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The day Tash found her mum's recipes changed the rest of her life
Tash Topschij was sorting through her mother's possessions under difficult circumstances when she stumbled upon a curious box.
Published 13 January 2023 4:17pm
By Claudia Farhart
Source: SBS News
Image: Elena Topschij with her children Tash and Dima. (Supplied / Topschij family archive)
It started as a not-entirely happy accident.
Sixteen years ago, when Tash Topschij's mother was unwell, she was at home sorting through her things when she found a box.
"In amongst it, I found all her little chocolate-making trinkets," Tash says.
"There were things like her fork, all the wrapping paper, her hand-written recipes."
The recipes were for her mother's traditional Russian truffles — the same chocolates she'd enjoyed as a child growing up in Sydney.
Tash's parents, Lila and Peter Topschij. Source: Supplied / Topschij family archive
But before long, it was clear she was onto something, and Baba Lila was born.
Tash Topschij's chocolate shop uses the recipes inadvertently passed down by her mother. Source: SBS News / Claudia Farhart
"I used to be a graphic designer. I loved the job, but it was definitely time for a change. So coming across this was amazing."
Tash's chocolate shop sits on the grounds of the sprawling Bago Winery in the Port Macquarie hinterlands, NSW, about a four-hour drive north of Sydney.
"The name of the business, Baba Lila, is named after my mother; 'Baba' meaning 'grandmother', and Lila was her name," Tash says.
But before any recipes would arrive there, they had to travel across three continents with her mother, Lila Topschij.
"Mum was born in China - she was one of the 'White Russians' [Russians who opposed the revolution] - and her father actually went over the border during the 1917 revolution and set up the community in Harbin," she says.
"Her first husband was a Russian Jew and they lived in Israel for some time, and then eventually in the '50s she moved over to Australia."
Once in Sydney, Lila met Tash's father, a Ukrainian opera singer, and they started a family.
Elena Topschij with her children Tash and Dima. Source: Supplied / Topschij family archive
Today, Tash's chocolate shop is brimming with mementos from her mother; her shoes, a fox fur coat, an Orthodox icon and shelves of Russian books.
"I think the whole business is a homage to my mother. I've got decorations that are my mother's from when we were children," she says.
I think the whole business is a homage to my mother.- Tash Topschij, Baba Lila
"It was actually a way of trying to bring that heritage back into my life because I'm so far removed from the Russian community these days."
Tash Topschij and a colleague preparing the chocolates. Source: SBS News / Claudia Farhart
Each one is hand-stirred, hand-dipped, and hand-wrapped.
"Because of the nature of the geography in Russia, you always had some sort of dried fruit there, and just to make it a bit more special, you'd dip it in chocolate," Tash says.
Tash has since found a way to honour her Australian culture, too; by adapting the same recipe she found 16 years ago to use ingredients native to the Port Macquarie area.
They are now among her best sellers.
"I've got a wattleseed, a Tasmanian pepperberry, lemon myrtle aniseed myrtle, a bush lime. They just marry well with the actual recipe that my mother taught me," she says.
Tash's Australian native chocolates are now among her best sellers. Source: SBS News / Claudia Farhart
Her mother had dementia and never got to see how much further her recipe would travel before she died.
"I did show her the prune and brandy chocolate, and after about 10 minutes of me saying, 'remember this, Mum? This was wrapped in blue, it was the prune, remember?' she put it to her heart and she acknowledged that she remembered it."
