I’ve always wondered what sort of daydreams accountants use to get themselves through the drudgery of the working day, and now – in the case of Jean Thamthanakorn at least – I know. Baking tarts, of course. Jean is a self-taught baker, and honed her skills at home after a long day calculating tax. Sweet-toothed partner Sarin Rojanametin was the lucky beneficiary of these experiments, and together they decided to leave their respective careers (Sarin’s background is in art and photography, and latterly coffee-making) and set up Nora in the Carlton suburb of Melbourne.
It’s not taken long for Jean’s innovative charcoal tarts -with their distinctive black pastry crust – to gain a big reputation in the neighbourhood, and there’s plenty more to recommend Nora, too. Sarin’s art background served the project well when the pair were designing their little café on Elgin Street. Breakfast is a big part of the deal at Nora, and so the interior is full of sunshine, light colours and pale wooden furniture that help to banish morning head. The food is also likely to give visitors a lift as well; aside from those tarts, the menu serves up neat dishes of South East Asian-inspired fare, with just the right amount of kick to get the day off to an energised start.
