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Anyone doing something that has individuality will have their critics,” says Heston Blumenthal,
f latly. After 17 years in the spotlight, Heston has his fans and a few detractors.
His trail-blazing trajectory of success includes four Michelin stars (three at Fat Duck, one at Dinner) by the age of 44, a catalogue of accolades including an honorary doctorate of science and an OBE, plus numerous television series, books, food products and countless headline appearances at industry events.
It may not be a dissimilar path to other celebrity chefs in the top echelon, but there’s something different about Heston. He’s a scientist-investigator-magician-chef with razor intellect, who also happens to be a natural entertainer. And he’s self-taught. Perhaps that’s what niggles the doubters, and perhaps that’s where Heston went right from the beginning. Instead of learning what others were learning in order to don the white chef ’s jacket, he opened his mind, explored, experimented and challenged conventional thinking to get to the very essence of food and f lavour.
With a sense for humour that delights in the absurd, he makes for compelling star quality. And while he may not sing and dance – yet – that hasn’t stopped him from taking his show on the road with a series of ‘one night only’ events in Australia this May.
Before opening the Fat Duck in Bray, near London, in 1995 – the restaurant that made his name – Heston immersed himself in understanding the science
of cooking, supporting himself as a salesman and debt collector along the way. His boundlessly inquisitive nature and child-like enthusiasm hasn’t relented.
“The Fat Duck has been an opportunity for me to behave like a big child,” says Heston. “In the last few years, television has given me great opportunities for experimenting.”
A FEAST OF FANTASTIC TV It’s true, he broke ground with the TV series Heston’s Feasts and its fantastical themes that saw him recreating famous period dishes; the kind of food that was inconceivable in his restaurant. The Willy Wonka-esque episode is probably the most referenced, in which he had his famous guests licking their entree off the wall. And the Medieval Feast was a riot of guests squealing in delight and horror as pigeons f lew from a 120-kilogram pie inspired by the nursery rhyme ‘four-and-20-blackbirds’. In the same episode, Germaine Greer devoured bulls balls disguised as plums as he quipped: “I might just be the first chef to put a testicle in Germaine Greer’s mouth.”
The feasts were theatre, comedy and with clever kitchen wizardry, a twisted kaleidoscope view back to the future. The series made for thrilling viewing and the follow-up book captured his devilish humour; probably necessary alongside the bombastic recipes.
TO SOME HE IS
A FOOD HERO, TO OTHERS A CULINARY CHARLATAN, BUT
AS JO BATES FINDS OUT, HESTON BLUMENTHAL IS SIMPLY ON A
MISSION TO CHANGE OUR PERCEPTION OF FOOD.
Words Jo Bates
“
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Hestons quest
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Television has certainly given a wider audience a taste of Heston’s food-as-art. Tables at the Fat Duck are in such demand that some cheekily call it ‘Fat Chance’. Thousands of diners call daily in the hope of securing a table at the restaurant that boasts more chefs than its 42 seats. His pub, the Hinds Head, which serves classic British food, is nearby, but it’s the Duck (as he calls it) and his new restaurant Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, which opened in Knightsbridge last year, that showcase his food philosophy. Dishes at the new ‘modern brasserie’ are based on historical British recipes and within just months of it opening, Dinner had a Michelin star.
Each dish on the menu appears with its period of inspiration: Hay Smoked Mackerel (1730), Powdered Duck (1670) and Tipsy Cake (1810). In their countless hours of research, Heston and his executive chef Ashley Palmer-Watts worked with scientists, food historians and the British Library to study cooking techniques that date back to the 14th century.
FOOD HISTORIANThe quest for understanding, even the minutiae of research, is all part of the fun. Heston recalls with morbid delight a book that described how to ‘roast’ a chicken.
“You pluck it alive, then brush it with wheatgerm and dripping to make it look like it’s roasted. You put it under your arm and rock it to sleep, then place it on a dish with two cooked chickens and serve it. You carve the roasted chickens and by this time the plucked chicken comes alive and runs down the table,” he says, laughing at the audacity and absurdity of the poultry fiasco disturbing everything from goblets to guests. And animal rights activists, too, had they existed. “There was no TV or radio back then, so I guess it was a form of entertainment,” he surmises.
He cites another recipe that puts sulphur and mercury down a chicken’s neck, so that when it cooked the chemicals made the chicken ‘cluck’.
“There was no evidence to show that anyone ever cooked this, but it got me interested – creativity is not a modern thing; food was more theatrical back then.”
Although the food at Dinner is based on historical ideas, modernist techniques typical to the Duck are used to achieve their creation. “For me the best form of evolution is when you respect tradition and history but use modern techniques to drive it forward,” says Heston.
“Modern cooking today is an evolution of 70s nouvelle cuisine – lots of people believed nouvelle cuisine was small food on big plates, but it represents a massive change from what food was. Any new style can be interpreted in the wrong way. It’s not revolution but evolution.”
It’s his obsessive curiosity in understanding and evolving food that leads Heston to his off-the-wall creations. And it gains him plenty of attention. As an April Fool’s Day prank, the British tabloid The Sun ran the ‘world exclusive’ that Heston had created the first lick-able newspaper. “Someone saw three people on the train that morning licking the newspaper,” he laughs. “It even made me want to lick the paper, although it said it may contain traces of nuts.”
COLLABORATIONSFrivolity aside, cutting-edge thinking also allows Heston to collaborate with other top names in food and science. And he’s the first to acknowledge them. He cites Harold McGee’s book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, as a turning point.
“Harold’s book changed everything for me. It was 1985 and I was 18 and
cooking for myself and experimenting. Harold made the point that browning meat doesn’t seal its juices and it went against all that we knew. He explained why and it made perfect sense to me.
“At this point I started to think if that’s not true, what else is not true about what we know and what I had been studying of classical French food. The foundation of food is critical for me.”
Rest assured, it’s not just your taste buds that Heston wants to engage, it’s your intellect and senses in their entirety, too. He’ll take the lot and show no mercy to your doubting mind.
“We get pleasure in the brain from food,” he says. “The cooking that excited me originally was about exciting the senses. It’s just my style and I don’t really need to make any apologies for that.”
THE MOLECULAR MYTHDespite his name becoming inextricably linked with molecular gastronomy, it’s a term that makes no sense to Heston Blumenthal.
“It was created to use at a centre in Sicily (at the Erice workshop) and it has been misused,” he says. “When we cook, physical reactions happen – a souff lé rises for a reason; it’s the science of cooking.”
There’s a tendency for experimental cookery to be branded, but Heston believes the techniques are as relevant to a baker or barista as they are to a chef.
“Embrace technology for a better result – why shouldn’t it be applied in the kitchen; it’s the same with cooking as it should be for computers and phones.”
While the molecular myth continues to perpetuate, Heston believes the discussion “when is a chemical not a chemical” is an important one to have.
Shown the chemical make-up of water, most people wouldn’t swallow it.
“It’s a grey area,” he says. “So is it okay to have sodium chloride, or sugar, which is a refined product? MSG is a salt and, like salt, it is refined. In terms of medical research, salt is bad for us but MSG is not, but its name gives it a bad name.
“Even f lavour molecules like benzaldehyde don’t sound like something we should eat, but it exists naturally in almonds. Vanilla bean has no f lavour until it is processed, but you can create vanillin from wood. We need to have more understanding about what we eat; there needs to be more awareness about it.
“With any chef embracing modern technology, it doesn’t matter what that technology is, ultimately the food has to give pleasure. Sometimes it’s about creating surprise and there will always be a level of subjectivity.”
.... Germaine Greer devoured bulls balls disguised as plums as he quipped: “I might just be the first chef to put a testicle in
Germaine Greer’s mouth.”
Heston’s attention to detail and meticulous precision is one of the traits that has taken him to the top of the chef world.
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Heston’s triple-cooked chipsServes 6
1kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and cut into chips (approx. 2 ! 2 ! 6cm)
Groundnut or grapeseed oilSea salt
1. Place the cut chips into a bowl under running water for 5 minutes to wash the starch off.
2. Place 2kg cold tap water in a large saucepan and add the potatoes. Place the pan over a medium heat and simmer until the chips are almost falling apart (approximately 20–30 minutes, depending on the potato).
3. Carefully remove the cooked chips and place them on a cooling rack to dry out. Then place in the freezer for at least 1 hour to remove more moisture.
4. Heat a deep-fat fryer or a deep pan no
more than half filled with oil (to a depth of around 10cm) to 130ºC. Fry the chips in small batches until a light crust forms (approximately 5 minutes), remove from the oil and drain on kitchen paper.
5. Put the potatoes on a cooling rack and place in the freezer for at least 1 hour. (At this stage, if you don’t want to cook and serve immediately, the chips can be kept in the fridge for 3 days.)
6. Heat the oil in the deep-fat fryer or deep pan to 180ºC and fry the chips until golden (approximately 7 minutes). Drain and sprinkle with sea salt.
“This was probably the first recipe that I could call my own. Achieving the crisp, glass-like exterior depends on getting rid of moisture from the potato and creating little cracks in the surface where the oil will collect and harden, making it crunchy.”
OUT NOWRecipe and image from
Heston’s latest book
Heston Blumenthal At
Home (Bloomsbury, $65).
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chef profile
food explorerSydney-based Yorkshireman Sean Connolly talks to Jo Bates about exploring cuisine through culture
Taste 101
Food has not only been Sean Connolly’s career but a meal ticket to explore the cuisines and cultures of the world. Chasing
goats for a Congolese feast or learning to make the Cuban dish congri are a long way from this chef’s Yorkshire roots, but that’s only half the fun he gets up to in his award-winning TV show My Family Feast. It’s more than a food show, as Sean explores the cuisine, heritage and culture of immigrant nationalities in Sydney. He was recently awarded best English-language celebrity chef for the series’ companion book at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris.
At an early age Sean knew he wanted to be a chef and enjoy a taste of what the world has to offer. That opportunity came when he was 18 and joined the kitchens of the QE2, where he spent two years travelling and cooking for the wealthy. When the luxury liner docked in Sydney, he found it hugely appealing and “amazing” that you could travel to the other side of the world and still speak English. Sold on Australia as the lucky country, Sean moved there with his fiancée in 1988. “It’s so much more laid back than the UK,” he smiles.
My Family Feast by Sean Connolly, published by Hardie Grant Books, is distributed in New Zealand by Random House, RRP$69.99 (hardback).
The following recipe, prepared by Mary Papadopolus, is an edited extract from My Family Feast by Sean Connolly.
A narrow strait is all that separates the Greek island of Lesbos, where Mary was born, from Turkey, so it fits that there are some Turkish influences. These cheese pastries are like a cross between traditional Turkish gozlemes and Greek tiropites.
Pastry600g plain flourWaterOlive oilFillingA bout 400g feta, crumbled to measure
2 cups4 eggsHandful of mint leaves, choppedWhite pepperOil, for shallow-fryingG rated parmesan or Greek yoghurt,
to serve
1 Mix the flour with water and a little oil to form a soft dough. (There is no salt in the dough because of the salty feta filling.) Knead the dough well until it becomes elastic. Form it into balls the size of large walnuts and let them rest for 15 minutes. 2 Mix the feta with the eggs, mint and pepper to taste.3 Roll the balls of dough into thin discs approximately 15cm in diameter. Spread 2 Tbsp of feta mixture in centre of each circle. Fold in left and right sides to overlap in the middle, stretching them out a little as you do so, then stretch and fold in the bottom side, brush it with a little water and stretch and fold in the top, gently pressing to stick the layers together. You should end up with pillow-shaped pastries.4 Shallow-fry the pastries on each side until golden. To serve, sprinkle with parmesan or dollop with yoghurt.
Gozlemes Serves 8
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Not that he made a pot of tea and put his feet up when he arrived. He spent the next 15 years making his mark at the fine-dining restaurant Astral and his own restaurant, Sean’s Kitchen, a more casual dining experience with international influences. For the first nine years, Astral didn’t register on Sydney’s notoriously fickle dining scene, says Sean. But when he earned his first SMH hat (Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide restaurant award), people started to take notice. In 2008, Sean was awarded SMH chef of the year.
When Astral closed last year Sean welcomed the chance to branch out on his own. He now has his own consultancy and is partnered with Restaurant Associates, a high-end corporate catering company. But another restaurant opportunity soon came knocking – Sean’s newest venture is The Grill, with Auckland’s SkyCity, due to open in July. So why a restaurant in New Zealand? “I love the people, the country and the produce and the opportunity was too good to turn down.”
Sean relishes his role as roving chef and food show host but he acknowledges it has taken 30 years of cooking to get there. Even though the world is his oyster and despite developing a fondness for caviar on the QE2, one of his favourite meals is his wife’s cassoulet prepared with pinot noir. “It makes me feel like a king.”
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114 Taste
In a dairy, beef and lamb-loving nation – with an economy founded on their production – it seems almost unpatriotic to be anything but omnivorous. But
if international trends are something to follow, more of us will be challenging this conundrum. Vegetarianism and veganism are gaining respect and rapidly edging away from the marginalist fringe.
Even if an entire ‘ism’ isn’t embraced, awareness is growing enough to prompt
movements such as Meatless Monday (meatlessmonday.com) in the United States; a concept that takes health as its lead. New York – where, let’s face it, things tend to happen first before the rest of the world takes notice – recently held its inaugural NYC Vegetarian Food Festival, a free event appealing to “vegans, vegetarians, flexitarians, locavores and general foodies”. While there have been vegetarian/vegan food festivals here in New Zealand, they’ve
never been seen as a mainstream event. At Taste, it’s a given that we regularly engage in discussions about food. Food is very much in our thoughts, and our choices are influenced by those thoughts. Among the staff of six in the Taste office, we have a vegan, a pescetarian, a flexitarian (see A what? opposite), and someone who cancels out controversial foods (such as mass-produced pork or fast food) for stretches at a time. Ph
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a what?• A vegetarian does not eat any type of meat.• A vegan does not eat any meat or animal products.• A pescetarian eats fish or other seafood, but not red meat or poultry, whereas a pollotarian eats chicken or other poultry, but not red meat. • Flexitarians avoid, but occasionally eat, meat. According to Wikipedia, ‘flexitarian’ was voted by the American Dialect Society in 2003 as the year’s most useful word; defined as “a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat”.
food trends
buT why?There are a variety of reasons why people choose to exclude meat and/or animal products from their diet. Vegetarians may list personal health, animal welfare, the impact on the environment, or they may simply not enjoy eating meat. Vegans tend to be prompted by animal welfare and/or environmental issues. According to a CBS News Healthwatch report, veganism is becoming mainstream in the United States. Today’s vegans, it says, are “urban hipsters, suburban moms, college students, even professional athletes”.
As soon as Oprah is onto it, you know it’s the genuine, bona fide ‘next big thing’. She and 378 of her staff members recently took up the challenge to go vegan for a week, under the guidance of Kathy Freston, vegan and author of Veganist: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World. Oprah has also introduced Meatless Mondays at her production company’s canteen.
Also up for a challenge has been Bill Clinton. When his daughter Chelsea, a long-term vegan, prompted him to get healthy before he walked her down the aisle, he was inspired by plant-based nutrition espoused by prominent US doctors Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn, who have both authored books on heart disease, and Colin Campbell, author of The China Study. They all correlate purely plant-based nutrition with optimum health.
It is widely known that Bill loved his burgers and other artery-clogging foods and in 2004 he underwent a quadruple bypass. As well as losing more than 10kg on his new diet, Clinton’s heart disease is reportedly in reverse. In Esselstyn’s words: “Coronary artery disease is a toothless paper tiger that need never exist. If it does exist it need never, ever progress.”
While we don’t have any prominent vegans or vegetarians flying the flag here, incremental and almost imperceptible changes have been taking place.
Amanda Sorrenson of the Vegan Society says choosing a plant-based diet is no longer a “hippie issue”. Proving a point, we met at Auckland’s Heritage Hotel to discuss the subject. In a New Zealand first, the hotel has implemented a vegan initiative. The lobby bar menu is entirely vegan and the hotel has just launched a sustainable, plant-based fine-dining menu. As general
manager Graeme Back says: “This is part of our business plan going forward; not a here-today-gone tomorrow initiative.”
It’s quite radical. What started as a management initiative has become an important part of the company’s Goldmark environmental status. For nearly two years all staff shouts at the Heritage have been vegan but it wasn’t until chef Jinu Abraham embraced the concept that guests have been treated to a dedicated plant-based menu, which Graeme describes as “delicious, not denial, dining”.
Vegetarian menus have also quietly become part of the repertoire at some of the country’s leading restaurants, from Clooney’s, The French Café and Soul Bar in Auckland to Restaurant Schwass in Christchurch (pre-quake). Taking it mainstream, Hell’s pizza has a vegan option.
Jessie Roughan of the New Zealand Vegetarian Society says: “There has definitely been an increase in interest in vegetarianism and veganism over the last few years. In the past most people have become vegetarian or vegan for either health or humane reasons but the upsurge in wanting to know about more sustainable living is catching up as a reason. There has also been much more publicity in encouraging people to make healthy eating choices to avoid heart disease, diabetes etcetera and a vegetarian/vegan diet goes a long way to help those susceptible to these illnesses. People are becoming more public with their diet choices and it is great to have the support of well-known international people such as Bill Clinton who are happy to talk about it.“ A new leaf
The number of people eliminating meat and animal products from their diet is increasing. Jo Bates looks at the reasons for this global trend
taste 83
Antonio Carluccio has been a passionate cook for more than 50 years, earning him the title ‘Godfather of Italian’ cuisine, learns Jo Bates
chefprofile
www.taste.co.nz
His hallmark greeting is a kiss on each cheek and a cheeky joke. I get: “How do New Zealanders find the
sheep? Delightful!”Bad jokes aside, the tone changes when
Antonio Carluccio talks about food. He may have lived and carved his cooking career in London but it’s Italian food that has made him famous.
Known as the godfather of Italian cuisine, Carluccio’s name is synonymous with the Neal Street Restaurant in London’s Covent Garden, which he ran for 26 years, as well as the Carluccio’s caffe business in the UK, his 13 cookbooks, TV shows and appearances, his lifelong passion for mushroom foraging and his motto “mofmof” – minimum of fuss, maximum of flavour. The term epitomises Italian food – a few quality ingredients prepared simply.
Antonio Carluccio began his career as a journalist, hence, perhaps, his nose for digging into the history of food – another passion of his.
In his latest documentary, Italian Feast, Antonio travels to Italy to explore the life and recipes of Bartolomeo Scappi, the renowned Renaissance chef and cookbook author; considered by many to be the first celebrity chef. “It’s about the deep, deep, deep origins of Italian food. To me food is not banal – if you know a bit about the cultural aspect from which it comes, then you see why they cook like that, why they use those ingredients.”
Torta di ricotta – ricotta tartItalians love ricotta – a by-product of the cheesemaking process – and use it to produce both savoury and sweet dishes. The most important thing to remember about ricotta is that it must always be very fresh: if there is even the tiniest hint of sourness, the ricotta is off.
serves | 6-8
50g butter3-4 sheets of filo pastryFilling500g fresh ricotta cheese120g caster sugar5 eggs, separated15 0g mix of orange and lemon rind,
cut into small cubesFinely grated rind of 1 lemon50 g bitter chocolate, broken into
small pieces
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease the inside of a 25cm flan tin with a little of the butter, melting the remainder in a pan over a low heat. 2 Line the flan tin with the filo pastry, brushing each sheet with some of the melted butter. 3 Put the ricotta in a bowl, and loosen the texture with a fork. Mix in 100g of the sugar and the egg yolks, followed by the cubes of rind, the grated rind and the chocolate. Mix well together. 4 In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, then add the remaining caster sugar. Fold this carefully into the ricotta mixture using a large metal spoon, taking care not to lose the airiness of the whipped whites. 5 Spread this filling onto the filo pastry on the base of the tin. Brush melted butter over any remaining sheet or sheets of filo. With scissors, cut ribbons of buttered filo pastry and spread these decoratively on the tart. 6 Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes and leave to cool before serving.
Recipe from Simple Cooking by Antonio Carluccio. Photographs by Alastair Hendy. Published by Quadrille Publishing, distributed by Southern Publishers Group, RRP $59.99.
A man of passion
Antonio’s own culinary reach is far and wide and long-standing. For more than 50 years he has championed Italian food and his philosophy has remained steadfast throughout. “Trends are for people who can’t cook,” he says. “I am truly into seasonal food because it’s lovely to work like that. I’m a passionate cook and I cook for passion. I cook all the time; I’m not a chef.” Perhaps that’s the secret to his success – through his passion and desire for simplicity he inspires confidence in others.
Calling London home for more than 35 years has given him an objectivity by which to observe Italian food. It also provides the opportunity to enjoy an international cornucopia of food that remains largely foreign to Italy.
“The ethnic food in London I think is better than, say, New York because it is more genuine. I enjoy eating any cuisine as long as it’s original and good. I like the original food of another culture because the people who prepare it know what to do with the food they have. I love London because you can go in any direction to experience another culture. I couldn’t live in Italy anymore. When you live abroad for 50 years, communication and the horizons open; but that’s not the case in Italy.”
With books, television and celebrity appearances on the go, you can continue to expect more from Antonio. “I like to be busy. When you enjoy doing something, you don’t want to retire; it’s like dying.”
82 taste
Jo interviewed Antonio at Tasting Australia (tasting-australia.com.au) in Adelaide. Thanks to Air New Zealand, which has non-stop flights up to six times a week between Auckland and Adelaide. Airfares start from $299 one-way online. Visit airnewzealand.co.nz.
taste 83
Antonio Carluccio has been a passionate cook for more than 50 years, earning him the title ‘Godfather of Italian’ cuisine, learns Jo Bates
chefprofile
www.taste.co.nz
His hallmark greeting is a kiss on each cheek and a cheeky joke. I get: “How do New Zealanders find the
sheep? Delightful!”Bad jokes aside, the tone changes when
Antonio Carluccio talks about food. He may have lived and carved his cooking career in London but it’s Italian food that has made him famous.
Known as the godfather of Italian cuisine, Carluccio’s name is synonymous with the Neal Street Restaurant in London’s Covent Garden, which he ran for 26 years, as well as the Carluccio’s caffe business in the UK, his 13 cookbooks, TV shows and appearances, his lifelong passion for mushroom foraging and his motto “mofmof” – minimum of fuss, maximum of flavour. The term epitomises Italian food – a few quality ingredients prepared simply.
Antonio Carluccio began his career as a journalist, hence, perhaps, his nose for digging into the history of food – another passion of his.
In his latest documentary, Italian Feast, Antonio travels to Italy to explore the life and recipes of Bartolomeo Scappi, the renowned Renaissance chef and cookbook author; considered by many to be the first celebrity chef. “It’s about the deep, deep, deep origins of Italian food. To me food is not banal – if you know a bit about the cultural aspect from which it comes, then you see why they cook like that, why they use those ingredients.”
Torta di ricotta – ricotta tartItalians love ricotta – a by-product of the cheesemaking process – and use it to produce both savoury and sweet dishes. The most important thing to remember about ricotta is that it must always be very fresh: if there is even the tiniest hint of sourness, the ricotta is off.
serves | 6-8
50g butter3-4 sheets of filo pastryFilling500g fresh ricotta cheese120g caster sugar5 eggs, separated15 0g mix of orange and lemon rind,
cut into small cubesFinely grated rind of 1 lemon50 g bitter chocolate, broken into
small pieces
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease the inside of a 25cm flan tin with a little of the butter, melting the remainder in a pan over a low heat. 2 Line the flan tin with the filo pastry, brushing each sheet with some of the melted butter. 3 Put the ricotta in a bowl, and loosen the texture with a fork. Mix in 100g of the sugar and the egg yolks, followed by the cubes of rind, the grated rind and the chocolate. Mix well together. 4 In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, then add the remaining caster sugar. Fold this carefully into the ricotta mixture using a large metal spoon, taking care not to lose the airiness of the whipped whites. 5 Spread this filling onto the filo pastry on the base of the tin. Brush melted butter over any remaining sheet or sheets of filo. With scissors, cut ribbons of buttered filo pastry and spread these decoratively on the tart. 6 Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes and leave to cool before serving.
Recipe from Simple Cooking by Antonio Carluccio. Photographs by Alastair Hendy. Published by Quadrille Publishing, distributed by Southern Publishers Group, RRP $59.99.
A man of passion
Antonio’s own culinary reach is far and wide and long-standing. For more than 50 years he has championed Italian food and his philosophy has remained steadfast throughout. “Trends are for people who can’t cook,” he says. “I am truly into seasonal food because it’s lovely to work like that. I’m a passionate cook and I cook for passion. I cook all the time; I’m not a chef.” Perhaps that’s the secret to his success – through his passion and desire for simplicity he inspires confidence in others.
Calling London home for more than 35 years has given him an objectivity by which to observe Italian food. It also provides the opportunity to enjoy an international cornucopia of food that remains largely foreign to Italy.
“The ethnic food in London I think is better than, say, New York because it is more genuine. I enjoy eating any cuisine as long as it’s original and good. I like the original food of another culture because the people who prepare it know what to do with the food they have. I love London because you can go in any direction to experience another culture. I couldn’t live in Italy anymore. When you live abroad for 50 years, communication and the horizons open; but that’s not the case in Italy.”
With books, television and celebrity appearances on the go, you can continue to expect more from Antonio. “I like to be busy. When you enjoy doing something, you don’t want to retire; it’s like dying.”
82 taste
Jo interviewed Antonio at Tasting Australia (tasting-australia.com.au) in Adelaide. Thanks to Air New Zealand, which has non-stop flights up to six times a week between Auckland and Adelaide. Airfares start from $299 one-way online. Visit airnewzealand.co.nz.
taste 107
diningin
Juggling the many aspects of running a restaurant is a skill this sister act has down to a fine art. Jo Bates samples the warm welcome at Coco’s Cantina
Photographs by Todd EyrE
Openhome
ts0710dining in.indd 107 13/10/2010 3:00:16 p.m.
108 taste www.taste.co.nz taste 109
diningin
Previous pages: A mural by artist Elliot Stewart is a striking backdrop in the dining room. This page: Cauliflower risotto (left) was part of the birthday lunch Damaris (bottom left) and her sister Renée (right) hosted for their mother, Nuku (below).
You know you’ve struck gold with
your new neighbours when they turn
up with a greeting of food – tiramisu
no less – and then open their own doors
to the community with a warm welcome.
It doesn’t happen often these days –
unheard of, you’d think, when the new
neighbours bearing gifts are restaurateurs
on K Rd, Auckland’s notorious red-light
district. Welcome to Coco’s Cantina.
As far as sisters and proprietors Renée
and Damaris Coulter are concerned,
Coco’s is an extension of themselves and
their own living rooms. Take a look at the
selection of family photos on the walls, the
trinkets and paintings collected in their
travels and you’ll see that the personal
touches speak volumes.
From a young age, Renée and Damaris
have felt right at home in restaurants. They
grew up in Kaitaia in the Far North where
their aunt and Swiss uncle ran a restaurant
(it’s still running 30 years on). “It felt like an
extension of home,” recalls Renée. “We’d
get there and go straight into the kitchen
to check out what everyone was doing.”
From that early introduction, both sisters
forged careers in the hospitality industry,
working in Auckland, England and Italy
as kitchen hand, cook, bar staff, waitress
and maître d’. They covered all the bases;
pretty good prep for establishing their own
restaurant, which they opened to Taste
on a sunny Sunday when celebrating their
mother Nuku’s birthday.
Lunch was prepared by chef Iason
Hannick, who worked with the girls
overseas and is now here from Italy to do
a stint at Coco’s. Antipasto was followed
by creamy, flavoursome Roast Cauliflower
& Pancetta Risotto, then Roast Chicken
with Morello Cherry & Pistachio Stuffing was
served with greens, crunchy roast potatoes
and roast Jerusalem artichokes dressed
with lemony yoghurt. For dessert, a Brazilian
friend made a coconut vanilla cake and
chocolates for Nuku.
Family and friends always know they are
in very capable hands at Coco’s. Damaris’
experience has seen her work in some
of London’s top restaurants, including
Providore with Peter Gordon and Fig with
family photos and trinkets make coco’s feel like home – a place where people instantly feel welcome and relaxed
www.taste.co.nz
ts0710dining in.indd 108-109 13/10/2010 3:00:16 p.m.
108 taste www.taste.co.nz taste 109
diningin
Previous pages: A mural by artist Elliot Stewart is a striking backdrop in the dining room. This page: Cauliflower risotto (left) was part of the birthday lunch Damaris (bottom left) and her sister Renée (right) hosted for their mother, Nuku (below).
You know you’ve struck gold with
your new neighbours when they turn
up with a greeting of food – tiramisu
no less – and then open their own doors
to the community with a warm welcome.
It doesn’t happen often these days –
unheard of, you’d think, when the new
neighbours bearing gifts are restaurateurs
on K Rd, Auckland’s notorious red-light
district. Welcome to Coco’s Cantina.
As far as sisters and proprietors Renée
and Damaris Coulter are concerned,
Coco’s is an extension of themselves and
their own living rooms. Take a look at the
selection of family photos on the walls, the
trinkets and paintings collected in their
travels and you’ll see that the personal
touches speak volumes.
From a young age, Renée and Damaris
have felt right at home in restaurants. They
grew up in Kaitaia in the Far North where
their aunt and Swiss uncle ran a restaurant
(it’s still running 30 years on). “It felt like an
extension of home,” recalls Renée. “We’d
get there and go straight into the kitchen
to check out what everyone was doing.”
From that early introduction, both sisters
forged careers in the hospitality industry,
working in Auckland, England and Italy
as kitchen hand, cook, bar staff, waitress
and maître d’. They covered all the bases;
pretty good prep for establishing their own
restaurant, which they opened to Taste
on a sunny Sunday when celebrating their
mother Nuku’s birthday.
Lunch was prepared by chef Iason
Hannick, who worked with the girls
overseas and is now here from Italy to do
a stint at Coco’s. Antipasto was followed
by creamy, flavoursome Roast Cauliflower
& Pancetta Risotto, then Roast Chicken
with Morello Cherry & Pistachio Stuffing was
served with greens, crunchy roast potatoes
and roast Jerusalem artichokes dressed
with lemony yoghurt. For dessert, a Brazilian
friend made a coconut vanilla cake and
chocolates for Nuku.
Family and friends always know they are
in very capable hands at Coco’s. Damaris’
experience has seen her work in some
of London’s top restaurants, including
Providore with Peter Gordon and Fig with
family photos and trinkets make coco’s feel like home – a place where people instantly feel welcome and relaxed
www.taste.co.nz
ts0710dining in.indd 108-109 13/10/2010 3:00:16 p.m.
110 taste www.taste.co.nz taste 111www.taste.co.nz
Anna Hansen and Sarah Conway. She had
the opportunity to maître d’ at Notting
Hill’s E&O, which she describes as “the best
thing I ever did. I learnt how to maximise
a dining room, juggle sections, turn tables,
not slam the kitchen with orders, read
different personalities, and regularly got
harassed by PAs to the stars demanding
a table. It was full-on but it taught me how
to see beyond one area of the restaurant
and, of course, the tips were good and
so were the goodie bags from Prada and
others who wanted tables,” she laughs. “At
any one time there would be four or five
big names – Mario Testino, Mick Jagger –
but I got to the stage where it wasn’t real,
it was soulless and stroking egos and it
wasn’t me.”
Meanwhile, Renée had been working
in Auckland and England, cultivating a
career in what many people view as
a part-time, one-time, or fill-in role – as
a waitress. “There’s still a perception that
waitressing is not a career, it’s not
a real job, but it’s such a hard job and so
much more than just plate carrying,” she
explains. As well as being a charming host,
the role encompasses judging a diner’s
personality, their mood and ensuring they
have a great night out. As Damaris says:
“It’s like a circus!”
And so it came time to join the circus
when they realised they were running out
of space at home to entertain. “Our houses
weren’t big enough for doing friends’
weddings and throwing parties so we
thought let’s just bloody open something
so we can do these things and it’ll be 10
times easier!” says Renée.
After numerous cook-offs, vision boards,
discussions and hunting for a venue,
Damaris and Renée opened Coco’s
Cantina nine months ago. Borrowing ideas
from their travels and work experiences,
they strove for a balance of restaurant
and bar, “where the service is really
good but not fussy, a bit family and
unpretentious. We wanted to create the
kind of place we would want to go to,”
says Renée.
They hit the mark. Coco’s was an instant
success and recently took out runner-up in
the Bar Bistro category in Metro magazine’s
Restaurant of the Year awards.
While the Mediterranean-influenced
menu has helped cultivate regulars, it’s the
sisters’ dynamic personalities that create
the essence of Coco. They are on the floor
every night using all the skills they’ve honed
in the hospitality industry.
“We have a lot of regulars and I think
that’s how you stay stimulated in this
industry,” explains Damaris. “You master
the floor and the kitchen and the food and
then what? If you build a rapport and a
community around you, every day is new
as opposed to it becoming a numbers
game. One of our goals is to bring back
a little bit of community around eating.”
“We try to instantly make people feel
welcome and relaxed,” says Renée. “I think
New Zealanders have really been let down
by service and so they want to control
the situation. We do this day in, day out
and we have their best interests at heart.
Our service is no-nonsense, it’s a place
for grown-ups: if you are going to throw a
tantrum you won’t get special service. It’s
a trust thing and if you let us do our job and
look after you, you are going to have a
really good time.”
These two not only do service with a
smile, but with an abundance of style,
charm and humour.
These pages: With the sisters’ extensive experience in the hospitality industry and no-nonsense approach to service, family and friends know they are in very capable hands at Coco’s Cantina. And the food is pretty good too!
This page: After the superb main course of Roast Chicken with Morello Cherry & Pistachio Stuffing (see recipe over the page) guests enjoyed a coconut vanilla birthday cake and handmade chocolates, made for Nuku (left) by a Brazilian friend.
diningin
ts0710dining in.indd 110-111 13/10/2010 3:00:17 p.m.
110 taste www.taste.co.nz taste 111www.taste.co.nz
Anna Hansen and Sarah Conway. She had
the opportunity to maître d’ at Notting
Hill’s E&O, which she describes as “the best
thing I ever did. I learnt how to maximise
a dining room, juggle sections, turn tables,
not slam the kitchen with orders, read
different personalities, and regularly got
harassed by PAs to the stars demanding
a table. It was full-on but it taught me how
to see beyond one area of the restaurant
and, of course, the tips were good and
so were the goodie bags from Prada and
others who wanted tables,” she laughs. “At
any one time there would be four or five
big names – Mario Testino, Mick Jagger –
but I got to the stage where it wasn’t real,
it was soulless and stroking egos and it
wasn’t me.”
Meanwhile, Renée had been working
in Auckland and England, cultivating a
career in what many people view as
a part-time, one-time, or fill-in role – as
a waitress. “There’s still a perception that
waitressing is not a career, it’s not
a real job, but it’s such a hard job and so
much more than just plate carrying,” she
explains. As well as being a charming host,
the role encompasses judging a diner’s
personality, their mood and ensuring they
have a great night out. As Damaris says:
“It’s like a circus!”
And so it came time to join the circus
when they realised they were running out
of space at home to entertain. “Our houses
weren’t big enough for doing friends’
weddings and throwing parties so we
thought let’s just bloody open something
so we can do these things and it’ll be 10
times easier!” says Renée.
After numerous cook-offs, vision boards,
discussions and hunting for a venue,
Damaris and Renée opened Coco’s
Cantina nine months ago. Borrowing ideas
from their travels and work experiences,
they strove for a balance of restaurant
and bar, “where the service is really
good but not fussy, a bit family and
unpretentious. We wanted to create the
kind of place we would want to go to,”
says Renée.
They hit the mark. Coco’s was an instant
success and recently took out runner-up in
the Bar Bistro category in Metro magazine’s
Restaurant of the Year awards.
While the Mediterranean-influenced
menu has helped cultivate regulars, it’s the
sisters’ dynamic personalities that create
the essence of Coco. They are on the floor
every night using all the skills they’ve honed
in the hospitality industry.
“We have a lot of regulars and I think
that’s how you stay stimulated in this
industry,” explains Damaris. “You master
the floor and the kitchen and the food and
then what? If you build a rapport and a
community around you, every day is new
as opposed to it becoming a numbers
game. One of our goals is to bring back
a little bit of community around eating.”
“We try to instantly make people feel
welcome and relaxed,” says Renée. “I think
New Zealanders have really been let down
by service and so they want to control
the situation. We do this day in, day out
and we have their best interests at heart.
Our service is no-nonsense, it’s a place
for grown-ups: if you are going to throw a
tantrum you won’t get special service. It’s
a trust thing and if you let us do our job and
look after you, you are going to have a
really good time.”
These two not only do service with a
smile, but with an abundance of style,
charm and humour.
These pages: With the sisters’ extensive experience in the hospitality industry and no-nonsense approach to service, family and friends know they are in very capable hands at Coco’s Cantina. And the food is pretty good too!
This page: After the superb main course of Roast Chicken with Morello Cherry & Pistachio Stuffing (see recipe over the page) guests enjoyed a coconut vanilla birthday cake and handmade chocolates, made for Nuku (left) by a Brazilian friend.
diningin
ts0710dining in.indd 110-111 13/10/2010 3:00:17 p.m.
112 taste www.taste.co.nz taste 113
diningin
www.taste.co.nz
Confit garlic Slice tops off 6 whole garlic bulbs to show
the peak of each clove. Place bulbs in
a small deep saucepan and cover with
oil (ideally use olive oil, but cheaper
alternatives are also fine). Add 1 Tbsp fennel seeds, a few sprigs of fresh thyme, salt, pepper and a dash of sugar. Put on
the lowest heat possible, bring almost to
the boil and leave to cook slowly until
the garlic is tender, about 30 minutes. Be
careful not to overfill the pan. Remove
garlic from the oil and serve on an
antipasto platter. Ready in: 40 minutes Makes: 6
Roast chicken with morello cherry & pistachio stuffing
Ready in | 2 hours serves | 6
1 large chicken4- 6 good-sized potatoes, peeled and
cut into large chunks1 lemon8 cloves garlic, unpeeledRosemary sprigs Olive oilStuffing1 onion, finely chopped1 carrot, finely chopped12 small sprigs thyme4 large sausages, skins removed1 celery stick, dicedLarge bunch parsley, chopped½ cup pistachio nuts, chopped1 cup morello cherries, pitted (dried
apricots could be used instead)1 clove garlic, finely chopped1 egg1½ cups fresh breadcrumbs
1 Preheat oven to 180°C. To make the
stuffing, sauté the onion and carrot in
a pan with the thyme until soft but not
coloured. In a bowl, mix the sausage
meat with celery, parsley, pistachio nuts,
morello cherries, the sautéed onion mix,
garlic, egg, some salt and pepper and
enough breadcrumbs to make the mixture
manageable. Stuff into the bird’s cavity;
any remaining stuffing can be rolled into
balls and added to the roast 40 minutes
before the end of cooking.
2 Place the stuffed chicken on its side in a
roasting dish, surrounded by the potatoes.
Squeeze over the juice from the lemon
and add the garlic, rosemary, some salt
and pepper and a good glug of olive oil.
Roast for about 1 hour 40 minutes or until
the juices run clear and the whole roast is
well coloured, turning the chicken once
halfway through.
Roast cauliflower & pancetta risotto
Ready in | 1¾ hours serves | 4-6
1 cauliflower60g butter½ cup olive oil1½ litres chicken stock1 onion, finely chopped1 stick celery, diced6 rashers pancetta or streaky
bacon, diced2 cloves garlic, finely chopped300g arborio rice½ cup white wine1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese Herb croutons, for garnish (optional)
1 Preheat oven to 180°C. Roughly chop
the cauliflower. Set aside about 1 cup small
florets. Put the larger florets in a roasting
dish with a knob of the butter, a splash of
olive oil, ½ cup of the chicken stock and
salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast
until tender, about 1 hour.
2 Put the smaller florets and any cauliflower
left on the chopping board in a separate
dish, with a little bit of butter, olive oil and
salt and pepper. Roast uncovered for
around 25-30 minutes (until they get some
colour but retain some crunch).
3 Heat the remaining chicken stock in a
saucepan until hot.
4 In a heavy-based pan, gently heat a
splash of oil and 1 Tbsp butter, then add
the onion, celery, half the pancetta and
the garlic and sauté until soft but not
browned, about 3-5 minutes.
5 Add the rice, turn up the heat and give
it a good stir so all the rice gets lightly
toasted and coated. Add the wine and
boil rapidly to reduce.
6 Add the large cauliflower florets, then
add a ladleful of the hot stock, stirring until
the liquid has been absorbed. Continue
adding stock in this way until the rice is
cooked – it should be al dente and have
a creamy consistency.
7 In a separate pan, fry the remaining
pancetta until crispy.
8 When the risotto has reached the correct
consistency, remove from heat and add
most of the parmesan and a knob of
butter. Season with salt and freshly ground
black pepper. Serve garnished with the
crunchy pancetta, uncovered roast
cauliflower and remaining parmesan. To
add crunch, sprinkle with herb croutons.
ts0710dining in.indd 112-113 13/10/2010 3:00:18 p.m.
112 taste www.taste.co.nz taste 113
diningin
www.taste.co.nz
Confit garlic Slice tops off 6 whole garlic bulbs to show
the peak of each clove. Place bulbs in
a small deep saucepan and cover with
oil (ideally use olive oil, but cheaper
alternatives are also fine). Add 1 Tbsp fennel seeds, a few sprigs of fresh thyme, salt, pepper and a dash of sugar. Put on
the lowest heat possible, bring almost to
the boil and leave to cook slowly until
the garlic is tender, about 30 minutes. Be
careful not to overfill the pan. Remove
garlic from the oil and serve on an
antipasto platter. Ready in: 40 minutes Makes: 6
Roast chicken with morello cherry & pistachio stuffing
Ready in | 2 hours serves | 6
1 large chicken4- 6 good-sized potatoes, peeled and
cut into large chunks1 lemon8 cloves garlic, unpeeledRosemary sprigs Olive oilStuffing1 onion, finely chopped1 carrot, finely chopped12 small sprigs thyme4 large sausages, skins removed1 celery stick, dicedLarge bunch parsley, chopped½ cup pistachio nuts, chopped1 cup morello cherries, pitted (dried
apricots could be used instead)1 clove garlic, finely chopped1 egg1½ cups fresh breadcrumbs
1 Preheat oven to 180°C. To make the
stuffing, sauté the onion and carrot in
a pan with the thyme until soft but not
coloured. In a bowl, mix the sausage
meat with celery, parsley, pistachio nuts,
morello cherries, the sautéed onion mix,
garlic, egg, some salt and pepper and
enough breadcrumbs to make the mixture
manageable. Stuff into the bird’s cavity;
any remaining stuffing can be rolled into
balls and added to the roast 40 minutes
before the end of cooking.
2 Place the stuffed chicken on its side in a
roasting dish, surrounded by the potatoes.
Squeeze over the juice from the lemon
and add the garlic, rosemary, some salt
and pepper and a good glug of olive oil.
Roast for about 1 hour 40 minutes or until
the juices run clear and the whole roast is
well coloured, turning the chicken once
halfway through.
Roast cauliflower & pancetta risotto
Ready in | 1¾ hours serves | 4-6
1 cauliflower60g butter½ cup olive oil1½ litres chicken stock1 onion, finely chopped1 stick celery, diced6 rashers pancetta or streaky
bacon, diced2 cloves garlic, finely chopped300g arborio rice½ cup white wine1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese Herb croutons, for garnish (optional)
1 Preheat oven to 180°C. Roughly chop
the cauliflower. Set aside about 1 cup small
florets. Put the larger florets in a roasting
dish with a knob of the butter, a splash of
olive oil, ½ cup of the chicken stock and
salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast
until tender, about 1 hour.
2 Put the smaller florets and any cauliflower
left on the chopping board in a separate
dish, with a little bit of butter, olive oil and
salt and pepper. Roast uncovered for
around 25-30 minutes (until they get some
colour but retain some crunch).
3 Heat the remaining chicken stock in a
saucepan until hot.
4 In a heavy-based pan, gently heat a
splash of oil and 1 Tbsp butter, then add
the onion, celery, half the pancetta and
the garlic and sauté until soft but not
browned, about 3-5 minutes.
5 Add the rice, turn up the heat and give
it a good stir so all the rice gets lightly
toasted and coated. Add the wine and
boil rapidly to reduce.
6 Add the large cauliflower florets, then
add a ladleful of the hot stock, stirring until
the liquid has been absorbed. Continue
adding stock in this way until the rice is
cooked – it should be al dente and have
a creamy consistency.
7 In a separate pan, fry the remaining
pancetta until crispy.
8 When the risotto has reached the correct
consistency, remove from heat and add
most of the parmesan and a knob of
butter. Season with salt and freshly ground
black pepper. Serve garnished with the
crunchy pancetta, uncovered roast
cauliflower and remaining parmesan. To
add crunch, sprinkle with herb croutons.
ts0710dining in.indd 112-113 13/10/2010 3:00:18 p.m.
taste 103
chefprofile
www.taste.co.nz www.taste.co.nz
Recipe from Maggie’s KitchenBy Maggie BeerLantern, distributed by Penguin, $65
102 taste
This year Maggie Beer was honoured in Australia’s most prestigious awards for a career spent inspiring Australians to
connect with their quality local produce. The self-taught cook is typically humble
about being recognised as Senior Australian of the Year: “It was a lovely, lovely moment in my life. I’m incredibly lucky. All because of a love of food. If you are doing what you love, all sorts of things happen.”
In fact, awards and recognition have propelled Maggie’s 25-year career. In the name of food, she has taken steps that have been bold, brave and, of course, highly creative.
It all started with a modest farm-gate shop, which she and her husband Colin opened in 1979 at their Barossa Valley property in South Australia. When Colin Beer was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study game-bird breeding in Europe, it set in motion the decision to open their farm-based business. Now known as the Farm Shop, Maggie says, “It’s where we started and it’s at the very heart of everything we do.” Soon afterwards they opened the Pheasant Farm Restaurant, a showcase for Colin’s game birds and Maggie’s cooking – back when she “had the audacity to open a restaurant with no training, no anything!”
The country restaurant, in burgeoning wine country thrived, and their hard work and dedication was recognised with a number of awards, including the prestigious Gourmet Traveller Restaurant of the Year in 1991.
“As a little country restaurant it was the most mind-blowing thing [winning] against all the big boys,” recalls Maggie.
As well as showing up high-end city restaurants, Maggie had also been experimenting with making verjuice and developing her Maggie Beer product range.
“We’d been grape growers since 1973 and it was 1984 and we couldn’t sell our riesling grapes so a friend at Yalumba made verjuice. We didn’t have a benchmark, a recipe; we didn’t really know what to do but we made it every year. It wasn’t for another 10 years that we
Maggie Beer has been inspiring cooks for more than two decades. Jo Bates meets the humble country cook who became a household name
really got serious about it and in my naivety and stupidity I thought a cook will know what verjuice is – it turned out to be a long process of educating people.”
Although verjuice has been the provenance of Mediterranean peasant cultures for centuries, Maggie was the first in the world to commercialise the product. Verjus, or green juice, is the pressings from unripe grapes and is used in cooking as an acidic flavouring and for deglazing.
With the product range expanding and a family to care for, the success of the restaurant was proving too much to juggle so Maggie and Colin closed it in 1993, at the height of its renown.
In a career that has never rested, an export kitchen opened in 1996 to produce her preservative-free gourmet products for retail. The Maggie Beer product range is now available in supermarkets across Australia and has expanded to include around nine refrigerated and more than 20 other products including preserves, spices, oils, vinegar and verjuice. Products are also exported to countries including the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and New Zealand. The staff of four has now grown to 70.
The Farm Shop has also grown into a huge attraction for foodies from all over the world. “It’s in a beautiful spot on the side of a huge dam and it’s just a buzz every single day. It’s the only place you can go to in Australia to get every single product we make, so people flock there.” The daily demonstration on how to cook with verjuice continues to be a significant drawcard.
There have been more than five cookbooks, including Tuscan Cookbook, co-authored with Stephanie Alexander, plus the incredibly successful TV show The Cook and the Chef, which Maggie hosted with Simon Bryant, executive chef of the Adelaide Hilton, and appearances on Australian MasterChef.
“I’ll never retire because I love so much what I do,” says Maggie. While she intends to take more time for family and herself, she promises, “there will always be new ideas”. Her next book is due out in September.
1 Place currants and verjuice in a small bowl and leave to plump. 2 Cook carrots in a saucepan of boiling salted water until almost cooked through. (The exact time depends on the freshness and size of the carrots, but I find that after about 5 minutes is a good time to check. To do this, remove a carrot from the pan, then rub with a clean Chux; if cooked, the skin will easily peel off.) Leave carrots to cool a little, then use a Chux to rub skins off while still warm. Set peeled carrots aside to cool, then halve lengthways. 3 Drain currants, reserving verjuice.4 Toast pine nuts in a frying pan over low heat until light brown. Transfer to a bowl, then add butter to the pan and melt over medium heat until bubbling but not nut-brown. Add carrots to the pan and increase heat to high, then cook for 2-3 minutes or until butter turns nut-brown. Add reserved verjuice and cook until reduced and syrupy. Add currants, pine nuts and parsley, then transfer to a serving dish. Top with chèvre or spoon over goat’s curd and serve at once.
Carrots in verjuice with goat’s cheese & pine nutsOver the years I’ve learnt so much about verjuice, both from my own cooking and that of others – I appreciate the incredible generosity of friends (not to mention complete strangers) who share the numerous ways they’ve found to cook with this magical ingredient. Here I’ve used it with carrots – a vegetable I have to admit to not bothering to either grow or seek out, unless I spy a young bunch at our weekly Barossa produce markets. Par-cooking them, then rubbing off their skins and tossing them in nut-brown butter with verjuice gives them a totally different dimension, while still managing to retain their sweetness. Served just like this, this dish is a great accompaniment to any meal, but the addition of currants, pine nuts and goat’s cheese transforms it into a wonderful luncheon dish in its own right.
serves | 4 as a luncheon dish or an accompaniment
¼ cup dried currants1/3 cup verjuice1 bunch baby carrots, green tops
trimmed (leave about 2cm), scrubbed
¼ cup pine nuts100g unsalted butter, chopped¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley½ cup marinated chèvre or fresh
goat’s curd
Farm-gatefame
taste 103
chefprofile
www.taste.co.nz www.taste.co.nz
Recipe from Maggie’s KitchenBy Maggie BeerLantern, distributed by Penguin, $65
102 taste
This year Maggie Beer was honoured in Australia’s most prestigious awards for a career spent inspiring Australians to
connect with their quality local produce. The self-taught cook is typically humble
about being recognised as Senior Australian of the Year: “It was a lovely, lovely moment in my life. I’m incredibly lucky. All because of a love of food. If you are doing what you love, all sorts of things happen.”
In fact, awards and recognition have propelled Maggie’s 25-year career. In the name of food, she has taken steps that have been bold, brave and, of course, highly creative.
It all started with a modest farm-gate shop, which she and her husband Colin opened in 1979 at their Barossa Valley property in South Australia. When Colin Beer was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study game-bird breeding in Europe, it set in motion the decision to open their farm-based business. Now known as the Farm Shop, Maggie says, “It’s where we started and it’s at the very heart of everything we do.” Soon afterwards they opened the Pheasant Farm Restaurant, a showcase for Colin’s game birds and Maggie’s cooking – back when she “had the audacity to open a restaurant with no training, no anything!”
The country restaurant, in burgeoning wine country thrived, and their hard work and dedication was recognised with a number of awards, including the prestigious Gourmet Traveller Restaurant of the Year in 1991.
“As a little country restaurant it was the most mind-blowing thing [winning] against all the big boys,” recalls Maggie.
As well as showing up high-end city restaurants, Maggie had also been experimenting with making verjuice and developing her Maggie Beer product range.
“We’d been grape growers since 1973 and it was 1984 and we couldn’t sell our riesling grapes so a friend at Yalumba made verjuice. We didn’t have a benchmark, a recipe; we didn’t really know what to do but we made it every year. It wasn’t for another 10 years that we
Maggie Beer has been inspiring cooks for more than two decades. Jo Bates meets the humble country cook who became a household name
really got serious about it and in my naivety and stupidity I thought a cook will know what verjuice is – it turned out to be a long process of educating people.”
Although verjuice has been the provenance of Mediterranean peasant cultures for centuries, Maggie was the first in the world to commercialise the product. Verjus, or green juice, is the pressings from unripe grapes and is used in cooking as an acidic flavouring and for deglazing.
With the product range expanding and a family to care for, the success of the restaurant was proving too much to juggle so Maggie and Colin closed it in 1993, at the height of its renown.
In a career that has never rested, an export kitchen opened in 1996 to produce her preservative-free gourmet products for retail. The Maggie Beer product range is now available in supermarkets across Australia and has expanded to include around nine refrigerated and more than 20 other products including preserves, spices, oils, vinegar and verjuice. Products are also exported to countries including the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and New Zealand. The staff of four has now grown to 70.
The Farm Shop has also grown into a huge attraction for foodies from all over the world. “It’s in a beautiful spot on the side of a huge dam and it’s just a buzz every single day. It’s the only place you can go to in Australia to get every single product we make, so people flock there.” The daily demonstration on how to cook with verjuice continues to be a significant drawcard.
There have been more than five cookbooks, including Tuscan Cookbook, co-authored with Stephanie Alexander, plus the incredibly successful TV show The Cook and the Chef, which Maggie hosted with Simon Bryant, executive chef of the Adelaide Hilton, and appearances on Australian MasterChef.
“I’ll never retire because I love so much what I do,” says Maggie. While she intends to take more time for family and herself, she promises, “there will always be new ideas”. Her next book is due out in September.
1 Place currants and verjuice in a small bowl and leave to plump. 2 Cook carrots in a saucepan of boiling salted water until almost cooked through. (The exact time depends on the freshness and size of the carrots, but I find that after about 5 minutes is a good time to check. To do this, remove a carrot from the pan, then rub with a clean Chux; if cooked, the skin will easily peel off.) Leave carrots to cool a little, then use a Chux to rub skins off while still warm. Set peeled carrots aside to cool, then halve lengthways. 3 Drain currants, reserving verjuice.4 Toast pine nuts in a frying pan over low heat until light brown. Transfer to a bowl, then add butter to the pan and melt over medium heat until bubbling but not nut-brown. Add carrots to the pan and increase heat to high, then cook for 2-3 minutes or until butter turns nut-brown. Add reserved verjuice and cook until reduced and syrupy. Add currants, pine nuts and parsley, then transfer to a serving dish. Top with chèvre or spoon over goat’s curd and serve at once.
Carrots in verjuice with goat’s cheese & pine nutsOver the years I’ve learnt so much about verjuice, both from my own cooking and that of others – I appreciate the incredible generosity of friends (not to mention complete strangers) who share the numerous ways they’ve found to cook with this magical ingredient. Here I’ve used it with carrots – a vegetable I have to admit to not bothering to either grow or seek out, unless I spy a young bunch at our weekly Barossa produce markets. Par-cooking them, then rubbing off their skins and tossing them in nut-brown butter with verjuice gives them a totally different dimension, while still managing to retain their sweetness. Served just like this, this dish is a great accompaniment to any meal, but the addition of currants, pine nuts and goat’s cheese transforms it into a wonderful luncheon dish in its own right.
serves | 4 as a luncheon dish or an accompaniment
¼ cup dried currants1/3 cup verjuice1 bunch baby carrots, green tops
trimmed (leave about 2cm), scrubbed
¼ cup pine nuts100g unsalted butter, chopped¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley½ cup marinated chèvre or fresh
goat’s curd
Farm-gatefame
taste 93
With his restaurant MoVida, Frank Camorra has put Spanish food on the map in Melbourne, defying the critics who said it would never work
SpaniShconquest
chefprofile
www.taste.co.nz
Text by JO BATES
Frank Camorra was on a panel recently discussing the topic “Is Spanish the new French?” at Tasting
Australia in Adelaide. While the panel wasn’t there to knock French cuisine off its mantle, what ensued was a lively and passionate discussion about Spanish food; probably the type of worthy discussion you would have in a tapas bar in Spain.
Frank – the Spanish-born chef and restaurateur of MoVida in Melbourne – isn’t the kind of chef to which the term ‘celebrity’ sticks, but it’s not unreasonable to say he has put his homeland’s food on the map in Melbourne, if not Australia. And rue the food consultant who told him it would never work in Melbourne. Frank’s quiet determination to introduce and educate diners on quality Spanish cuisine earned him The Good Food Guide Chef of the Year 2009.
Admittedly, no one wanted Frank to cook Spanish food in their restaurants, which is why he opened his own. It allowed him to cook the way he wanted and in the spirit he saw fitting. When he opened MoVida in 2003, Frank felt he had returned home: “Within six months it felt like we were in Spain; it felt like a really Spanish place and we captured the essence. Not that the food is totally traditional but the essence was there,” he explains.
MoVida is loved by critics and favoured as a ‘destination’ restaurant, where visitors to the city book months in advance to secure a table. To cope with the volume of people that come with success, he has since opened MoVida Next Door, a more traditional bar-and-tapas experience, and MoVida Aqui and Terraza, a larger restaurant with a casual grazing bar alongside.
So, is he proud to have broken down the barriers and opened the door to Spanish food? Typically humble in his reply, he says: “We are a really busy place and I’m proud to be serving a style of food that’s accessible. We became busy serving food that, initially, people didn’t really get. Not serving food that kept the masses happy, yet something that people really took to.”
As well as providing Melburnians with the style of food and dining that he loves, Frank has stoked the creative fires with two
cookbooks, MoVida and MoVida Rustica. And there’s another in the works. It’s a couple of years away but you can look forward to a book covering southern Spain, where Frank’s family has roots.
“Maybe because I come from there [Andalucia], it feels exciting and interesting and has much more to do with Middle-Eastern flavours.”
The food in Spain varies so much from region to region it’s almost like travelling to different countries, he says. “Every time I go there I learn a whole new range of dishes. I like the fact that Spanish food has really exotic influences; in the past it has absorbed other flavours and it continues to do so.”
At the age of 40, Frank has plenty of cuisine crusading years ahead. He admits his dream is to open a Spanish produce store with a small restaurant. Given that most shoppers are largely unfamiliar with Spanish ingredients, he reckons perceptions are a long way off accepting the concept. But that has never stopped him before.
Jo travelled to Tasting Australia (tasting-australia.com.au) in Adelaide with Air New Zealand, the only airline offering non-stop flights up to six times a week between Auckland and Adelaide. Airfares start from $299 one-way online. Connections are available from all around New Zealand. Visit airnewzealand.co.nz.
92 taste
Arrai sopa – rich fish soup, see recipe over the page.
taste 93
With his restaurant MoVida, Frank Camorra has put Spanish food on the map in Melbourne, defying the critics who said it would never work
SpaniShconquest
chefprofile
www.taste.co.nz
Text by JO BATES
Frank Camorra was on a panel recently discussing the topic “Is Spanish the new French?” at Tasting
Australia in Adelaide. While the panel wasn’t there to knock French cuisine off its mantle, what ensued was a lively and passionate discussion about Spanish food; probably the type of worthy discussion you would have in a tapas bar in Spain.
Frank – the Spanish-born chef and restaurateur of MoVida in Melbourne – isn’t the kind of chef to which the term ‘celebrity’ sticks, but it’s not unreasonable to say he has put his homeland’s food on the map in Melbourne, if not Australia. And rue the food consultant who told him it would never work in Melbourne. Frank’s quiet determination to introduce and educate diners on quality Spanish cuisine earned him The Good Food Guide Chef of the Year 2009.
Admittedly, no one wanted Frank to cook Spanish food in their restaurants, which is why he opened his own. It allowed him to cook the way he wanted and in the spirit he saw fitting. When he opened MoVida in 2003, Frank felt he had returned home: “Within six months it felt like we were in Spain; it felt like a really Spanish place and we captured the essence. Not that the food is totally traditional but the essence was there,” he explains.
MoVida is loved by critics and favoured as a ‘destination’ restaurant, where visitors to the city book months in advance to secure a table. To cope with the volume of people that come with success, he has since opened MoVida Next Door, a more traditional bar-and-tapas experience, and MoVida Aqui and Terraza, a larger restaurant with a casual grazing bar alongside.
So, is he proud to have broken down the barriers and opened the door to Spanish food? Typically humble in his reply, he says: “We are a really busy place and I’m proud to be serving a style of food that’s accessible. We became busy serving food that, initially, people didn’t really get. Not serving food that kept the masses happy, yet something that people really took to.”
As well as providing Melburnians with the style of food and dining that he loves, Frank has stoked the creative fires with two
cookbooks, MoVida and MoVida Rustica. And there’s another in the works. It’s a couple of years away but you can look forward to a book covering southern Spain, where Frank’s family has roots.
“Maybe because I come from there [Andalucia], it feels exciting and interesting and has much more to do with Middle-Eastern flavours.”
The food in Spain varies so much from region to region it’s almost like travelling to different countries, he says. “Every time I go there I learn a whole new range of dishes. I like the fact that Spanish food has really exotic influences; in the past it has absorbed other flavours and it continues to do so.”
At the age of 40, Frank has plenty of cuisine crusading years ahead. He admits his dream is to open a Spanish produce store with a small restaurant. Given that most shoppers are largely unfamiliar with Spanish ingredients, he reckons perceptions are a long way off accepting the concept. But that has never stopped him before.
Jo travelled to Tasting Australia (tasting-australia.com.au) in Adelaide with Air New Zealand, the only airline offering non-stop flights up to six times a week between Auckland and Adelaide. Airfares start from $299 one-way online. Connections are available from all around New Zealand. Visit airnewzealand.co.nz.
92 taste
Arrai sopa – rich fish soup, see recipe over the page.
taste 95
chefprofile
Reproduced from MoVida Rustica – spanish traditions and recipes by Frank Camorra
and Richard Cornish. Photography by Alan Benson, published by Murdoch Books,
distributed by Allen & Unwin. RRP $69.99, available from book stores nationwide.
Adobo de pollo – chicken skewers marinated with paprika and oreganoHere we are using chicken, but you can just as easily substitute lamb, beef or pork.
Makes |12 tapas, 6 raciones
1k g skinless chicken thighs, cut into 2.5cm chunks
2 Tbsp smoked sweet paprika1 Tbsp cumin seeds, roasted and
ground3 garlic cloves, finely chopped3 Tbsp finely chopped parsley1 tsp dried oregano½ tsp saffron threads1 tsp fine sea salt12 5ml (½ cup) extra virgin
olive oil
1 Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator overnight. 2 Thread the chicken meat onto 12 metal skewers. Heat a charcoal grill or barbecue flat plate to high. Cook the chicken skewers for 5 minutes, or until cooked through, turning regularly. Allow to cool slightly, then serve.
Arrai sopa – rich fish soup
serves | 6
1.8 kg heads and bones of white fish such as snapper or whiting
80 0g raw prawns, peeled and deveined, leaving the tails intact and reserving the heads and shells
23 0ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra, to drizzle
1 garlic bulb, halved, plus 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 bay leavesA handful of parsley, stalks reserved
and leaves roughly chopped10 black peppercorns4 tomatoes, roughly chopped1 brown onion, finely sliced3 carrots, diced2 leeks, white part only, finely sliced250ml white wine125ml brandy2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes,
puréed40 0g fillet of skinless warehou or
trevally, cut into large chunks500g clams, rinsed
1 Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Place the fish heads and bones in a large roasting tin and the prawn heads and shells in another. Season and drizzle 50ml olive oil into each tin. Bake for 15–20 minutes, or until the fish bones are lightly browned and the prawn shells are pink. Place the heads, bones and shells in a large heavy-based saucepan. 2 Pour 125ml (½ cup) water into each roasting tin, scrape the base to remove
any cooked-on bits, then pour the liquid from each tin into the saucepan. Add the halved garlic bulb, bay leaves, parsley stalks, peppercorns, fresh tomatoes, a pinch of salt and another 50ml of the olive oil. Add enough cold water to cover, then bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 hour, skimming the surface regularly. Strain through a fine sieve and discard the solids. 3 Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a large heavy-based saucepan over high heat, then add the onion and sauté for 5-6 minutes, or until golden. Reduce the heat to medium-high, season to taste, then add the carrot, leek, sliced garlic cloves and the chopped parsley. Season again and cook for 15 minutes, or until the onion and leek are tender. 4 Increase the heat to high, stir in the wine and brandy and cook for 2-3 minutes to evaporate the alcohol. Reduce the heat to medium again, simmer for 5 minutes, then add the puréed tinned tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the tomatoes have cooked down to a pulp. 5 Add the fish fillets and prawns to the tomato mixture and simmer for 30 minutes. Add 2 litres (8 cups) of the hot fish stock and simmer for another 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, allow to cool a little, then process the soup in a blender or food processor until a smooth purée forms. Check the seasoning and keep warm. 6 Put the clams and 2 Tbsp water in a small heavy-based pan. Cover and cook over high heat, shaking the pan, for 3-4 minutes, or just until the shells open. Drain the clams and remove the meat from the shells. Pour the soup into warmed bowls, scatter with the clams and drizzle with a little olive oil. Serve immediately.
94 taste
taste 95
chefprofile
Reproduced from MoVida Rustica – spanish traditions and recipes by Frank Camorra
and Richard Cornish. Photography by Alan Benson, published by Murdoch Books,
distributed by Allen & Unwin. RRP $69.99, available from book stores nationwide.
Adobo de pollo – chicken skewers marinated with paprika and oreganoHere we are using chicken, but you can just as easily substitute lamb, beef or pork.
Makes |12 tapas, 6 raciones
1k g skinless chicken thighs, cut into 2.5cm chunks
2 Tbsp smoked sweet paprika1 Tbsp cumin seeds, roasted and
ground3 garlic cloves, finely chopped3 Tbsp finely chopped parsley1 tsp dried oregano½ tsp saffron threads1 tsp fine sea salt12 5ml (½ cup) extra virgin
olive oil
1 Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator overnight. 2 Thread the chicken meat onto 12 metal skewers. Heat a charcoal grill or barbecue flat plate to high. Cook the chicken skewers for 5 minutes, or until cooked through, turning regularly. Allow to cool slightly, then serve.
Arrai sopa – rich fish soup
serves | 6
1.8 kg heads and bones of white fish such as snapper or whiting
80 0g raw prawns, peeled and deveined, leaving the tails intact and reserving the heads and shells
23 0ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra, to drizzle
1 garlic bulb, halved, plus 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 bay leavesA handful of parsley, stalks reserved
and leaves roughly chopped10 black peppercorns4 tomatoes, roughly chopped1 brown onion, finely sliced3 carrots, diced2 leeks, white part only, finely sliced250ml white wine125ml brandy2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes,
puréed40 0g fillet of skinless warehou or
trevally, cut into large chunks500g clams, rinsed
1 Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Place the fish heads and bones in a large roasting tin and the prawn heads and shells in another. Season and drizzle 50ml olive oil into each tin. Bake for 15–20 minutes, or until the fish bones are lightly browned and the prawn shells are pink. Place the heads, bones and shells in a large heavy-based saucepan. 2 Pour 125ml (½ cup) water into each roasting tin, scrape the base to remove
any cooked-on bits, then pour the liquid from each tin into the saucepan. Add the halved garlic bulb, bay leaves, parsley stalks, peppercorns, fresh tomatoes, a pinch of salt and another 50ml of the olive oil. Add enough cold water to cover, then bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 hour, skimming the surface regularly. Strain through a fine sieve and discard the solids. 3 Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a large heavy-based saucepan over high heat, then add the onion and sauté for 5-6 minutes, or until golden. Reduce the heat to medium-high, season to taste, then add the carrot, leek, sliced garlic cloves and the chopped parsley. Season again and cook for 15 minutes, or until the onion and leek are tender. 4 Increase the heat to high, stir in the wine and brandy and cook for 2-3 minutes to evaporate the alcohol. Reduce the heat to medium again, simmer for 5 minutes, then add the puréed tinned tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the tomatoes have cooked down to a pulp. 5 Add the fish fillets and prawns to the tomato mixture and simmer for 30 minutes. Add 2 litres (8 cups) of the hot fish stock and simmer for another 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, allow to cool a little, then process the soup in a blender or food processor until a smooth purée forms. Check the seasoning and keep warm. 6 Put the clams and 2 Tbsp water in a small heavy-based pan. Cover and cook over high heat, shaking the pan, for 3-4 minutes, or just until the shells open. Drain the clams and remove the meat from the shells. Pour the soup into warmed bowls, scatter with the clams and drizzle with a little olive oil. Serve immediately.
94 taste
