Hamlet Cafe Collab
We are very excited to have collaborated with the wonderful Hamlet, a social enterprise café in Hobart helping to create positive change in the lives of underrepresented Tasmanians. Hamlet provides training and work readiness support to people facing barriers to employment, with a focus on people living with disability, to improve their chances of securing employment outcomes, build independence and connection to their community.
We caught up with Founder & CEO Emily Briffa and Food & Ops Cameron Perry, to find out more about the work they do, and what inspires them to do it. They have also kindly shared the recipe for their favourite chocolate cookies, seasoned with Tasman Sea Salt!
TELL US ABOUT HOW HAMLET WORKS?
Emily: We deliver hands on hospitality training and workplace readiness support to people facing barriers to employment with a focus on people living with disability.
Our training is delivered at our social enterprise café which means our participants can build skills in a real workplace environment.
As a training café, we provide a supportive workplace where our participants gain the skills and confidence to participate in the workforce and reconnect with their community. Behind the scenes we provide a number of additional programs to help our participants thrive – including literacy support, digital literacy and access support, workplace presentation workshops, job interview preparation, and RSA and food safety training.
DO YOU THINK FOOD BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER?
Emily: Absolutely, sharing food is a wonderful experience, something that can make you feel connected and I feel like you can have some really open conversations around the dinner table – probably because people are distracted by food. Eating food is common experience, something everyone needs to do, it’s also something that can make you feel special knowing someone has taken extra effort to prepare a meal for you to share.
EMILY, YOU SAY YOU FELL IN LOVE WITH TASMANIA WHEN YOU MOVED HERE, WHAT WAS IT ABOUT TASSIE THAT CONNECTED WITH YOU?
Emily: Moving to Hobart from Melbourne I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I fell in love with the lifestyle pretty quickly. When I first moved here I was living in North Hobart and I loved being able to walk to work or walk 10 minutes up the hill and be in nature. I was really lucky to meet some lovely generous people who showed me around and shared Tasmania with me. Now, I can’t imagine living anywhere else, I think Hobart has such a beautiful community and I am grateful to be a part of it.
WHO AND WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Emily: At the moment, I am inspired watching my daughter grow up. She is almost 2 now and watching the way she interacts with people and the world around her is quite incredible. She can put a smile on just about anyone’s face with her cheeky grin.
IT MUST BE INCREDIBLY REWARDING TO NOT ONLY BE SERVING PEOPLE GREAT FOOD AND DRINKS BUT, BY DOING SO, BE HELPING THE COMMUNITY AROUND YOU?
Cameron: Yeah, it really is, I always feel really lucky to get to work at Hamlet. We have a wonderful team of great people who are really dedicated to helping our participants and helping them achieve their goals. It’s such a positive experience watching people develop new skills and seeing them interact with their community.
WHY IS SOURCING PRODUCE LOCALLY SO IMPORTANT TO YOU?
Cameron: Hamlet is all about community, this extends beyond our participants. We want to support local producers and suppliers as much as we can. Buying food locally has so many benefits, it tastes better, it last longer and is generally more interesting. working seasonally with our suppliers helps us to keep moving forward and put out the freshest tastiest food we can.
WOULD YOU BE HAPPY TO SHARE ONE OF YOUR AMAZING RECIPES WITH US?
This is by far our favourite chocolate cookie recipe. They are rich, salty, and incredibly chocolatey with just enough flour to hold them together.
The cookies are great by themselves, for an extra level of indulgence we have filled them with a salted caramel butter cream and garnished with a final touch of Tasman Sea Salt.