Rising to the challenge.

Many people have taken to baking in lockdowns. Like any baked good gracing our social media feeds some might say the keys to success are starting with the right ingredients, making the appropriate measurements, and implementing the correct techniques.

Settling in for an uncertain time has meant evaluating and preparing my three Goodness Gracious Cafes & Bagelry’s for the twists and turns presented by the pandemic.?Much like taking to a favourite cake or trying out a new batch of cookies. ?I’ve spent a lot of time looking through the pantry to see what we have available, evaluating where I might find any missing ingredients, setting aside time to prepare the kitchen and get stuck into the process.

We took the lessons from the previous experiences, to make sure we were as prepared as we could be. But with any good lockdown having the right ingredients seems to always involve a thorough search and a touch of inspired innovations.?As always, the nature of the pandemic has meant demand and availability for some elements have been scarce although we are fortunate that many aspects like setting up our format around limiting risk and our current offering are still available to draw on.?

Appropriately measuring where the pandemic is at both internationally and locally, has a big influence on whether our recipe functions or if it needs to be tweaked for it to still work.?

After intensive vaccine rollouts a few countries have ‘opened up’, much of this is by default of their initial poor handlings.?It appears too early to determine the outcomes of this as currently there are significant parts of their populations unvaccinated.?Because of this there are escalating hospitalisations putting pressure on the respective health systems.?

With a northern hemisphere winter to come, schools returning, waning vaccine efficacy and new variants - means locally there is debate around our ability to ‘open up’ once we have hit a vaccination target.?With the international context it is difficult to make definitive decisions on this.?

Much of our country’s success will rely on our own vaccination rates and there are still challenges around hesitancy and misinformation.??With this is in mind, unfortunately level changes appear, at this stage to always be necessary and ever present - especially while our own health system remains exposed and fragile.?

Unfortunately if our system fills with covid patients it will have severe negative outcomes for those needing healthcare around ‘traditional’ illnesses like cancer and even immediate accidents and emergencies.?In essence having implications for all, vaccinated or not.?

It appears the degree and severity of level changes will be relative to the buy-in as a nation we have to live with the appropriate investment and social settings, to mitigate these effects on our health system.?With the challenging variables of the new strains and efficacy, the prudent approach would have the government and public fully invested in purpose built MIQ’s, mandated signing in, reduced/spaced event and indoor capacity, extensive mask use and all with substantial enforcement. ?If not for the present dangers posed by the current pandemic, it will be necessary for the undoubted future pandemics to come.

Mastering the right techniques are fundamental to the overall success of any triumphant piece of baking.?Given the constraints of the pandemic, the addition and correct application of business verticals and horizontals, along with some innovation will inevitably determine our outcome.?

Like the many that have found themselves in the same position and taken to baking – we aren’t fully immune to the pandemic, economically or socially.?There will be a degree of difficulty and not without some hard-work.?As no one wants to be wasteful there will undoubtably be pressure but the process should also have elements of nervous excitement.?

As it all comes together we’ll be eagerly standing at the oven window watching our mix, hoping it will rise like the masterpiece we want it to be.?