Australian baking royalty Simmone Logue has created a range of ready meals with the aim of nourishing time poor customers with food that “tastes like home”. Kim Berry spoke to Logue at the launch of the range.
The ready meal market is projected to be worth more than $1.6 billion by 2024. For Simmone Logue, the opportunity to develop a range of nourishing, rustic, and convenient meals was too hard to ignore.
Working with business partner and ready meal manufacturer Beak & Johnston (B&J), Logue has created a range of comfort meal classics, soups, and desserts to expand on her existing pies, quiches, and sausage rolls.
“Thirty years ago, I baked a cake in my small oven in my small flat in Sydney’s Neutral Bay. I walked up the road and sold it to the first café I walked into for $20.
“There have been battles and personal sacrifices along the way, but I never let go of my entrepreneurial spirit and unwavering passion for good food. I just love to cook,” Logue says.
Born and raised in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Logue says her culinary education came from her two grannies and a childhood spent picking fruit, collecting eggs, crayfishing, and mushroom foraging; immersed in an environment where fresh produce was plentiful.
From that first cake in her Neutral Bay flat, Logue rose to prominence with a luxe bakery in Balmain and built her brand to reflect her philosophy of “home meal therapy”.
“My business grew very organically. My food is cooked with love and integrity, and I never take shortcuts. I always say, ‘close your eyes and put the food in your mouth; it should transport you to your grandmother’s kitchen table’.
“From the very beginning, I followed my instinct and gave people what they were asking for. In business, if you listen to your customers and give them what they want, executed well and with passion you will be successful. It’s simple really.
“Today, my clientele is busy with the demands of work, being great parents, and going to the gym. They need someone to nourish them and their family. That’s where I come in,” Logue says.
It is also where her partnership with ready meal giant B&J comes into play. At the launch of the ready meal range, B&J founder and chair David Beak reflected on when the company was a supplier to Logue’s bakeries and how envious he was of her loyal customers and premium brand.
“When Simmone came to us with the business proposal for B&J to buy into the brand, we were thrilled. It is an amazing partnership and while Covid has been awful, she never lost her passion or her heart,” Beak says.
Logue echoed Beak’s sentiment, saying the support from the manufacturer in building the Simmone Logue brand has been remarkable.
“When you want to scale your business, you can’t just snap your fingers and have all the tools you need suddenly appear.
“Beak & Johnston wanted a high-end premium brand, and I wanted to grow Simmone Logue. The infrastructure, R&D, talented team, and experience they have is unmatched, it is a perfect relationship.
“The kitchen might be one of high volume with fast moving commercial production, but it is still my kitchen, creating beautiful food people can trust,” Logue says.
“I love the fact that quality can meet convenience. Everyone deserves wholesome food. Essentially what I am selling is time… time and joy.”
