Four filled breads sit on the savoury counter at $10 each: a sausage scroll, a creamy chicken bread, a ham and cheese bread, and a cheese and spring onion potato bread. They are the least fussy thing we make, and for anyone feeding six to sixteen people in a meeting room they are also the most useful. Artisan breads in Christchurch are usually sold as a loaf you still have to do something with. These arrive finished.
What a filled bread actually solves
A boardroom lunch fails on logistics long before it fails on flavour. Platters need serving spoons, sandwiches need someone to cut them, anything hot needs a kitchen you do not have. A filled bread is one item, one hand, no plate, no cutlery and no carving. Nobody has to work out how much is a polite amount to take, because the portion is the object. You can put a tray in the middle of the table, keep talking, and let people help themselves without breaking the meeting.
Everything on the savoury range is made in our own kitchen rather than bought in, and it is made the way the rest of the patisserie is made — no pre-mixes, ingredients chosen for taste rather than cost. That is the part your guests notice without being told.
The rest of the counter, and what pairs with what
Beside the filled breads, the Stuffed Sfiha is a Lebanese-Brazilian filled pastry. The three quiches — Lorraine, mushroom and caramelised onion — sit beside them. The Brazilian cheese scone, better known as pao de queijo, is built on cassava rather than wheat, served warm with hand-whipped butter and guava jam. A Croque Monsieur is made to order in about ten minutes, along with the rest of the made-to-order savouries.
A sensible spread for a working lunch is one filled bread and one quiche a head, with cheese scones in the middle to share. If sweet is expected, cake slice boxes come in sets of fifteen, and petit four trays hold fifteen pieces. The full range is listed on our menu, and the dessert catering boxes page covers quantities.
Guests who avoid gluten
All three quiches and the cheese scone are made with no added gluten and sit in our No Added Gluten Cakes and Desserts collection. Two honest caveats. New Zealand labelling rules mean we can only state that we have not added gluten-containing ingredients, not make a claim about the finished item. And our kitchen is small and without exclusive production areas for all of our different recipes, so traces may occur and nothing we make is guaranteed safe for severe coeliac disease. Say that to your guest and let them decide.
Fresh, or frozen for heating on site
Savouries can be supplied fresh or frozen for heating in your own kitchen, which changes what is possible for an all-day event or an offsite. Frozen means you control the timing instead of building the agenda around a collection window, and it means the bread comes out warm at the moment you want it rather than an hour earlier.
Taste it before you commit
Bring the colleague who signs off the spend and eat lunch here first. Two people can work through four items between them for the price of two mains elsewhere in town, and you will know exactly what you are putting in front of a client. Our tables move and seat groups of four to eight, the kitchen is open-plan so you can watch the work, and it is a better twenty minutes than a phone call.
Ordering and collection
Walk-in counter items need no notice; allow about ten minutes for anything made to order. For a set quantity held for a meeting, order online on the standard two-day lead time and pick your slot at checkout, where the date picker only offers dates the kitchen can meet. Collection only, from our patisserie inside The Welder at 20-26 Welles Street, Christchurch Central, one block south of the Bus Interchange. We are open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 3pm Saturday.
