In London earlier this decade two young Wollongong chefs had a dream after catering for private parties for celebrities such as Elton John and Kate Moss.
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On Thursday the final piece of that vision fell in place when they opened the doors of M2 Kitchen Cafe Catering in Keira Street.
Michael and Martin Papac’s dream was to start a catering business together.
And for the last 18 months the two brothers have been catering for a variety of functions and events around the Illawarra and Shoalhaven.
They have a passion for coming up with new things all the time in the food they prepare and have catered for everything from business breakfasts and lunches to degustation dinners and weddings.
Now they have an extensive kitchen as a base to help them prepare for many such functions after taking over the site previously occupied by Keira Street Cafe and completely revamping it.
“We thought it was time for our catering company to further expand,” Michael said.
“While we are building our business the cafe will also help us move forward. The commercial kitchen is a really good size and we have been modernising everything. We have done a complete renovation and given it a fresh new look and new feel.”
Martin said while the cafe was open for breakfast, coffee, takeaways and lunch Monday to Saturday.
And at least once a month they will open for a tapas night, degustation dinner or a theme night. And they will still do pop-up dinners in locations around the Illawarra.
In spring they plan to open the cafe seven days a week. And will also hire out the venue for functions of up to 40 people.
“We have modernised the food but made sure it is still affordable,” Martin said.
“With our food we cook for everyone. We love doing that. And we love creativity. We change part of our menu every week. We are always switching things up and making it fresh and new. We have lots of ideas.”
Michael said the main thing they were looking for was somewhere that had plenty of storage space and a large kitchen because the catering side of the business was so important to them.
Keeping all suppliers local is also important to the brother chefs who would were thrilled to hear Elton John is coming to town to perform at WIN Stadium on September 24. Catering for his was one of their inspirations for the business. “Wouldn’t is be amazing if he rocked up here,” Martin said.
M2 Kitchen’s Cafe Catering has employed three full time staff for the cafe which is open 6am to 3pm Monday to Friday and 7am to 3pm on Saturday.