By Elisa Cirene
Next time you visit the Slow Food Melbourne farmers’ markets, be sure to grab a traditional scrumptious pudding from Pudding Nana. Made with love and using traditional recipes passed down four generations, one bite of Alex’s puddings will transport you to the warm embrace of Grandma’s kitchen.
As a kid, Alex Green would sit spellbound at the kitchen table watching his Mum, Nan and Gran sieve flour, cream butter and sugar, stoke wood fires, and check the temperature by opening the oven door and placing a wet hand inside.
These influential women in Alex’s life not only taught him how to make a pudding but to love, eat pudding and understand the emotional power that a homemade pudding has. He tells us, “The biggest reaction at our dinner table was when the pudding arrived – the laughter and sighs of delight, are some of my strongest childhood memories.”
Food and gatherings were at the centre point of happiness in Alex’s family, it either started with food, ended with food or was about the food. So, it was a natural progression that Alex followed a career as a chef and baker. For twenty-four years he ran a successful catering business that was decimated by lockdown.
“It was a really tough time and I was on the brink of destruction. I was lost and had to remind myself of my capabilities. My childhood memories came flooding back, and with nothing to lose, I took the plunge and launched Pudding Nana. People loved it and slowly I started to feel joy again.”
The success of Pudding Nana was a distraction from another blow that Alex was dealing with in his personal life. Visa issues followed by closed borders meant that Alex was separated from the man he had been ready to marry for nearly three years. Creating Pudding Nana, when everything was taken away from him, helped him soldier on and remind him that things will get better.
2022 is here and word is spreading about Alex’s puddings with people flocking to market day to try one. To top it off, Alex and Bryan finally tied the knot in January. Alex looks forward to embracing the future while never underestimating the power of puddings made with love.
Catch Pudding Nana at the Slow Food Melbourne farmers’ markets on the 2nd Saturday of the month at Barrett Reserve, West Footscray and 4th Saturday of the month at Spotswood Kingsville RSL.
