From farm to kitchen

Cooking at home begins with one key element: the best ingredients. You can have all the technique in the world, but if you’re not cooking with the right produce, then why bother.

I love to know where my produce comes from, vegetables straight from the farm (or at least market fresh) and free-range meat where you can taste the care that went into raising the animals. Once you start eating quality produce, it’s impossible to go back to the generic, bland tasting variety.

There’s been a trend of breaking down the barriers between the farmers and consumers, usually at farmers’ markets and the like. Allowing people to buy produce directly from the person who grows, rears and makes it. An interesting development, intertwined with the Internet and social media, has been direct communication and even home delivery from farm to kitchen; something only restaurants used to be able to have.

One such farm to home service I’ve had chance to try is pork from Bundarra Berkshires and lamb from Plains Paddock, both farms located in southern NSW, right near the Victoria border. They deliver directly to your house or office in Melbourne, usually once a week, doing the deliveries themselves so there’s no courier company in the middle. You can buy separately from either company, or they do a mixed pack with cuts of pork and lamb. Adopting a nose to tail philosophy their boxes could contain any number of cuts.

The meat has a much deeper and fuller flavour than any meat you get at the supermarket, making it the true star of any dish. Bundarra Berkshire’s pork and fennel sausages had a fantastic coarse texture that you only get from proper sausages, matched perfectly with the aniseed flavour of fennel. Plain Paddock’s lamb rack had the melt in the mouth tenderness you look for and balanced well with a simple herb dressing.

My favourite dish I’ve cooked so far was the pork leg schnitzel done with a crust of sage from the garden and Parmigiano-Reggiano. The rich, almost gamey, flavour of the pork matched perfectly with the sage, and the slight saltiness of the cheese.

• First, dip pork schnitzels in seasoned flour
• Then, dip in beaten egg
• Finally, in mix of panko breadcrumbs, chopped sage, Parmigiano-Reggiano
• Pan fry until golden and cooked but still juicy and tender

I definitely recommend stocking up your freezer with a delivery from Bundarra Berkshires and Plains Paddock and taste the difference in quality.

Bundarra Berkshires
http://www.bundarraberkshires.com/
Follow @BundarraPork

Plains Paddock
http://plainspaddock.com.au/
Follow @plainspaddock

The journey so far

So what better way to begin than to look back to where we’ve come from. In this case, a recap at some dishes over the past year that have made it so memorable.

The two restaurants that stood out to me the most were Attica and Momofuku Seiōbo (in Sydney I know, but great food is great food, no matter where it’s located). Both of these serve dishes taking inspiration from Australia’s native ingredients, and pushing the boundaries of creativity with flavour combinations and the dining experience. Ben Shewry’s food has never been better, and Attica is rightly at the forefront of the Melbourne dining scene.

Momofuku itself has brought a mini-revolution to the dining scene, breaking free from the usual expectations of fine dining with chefs serving the food, seats right at the kitchen, and David Chang’s own musical tastes pumping into the room (and yes the booking experience!). The overall experience cannot be expressed in words, it’s a breath of fresh air. Shooting straight to 3 hats in the Sydney Good Food Guide, and winning Best New Restaurant,

In Melbourne, Vue de Monde’s new home on the 55th floor of the Rialto building has also given new life into Shannon Bennett’s restaurant. The view is breathtaking, especially when the sun sets, and an element of whimsy and theatre ensures the evening is more than just the delicious food. From the walk through the wine cellar when you arrive, the table settings and furnishings, to the playful reinterpretations of classics cooked in the open kitchen.

The past year (or so) can be marked by the abundance of two things: Salted Caramel and Mexican food. Neither of which is a bad thing in my book.

Darren Purchese of Burch and Purchese not only uses salted caramel in a wickedly decadent dark chocolate and mandarin cake, but you can also satisfy those cravings by buying it by the jar. Watch this space for a blog on their Sweet Studio Sessions coming soon.

The mexican food of days gone by has been replaced by fresh, clean flavours, usually served after a wait! Mamasita was one of the leaders in the craze of “no bookings” restaurants, difficult for customers but a necessary evil for restaurateurs. The other no bookings hit being Chin Chin, serving up modern, pan-Asian.

So here are some of the dishes and restaurants that have made the past year for me. This is by no means a complete list, but we don’t want too many spoilers for what’s to come.

Attica

The amuse perfectly sums up Attica. The walnut puree served playfully in the walnut shell, opened at the table, and a foraged cabbage flower on top.

Wallaby (beginning to pop up on menus), bunya pine, macadamia.

The hāngi-style potato with goats curd, is anything but the ‘simple dish’ it claims to be.

Flash-fried mussel, artfully presented.

Native fruits of Australia.

Ben Shewry’s intepretation of the classic New Zealand biscuit, the Aghan.

Momofuku Seiōbo

The Momofuku experience.

Yes, that pork bun, it really is as good as they say, and one is definitely not enough.

Spanner crab, miso, panko. The highlight of my meal.

Honey cream, hazelnut, pear, muntries.

Petit four. Pork fat donut. That’s how Momofuku ends a meal.

Vue de Monde

Kangaroo, beetroot, chocolate.

Duck, marron, raspberry.

Barramundi, tarragon, swede.

Mexican

Pork tostaditas at Mamasita.

Lamb quesadilla at Mamasita. The jalapeno salsa is one my favourite accompaniments to make at home.

Chorizo quesadilla at Fonda Mexican. One of my local lunchspots when at work.

The Press Club

A celebration of Australia’s truffles, which are starting to come into their own with each and every year.

Wagyu, carrots, oats/grains. I’m definitely borrowing the idea of the oats and grains, wonderful textural component.

And the others…

Chin Chin’s Palm sugar ice cream sundae with salted honeycomb & lime syrup. Best experience of digging to the bottom of a dessert with a spoon.

On the home cooking side, proscuitto wrapped chicken, broad bean, gnocchi.

Attica

74 Glen Eira Rd, Ripponlea
http://www.attica.com.au/

Momofuku Seiōbo

The Star, 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont, Sydney
http://momofuku.com/sydney/seiobo/

Vue de Monde

Level 55, Rialto, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne
http://www.vuedemonde.com.au

Mamasita

11 Collins St,Melbourne
http://www.mamasita.com.au/

Fonda Mexican

248 Swan Street, Richmond
http://www.fondamexican.com.au/

The Press Club

72 Flinders St, Melbourne
http://www.thepressclub.com.au/

Chin Chin

125 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
http://www.chinchinrestaurant.com.au/

Turning over a new blog

So why begin writing about my Melbourne food escapades now? Why not when I first landed in the city that Batman founded and put on the map by the gold rush?

When you spend each working day reading, editing, revising and planning other people’s writing, it can be quite difficult to find the right frame of mind to put your own thoughts down in words. So for the past 2 and a half years since moving to Melbourne I’ve been enjoying being able to sit back and read other people’s thoughts and musings about Melbourne’s dining scene. As well as making my own small dent in the overwhelming, at times, number of restaurants in Australia’s culinary capital.

However, here we are, September 2012, and I find myself sufficiently motivated to move beyond the obligatory food porn photos uploaded to social media sites along with lascivious descriptions. Possibly because of my inability to express myself in just 140 characters or a caption.

So, to begin, a quick recap of me.
Ex-Brit, born and raised in Yorkshire, where the Dales and Pudding come from, and inspired early on by my Grandfather cooking away in the kitchen.
Then close to 15 years in New Zealand, a wonderful way to expand my food horizons with such a multicultural society and amazingly fresh produce.
Now I’m here, in Melbourne, for 2 or so years and a great place to truly become a foodie (or food snob as some may say).

So this is a place to talk about some of the amazing food I’m lucky enough to be served, as well as my locavore desires to cook with and eat the best produce at home.

Take it away..