Robert and Angela Bell of Baylies Epicurean Delights have travelled a long way – from the UK, in fact – to become Adelaide Hills local food heroes!
It’s high time I shared this slice of local food love, and introduced you to an Adelaide Hills local, Baylies Epicurean Delights!
In fact, if you eat cheese and/or go wine tasting in any of South Australia’s wonderful wine regions, you will have tried some of their products – whether you knew it or not. For nearly 25 years years, Angela and Robert Bell have been producing delicious baked goods. Besides their own range of products, which includes the lavash you will find offered at wine and cheese cellar doors around the state, they also do contract baking for at least 15 different – and highly recognisable – local and national food brands.
When they arrived here in Australia from the UK, these two industrious souls brought with them some pretty impressive foodie credentials. Yorkshireman Robert is a London Craft Guild certified chef, and Angela had a background with a food production company which made ready meals for Marks & Spencer.
Now here’s something a bit special – charcoal lavash!
Using their skills and a passion for what Robert calls ‘good, clean food’, they use high quality local and national products to produce a gourmet range of crackers, pastries, cakes and biscuits that do not include any preservatives, emulsifiers or stabilisers. Baked in their commercial premises in Woodside, just down the road from my house, Robert proudly tells me that the basic list of ingredients in Baylies Epicurean Delights products means they could be made in any home kitchen. In fact their lavash contains only five ingredients – and one of those is water!
Ginger and White Chocolate cookies – I might have sneaked one of these as I walked past. For research purposes, naturally.
They use only fresh butter and olive oil for their fats, and other ingredients include almonds from Almondco in the South Australian Riverland, cheese from Adelaide Hills own Udder Delights and wild harvested indigenous spices.
Robert and Angela’s passion for delivering an excellent local product is underpinned by their focus on every aspect of their production. The freshness of their goods is guaranteed by the attention paid to packaging and, with growing concerns around the environmental impact of plastic, they are now examining alternatives – to ensure their range continues to be not only good, but also environmentally responsible.
You’ll find Baylies Epicurean Delights in independent supermarkets, but if you’re lucky enough to travel on Great Southern Rail‘s The Ghan or to be given a gift basket you’ll find them there too – these fabulous local products really do get around.
Far and away their most popular product is their lavash, which Angela tells me simply walks off the supermarket shelves, such is it’s popularity. They have now launched an organic range of lavash that are suitable for vegans, and a selection of premium gourmet crackers.
At this time of year they are also in full swing for Christmas production. You’ll seriously wanting to be keeping an eye out for Christmas cakes, panforte, Sienna cake and their great rum balls – all of which make brilliant gifts.
However, I won’t be sharing the rumballs! 😉
