Cooking continues in lockdown

FOR a sixth time, hospitality venues across the region are adjusting their services in lockdown.

As a way of helping combat the effects of restrictions, foodie destinations Masons of Bendigo and Percy and Percy are offering at-home dining experiences that their owners say customers can’t get enough of.

“We’ve got an amazing community and people are just at the ready to support which is just overwhelming and it kind of makes me want to cry every time I talk about it,” said Masons of Bendigo owner, Sonia Anthony.

Her restaurant is again offering Masons-At-Home, a take-home dinner that sold out in just 12 hours last weekend.

A special cheese box will also be available for dads this Father’s Day, and Ms Anthony said continuing to provide customers restaurant quality food in lockdown was important for staff and local producers.

“It’s so hard when you’re in hospitality, it’s all about making people happy and welcoming people and that interaction,” she said.

“When you suddenly find yourself in the complete opposite situation it can be really challenging.

“It’s a way of us continuing to offer good food to our community but also particularly the opportunity to be able to support our local producers because a lot of them have been greatly affected by the hospitality closures and literally overnight.”

Percy and Percy co-owner Elisha Bahen said community support hasn’t just been locally focused for the café’s special edition Father’s Day breakfast boxes, with people placing orders online from around the world.

“We’ve had people ordering from London, New Zealand, Sydney, anyone that can’t be with their dad wherever they are in the world, it’s been something that they’ve been able to access and get to them which has been really lovely,” she said.

“The couple of international emails we had about it I was like ‘oh god!’, I forget how far social media reaches sometimes so it’s really cool.”