New Varimixer Teddy mixer helps pub produce its famous pastry
Based in the Suffolk village of Wingfield, the De La Pole Arms is a traditional country pub dating back to the 16th century, run by Cathy and Frankie Aspin. “We took the place on six years ago,” says Frankie. “We’ve tried to keep it as a traditional village pub, but we also have a restaurant and we recently opened a small shop to allow diners to take food home with them.” In addition to this, the Aspins began offering a takeaway service on Thursday and Friday in order to meet the challenges imposed on them by the pandemic and lockdown.
Despite the disruptions of the last couple of years, business remains brisk. The De La Pole regularly takes covers of up to 40 people at the weekends, along with up to 60 takeaways each week.
“The De La Pole’s menu is largely based around traditional British cuisine,” says Frankie. “But with a twist!” They’ve established a reputation for the quality of their offering, with their selection of homemade pastry products in particular garnering praise from diners. “People come from far and wide to eat them,” says Frankie.
As with any business that makes its own pastry, having a good mixer is vital. In order to help them meet this demand Frankie recently took delivery of a Varimixer Teddy mixer from Taylor UK.
“After many years of faithful service our old mixer finally broke, and having looked at what was available we settled on the Teddy from Varimixer as its replacement,” says Frankie. “We always go for catering equipment that’s robust, reliable, efficient and easy to clean, and the Teddy ticked all the boxes.”
Varimixer is a Danish company with over a century’s experience of making high quality professional mixers. The Teddy is a compact countertop mixer with a five litre capacity bowl designed for businesses who need the ability to mix smaller amounts to a high standard.
“We’re known for our shortcrust pastry,” says Frankie. “The Teddy does a superb job of mixing it up.” This is down to the powerful motor Varimixer uses. Controlled via an infinitely adjustable knob, it allows the Teddy to tackle jobs many other small mixers cannot. “The great advantage of the Teddy is it can handle a lot of pastry at once,” says Frankie. “Some other mixers I’ve had in the past really struggle to keep the pastry moving, especially when it’s coming together at the end.”
As well as running powerfully, the motor in the Teddy runs quietly too. “Having loud equipment in a kitchen can be distracting,” says Frankie. “The Teddy is so quiet, I often forget it’s running! I’ll set some pastry going and go and do something else, and then find it’s all ready to go without me even realising!”
The Teddy has been designed to be easy to use and maintain. Made with precision cast aluminium, the case has no external screws or openings, with all corners and edges rounded. This makes it extremely easy to clean. “It’s an aesthetically pleasing piece of equipment,” says Frankie. “It’s nice to look at, and there’s no funny corners to worry about when you clean it. Just wipe it down with a cloth and it’s ready to go!”
The Teddy comes with a 5 litre stainless steel mixing bowl along with a dishwasher safe stainless steel paddle beater, a whisk and a specially designed hook for dough. “The paddle is marvellous for making pastry, and we use the whisk for our dessert fillings,” says Frankie. “We offer a wide range of desserts like tarts, cheesecakes, frangipane, and the whisk does a wonderful job with all of them.”
While the Teddy is designed to an extremely high standard even the best equipment can have issues. A full maintenance and service program is available on all Taylor UK products via HTG Service, which offers extended warranties, a quarterly service program and a complete range of self-fit spare parts and consumables on the HTG Extras website.
“We’ve not had to have anyone from Taylor out for the Teddy, and it’s a quality piece of kit so we may not have to for many years, but whenever I’ve needed them in the past Taylor have always responded very quickly,” says Frankie. “When something breaks down it’s good to have the peace of mind that you’re not going to be in downtime too long.
“At the end of the day, our Varimixer Teddy helps us to make amazing food for our customers, it does it reliably and it does it quietly. What more could you ask for?”
The De La Pole Arms’ shortcrust pastry
To make pastry the De La Pole Arms way, add
250g salted butter
350g plain flour
One egg
One tablespoon of cold sparkling water
Mix until ready