What the dish or product is
Describe or show us what you're making — a mould is designed around a product, not in the abstract.
Service · bespoke
Bespoke food-mould cavities, not a catalogue.
If a catalogue mould covered every dish, chefs wouldn't need us. Bespoke cavity work is what we do most days.
Overview
Bespoke food-mould cavities, not a catalogue.
Custom shape work is the largest single reason our customers come to us. A restaurant wants a plated dessert nobody else has. A confectioner wants a signature outline. A patisserie chain wants a proprietary bar.
We take the sketch, the photo, the sample or the description and turn it into a food-contact mould. One-off, small run, or scaled up if it lands.
What we make
Common asks in this service.
01
From a chef's sketch
A drawing on the back of a receipt is a starting point. We'll turn it into a working cavity.
02
From a physical sample
You've carved a form in wax, in blue foam, in fondant. Send it. We'll lift the geometry and pour a mould.
03
From an existing product
A shape you like from a competitor or from a foreign market. We'll assess it, propose a legitimately different version, and mould that.
04
From a description
Sometimes it's just words. We'll sketch it back, agree what you actually meant, and go from there.
05
Prototype-then-scale
We build the first cavity, you test it, we scale to a tray if it works.
How it gets made
Drawn, proofed, then poured.
Every mould starts as a drawing we agree with you. We make a master, pour a single proof cavity in PFAS-free platinum-cure food-grade silicone and let you test it with your own recipe.
Once you are happy, we pour or press the full tray, record the grade against your order and keep the drawing on file for reorders.
What we ask up front
Four questions on every enquiry.
Constraints
Portion size, plate size, weight, cavity count on the tray. Give us what you know.
Sign-off process
Chef, brand team, food safety. Tell us who needs to see what, when. We build sign-off checkpoints into the schedule.
Where you're going with it
One dessert on one menu, or a range across ten venues. Both are valid; both drive different tool choices.
Typical work
Case studies and further reading.
Signature
Signature quenelle mould
A signature quenelle mould for a plated dessert, one cavity on a hand-poured tray.
See project
Custom
Vegan cheese wheel mould
A cheese-wheel silicone mould for a vegan brand's hero SKU.
See projectCustom
Layered dessert insert
A slim insert mould for a layered dessert's fruit compote centre.
See projectAt a glance
The ideas in pictures.
How a production tray is laid out
Swipe to see the whole diagram
How a food mould gets made
- 01DrawingWe agree the shape with you
- 02MasterMade to the drawing
- 03Proof cavityPoured in food-grade silicone
- 04Your testTry it with your own recipe
- 05Full trayPoured or pressed to size
- 06On recordGrade and drawing kept for reorders
Swipe to see the whole diagram
Questions
Four that come up on this service.
How long does a bespoke mould take?
Depends on complexity. A single hand-poured cavity turns around quickly; scaled tooling around a chef sign-off takes longer. We'll give an honest lead time at enquiry.
Do you charge for the sketch stage?
For a single hand-poured cavity, no — quoting is the sketch stage. For scaled tooling with multiple sign-offs, that becomes a design fee, and we're transparent about it.
Can we own the design outright?
Yes, by agreement. Say so at enquiry stage.
Can you protect our shape from being copied?
The mould shape is your IP. We can hold the master on file exclusively for you.
Ready?
Talk to us about custom shapes.
Send a photo, a sketch or a sample. We'll come back with a route and a quote.
Real people, a real workshop
You deal with the people who make it.
No call centre and no middlemen. When you contact TCI Culinary, you speak to the team who design, build and check your mould.
- A real Warwickshire workshopUnit 15, Waterloo Park, Bidford-on-Avon, Alcester B50 4JG.
- Real people on the phoneCall the team on 01789 224228, Monday to Friday.
- The same team on every jobDesign, production and aftercare come from the people you see here.
- BRCGS Grade AATechcraft Industries Culinary Ltd. See the certificate details.
Thomas LaneManaging Director
George PrestonDesign & Project Manager
Kelly BallingerHead of Partnerships
Jim AndertonProduction Manager
TheodoreEmployee Welfare