MEET THE PASTIZZI LADY

"It all starts with the childhood memories of being at Nannu & Nanna's house after school. I can still smell Brodu wafting into my nostrils as I open the door, orange blossom lingering in the air, and the taste of a cold left-over Pulpetti snack before dinner. 

Crunchy, flaky, literally mouth-watering Pastizzi that my Dad used to bring home when he'd find someone who could make them good, along with punchy olives, Ġbejniet tal-bżar, and a whole box of figs... Because you have to buy the whole box. 

Ħobż biż-żejt that my Aussie Mum used to make me for lunch after doing her research on Maltese recipes, and I could never forget my Aunty's Timpana at Christmas lunch or my other Aunty's Biskutini tal-lewż (Yes, both aunties have the same name, of course). 

Besides eating my families food, the other best part of growing up with a Maltese culture is the giant box of home-grown goodies we get every time we visited my Nanniet or my Uncles. 

When my Nanna passed away miskiena, it seemed like we suddenly didn't know this stuff anymore. When I was 26 I moved in with Nannu, and il-Allu, my cooking game changed entirely after living with him. I'd been a professional Chef for 13 years by that point and my whole career I'd been taught that cooking meant manipulating food into something unrecognisable... Living with my 80 year old Nannu completely changed this perception. 

He taught me about food as a survival strategy after the war, food as reward for labour, and how to appreciate it once it was finally here after it was grown... Why change it so much? It was the most eye-opening experience, and living with him was like being taken back to the 19th century! 

Obviously my Nanna did all the cooking when she was alive, and of course none of her recipes were written down, she always did "a little bit of this, a little bit of that" until it was divine. So between the two of us, Nannu & I, and our beautiful (tasty) memories of her cooking, we recreated her magic. I cooked, and he tasted (and judged harshly whether it was right or wrong). 

As we sat down at the old table covered by the same red checkered table cloth that's been there for over 20 years, accompanied by; a jar of capers, a bottle of olive oil, and a tin of anchovies - It was from this moment on that my whole life mission changed. 

I didn't want to be a Chef anymore, I wanted to be a cook. There is something money just can't buy about the picking of fruit from a tree that's been there since you were a kid, and putting it into a pastry that you made from scratch using flour and the eggs that your chickens laid that morning. Learning how to brine olives, harvest grain with a hook-shaped knife, and how to preserve everything by drying it out in the sun instead of an electric air-fryer - You can only learn this stuff through our ancestors. It's a true privilege.

This is the experience that shaped me as a Maltese-Australian Chef. Long before this experience of living with Nannu and long after it, in fact a total of about ten years, I'd been working on learning the craft of pastizzi and creating my very own recipe. Once my Nannu finally smiled humbly, knodded, and said to me with surprise "These are like the ones we had in Malta, where did you get these Cass!?" I knew, it was it. 

NIEKLU was created after my life had fast-forwarded a few of years where I'd met the father of my children and we had our beautiful boys together. It was the daunting realisation that they'll never know these things if we don't keep them alive which founded what is my regeneratively-focused, ancient Maltese food collective, serving our customers with an authentic taste of Maltese cuisine going far beyond just sustainable tactics.

I am determined to make sure that Maltese-Australian decedents can learn the craft of traditional Pastizzi making to a high quality standard, and that our heritage is kept alive as our world adapts to new technologies & conveniences. 

NIEKLU offers certified training for professionals and basic pastizzi making skills for beginners & passionate home cooks who want to learn.

Cassie, The Pastizzi Lady.

Founder of Nieklu - Ancient Maltese Food