, making healthier alternative and intolerance-friendly treats that she would sell at markets, as well as pre-prepared meals with local and organic produce.
“It gave us a really good following for when we opened (the cafe),” Lizi says of the 18 months spent at markets.
“We got to build a nice brand and great rapport in our community, and work with a lot of other local suppliers and producers … when we opened up the cafe we could bring all that together.
“We’ve been able to continue to grow and develop those as resources and work together to support each other.”
Eventually the business moved into a vacant local cafe and the doors opened 3½ years ago.
“We had a line out the door for the first two weeks, every morning, which was just incredible,” Lizi says.
“The fact we can offer really good tasting food that is ethical and locally sourced ticks a lot of boxes for people, even if they don’t have any intolerances.
“We’ve refined our hospitality skills and things as we’ve gone along, and been able to offer a comfortable, friendly place so people are able to enjoy a meal they know is going to be safe for them, but also bring other people who might not be intolerant and still be able to enjoy a great meal with their friends and family.”
Lizi says over time it has become “very trendy” to be gluten-free, which has proven a blessing and curse for those with actual intolerances. While there are more options on the market than there was once, she said possibly people in the hospitality industry did not always take requests seriously as they knew some people weren’t actually intolerant.
She says it is important for both customers and hospitality staff to talk about what intolerances are among the guests. Spices, preservatives and FODMAPs (types of carbohydrates) are just some of the ingredients her staff need to be aware of, as well as avoiding cross-contamination of utensils and equipment.
“We make everything from scratch in-house, so we know exactly what is in all our food,” says Lizi.
“We have it so a salad or risotto or something like that will be a vegan option that people can add chicken to or they can add parmesan, so they can add their proteins or things that way. We really try and make it as flexible as possible.”
Lizi says the cafe sources ingredients and sells products and giftwares from businesses including Gippsland Free Range Eggs, Caldermeade Jersey, Merchant Family Butchers in Newborough, Cannibal Creek bread, Barany Naturals’ soap, Huntress & Co and Swig Coffee Roaster. Plants instore are from a local nursery, and their clothes are also screen printed locally.
“We’ve basically tried to fill every corner of our business with locally sourced and produced items which is really important to keep the local economic structure moving forward.”
The lockdown was tough, and staff had to be stood down until JobKeeper “kicked in”. But all eight employees are still on the books, and Lizi says the fact the business has survived — not just a virus, but made it to the five-year anniversary — “has been quite a feat”.
Thus the birthday party early this month, complete with balloon sculpture and DJ Nige pumping tunes from his Kombi in the street.
“It just brought such a great vibe to the street and I think it really lifted everyone’s spirits,” Lizi says.
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