Luscioius Affairs Toorak
Shop 9 Village Way Arcade
501 Toorak Rd
Toorak, Vic. 3142
T: (03) 9827 7199
F: (03) 9827 6018

The Good Food & Wine Show

Liz Long & Gordon Ramsay @ Good Food & Wine Show

Learning to Cook @ Luscious Affiars Cooking School

Christmas Cooking

Single? Can't cook? Singles Cooking Classes

TAMARA MILSTEIN caught up with a Melbourne caterer whose luscious creations are a winning success

Cooking is in Elizabeth Long's blood! According to her mother, Pat, two-year-old Liz was helping in the kitchen before she was barely old enough to walk. By the age of four, she was making and baking her own simple cakes, and by six or seven, Liz remembers finally perfecting a sponge cake for her own birthday party - something for which the family dog was most grateful. When Liz placed the freshly baked creation on the window sill to cool, the dog devoured the entire still-warm sponge in minutes.

Undeterred, Liz simply whipped up another exact replica and insisted that her childhood friends wait until the second cake was ready before the party could continue. These early signs of dedication and determination continued throughout Lizâs childhood, and by the age of 12, she found her first job working in Hawthornâs Humble Pie, a small take-away food outlet which, coincidentally, is exactly the same shop-front from where she now operates her business, Luscious Affairs.

Although not academically inclined at school, Liz convinced her parents that other opportunities awaited her just around the corner. By 16, she had happily hung up her schoolbag for the last time to pursue her dreams, beginning with hospitality management in Box Hill, followed by a Cordon Bleu course in London, and a diploma in hotel management obtained in Leura.

While wondering which direction her studies might take her, Liz stumbled across the old shop-front of her first job, which was now for sale, and within three days she was the new owner. Three weeks later, Luscious Affairs was launched. Seeing a niche in the top end of the gourmet takeaway market, Liz created an eclectic menu of dishes with a wide cross-section of flavours. Italian inspired, caramalised, roasted vegetable with rosemary sit happily next to a platter of Thai flavoured chicken balls with ginger, coriander and sweet chilli sauce, while nearby the Tandoori drumsticks are almost walking out the door.

Opening the glass fridge reveals a painter's palate of snappy soups in various sizes, ready to take home and heat up for a stunningly easy dinner. For those with a sweet tooth, it's very difficult to walk past the glass cabinet of oozingly delicious slices with dates, nuts and chocolate as well as fresh fruit muffins, flourless cakes and French lemon tarts. If willpower is not one of your strong points, Luscious Affairs also makes great coffee to enjoy with the cakes - a great excuse to perch on the Italian-inspires iron chairs and watch as platter after beautiful platter leave the shop for businesses and boardroom lunches.

Between catering for business lunches, Liz concentrates on the menus for cocktail parties and formal dinners for up to 50 people. Clients rave about he crispy smoked salmon risotto balls, the bite-size cheesecakes and orange cakes garnished with jewel-coloured gerberas. Recently, Luscious Affairs won silver and bronze medals at The Great Aussie Pie Competition in Sydney for its Chicken and Leek Pie with oven roasted macadamias and lemon myrtle... proving the veritable Aussie pie is now limited only by the bakers imagination.

With a flourishing cafe and burgeoning catering business, Liz found the original premises in East Hawthorn a tight squeeze so, when another shop became available in the same small suburban shopping strip, she immediately took it over.

With her finger firmly on the pulse of what we want to eat, there is seemingly no end to Liz's luscious influence on our palate. She is currently scouring suburban Melbourne for the perfect place to open her second outlet, so if you see a quirky bubble-top car cruising the streets near your home, you too may soon be able to enjoy the delights of her cooking.

August 2002 Australian Table