Weekend Cooking: Our visit to Lune Lab

 

A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to be able to attend Lune Lab.

What, you may ask, is Lune Lab? Lune is a foodie haunt which focuses on croissants and pastries. Lune started here in Melbourne around 10 years ago. On the weekends, there is always a queue out the door of people who want to try both the traditional and non-traditional flavours which change on a monthly basis. Based on the flavours we tried, we will definitely be trying to go back to try the flavours in future months. The founder, Kate Reid, was a former Formula 1 Aerodynamicist who decided that she wanted to do something completely different. Her scientific background translates to making croissants, working and reworking recipes until it is perfect using scientific thinking and methodology.

Lune Lab is a degustation menu where you pay a set amount and are treated to a three course menu which changes each couple of months to use the best of seasonal ingredients. 

The first course is a traditional croissant, served whilst still warm after being out of the oven for 10 minutes. The outer shell is so crispy and flaky whilst the inside is soft and buttery! The chef who came out to speak to us even used the word juicy, which I must confess is not a word I would normally associate with a pastry but was apt.

The second course is a savoury course. These menus are not pastries that you would pick up from a normal bakery. Our menu had large vol au vent filled with twice cooked lamb shoulder with an avocado mint puree and micro herbs along with lettuce. The lettuce was actually really zingy and was on the plate to cut through the richness of the lamb. This was absolutely delicious.

The third course was a sweet course and featured a Japanese flower shaped pastry filled with sesame seed frangipane style filling, with a tonka bean cream topping.

It isn't only about the food you eat while you are there. The Lune we went to is the one which makes all the croissants for Melbourne and features a cube inside the building which is temperature controlled to the perfect conditions for making croissants. Inside the cube there is a team of pastry chefs who are rolling out the pastry and then making the different shapes.. It is absolutely mesmerising watching every baker preforming their role in such a precise way.  We watched them making hundreds of perfect croissants, and then using some of the offcuts to create cronuts. There is very little waste, with anything that isn't being used immediately being stored for reuse.  It was really interesting as the process for making a perfect croissant takes 3 days! If I remember correctly the first day the pastry is made. The second day the pastry is shaped and then the third day it is baked to perfection.

Whilst I don't think we will do Lune Lab every time the menu changes because it is not a cheap experience to do, but it was fascinating and delicious! We will do it again at some point I am sure.

 Weekly meals

Saturday - Takeaway

Sunday -  Pork Stir fry

Monday - Char Siu Chicken

Tuesday - Family dinner

Wednesday - Fried Chicken, mash and broccoli

Thursday - Takeaway

Friday - Lasagne

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