Abundant servings of love, tradition, generosity and life are the five essential ingredients added to every project, dish or publication that local Mount Eliza business owner, Guy Mirabella brings to life.
“Shop Ate could be described as a Mount Eliza institution!” – Vicki Sayers, Live Love Mount Eliza
In his book Eat Ate, Mornington Peninsula raised author and food artisan from Shop Ate Cafe and Store, Guy Mirabella, attributes his passion and talent for his creative crafts to his upbringing.
Love is an essential ingredient for Shop Ate Cafe and Shop's Guy Mirabella.
Self-sufficiency is not a hip new food movement for Guy. The fertility of the small Mornington Peninsula farm he was raised on meant that eating in season simply made sense.
In Eat Ate Guy reflects fondly on family gatherings and memories of his mother working her magic on their home grown seasonal produce nurtured by compost, love and steeped in family traditions.
“My memories of being by my mother’s side, watching her and breathing in the aromas from the pots of bubbling salsa di pomodoro that she prepared have had an enormous influence on how I cook and enjoy food as an adult,” he wrote.
Guy generously shared his last copy - at the time - of Eat Ate with us. This writer has devoured it cover to cover and is working through the recipes!
If you are an appreciator of the emotive power of food mixed with life, you must get your hands on a copy of Guy’s book and experience Shop Ate Cafe, if you haven’t already.
To avoid compromising the translation of the many evocative personal stories brought to life by Guy, we have taken up his offer to share an extract of the blog article below instead, including a quote from renowned journalist and National restaurant critic, John Lethlean.
Guy Mirabella was born in Melbourne. He was raised, and lives on, the Mornington Peninsula with his family.
He is currently happily juggling the complexities in running a daytime cafe, Shop Ate Cafe and Store in Mount Eliza.
For 25 years Guy worked as a book design consultant working closely with book publishing houses.
Guy designed Stephanie Alexander’s‘Stephanie’s Seasons’ shortlisted for best designed book for the American Biennial (1995) Julia Child cookbook award and commended for 3 awards in the Australian Publishing Association Book Design Awards in the same year.
He designed the highly commended ChristineMansfield’s ‘Paramount Cooking’ and in 1999 received the awards for best designed cookbook for Manfield’s ‘Spice’, best designed book for ‘The Nature of gardens’ by Peter Timms.
Guy is the author of the highly acclaimed and award winning publication ‘Pasta e Basta’.
As Shop Ate Cafe and Store simmered in 2008 Guy wrote, designed and cooked his most ambitious cook book project yet, Eat Ate (Hardie Grant).
Here is what John Lethlean, journalist and national restaurant critic had to say:
”Eat Ate is much more than a design exercise. It’s a memoir, a bowerbird collection of images and souvenirs, thoughts and vignettes from an interesting Italian Australian life - a life lived with food at its source. To anyone in love with Italy, ‘Italianess’, food and the enrichment of the Australian soul that has come from a generation of Italian migrants, Eat Ate is a treasure, a uniquely Australian book”. John Lethleen
With his appetite quenched Guy immediately set to work on another more ambitious project -Hungry - a cook book on the life and food of the cafe. Shop Ate Cafe and Store is approaching its 15th year of celebrating beautifully cooked food using the freshest and seasonal ingredients.
Regular Shop Ate cafe and store events
Shop Ate offer monthly cooking classes and dinners held in the middle and last Friday of each month.
Where will you find Shop Ate Cafe and Store?
8/87 Mount Eliza Way, Mount Eliza
What are Shop Ate Cafe and Store’s opening hours?
Monday to Saturday from 8am to 4pm.
To find out more about Shop Ate Cafe and Store
Phone: 9787 0288
Visit the website: Shot Ate Cafe and Store
Visit shopatecafeandstore Instagram page