Pasta challenge cleans up for business

DESPITE the restrictions placed on cafés and restaurants, Commerce Ballarat’s first Plate Up activation, the Pasta Challenge, proved to be a success.

The event ran from 10 August to 30 August, with 22 venues taking part and sharing in $40,000 worth of pasta sales with 1600 dishes consumed as part of the challenge.

Commerce Ballarat’s chief executive officer Jodie Gillett said it was great to see that amount of pasta sold and that the challenge stimulated spending into businesses.

“All of the Plate Up events in the past with Kate Davis have been hugely successful for hospitality so we had weight on our shoulders,” she said.

“The feedback we received from social media and from the venues was great.

“These activations are always great for hospitality and great for the community.”

While the pasta challenge was a great way for venues to raise revenue, it also provided an opportunity for people to try new dishes and vote for their favourites.

The winner of the challenge was The Gatehouse Ballarat with their dish Ghagin Zal Zett, with Brown Hill Hotel in a close second and Lola Ballarat coming in third.

“We got the list of winners and it was a really nice mix of completely different hospitality venues, a small café, a pub and a restaurant,” Ms Gillet said.

Blown away by the news, The Gatehouse Ballarat owner Annmarie Sloane said she was proud to have won such an accolade.

“I was pretty astonished, I knew that I was in with a fighting chance because the community support has been phenomenal and the amount of new patrons that came because they had heard about the dish was sensational,” she said.

“I was very excited to share my cultural heritage with Ballarat too because I love cooking for my family and friends and through the business as an extension.

“It has been wonderful to watch people find this hidden gem of Ballarat that people didn’t know existed.”

The team at Commerce Ballarat plans to continue with Plate Up activations into the future to support local businesses get back on their feet after the pandemic.

Ms Gillett said when venues can open again with restricted numbers, it’s important to help them not just fill their venues but also keeping takeaways strong and support their income.

“We need them to tell us what they need over the coming months to find out what we can do help what they need from us and we will react to that quickly,” she said.

“It’s quite likely that we will look to do another pasta challenge in some point in the future but it’s largely dictated by what industry needs at any particular time.

“Our whole community needs to start moving on from this incredibly difficult year that we’ve had, our businesses are on their knees and need a hand up and we need to get them open and trading.”