What does a belly dancer have to do with olives? Not a whole lot.
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But for the owners of Grandma's Little Bakery at Fedra Olive Grove, the energy emanating from the dancer and the picturesque lines of soft green olive trees form a large part of their success. Avi Cohen said the business, which moved from 100 square metres in Mitchell to 40 hectares near Collector four years ago, filled a gap in the market for simple food prepared with love. Last year they opened a Sydney outlet, which has proved popular.
Mr Cohen said he believed energy was the essential ingredient, whether it was on the floor of the restaurant in the form of belly dancer Chloe Morello, or in the way the food was selected from the market and prepared in the kitchen.
"When they see the restaurant full and people just love the food, they ask me what's the secret. And it's embarrassing because there is no secret," he said.
"We have value because every food has our energy inside … A lot of care, a lot of attention, a lot of thought. And the energy that we put in the food, you can feel it."
On Sunday the restaurant, together with the olive grove, celebrated the end of the olive harvest with an open day, which included the belly dancer and face painting in the booked-out restaurant, and tours of the olive oil processing facility, where Mr Cohen said you could see all the good energy going into the product.
Barry Hamilton, who has processed olives for four years, predicted this year's vintage of the extra virgin oil would be a show winner. He said an excellent crop, which had to be picked early because of good growing conditions, combined with a new Italian-made, calibrated olive press, has resulted in 7000 litres of top quality oil.
"My feeling is that we should get gold medals this year," he said.
Mr Hamilton said the most common question he was asked on the tour was how to tell a good extra virgin olive oil. "The answer is taste … you can taste the peppery taste in it," he said. "If you don't get that peppery after-burn, then you might as well be tasting sump oil."