EPP-supplied GEA Comas machine to help deliver royal treat for the big occasion
Didier’s Patisserie has supplied its highly regarded pastry tarts for an array of Platinum Jubilee Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace, made using a GEA Comas Tartomatic machine supplied by EPP (European Process Plant Ltd).
The prestigious patisserie, which holds a Royal Warrant from HM The Queen, supplied an array of its sweet treats – including the signature Didier’s Mini Passion Fruit Tart – to add an extra special flavour to the Platinum Jubilee celebrations at Buckingham Palace. The Didier’s Patisserie team, led by founder and director, Didier Merveilleux, has been using the GEA Comas Tartomatic machine for 15 years to assist in the production of its premium patisserie and desserts, which it delivers nationwide.
EPP introduced Didier – a pastry chef who worked with the famed restauranteur Albert Roux in London – to the GEA Comas Tartomatic in 2007, after he needed to expand production whilst maintaining the exacting standards required by his customer base, which included sales with the likes of Harrods, Selfridges and other top retailers and hotels.The Tartomatic machine is a compact system for pies and tarts, which delivers high capacity, high-performance and is customisable for industrial-scale production of tartelettes or pies. The Tartomatic technology can be fitted with a depositor for cream and jam, and with a moulding unit for lids and lattices. EPP is the exclusive distributor for GEA Comas in the UK and Ireland.
“By investing in automation and the GEA Comas Tartomatic machine, it meant we could maintain our exacting high standards, whilst scaling up but with reduced labour costs and be more efficient in our processes,” says Didier Merveilleux, Founder and Director of Didier’s Patisserie. “We can now plan orders two months in advance. When we were reviewing our processes for the tarts, we were still hand making them but we wanted the tarts to still look and be consistent with the quality we had achieved, we found that the GEA Comas Tartomatic machine supplied by EPP does just this and would highly rate the equipment. During the process of purchasing the equipment, EPP arranged for us to visit the manufacturer in Italy to test out our own recipes and products on the machine, with them helping us to refine the process further.”
Didier’s Patisserie received their first Royal Warrant in 2013 by Appointment of HM The Queen for its consistent high quality and authentic patisserie products.The Royal Warrant is renewed every five years to ensure that the quality remain at the highest of standards.
Didier added, “We are constantly developing and evolving innovative designs of our products to keep ahead of the game. To be a good pastry chef I learnt very early on that to work in the industry requires lots of hard work and a good understanding of the equipment. Discipline is everything, this includes taking good care of the equipment and the machinery. We work hard to maintain our British Retail Consortium (BRC) high standards – highly important for pastry chefs because of the high-risk ingredients involved within the patisserie industry. To be a good pastry chef you need to have the right mindset and be very disciplined, as the work is very intricate and precise and requires a thought process to create and develop new products. A good pastry chef also needs to listen and respect the brief from the client and their budget.”
“We’re delighted that Didier’s Patisserie is still pleased with the GEA Comas Tartomatic Machine 15 years on, it is a fantastic machine delivering excellent return on investment,” says Steve Merritt, EPP managing director. “Didier’s is a thriving example of a patisserie using automation effectively to produce outstanding and high-quality products in the UK.”
