The week that was (23 April 2015)

November 26, 2015

And further afield:

- The May Gourmet Traveller is out. Once you've waded through the home-ware ads you'll find a review of Melbourne's Fat Duck and Sydney's Cafe Nice, a nice little recipe feature from Franklin (the flavour of everyone's month) and their annual hot 100 of things to see, eat, do and watch.

- Lethlean's bounty of San Pellegrino/World's 50 Best interviews continues with a chat to Andre Chiang.Restaurant Andre in Singapore was awarded no 5 in San Pell’s Asian top 50 this year. Chiang is obviously a pretty complex creature, pulling the plug on his previous restaurant the day after debuting on the global San Pell list at 39 (incidentally he's now no 37), often referring to himself in the third person and trademarking his own idea of octaphilosophy (you need to read the article for that one). He has some interesting thoughts alongside some incredibly obscure ones. He has also worked with some of the best in France and his take on their cooking was lovely: “When you learned a dish, people tell you about the history, the story, the culture, and we talk about produce and seasons and emotion and farmers and soil … ”

A little sidebar: Loh Lik Peng is one of Chiang's backers, the same Singaporean businessman who has a stake in Dave Pynt's Burnt Ends, Jason Atherton’s Esquina and is behind the The Old Clare trio of restaurants due to open in the Chip. He obviously has a pretty good eye for talent. I'm fascinated by these guys who collect chefs like Callan collects his taxidermy.

- Meat exports vs live exports. I don't know much about this, but I would like to. A friend sent me this info-graphic off the back of an RSPCA media release. The basic premise being we should convert live export (worth $900 mill to us) to frozen/chilled meat export (an industry worth $6.8 bill to us). I haven't had a chance to dig any deeper and am still thinking, but certainly had no idea of the scale of meat vs live. I welcome your thoughts and opinions.

- Google are changing their algorithm. They're calling it mobile-gedden. Basically, if your (restaurant's) website is not optimized for a mobile phone (where 60% of people now do their searching), you'll disappear ...

- San Fran's Tartine are expanding, signing on with Blue Bottle Coffee to make it happen. Chad Robertson notes he chose Blue Bottle as he believes they have tackled their own expansion plans by actually improving each business, which struck him as unusual. They will be taking their bread to NYC, Tokyo and LA.

- Expansion is also on the agenda for Parisian Inaki Aizpitarte (Le Chateaubriand), who is opening a restaurant (called Le Chabanais) in London's Mayfair. A far cry from the gritty 11eme.

The week that was (16 April 2015)

November 26, 2015

And finally the soapbox:

- The SMH ran a bizarre list of “10 foods that are a drag to buy but easy to make at home.” The list included duck confit, mustard, buttermilk, crème fraiche and vanilla extract. I don't think I need to go into too much detail as to why this is ridiculous: buttermilk is not made with milk + vinegar; mustard does not lose its bitterness in a day; crème fraiche ("pointless to buy, easy to make") is not heavy cream + buttermilk. Turns out Eugenia Bone (the author) is based in the states and the article was bought from the Featurewell Syndicate (not commissioned). Hmm.

- The Tele gave them a run for their money with an article about where you can find a cheap lunch around town. A few good thoughts, but including ARIA’s $46 one course lunch was a bit of a stretch.

-The film/doco More Than Honey tells the story of the bees and the mystery of "colony collapse disorder" that is threatening bee colonies all over the world. It’s beautifully shot and an incredibly important topic. Check out the trailer here.

- I love a little Landline and this week was particularly good, including a little chit chat about the implications of the changes to the FSANZ laws re raw milk cheeses and a yarn about the proposed changes to the commercial and recreational licences for fisherman around NSW. Also w orth a watch.

- If you’re wanting more on cheese, ASCA are holding a Cheese, Wine and Talk event at Berta on Monday. Giorgio is on the booze, Ivan Larcher (a Frenchie cheesemaker and consultant to Australia’s best) and Pecora’s lovely Cressida on the talk. Check out their website here if you want to go along.

- Finally, this just in, TEDxSydney have announced the food line-up for this year's festival. The focus is on the "forgotten, ugly and unexpected foods that dwell on the periphery of our cultural consciousness." Ok.

The week that was (9 April 2015)

November 26, 2015

More acid quills:

- Terry was not alone in his touch up of other restaurant guides. Lethlean made little attempt to hide his disdain for the Elite Traveler's top 100 restaurant list. He was shooting fish in a barrel, with the mag a (self-proclaimed) “private jet lifestyle magazine” and the list is a poll of its readers. "I’m guessing this would be the staff of people who own private jets … So if you want to dine with international pilots and PAs eating on the boss’s dime, you know where to head.” I do concur that the five Aussie restaurants were predictable, which is not shocking for an international list (Marque, Vue de Monde, Quay, Attica and Tetsuya’s). But Lethlean wasn't done there, following up with: "In many ways, the list’s top 10 per cent looks suspiciously like the more credible, method-driven, S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best."

- Simon Thomsen also took a look at the list for Business Insider, noting that those five restaurants all dropped down the rankings: "The drop in the rankings comes despite an 18-month, $40 million campaign by Tourism Australia, called Restaurant Australia, which culminated in a $1.5 million dinner in Tasmania for 250 “influencers” last year." Ouch. Note Australia maintains her position as the 9th in the world.

- Finally, this week, we even had a reviewer come out of retirement to have a crack. Leo Schofield took down the bogans of Tasmania in this interview for the SMH. It's pretty funny and well worth a read, his critique of the Blue Angel's lobster looks mild in comparison.

A happy thought before parting:

- This month's Lucky Peach is a delight. To be fair, it had me at hello, opening with the best places to eat and shop in Paris, but then kept me close with Chad Robertson's (Tartine) articles on bread and pizza (plus other tales of wheat and grains), the history of chocolate (I'm a massive food history nerd), gnocchi three ways (the first, the best, the bastardised) and so much more. As I read I may review some bits and pieces, but I do suggest you buy it.

The week that was (2 April 2015)

November 26, 2015

From the lofty perch of my soap box:

- Dan Barber’s WastED has been open for the past month in the original Blue Hill in NYC. The concept was to use all the waste from restaurants around the traps to show how we can be better at using all the scraps we chuck in the bin, a pet peeve of mine. As a random aside, I have been thinking about the culture of the doggie bag. It's come back, it's a thing and it's a great thing. If a restaurant offers it, you should take them up on it. We should be more ashamed sending food back to the bin, not the doggy bag.

- Jamie Oliver has just left town, but not before announcing his new education plan for all the G20 countries. Love him or hate him, he does try his heart out.

- The Guardian has published an article on the dry-ageing craze: they note we are “in the midst of an international steak-based arms race.” What started with a lovely way to respect the old dairy cow has turned into a "mine's bigger than yours" competition. There are some really interesting studies about why and how dry-ageing increases umami and tenderness, but one of my faves is this infographic fromHavericks, scroll down for the time-lapse.

- Another recent Guardian article looked at conventional agriculture and its impacts on soil: “Another paper, by researchers in the UK, shows that soil in allotments – the small patches in towns and cities that people cultivate by hand – contains a third more organic carbon than agricultural soil and 25% more nitrogen. This is one of the reasons why allotment holders produce between four and 11 times more food per hectare than do farmers.” The upshot is don’t treat soil like dirt …

- A last minute addition ... today's Business Insider looked at the top 5 industries to get into if you want to launch a small business in Australia. Restaurants and vineyards are both in there. Go figure!! Read why here.

- Finally, two fun facts for your weekend: did you know that watercress gets spicier as the nights get cooler and that lettuce comes from the Latin word lactua (French laitue), named for the milky fluid in its stalks??

The week that was (26 March 2015)

November 26, 2015

Soap box:

- The Easter Show tirade has begun …There are some great new initiatives with producers telling their stories and they are doing corn on a stick to compete with all the horrors on sticks, but it's the "New Ag Bag” that got my back up. Everything, and I am talking EVERYTHING, is in a wrapper. Real Food Corn Thins, Instant No Fuss Batter, etc etc. An apple?? Nooooooo …

- As can be expected after recent events, much is being said about country of origin labels. The SMHpublished this article disseminating the ambiguous "weasel words" found on the back of your canned, frozen or otherwise processed fruit and veg. FYI ... "Made in Australia" means the product has to be "substantially transformed" in Australia and at least 50 per cent of the production costs incurred here. It doesn't mean the fruit or vegetable was grown in Australia. "Product of Australia" means that each significant ingredient originated in Australia. Or you could just save yourself the grief and go to Eveleigh.

- And, while all that is nice in principle, we all know it's not easy. T his story from the Fin Rev looks at the difficulties (and extra costs) chefs face trying to incorporate premium Australian produce onto their menus. Nothing new, but thought you may like to read it ...

Summer in Provence. Social distancing in the markets means we are all kept one metre from the produce too. Thus no running your fingers over the tomatoes to check for firmness, no gently prodding at the base of the Cavaillon melon to confirm their desire to yield for today’s lunch, no ability to check for bruises on your peaches. . Subsequently you must choose your stall holder wisely and cultivate that friendship carefully, the success of your shopping is literally in their hands. This, of course, is a joy when successful (and bitterly disappointing when not). . Luckily, much of summer’s produce also has the most intoxicating perfume when at its best. That’s what stopped me at these strawberries. They were perfect.

Home. I seem to be collecting places to call home of late - Pantelleria, Marmara, Rayol. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m fickle or they’re fantastic. Perhaps both. Either way, here’s a new one and this one even has my name on the letterbox. She’s incredibly beautiful in the autumn light.

Parea (n.) παρέα - a Greek word denoting a close group of friends who gather together purely to enjoy each other’s company - to celebrate the everyday joys of life. I love discovering the words that belong to a culture. I also love this idea of dwelling down laneways with your friends, day after day, all the way into old age.

This is the view from my favourite taverna in Crete ... . And yet, this view is just a tiny part of the dream. With an excellent (and lauded) restaurant in Chania, this is Christostomos’s remote baby on the south coast - near where he grew up. The taverna is only accessible by foot or boat. They have their own vegetable garden, chickens, they recycle their water; they have C’s brother’s goats from the hills above, a wood-fired oven to cook them in and three simple rooms to rent. That is it – the beach, the hills, the gorge, one tavern, three rooms. When I was last here, I stayed for three nights to eat my way through their menu. This time, well, I flew from the other side of the world to come back.

Yanis was sitting under a carob tree watching the hawks when I came across him. After exchanging kalimeras, he gestured to the ground beside him and passed me his old binoculars to better see the birds. We were high up, a steep two hour walk from Loutro, the nearest town. It was just us, the hawks and his goats. The sound of their bells was the sound of his livelihood. You have the clocks, he said, we have the time. 8Days in Loutro is linked in my profile.

This beautiful man, his cane as crooked as his back and a basket of weeds for his lunch. It took me four visits (and thus three and a half months) to find the road that leads into this valley. A conversation with this man was the reward for my persistence. You can read more in 8Days, the link is in my profile. If you haven’t read it, hurry, (I think) I’m writing the next missive now.

8Days in Marrakech. An incredible eight days of warmth: from the colours in the Medina to the people whose job it was to sell those colours. What can’t be seen, however, is the savoury smell of lemon wood burning. Lit for dinner, the perfume was carried on the same winds that brought the beautiful, haunting call to prayer - the salat al maghrib - as the sun began to set. It was my favourite part of every day. The link to a few thoughts on my time in the red city (and the rest of this week’s missive) in my profile.

I miss my days chasing the sunset in Pantelleria, I miss that punctuation for every day - where would we watch it, what would we drink to celebrate it. I miss the stars that would follow, as if a consolatory offering to make up for the loss of sun. I miss having my feet on the earth, I miss the people, the tangle of talent from all over the world: artists, ceramicists, fishermen, musicians, wine makers, eggplant growers, distillers. I miss those conversations and adventures. 8Days in Pantelleria in my missive this week. Link for the rest of the story is in my profile.

I’m very excited about this Friday’s country book launch @graceburnwineroom. There will be all the good things (food, wine, music - suggestions for my meat playlist are warmly welcomed - and, of course, conversation). If you’re south of the border, you should come and play ... get onto their website for all the details.

Eight days in Le Rayol. A beautiful and tragic story of The Tropicana Club in my missive this week. Link in profile.

So wonderful to receive the first copy of my book accompanied by the same blue skies under which I wrote so much of it ... . Of course, I say my book, but it is nothing of the sort. This is a book created by so many hands. My wonderful co-author @askthebutcher_ , whose knowledge is distilled within its 512 pages; @emmatknowles for the exquisite recipes (all 110 of them!); @alan_benson_photographer whose photos tell the story from farm to butcher to cook in a way my words never could; @northwood_green for their design skills and patience (incredible patience!!) and last, but most certainly not least, the amazing team @murdochbooks - most particularly our brilliant editor @janemorrow who conducted the whole orchestra. . I am incredibly humbled by the opportunity to learn so much, not just about meat but also about the effort that goes in to each and every book on my bookshelf. What a year, what an incredible feeling to have it in my hands. . PS - it is now available for advance purchase with an excellent discount. The link is on my profile!

Bona Festa Major !! The concentration - and crowd silence - is incredible. The best bit, by far, is the celebration as each tier makes it back to the ground. Goose bumps all over.

Family, food, wine, music and the boys creating their own mayhem around us. A perfect afternoon.

Postcards from Pantelleria ... an island with no future tense; where the people are so entwined with their terroir that even if they leave, they always come home. A place where the fish are either swimming in the ocean or in olive oil, tomato, olives and capers. Somewhere to eat ice-cream at midnight and dance in the streets until the sun rises. I’m pining. Words to accompany the photographs in the missive. Link to this week’s #8days in profile.

One year ago, I sat @ester_au with @missotama preparing to head off on my adventure of all things Med and Meat Book (pics 3+4). The Med adventure is long over, today the Meat Book is too (pics 1+2). A fitting end to an excellent year of work and play. A lot has changed, but all the best things stay the same.

Some baths are better than others.

The sun setting over a very happy @thomashaugstvedt, back among the vegetables @thezinhouse. A very special night with very beautiful people ...

Living the Lankan dream with @missotama and @thomas_haugstvedt

The irony of being tourists and crashing the local's end-of-season party did not escape us, nor did their delicious sardines.

Equal rights for all does not mean less rights for you. It's not pie. #voteyes