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When Bill Tsigos heard that a woman wanted to convert his old Alphington butcher shop into a pavlova outlet, he was a little puzzled.
Pavlova was not a dish he knew. As a butcher, T-bone steaks, mince, and his famous sausages were more his domain.
Pleased to meat you: Nerida McPherson sells pavlovas out of Bill Tsigos’s former Alphington butcher shop.
Credit:Scott McNaughton
But Mr Tsigos, 86, a much-loved figure in this north-eastern Melbourne suburb - in 2018
The Age named his shop as one of the “six reasons to visit Alphington” - is now happy to see his Wingrove Street premises buzzing with customers, since the Pav Queen cafe opened last Wednesday.
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Nerida McPherson doesn t have a sweet tooth and had never made a pavlova until four months ago.
Yet she has found an unlikely new career making the classic Australian dessert.
Pandemic pivot: Nerida McPherson with pavlovas she has made for Christmas orders.
Credit:Chris Hopkins
While many of us are winding down, Ms McPherson, aka the Pav Queen, is whipping up a storm in a Collingwood kitchen, with 100 orders to fill this week before Christmas Day.
She said if you had told her a year ago that by the end of 2020 she would be running such a business, I’d have said, It’s the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard in my life. I have never made a pavlova, I have no desire to. I couldn’t care less about them.