She Rolls Her Own

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday February 26, 2008

Helen Greenwood

An Eastern-style food business takes a modern Australian accent.

THERE is no lotus and there is no ming, just Karen Lavecky, who was doodling one day and trying to come up with a name for a dim sum company with a difference.

"I wanted something to convey beauty, transparency, consistency and trust," Lavecky says. "Lotus is the beautiful flower and ming is heritage and a dynasty. Together they are East meets East."

Lavecky was actually trying to make Asian flavours meet Western palates when the name popped into her head in 2002.

In New York the previous year, she was knocked out by the apparently never-ending flow of dumplings and bite-sized treats available in shops and home-delivered.

The then 23-year-old was also knocked about emotionally by being in the city when the hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers.

"We went to bed and the next morning the world had changed. We were eight blocks away and could see what was happening," she says.

Lavecky returned from her trip determined to change her life. The business studies graduate stayed in her hotel food and beverage administrative job for a few months longer, then quit. That's when her bright idea came.

A yum cha devotee, she could only see dim sum made for and by the local Asian community in Sydney. "We were getting a by-product of an Asian market which wasn't an exact match for other markets. I wanted to make products with no preservatives, no MSG, no cornflour, designing them for a Western palate."

She plucked every pack of gow gee and spring rolls from the freezers of Asian supermarkets and went to visit the sites where they were made. Many were home-style operations and she would wait until after 3pm, when the kids came home from school, so they could translate for their parents.

As she devised the plan for her company, she lived with her own parents - clothing manufacturers who encouraged her to follow her dumpling dream.

A woman who worked for Lavecky's parents introduced her to Alan Hu, a cook who is still her head chef. In 2003 they created two vegetarian dumplings, fresh pumpkin and spinach and tofu, because they were "modern Australian fillings in a traditional Asian product". Next came pork and bok choy, salt and pepper prawn, and scallop and shiitake dumplings.

Spring rolls followed, then buns, wontons, pancakes and dipping sauces. Her second customer was jones the grocer in Woollahra, which rebadged her product. De'lish in Lindfield became the third.

After she devised the translucent packaging with feature wall colour labels, these and the likes of David Jones put Lotus & Ming into their freezers. Lavecky's doodle has become a picture of success.

Lotus & Ming

Wholesale only, www.lotusandming.com.au

Stockists

De'lish 9416 5916; Lane Cove West Fruitmarket 9427 2414; Camperdown Cellars Double Bay 9363 3406; The Gourmet Grocer, Balmain 9818 3354.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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