Queen of Tarts may be the name of her restaurant, but it is also a title befitting Tina Bester who has been in business for 12 years. That it is going strong is a testament to Bester’s delicious sweet and savoury dishes.
Bake, which was her first book, offered easy-to-follow recipes to make at home. It covered everything from biscuits for the cookie jar to savoury goodies, tarts, cakes, meringue creations and, of course, fail-proof bread and buns.
This was followed by Comfort, Celebrate, Fun in the Kitchen (a kiddies book) and Jampacked.
Tarts is her sixth book.
This book throws the cliché “don’t judge a book by its cover” out of the window. Allow me to explain: every picture, starting with the cover, looks delicious. It’s going to leave you ravenous.
And she is proud of the images used to illustrate her recipes.
She says: “We have all the bits that came out of the tarts. You look at it and it looks like you could eat it right off the page. That is what we were going for.”
What I love, though, is the the recipes are easy to follow and it includes a pastry-making section. And Bester has every season covered, while exploring the gamut of sweet and savoury options.
“The summer recipes have more fresh berries and such things, while the winter tarts have more roasted vegetables, offering richness. They are all my recipes. Some are new ones I developed. Some are the ones we use in the shop as well,” Bester says.
Talking favourites, she shares: “The summer breakfast tart is delicious. It has a muesli granola crust with Greek yoghurt and berries in it. It’s an easy tart and offers a different take on muesli and fruit.
“Another favourite is the pineapple tartes tatin. You cook the pineapples in butter, sugar and vanilla pods. Then you put the puff pastry on top and bake it in the oven.
“The puff pastry puffs up and you flip it over and you have this caramelised stuff from the pineapple that oozes off the pastry.”
Another tart she couldn’t stop raving about was the chocolate brownie and cheesecake tart.
“It’s got the brownie mixture mixed into the creaminess of the cheesecake - very yummy for winter,” she says.
Ironically, she says she never had a sweet tooth - but developed one over the years, especially with her default taster husband being an incorrigible dessert lover.
What’s next? “I’m taking a break at the moment. I did six cookbooks in five years.
“We will see.”
* Tarts is published by Quivertree Publications and retails for R185.
Queen of Tarts is in 213 Lower Main Rd and Bishop Rd, Observatory