What started out as a simple family dream has blossomed into pure success – BusyBee Kitchen is now one of Moss Vale’s most beloved cafes.
With three young children and a mere desire to create something of their own, owning an award-winning cafe was never on the cards for owners Phoenix and Steve Leung. A meeting with Baedon, the owner of Rush Roasting Co, about a barista course shifted this pipe dream into motion after Phoenix was unexpectedly offered a job instead. A few weeks later, while discussing her family’s ambitions of becoming business owners, another opportunity arose – Baedon offered Phoenix the entire Rush Moss Vale café location to bring these ambitions to life.
One conversation would ultimately lay the foundations of BusyBee Kitchen, which has since become a beloved part of the local community with a loyal following. The couple have described their success as a “planned coincidence”, born from a hope to balance work and family life. Today, that coincidence is a national treasure after recently taking home both Australia’s Best Burger and Best Signature Burger awards at the Restaurant & Foodservice Show.
In a fitting twist, the opportunity to enter the competition arrived in a similar way to many milestones in the BusyBee story – a coincidence. After landing in the cafe’s junk mail folder, the invitation was discovered by Phoenix only two days before the deadline to enter. Rather than doing so with plans of taking home a trophy, the couple viewed the competition as a chance to learn, challenge themselves, and most importantly share their food with a wider audience. “We didn’t think we had a chance”, Phoenix recalls, “It’ll be a good experience”.
Drawing on the dishes and flavours that had already earned a loyal following back home, the couple entered burgers that perfectly reflected BusyBee Kitchen’s approach to food. Steve’s vision was always to create a restaurant-style cafe that integrated the Asian flavours of his background with comfortable Australian cafe dining, a fusion which took the judges by surprise and earned Steve the double win.
Championing Australia’s Best Burger came down to a juicy 150g beef patty served on a Tip Top Gourmet Bun with crispy onions, chipotle mayo, smoky BBQ sauce, pickled jalapeños and fresh tomato. Given the success of the burger, Steve and Phoenix knew it had to be added to their menu at BusyBee for their customers to try back home.
“It’s our little piece of luck”, Phoenix said, “So we decided to bring it back and share that luck with our customers. Both burgers will share our homemade special patty, but with different buns and different sauces”.
BusyBee’s menu is no stranger to Tip Top Foodservice products and they claim that the win only reinforced what they knew about the brand. The couple have been well acquainted with Tip Top’s English Muffin range for quite some time, long before stepping into the competitive spotlight, with one of their most popular dishes, the ‘Bee Morning’ breakfast, having been on the menu for more than two years.
According to Pheonix, Tip Top’s English Muffins perfectly fit the bill for a breakfast meal that is delicious but not too heavy for early mornings. She describes the muffin as perfect, not too big, yet super fluffy, light, and with a little chewy texture – which you can easily hold in your hand and take a clean bite.
“The air pockets inside the muffin soak up all the smoky flavour from our grilled beef patty. So before you even bite in, the smell already fills your nose and mouth. It’s incredible”, she says.
For BusyBee Kitchen, winning Australia’s Best Burger and Best Signature Burger was a proud moment. Continuing to use the same ingredients long after the competition ended speaks volumes about not only the confidence they have in the products they use but also the consistency and integrity behind their dishes.
