Open House Food Service May 2014 Issue

MAY 2014

Taking events off-site Are pop-ups going mainstream?

Supporting communities in need

Healthy option B端rgen Gluten Free by Tip Top Foodservice

Made Perfect, the Italian way.

Perfect Italiano combines old world recipes and excellence in cheese-making to create authentic Parmesan that’s true to tradition.

Aged to perfection for at least 18 months, and with a crumbly texture and distinctive bold flavour, Perfect Italiano Parmesan adds zest

and character to pasta, pizza, soups and salads.

Available in a traditional block, shaved, shredded or grated, Perfect Italiano is the Parmesan you can rely on for the consistent quality and superior taste that every busy foodservice kitchen demands.

CONTENTS

24

ON THE COVER With dietary options so high on many Australian consumers radar, Tip Top Foodservice has responded by launching its new gluten free Bürgen bread for foodservice operators.

Regulars 04 Editor’s note 06 News

14

12 Q&A

Melanie Jefcoate, Variety of Chefs Ball

Features

14 In season 15 Origins of Risotto

MAY 2014

10 Cover story

Bürgen Gluten Free White Bread

32 Regional snapshot:

The Hunter Valley, NSW

16 Sustainability

Feeding the world through aquaculture

34 Cooking the books

Taking events off-site Are pop-ups going mainstream?

Supporting communities in need OH0514.indd 1

18 Volume catering

Crowd pleasers

36 Products 38 Profile

Paul Papadopoulos, DS17

34

24 Pop-up restaurants

Pop till you drop 26 Awards

Do restaurant rankings matter?

28 Social endeavours

Helping others help themselves 30 Foodservice Australia 2014

What’s on at this year’s show

19/05/2014 11:52 am

To ensure you never miss out there are now more ways to enjoy Open House.

As well as the monthly magazine, Open House is also available as a free iPad app, which is packed with exclusive extras. The Open House app is available at the iTunes app store.

22 Desserts

A degustation fairytale

39 Australian Culinary Federation news

Healthy option Bürgen Gluten Free by Tip Top Foodservice

Subscribe to the OH iPad app

www.openhousemagazine.net

www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 3

EDITOR’S WORD

Let’s share the love Published in Australia by Creative Head Media Pty Ltd

I

t’s only been a couple of weeks since Tourism Australia officially launched its new “Restaurant Australia” campaign (see page 6), aimed at promoting Australia as a world-class culinary destination for international visitors, but it’s great to hear that almost 700 Australian businesses have already jumped onboard, sharing the stories behind their food and wine experiences.

Suite 202, 80-84 Chandos Street, St Leonards 2065 P.O. Box 189, St Leonards 1590 Website: www.openhousemagazine.net ACN 147 436 280 ISSN 0312-5998

One of my favourite things about working in this job is being able to meet first-hand the farmers and other producers behind Australia’s wonderful produce and hear their often funny, often off-beat, invariably passionate stories. Whether it’s a ballroom dancing garlic farmer in Queensland or a artisanal cheesemaker in South Australia, I can’t help but be inspired by people who find their own inspiration and fulfilment in producing food.

PUBLISHER Alexandra Yeomans

And then there are the many ground-breaking chefs, restaurateurs and philanthropists I come across who also have fascinating stories to share.

JOURNALIST Sheridan Randall

It’s little wonder that Tourism Australia boss John O’Sullivan is delighted with the response Restaurant Australia has received so far.

SALES & MARKETING MANAGER Jo Robinson

“We started this campaign by putting out a rally cry to industry and early signs are they are backing it,” he said recently. “There’s already so many great stories coming in bringing to life the people, the produce and the places that we believe will inspire more international travellers to visit Australia and sample for themselves our incredible food and wine and our exceptional culinary experiences.”

ACCOUNT MANAGER Leah Jensen

I couldn't agree more.

MANAGING EDITOR Ylla Watkins

DESIGN/PRODUCTION MANAGER Bin Zhou EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Anna-Louise McDougall

HEAD OFFICE – SYDNEY Creative Head Media Pty Ltd Suite 202, 80-84 Chandos Street, St Leonards 2065 P.O. Box 189, St Leonards 1590 Tel: (02) 9438 2300 Fax: (02) 9438 5962 Email: enquiries@creativehead.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1 yr $99; 2 yrs $174; 3 yrs $261 (incl. GST and surface mail) Copyright © 2014

Ylla Watkins Managing editor

Opinions expressed by the contributors in this magazine are not the opinion of Open House Foodservice. Letters to the editor are subject to editing.

THIS MONTH’S TOP STORY Sharing food is a great way to connect with people, whether they be friends, family or colleagues, but for several Sydney-based organisations food is used to support members of the community most in need. Find out more on page 28.

4 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

Official publication for the Australian Culinary Federation

CAB Audited Circulation 20,388 September 2013

INDUSTRY NEWS

Restaurant Australia launches T

ourism Australia has officially unveiled its Restaurant Australia campaign.

Focusing on Australia’s exceptional food and wine experiences as part of its global campaign “There’s nothing like Australia”, the new $10 million campaign includes a dedicated online hub for Australian businesses to share their food and wine experiences with the world; consumer promotions in a dozen key international markets; and the “Invite the World to Dinner” gala event at Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania to be attended by 80 international media and key food and wine influencers.

“Restaurant Australia is all about bringing together the incredible stories of our people, place and produce to demonstrate to the world that every day, unique and exceptional food and wine experiences are being servedup in remarkable locations, and then sharing these stories through the creation of rich and compelling content,” said Tourism Australia managing director John O’Sullivan.

Tourism Australia chief marketing officer Nick Baker said the new campaign had been developed based on recent research which showed Australia was well placed to capitalise on growing demand amongst international travellers for local culinary

experiences as part of their travel.

“For people who've never visited Australia awareness of our food and wine offering is low,” he said. “However, once they visit, people realise the variety and quality of our food and wine experiences is world-class and Australia moves to the top of the rankings as a one of the world’s best culinary destinations.”

As part of the new campaign the tourism body is calling on businesses and industry in regional areas to share the stories behind their food and wine experience. By submitting stories at www.australia.com/ restaurantaustralia, businesses, operators or people directly involved in Australia’s food and wine industries can be listed on the website.

“Our regions have an abundance of incredible stories to share where quite literally, every second of every day, unique and brilliant food and wine experiences are being served-up in remarkable and aweinspiring locations,” said Baker.

“We will work with local producers, restaurateurs, winemakers and celebrities from the food and wine world to showcase Australia’s finest array of culinary produce, created and served by people with fresh thinking, in the most stunning locations in the world.”

Melbourne coffee habit getting dearer The price of a cup of coffee in Melbourne is on the rise, according to the Gilkatho Cappuccino Price Index.

While Melbourne’s price of $3.43 was the second cheapest behind Sydney at $3.34, Melbourne has seen the most significant increase in coffee price. Perth still holds the crown as the most expensive city to buy a coffee, coming in at an average of $3.94.

“Melbourne has a refined coffee culture and Melbournians are prepared to pay for a quality cup of coffee,” said Gilkatho managing director Wayne Fowler. “The increase of almost 9 per cent over the past four years shows that café owners are spending more time and money on the overall experience of drinking coffee.

“This includes using premium milk, boutique coffee providers, and café atmosphere. The relative low increase but consistently high price of coffee in Perth, on the other hand, can be seen as a direct result of the active export and tourism markets, which helps justify higher prices.

“It is particularly interesting to see that whilst Sydney has one of the highest costs of living in the world it also has the cheapest coffee in Australia, averaging out at $3.34 per cup. This can be seen as a result of the high density, highly competitive, coffee market within the Sydney CBD.”

6 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

NEWS BRIEFS

Noma regains title as World’s Best Restaurant Danish restaurant Noma has regained its title as the S.Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurant, ousting last year’s winner, Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca.

The win was announced at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards last month, an event widely regarded to be the highlight of the global gastronomic calendar.

Noma’s owner and chef René Redzepi and his team (pictured) celebrated the restaurant’s return to the number one position after nine years on the list and three consecutive wins in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Noma is renowned for its contemporary Nordic cuisine.

El Celler de Can Roca took second place, with chef Jordi Roca also winning the inaugural title of The World’s Best Pastry Chef, while Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana took out the number three spot

for the second year running. Eleven Madison Park in New York moved up one spot to number four, retaining the title of Best Restaurant in North America, and Dinner

by Heston Blumenthal rounded out the top five.

Attica restaurant in Melbourne was named The Best Restaurant in Australasia for the second year running. The restaurant, led by chef Ben Shewry, came in at number 32 on the list (down from number 21 in 2013) and was the only Australian restaurant to make the list.

Quay restaurant in Sydney, which has made the list for the past five years, slipped from number 48 to number 60 this year.

Restaurants headed up by ex-pat Australian chefs to make the list were David Thompson’s Nahm, in Bangkok (recently named Asia’s best restaurant); Brett Graham’s The Ledbury in London; and Tetsuya Wakuda’s Waku Ghin in Singapore.

Justin North receives ASIC ban High-profile chef Justin North has been banned from running and managing businesses for the next two years following the collapse of his restaurant venture, The North Group, in 2012.

His wife and business partner, Georgina North, has also been banned for 18 months.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found the couple failed to discharge their duties as directors of three failed companies with the ''requisite degree of care and diligence''.

North moved his flagship Surry Hills restaurant, Becasse, to Sydney’s Westfield in 2011, following a $4 million fit-out.

With just 25 seats, the restaurant offered a

$190 per person degustation menu served in lavish surroundings. It closed in July 2012 following the failure of North’s three companies, Becasse, Etch Restaurant and North Food Catering, with reported debts totalling more than $7 million.

ASIC commissioner Greg Tanzer said in a statement, "ASIC's power to disqualify directors of failed companies is an important preventative measure used by ASIC to safeguard the public interest".

The Norths have the right to appeal the ban to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Earlier this year North was named executive chef at the Centennial Hotel, in Sydney’s Woollahra.

Starwood bans shark fin from menus Starwood Hotels & Resorts has announced that from July it will no longer serve shark fin in any of its nearly 1200 hotels or 1300 restaurants around the world. Starwood is the first global hotel operator to commit to banning the ingredient. An estimated 100 million sharks are lost each year to illegal hunting.

Golden Chef’s hat receives record entries The Nestlé Golden Chef’s Hat Award, Australia’s longest running culinary competition for young chefs, has received a record-breaking number of registrations for the 2014 competition, with a 30 per cent increase in registrations on last year.

Beef Masterpieces returns with new recipes Rare Medium’s Masterpieces program has launched a third series of creative recipes championing red meat cuts for commercial kitchens. Written by some of Australia’s leading chefs, Beef Masterpieces #3 highlights topside, knuckle, shin and short cuts designed to inspire chefs as well as maximise plate costs.

Aussie pizza chef world’s best Proving that Italy doesn’t have a monopoly on good pizza, Australian piazziolo Johnny Di Francesco from Melbourne’s 400 Gradi has won the Campionato Mondiale della Pizza (Pizza World Championship) in Parma, Italy. The chef won the prize for his margherita pizza.

Murray Valley Pork partners with Manu Feildel Australia’s largest pork producer, Rivalea, has renewed its partnership with celebrity chef Manu Feildel as the ambassador for its Murray Valley Pork brand. “For me, it is important to be part of a brand that is all about high quality produce that not only tastes delicious, but is responsible and great to cook with,” said Feildel.

www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 7

Penalty rate relief for restaurateurs The decision by the Fair Work Commission to reduce penalty rates by 25 per cent on Sundays for casual employees has been welcomed by Restaurant & Catering Australia (R&CA).

Australian Fish Names defines use of ‘flake’ The Australian Fish Names committee has announced that only two shark species, gummy shark and rig, can be sold or marketed in Australia under the group name “flake”.

Putting an end to consumer confusion and concerns around purchasing shark species, the decision took over 12 months, where over 200 comments and submissions were received.

R&CA chief executive John Hart says the positive result comes after the association’s fight for changes to the penalty rate regime introduced in 2010.

“Flake” applies to the flesh sold in the Australian marketplace, while the whole animal will continue to be referred to its specific fish names, gummy shark and rig.

“I’m pleased to hear the decision to reduce casual loadings on Sundays from 175 per cent to 150 per cent will come into effect from 1 July 2014,” he said. “This will provide labour cost relief for restaurant and café operators currently trading on Sundays.”

“The decision was not made lightly,” said Roy Palmer, chair of the Fish Names Committee. “Flake has been the name used in retail or more commonly in fish and chip shops, since about 1920 especially in Southern Australian States.”

The industry is set to save about $112 million each year with the decision ensuring the industry continues to push for further penalty rate reforms under the Fair Work Commission’s four yearly review of Modern Awards.

The committee estimates that as many as 100 different species are sold each year in Australia under the term “flake”.

“From a food safety and traceability point of view, this is an untenable situation,” said Palmer. “In this day and age, consumers want to know what they are buying.”

Wollongong set to be NSW’s newest food hub The city of Wollongong is emerging as New South Wales’ newest hot spot with new restaurants, small bars, a laneway precinct, farmers market and Wollongong Central’s $200 million expansion.

“The Illawarra has long been a rich food producing region, and through the many exciting new retailers in the CBD, local residents and visitors will be able to enjoy a food experience that is second to none.”

The GPT Group’s $200 million expansion of Wollongong Central (pictured), when complete later this year, will include Wollongong CBD’s first fresh food precinct featuring Coles, a 600 seat food terrace and a casual dining experience on Keira Street.

Globe Lane will feature new retailers including exclusive boutiques, pop up art, casual dining options and wine bars to foster a new laneway culture for Wollongong. The new Keira Street dining precinct will bring a variety of new retailers to Wollongong including Sushi Bay, Grill’d and Max Brenner.

“Wollongong is undergoing a significant transformation and food is definitely at its heart,” said Bruce Sedgwick, national director - retail leasing at The GPT Group. “The calibre and diversity of restaurants, cafes and bars that are emerging is very high and we are excited to be involved in this new ‘foodie heaven’ that is emerging in the CBD. 8 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

Other new restaurants and bars in Wollongong include hot dog bar, Dagwood; café, bar, and live music venue, Three Chimneys; award-winning bar and restaurant, Lorenzo’s; and African steak and rib restaurant, Char Char Bar and Grill. OH

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COVER STORY

See recipes in the Open House iPad app.

Healthy option With dietary options so high on many Australian consumers radar, Tip Top Foodservice has responded by launching its new gluten free Bürgen bread for foodservice operators.

A

ustralian consumers have never been so concerned about their health and this has flowed through to what they eat.

Gluten free diets have become increasingly popular among consumers, with many foodservice operators now keen to embrace this growing trend.

Tip Top Foodservice, the specialist foodservice bakery division of George Weston Foods, has now launched gluten free bread to the Australian foodservice industry. The new Bürgen Gluten Free White Bread is frozen from fresh specifically for the foodservice market.

This enables foodservice outlets to keep sufficient product on hand to meet demand, while also minimising any waste.

“There has been a growth in value for gluten free products in Australia of 34.5 per cent since 2009 and it is vital that local foodservice outlets are able to cater to this market with a product that is packed full of flavour,” says Brian Esplin, national business manager for Tip Top Foodservice.

www.tiptop-foodservice.com.au

Tip Top Foodservice is aware that it is not enough to simply offer a gluten-free bread

10 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

option, but that their gluten free breads have outstanding taste and softness.

“We invested time and resources into developing the most flavoursome gluten free bread for Australian foodservice outlets,” Esplin says. “We had feedback from the industry that existing products on the market did not match the taste requirements of consumers and took up the challenge to provide an offering that satisfied the demand for gluten free products while not compromising on flavour.

“Not just for the gluten intolerant, the new product allows foodservice outlets to expand their gluten free offering with bread that is light-tasting, nutritious and, most importantly, delicious.”

Tip Top Foodservice’s Bürgen Gluten Free White Bread is distributed frozen to foodservice outlets, allowing it to be thawed quickly as needed, resulting in minimal impact on preparation time and also minimising any waste. Bürgen Gluten Free White Bread is vacuum packed and comes in cartons of six, with four months frozen shelf life. OH

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Featuring ‘snap then squeeze’ packaging that’s simple to open without any strain on the fingers, Fountain smartSQUEEZE portion control sauce has been designed to maximise ease-of-use and minimise fuss.

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Q&A

Doing it for the kids The Variety of Chefs Ball, to be held in Brisbane next month, will see 10 celebrity chefs including Adrian Richardson, Ben O’Donoghue and Matt Moran (pictured) help raise money for children with special needs. Ylla Watkins spoke with Melanie Jefcoate, corporate events manager for Variety Queensland.

Q: What’s the idea behind the Variety of Chefs Ball?

A: The idea was to create a fabulous food and wine experience, promoting Queensland’s vast array of culinary talent whilst helping sick, disadvantaged and special needs kids to live, laugh and learn.

Q: How much money are you hoping to raise through the event?

A: We hope to raise enough funds to help train 10 Variety Assistance Dogs to help 10 children in need. Each individual Assistance Dog will cost a different amount to train, depending on what skills that are needed to assist the child, but based on an average, it will cost $15,000 to train each dog. We are striving to raise a quarter of a million dollars to ensure that there will be enough money raised to train each dog.

Q: What goes into training a dog to become an assistance dog?

A: Each dog is trained specifically for the child’s need which means every dog and the training it receives is different. Assistance dogs are trained to enhance the quality of life of physically or mentally challenged children whilst still maintaining as much independence for the handler.

Q: What are some of the ways in which an assistance dog can help change a child’s life?

A: Variety Assistance Dogs can support children in the most incredible ways. They are trained to specifically help the child whom they support in a various ways – they are trained to turn lights on and off, open and close doors, pick up dropped or wanted items, and indicate when the handler needs assistance either by alerting a carer or by pushing a medical alarm. There are basic tasks that are taught to each assistance dog but every handler will have different physical needs so there will be different individual tasks required to be learned by each dog. Assistance Dogs can also assist in breaking down social barriers and confidence issues for children who have special needs such as autism.

Q: You’ve got some of the country’s best known chefs on board.

How did you get them involved?

A: We are in a really fortunate position that the chefs recognise the Variety of Chefs Ball as a prestigious event that has a great cause 12 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

behind it. Not only do we have previous chefs wanting to support us again each year but we have new chefs wanting to be a part of the team. Our chefs feel very connected to the cause from the start because they film with the children and spend time with the families whom we are striving to support. A lot of our chefs are fathers and for them being involved with the Variety of Chefs is a very personal, rewarding journey.

Q: How will the event work on the night?

A: The chefs source everything that goes on to their plate and anything they can’t source they fund out of their own pocket. They take responsibility for their own dishes which ensures more funds are directed to where they’re needed – to kids in need. In the lead up to the event and on the night our chefs prepare everything themselves; they all work on the line to get each one of their dishes out. There are no behind-the-scenes kitchen staff for them to rely on; they’ve simply got to rely on each other and their own skill. Whilst each chef is dedicated to their own course, they all work together to ensure that every dish is plated it to restaurant quality.

We also do back-of-house kitchen crosses to catch all the action.

Q: What has the response to the event been from the public?

A: The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Each year we continue to have a large number of repeat bookers. Generally when someone has been once they’re thrilled to come back again. The Variety of Chefs Ball has been recognised as the event of the year and a highlight on Brisbane’s social calendar.

Q: How do you rate the success of an event like this?

A: We’ve looked at large food and wine dinners in Sydney and Melbourne and really wanted to emulate something similar in Queensland and at Variety, we believe that we’ve done that. Food may be on trend right now but truly, good food and good wine never goes out of fashion. Variety of Chefs is an event that will always has longevity. In the bigger picture however, we rate the success based on the children’s lives we’ve been able to help – from Sunshine Coaches through to specialised equipment for special schools – we absolutely pride ourselves on being able to positively impact the lives of some very special children. OH

IN SEASON NOW

Papaya and papaw W

if you don’t plan to use them straight away select fruits with a yellow to green skin and allow them to ripen at room temperature for a few days before cutting. Fruit is best stored in a cool area between 12-23°C.

ith a soft, juicy texture and unusual sweet flavour, tropical fruits papaya and papaw can be used in any number of sweet and savoury dishes, salsas and sauces.

Often mistaken for the same fruit, the two fruit are quite different in physical appearance and flavour. Red papaya is pear shaped with yellow-orange coloured skin, orange-red flesh and a sweeter flavour, while yellow papaw is larger with yellow flesh and pale orange skin. Both are ready to eat when the skin is yellow and slightly soft to touch.

While spots or blemishes do not necessarily mean that the fruit is of poor quality, both papaya and papaw need to be handled carefully to prevent bruising. Ripe fruit will yield to pressure around the stem like an avocado.

If you plan to use the fruit immediately

Available all year round, warm weather and lack of rain over Autumn means there’s never been a better time to incorporate papaw and papaya into menus, according to grower Daniel Mackay “This season’s fruit are in perfect condition,” he says.

choose fruit that are slightly soft to touch with skin that is almost completely yellow, however

May

“When selecting papaya or papaw [you need to] look for two simple signs: make sure the fruit has only black seeds; white seeds mean that the fruit will not ripen.

You also want the colour of both fruits be at least 50 per cent yellow or orange in colour with limited green tones.” OH

June

• Apples

• Mushrooms

• Parsnips

• Apples

• Mandarins

• Pumpkin

• Asian greens

• Nashi

• Silverbeet

• Avocados

• Nashi

• Quince

• Avocados

• Navel Oranges

• Spinach

• Banana

• Olives

• Rhubarb

• Bananas

• Okra

• Sweet potatoes

• Beetroot

• Onions

• Silverbeet

• Broccoli

• Parsnips

• Turnips

• Broccoli

• Oranges: Navel

• Spinach

• Brussels sprouts

• Pears

• Brussels sprouts

• Parsnips

• Sweet potato

• Cabbages

• Persimmons

• Cabbage

• Passionfruit

• Turnips

• Carrots

• Pomegranates

• Carrots

• Pears

• Cauliflower

• Quinces

• Cauliflower

• Pomelo

• Celery

• Rhubarb

• Celeriac

• Potatoes

• Celeriac

• Celery

• Chestnuts

• Custard apples

• Custard apples

• Fennel

• Fennel

• Grapefruit

• Ginger

• Jerusalem artichokes

• Imperial mandarins

• Kiwifruit

• Kiwifruit

• Kohlrabi

• Leeks

• Leeks

• Lemons

• Lemons

14 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

ORIGINS

Risotto Once regarded as a simple dish, the humble risotto has reached gourmet status, writes Anna-Louise McDougall.

R

isotto’s history begins with the arrival of rice in Italy. While there are many conflicting stories, it is commonly acknowledged that rice was first introduced into the country by Arab traders who travelled through Sicily en route to Spain during the Middle Ages.

The 13th and 14th century saw the grain spread north, with cultivation becoming concentrated in the plains of the Po Valley.

Italy was found to be an ideal place to grow short-grain rice due to the humid weather and flat landscape, and rice traders in Genoa and Venice soon began to make large profits.

Early on rice was mostly eaten by the wealthy due to its exorbitant price; however, once the Venetians lifted the tax on rice, it became more wide accessible and its popularity began to rise.

It was in Milan during the Renaissance where risotto, which was often served as a side to osso bucco, a Milanese specialty of cross-cut veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine and broth, first became well known.

Early risottos were made around the same core ingredients as they are today – rice, chicken stock, onions, butter, wine and parmesan. According to the Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink by John Mariani, the most famous risotto is the “alla Milanese”, which is flavoured with saffron and contains beef marrow.

Legend suggests that the Risotto alla Milanese dates to 1574, when a stainedglass worker on the Milan Cathedral who was well-known for creating yellow glass by adding saffron to his pigments, coloured the rice at the wedding of his boss’s daughter in the hope it would ruin the festivities. Instead, the rice was well received by the guests and they named the

dish “Risus optimus”, Latin for “excellent rice”.

Italian rice is the only kind of rice used to make risotto. While there are many varieties of Italian short-grained rice, Arborio rice is most commonly used in risotto because of its ability to absorb liquid without overcooking. Another variety, Vialone Nano, is a small-grain semifino (medium) rice that is popular in Veneto, while Carnaroli and Baldo, both semifino rices, are traditionally used when preparing risotto with bold flavourings and condiments.

Risotto travelled to the US with Italian immigrants, however it did not become widely known in America until after World War II. According to American Food: The Gastronomic Story by Evan Jones, “Sometime after World War II risotto became as acceptably American as San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square; a similarly popular one-dish meal, eagerly admired by mothers with a kitchen full of children and no domestic help, combined rice and sweet

1

1, 3 Risotto comes in many varieties.

2 Arborio rice is used for its ability to absorb liquid.

2

3

Italian sausage.”

It wasn’t until the 1980s however that risotto was elevated from a simple, economical meal to a gourmet dish served in many fine-dining restaurants. It has since become a menu staple both in the US and here in Australia.

While the recipe for risotto remains mostly unchanged around the world, chefs have been known to experiment with ingredients as varied as scallops, lobster, truffles, veal, mushrooms, snails, asparagus and duck. OH

Fast facts: •

Today Italy is the largest rice producer in Europe, with production still concentrated along the Po Valley.

•

Italians eat an average of five kilograms of rice per person per year.

•

Black risotto is made with cuttlefish cooked with their ink-sacs intact and is a specialty of the Veneto region.

•

Risotto al Barolo from Piedmont is made with red wine and may include sausage meat and borlotti beans.

•

In the Po Valley risotto is usually eaten as the first course instead of pasta.

•

In Venice and Veneto, risotto with sauteed eels is served as a traditional Christmas meal.

www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 15

SUSTAINABILITY

Something in the water As aquaculture continues to grow around the world, Australian organisations are taking positive steps to become more sustainable, discovers Anna-Louise McDougall.

W

ith the world having reached the point where demand for seafood outweighs supply of wild harvested species, sustainable aquaculture is regarded as the best opportunity to meet the demand in growth of the world’s future seafood needs.

Aquaculture is currently one of the fastest-growing industries in the world with 50 per cent of seafood consumed worldwide produced through farming. And it’s only going to keep growing with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimating that at least an additional 40 million tonnes of seafood will be required by 2030 to maintain the current per capita consumption.

With the amount of food produced per hectare considerably higher than in arable farming or livestock rearing, aquaculture is generally considered a productive use of resources, however there are several obstacles for producers seeking to achieve sustainable growth including a shortage of land and fresh water for farms, the cost of energy to run them and environmental damage caused by farming methods.

According to a report by environmental watchdog Greenpeace, Challenging the aquaculture industry on sustainability, unsustainable aquaculture can not only devastate the oceans, but also negatively impact on the food security of

developing coastal nations by using traditional food sources in the production of fishmeal.

Rapid development of intensive aquaculture for species such as salmon and prawns, for example, has in the past resulted in both environmental damage and the displacement of coastal fishing and farming communities.

According to Greenpeace, for an aquaculture operation to be sustainable it needs to be moving towards sustainable plant-based feeds, not using fishmeal or fish-oil-based feeds from unsustainable fisheries, not using wild-caught juveniles, only cultivating species that are native in open water systems, and supporting the long-term economic and social well-being of local communities.

Here in Australia, the FAO Fisheries & Aquaculture program says that aquaculture operations may involve the farming of captive-bred stock or the “grow-out” of “naturally occurring” larvae and juveniles of wild caught stocks. Most species farmed here are high value species, such as salmon, tuna and oysters, and producers comply with a range of federal, state and local government environmental laws and codes of practice that ensure the long-term sustainability of the industry and the environment.

Some producers are going a step further however to ensure a sustainable future. Tasmanian

16 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

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salmon producer Tassal recently achieved an Australian first when it earned Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) accreditation for its Macquarie Harbour farms on the west coast of Tasmania.

feed ingredients being from sustainable sources, habitat protection, freshwater smolt (baby salmon) production, disease management, social responsibility and community and stakeholder engagement.

With Tassal aiming to have all six of its Tasmanian farming regions certified to ASC standard by Spring 2014, ASC Certified salmon will soon account for 40 per cent of the Australian salmon market.

“We are the first Australian aquaculture company of any species, and one of the first salmon farming companies in the world, to achieve this certification,” said Mark Ryan, Tassal chief executive officer and managing director.

The ASC’s standards include strict requirements for minimising fish escapes, chemical use and predator control. There are also strict requirements relating to

“Importantly, the ASC accreditation provides credible, third party validation of how responsibly we farm our salmon.”

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1 Farmed cooked prawns fed with Novacq.

2 A school of salmon fry. 3 Salmon are one of the most commonly farmed fish in Australia. 4 Prawn fishing on Exmouth Gulf, WA.

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Developing food for the future

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A new type of fish-free prawn food, Novacq or novel aquafeed, has solved one of the farmed prawn industry’s biggest problems – its reliance on wild-caught fish as a core ingredient for feed.

Dr Nigel Preston, acting flagship director of the CSIRO Food Futures Flagship, was part of the team of CSIRO scientists to develop the innovative type of feed.

“The global prawn farming industry currently uses 27 per cent of the annual global fish catch,” Preston says. “Most of the world’s fisheries stocks are static or in decline and there is an urgent need for cost-effective alternatives to the wild capture fishmeal and fish oil for prawn aquafeeds.

“The Novacq technology enables complete replacement of both fishmeal and fish oil in feeds for farmed prawns. This is a gamechanger for the prawn farming industry, which can now move to complete independence from fishery products in feeds.”

Prawns have been found to grow up to 40 per cent faster on Novacq and according to Preston, the CSIRO research team is now working to develop diets free from wild fisheries products for other aquaculture species. Australian producer of prawn food Ridley has the licence to make Novacq, and aims to have it on the market by the end of 2015. OH

www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 17

VOLUME CATERING

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When size does matter Running a restaurant kitchen and event catering may require many of the same skills but when the event is an off-site dinner for 2000, a talent for logistics is the number one attribute every executive chef must have, discovers Ylla Watkins.

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hen it comes to events it doesn’t get much more high-profile than the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, an annual three-week event which sees The Fleet Steps at Mrs Macquarie’s Point in Sydney come alive with the sound of opera, attracting critical acclaim from around the globe and up to 3000 music lovers every night.

Now in its third year, this year’s event, which ran from March 21-April 14, featured Puccini’s classic Madama Butterfly, with the Japanese theme of the opera inspiring everything from the theming of the harbour front site to the menus created by event caterer Fresh Catering.

Catering to up to 2500 people every night, the site featured five dining outlets, ranging from signature restaurant, the Platinum Club, where guests could enjoy a premium three-course Japanese influenced dinner, with specially matched wines, to the Northern Cantina, offering a 18 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

Japanese twist on tapas-style share plates, with dishes such as PankoCrumbed Arancini and Sticky Teriyaki Beef Ribs and main courses such as BBQ miso Barramundi on braised mushroom noodles. Guests looking for a faster meal option were able to choose from the Northern and Southern Terraces, which offered a broad range of Japanese inspired burgers, pizzas and desserts, and The Adina Garden Bar, serving Japanese wok fried egg noodles, Asian vegetables and sweet sesame sauce.

With nothing in place on site prior to the event, pulling off such a large and complicated event was a major logistical exercise, according to Fresh Catering’s managing director Peter McCloskey.

“The first year was the hardest because we worked off plans,” he says. “We worked for months with Opera Australia on developing

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See recipes in the Open House iPad app.

1, 3 A selection of canapés from Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. 2 Fresh Catering’s Cherry Blossom Parfait, available at this year’s Handa Opera. 4 The Southern Terrace at Handa Opera. 5 Chefs at work in the BCEC kitchen.

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the plans of how it was going to operate; where the kitchens were going to be; how we were going to get the produce to the different sites and kitchens.

“Now we know the site, three years later, we don’t need to do that, but we do need to bring everything in. They provide the structures and we bring all the equipment in, as well as crockery, cutlery, glassware.

Everything gets loaded and installed. It’s a massive operation.”

Across the five different outlets the most popular items were the Japanese pizzas and burgers, with around 400 of each being served each night. The Northern Cantina also saw around 300 covers.

Making sure everything ran smoothly on the night came down to good forward planning.

“When you’re writing menus it’s extremely important that you can deliver them for large numbers, quickly and under pressure, no matter how busy it is,” says McCloskey. “Along with the planning of the kitchens, making sure we have the right equipment on site to ensure we’re able to deliver that, and having the teams in place.

“We’re a fairly large catering company but for that period of 21 days we’re very careful about what else we take on, and we put a very strong

team in each of the areas.”

Between kitchen and front-of-house staff, McCloskey says they had around 150 staff on-site, and another 70-80 doing prep in the company’s commercial kitchen in Redfern.

“All of the food is prepared here as much as we can, and then it’s trucked in to the site every single day, where a totally different team comes onboard later in the afternoon and takes it from the prep stage to the finished stage,” he says.

Hailed a success by organisers, there were only a handful of complaints about the food over the whole period, McCloskey adds.

“Out of all the diners we had this year, averaging 2000 a night, we only had five complaints over the whole period and they were more around the fact that weren’t keen on Japanese style food.

“Overall it was an extremely successful event, delivering quality at all the different price points.”

Clinton Brown, executive chef of Laissez-Faire Catering, is also accustomed to catering for large high-end events, both at the company’s stable of busy Sydney venues including the Australian Technology Park Conference Centre, The State Library of NSW and The Australian www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 19

National Maritime Museum, and off-site.

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Military-style planning, to-thesecond timing and a trusted team in the kitchen is the key to running a successful large-scale event, according to Brown.

“It’s about timing and planning,” he says. “Making sure I’m getting the right produce for the right price; having a suitable area at the venue to prepare the food when we’re doing the job; hiring equipment if we need it; making sure we have enough staff to deliver the food on time, looking and tasting beautiful.”

ability. Also having tough skin; not everyone loves everything you do.”

There are few organisations that cater for functions on as large a scale as convention and exhibition centres, where an average guest list is between 300 and 500 and formal events for up to 2000 are common.

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A selection of LaissezFaire Catering’s dishes: 1 Tartlets of baked ricotta, zucchini, lemon thyme. 2 Seared king fish fillet, sautéed king brown mushrooms, artichokes, roast scallop and blood plum vinaigrette. 3 Crème caramel, berry syrup compote.

With offsite venues, its often necessary to build a kitchen from scratch, bringing in everything from benches to cool rooms, ovens and plate warmers.

While prep is done in the company’s commercial kitchen at the Australian Technology Park, dishes are finished at the venue.

“For a plated meal the main course is generally beef, chicken or fish,” he says. “I’ll brown it here, then stack them all together on trays and bring it to the point where I need it at the job. It gets sealed, packed away, taken to the job and then reheated on the job.”

While many chefs might balk at the logistics involved, for Brown it’s the most enjoyable part of his role.

“Organising the staff, organising the food, that’s what challenges me,” he says. “In this kind of role you have to be patient. Being able to assess people is also really important. You’re using casual staff a lot and you have to assess them quickly and utilise them to the best of their

“We can do anything up to 80 separate events a day, from breakfast through lunches, afternoon teas and dinners,” says Martin Latter, executive chef at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre. “We might have seven or eight dinners catering to up to 5000-6000 people in any one night.

In a space of a week we could be looking at 40,000 people, and every one of those people is individually looked after.”

Complicating things is the fact that events are often held in parts of the Centre not accessible from the 3 main kitchen, requiring the use of a mobile kitchen. Everything from ovens and plate warmers through to crockery, cutlery and glassware (around 20,000 pieces for a 1000 person dinner) will be transported to the site.

A function for 5000 in the exhibition halls saw the Centre build 10 mobile kitchens around the space, with each kitchen producing around 500 meals.

“Everything will be brought up here and be cooked once, fresh in the oven, and then we’ll do a live plate up,” he says. “From the oven to the plate, takes about 30 seconds, and then it’s sent out.

“Prep wise, I have a three day turnover in which it gets prepped and chilled. With the beef for tonight for example, we’ve portioned it,

All together now In a world-first for major event catering, annual ideas festival TEDxSydney, “crowd-farmed” the produce for a lunch for 2200 people attending its 2013 conference.

A joint initiative of the organisers of TEDxSydney and Waverley-based sustainable food group, Grow It Local, the event aimed to connect members of the TEDxSydney community, back to the reality of the food chain.

The food, pledged by hundreds of local backyard, window-sill, balcony and community growers, ranged from whole lambs to a bagful of chillies grown on an apartment balcony or windowsill, and was transformed by ARIA chefs Matt Moran and Simon Sandall into a communal feast at the Sydney Opera House. The pair didn’t know what ingredients they’d have to work with until the day of the event.

TEDx Sydney director Remo Giuffre said the event was “a powerful statement by the people of Sydney that they care about where their food comes from, and it changed people’s perceptions of catering forever”.

20 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

sealed it on the grill for colour, and then put it into the chiller to bring it down to below five degrees.

Popcorn shrimp with spicy garlic sauce

“It will be loaded into the ovens an hour before hand, and then 20 minutes before main course is a called away, it’ll be programmed in.

We’ll also have potatoes, vegetables, all cooking in separate ovens, at different temperatures.

Serves: 6

“Come tonight I’ll have 10 staff working here, and there’ll be roughly 40-50 waiting staff ready. And bang, we’ll go. Within 15 minutes everyone in that room will be served.”

Ensuring a restaurant-style experience for the diner is critical, adds Latter.

“What we’ve done here is take function food to the next level,” he says.

“You go to a restaurant and your meal is cooked fresh. What they do for one person we do for 1000, or for 5000.”

500g peeled green prawns, diced 120g rice flour 120g tapioca flour 240ml soda water Extra rice flour to dust prawns 60g chilli garlic sauce (Lee Kum Kee Brand) 200g mayonnaise 4 sheets of nori 2g chilli powder 4 limes ¼ bunch shallots, julienned

Preheat a deep fryer to 180˚C. Sprinkle the battered prawns into the deep fryer and fry until golden brown and crisp.

Dice prawns and toss lightly in rice flour.

To make the dipping sauce, mix the chilli garlic sauce in with the mayonnaise.

To make the batter, sieve rice and tapioca flour into a bowl and make a well in the centre.

Gradually beat in the soda water until you make a batter, ensuring there are no lumps.

Lightly dust the prawns in rice flour and place into the batter.

Blend the nori sheets and chilli powder and sprinkle onto fried prawns.

Serve the popcorn shrimp on a platter garnished with the shallots, a lime cheek and a small bowl of chilli mayonnaise.

Recipe from Fresh Catering OH

MCEC chefs visit Sher Wagyu.

Thinking local Following on from Victorian food producer SPC’s widely publicised financial woes earlier this year Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) have been working with the company to source more locally grown products from them.

MCEC chief executive Peter King recently met with the Shepparton-based company to discuss the venue’s preference of sourcing Victorian grown and produced goods.

“We pride ourselves on buying from and supporting Victorian farmers, producers and winemakers, and now more than ever as our farmers struggle in drought-affected areas.

“Since 2000, we’ve been a proud supporter and supplier of SPC

and will continue our important partnership with them, which in turn assists local farmers and more broadly promotes Australian products.”

MCEC’s list of suppliers covers the whole of Victoria and are highlighted in the venue’s menu planning guide so customers can see exactly where ingredients are sourced and the food miles travelled.

In addition to the 2750kg of SPC goods ordered annually MCEC’s orders include 4.4 tonne Sher Wagyu beef, 5000 litres of milk from Inglenook Dairy, 350kg of butter from The Butter Factory, 400 litres olive oil from Tarago Olives, and 650 kilograms fresh vegetables and herbs from Yarra Valley Gourmet Greenhouse.

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‘catering’ a breeze

Wok style range 1kg (beef or chicken) Mini dim sims (beef or chicken) Premium beef balls Cigar spring rolls Contact Hakka Pty Ltd at T: 02 93521388 E: enquiries@hakka.com.au W: www.hakka.com.au

www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 21

DESSERTS

The sorcerer’s apprentices It was a case of the apprentices taking over the kitchen when Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney executive pastry chef Anna Polyviou challenged her young team to create a dessert degustation on their own, writes Sheridan Randall.

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he Brothers Grimm was the theme of the recent sell-out dessert degustation held at Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney with the gothic fairy tales providing ample inspiration for the young team of apprentices responsible for the event held over two nights earlier this month.

Unlike the Disney movie Fantasia, these apprentices did not come unstuck unleashing the dark arts of pastry, instead earning their boss’s unequivocal respect and admiration.

“I have always wanted those who work with me to understand that it’s not just about cooking that you look into, it’s about everything else,” says executive pastry chef Anna Polyviou. “There is a lot of other stuff, organising the proposal, your sponsors, the menu, costing the product, there’s heaps of stuff.”

Polyviou has been organising the hotel’s popular dessert degustation for a while, and believed it was the perfect opportunity to widen her apprentices’ horizons.

“They wrote a proposal, six pages long, and they costed it as well,” she says. “It was interesting to see where their minds were going. I didn’t want to influence them, I just wanted them to do their thing and shine at it.”

The team of young apprentices, some of whom had been in the kitchen less than six months, took up the challenge wholeheartedly, despite knowing it would be a leap into the unknown. Second year apprentice Felicity Nhue says that it “was the first time we had done anything together as a team". Inspired the tale of Sleeping Beauty, Nhue made a 22 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

cherry sorbet with chocolate and lemon.

"My dish was in the shape of a tower, because in the story the princess is asleep and when the prince finds her the whole castle comes alive and that is what I wanted to put into my dessert, so you had to crack the tower open to eat it, and inside it was a refreshing [taste].”

For third year apprentice Jessica Timpano, it was the first time she had attempted to make a dessert before "because it was never my strong point”.

"We didn’t want to make a Disney-style theme, we wanted to go darker than that," she says of her Hansel and Gretal inspired ginger bread house and black forest macaron.

"Anna makes it [the degustation] look like a piece of cake but when we had to do it there was so much stuff we had to organise even down to getting the cutlery, napkins, chairs and props. It really is a lot of work.”

First year apprentice Philip Khoury’s Little Red Riding Hood dish, featuring almonds, amaretto, dark chocolate and muscatels, was his “first chance to really play with the desserts”.

“I changed my flavours a couple of times,” he says. “I played with idea of the cake and wine Red Riding Hood took to her grandmother.

We had to write all out own recipes well in advance and it had to be costed, which we had no experience of, and when it came to the event we had to think about what equipment and props we needed.

It was a big thing to organise as none of us had ever done anything

4 1 Snow White by Zoe Chen. 2 Little Red Riding Hood by Philip Khoury. 3 Brides On Their Trail by Felicity and Philip.

4 Sleeping Beauty by Felicity Nhue.

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The sorcerer’s apprentices Tracy James – sous chef Felicity Goodchild – chef de partie Zoe Chen – commis chef Felicity Nhue – 2nd year apprentice Philip Khoury – 1st year apprentice Jessica Timpano – 3rd year apprentice Alec Lowe – commis chef 2

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of that magnitude before.”

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Commis chef Alec Lowe stuck to techniques that he already knew “to make it achievable and know it would work". Plating the dishes a week before the event allowed for last minute changes.

All product processed and packed under externally audited HACCP criteria

“We all wanted to be happy with each other’s individual dessert,” Lowe says. “It has brought us closer together as a team as we had to work so closely to get the end result.”

For Polyviou, her team went beyond even her expectations.

“They really pushed their boundaries,” she says. An added bonus was having their parents come and see the kind of work being done in the kitchen.

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Timpano adds that to be able to demonstrate to their parents what they do was a really good experience, as “it showed we love what we do”.

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Having whet their appetite for the extra responsibility, the team is keen to do more events in the future, with master classes, high teas and dessert buffets all on the drawing board.

• Fruit Concentrates

“It has given me a deeper understating of what Anna does and what that responsibility entails,” says Khoury.

“It’s a good company to work for as they really encourage us,” she says.

“It is also good for the company as it keeps our staff motivated and working together.

“I am lucky to have nine staff in my kitchen, and these are our future pastry chefs of Australia. I need to make sure they grow and develop.” OH

• Fruit Purees • Fruit Mixes (incl. Fruit Salad)

“When I was doing my apprenticeship, without my parents I couldn’t have done it,” she says.

Polyviou is aware that she is lucky to be able to offer her apprentices such an opportunity.

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www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 23

POP-UPS

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Pop till you drop

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Pop-up venues used to be a great way to get a foot on the hospitality ladder without spending much money. Nowadays though even the big names are in on the act, writes Sheridan Randall.

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nce a symbol of the underground food and drinks scene, pop-ups are now well and truly mainstream, with some of the biggest names in hospitality jumping on the bandwagon. In January Anthony Kaplan, Brent Mills and Simon Beckingham, of Bondi’s The Corner House, launched a pop-up concept at the Sydney Opera House, Garden Bar by The Corner House, which ran for just under a month. Sydney chef Jared Ingersoll and Summer of Riesling co-founder Jason Hoy launched pop-up bar Bottle and Beast earlier this year that ran for a modest 65 days. Merivale has also joined in the fun with its new bar Work in Progress. The art-based pop-up comes with its own art curator and features the work of Darwin-based pop artist Franck Gohier. It also serves traditional Thai street food courtesy of Air Jantrakool and a daily cocktail menu.

With plans to stay open for around six months, the temporary venue still requires the same amount of planning as a permanent one, according to Paul Mant, Merivale’s group bars manager.

“To all intents and purposes the build-up is no different as everything still has to be there on the day you open regardless of how long it stays there,” he says. The new pop-up does offer a greater degree of flexibility though, with a three drink menu of very simple drinks that changes every couple of days depending on what sells well.

Even Melbourne’s George Calombaris is in on the action with his newly opened popup Jimmy Grants by George Calombaris joining Kong BBQ by Chris Lucas and St Ali by Salvatore Malatesta as part of streetfood quarter, Rue & Co in Melbourne’s CBD. Operating out of shipping containers for the next six months, the idea was the brainchild of Queensland Investment Corporation, which is throwing $550 million at a new 39-storey tower on Collins Street that will house the three pop-up operations in more permanent surroundings once completed.

It wasn’t always this way. Pop-ups began as many things do, by sheer force of necessity, usually a lack of money, as was the case of Section 8 which has been operating out of a

24 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

shipping container in a carpark in Melbourne’s CBD for the best part of eight years.

“We are the pioneer of the pop-up bar,” says Section 8 founder and co-owner Maslyn Salt.

“The whole thing started because myself and my business partner were looking to open a bar in one of the little warehouses that were in the fringes of the city, which is all we could really afford. Then we came upon this carpark, which was nothing more than that but it was central. So without thinking about it too much we said ‘yes we’ll do it’.”

With enough cash to buy an empty shipping container, which with the help of some friends they turned into a makeshift bar, salvaged wooden pallets for seats and some paper lanterns for decoration, they set up shop.

“We ran out of money [on a Thursday] and didn’t have a roof and so decided to open the next day to help pay for one,” he says. “By Friday at 7pm we had a queue stretching down to Little Bourke Street.

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1, 2 Section 8. 3 Secret Foodies. 4 Work in Progress. 5 Cocktails at Work in Progress. 6 Air Jantrakool’s Thai street food. 7 Nieuw Amsterdam’s cocktail degustation. 8 Ocean at Flying Fish.

“I think I was called crazy more than once and I don’t think we even told council in case it would turn them off the whole thing.

We told them it was a temporary structure.”

The original lease was for 12 months, but “here we are eight years later”, he adds.

“The pop up nature of it was that we didn’t have long-term leasing,” he says. How things have changed; not only is it still open, the owner of the carpark has since bought into the venue and is now a co-owner.

“One of the things we wanted to prove at the time was that you could make a good bar that wasn’t reliant on chandeliers and possum fur,” he says. “It was very much about the music, the people and the attitude.”

Pop-ups of another kind have been happening all over Sydney for the last four years, following the launch of Secret Foodies, a roving event that sees diners descend on a secret location for a one-ofkind dinner.

Founded by blogger and self-confessed “foodie”Alex Adams, the roving pop-up concept was an instant hit with diners.

“I was really inspired by the pop-up dining scene in London and New York,” she says.

that’s what we have been trying to do.”

What started as simply a one off event for Adams’ friends has since grown into a wellestablished business, with Secret Foodies events being held across both Sydney and Melbourne.

“In the beginning no-one knew me in the industry, although I had built up quite a following through my blog, Ms Darlinghurst,” she says.

“Now we get approached by restaurants and I can’t remember the last time we had to pick up the phone and pitch to anyone.”

One of their most recent events was Ocean at Sydney’s Flying Fish, with a one-off five-course menu designed to celebrate the restaurant’s 10th birthday.

“Executive chef Stephen Seckold put together a special menu of all the most popular dishes over the last decade,” she says. “So we try and do something that has a story behind it and is quite exclusive.

“We did one [in Melbourne] this week and it sold out in an hour. A really cool event at Nieuw Amsterdam. It was a cocktail degustation, with five dishes matched with five different cocktails.”

“The idea was to do it in secret locations, but the point was to get people to try something new and hear firsthand from the chef or the owner about their food philosophy and their passion.

Secret Foodies nights have also been held in various locations throughout the city and beyond including rooftops, laneways, warehouses and even a heritage listed barn in the middle of a dairy farm as part of the Secret Gardens Festival.

“Anyone can go out for a great meal nowadays but what is really interesting is finding out what is behind the scenes of all that, and

“I am always on the hunt for different things, anything that looks like an unusual space that is going to challenge people,” she says.

When Rue & Co decided to open their big name pop-up venture they weren’t as strapped for cash as some of the early popup pioneers, instead turning to Kor Hire for their shipping container kitchens.

Kor Hire has been fabricating and leasing mobile kitchens since 1996, with their main clients being aged care facilities, nursing homes and RSL Clubs needing temporary kitchens during renovations, as well as the mining sector and major events.

“The latest craze is pop-up restaurants,” says Colin Milson, general manager at Kor Hire.

“What they [Rue & Co] want to do is build up some enthusiasm and energy by putting these pop-up concepts for six months and then the tenants would move into the lower floors [of the building] once it was complete.”

Melbourne has long been active in promoting new ideas to attract people into the CBD over the weekend, with pop-up bars and restaurants a great way to do it, he says.

“Sydney is a different culture in that people go to the harbour and beaches on the weekend,” he adds. “But I can also imagine a couple of pop-ups down at Bondi. It’s a good way for people to enjoy street food.”

Given a supportive local council, pop-ups are also a great way to trial a new business venture or culinary concept without the expense of investing a in a brick and mortar fit out.

“Providing councils are encouraging and in on it, you don’t have to pay for seating areas,” he says. “All you are doing is paying for the kitchen.” OH

www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 25

AWARDS

2 1 The Noma team celebrates its win. 2 Ben Shewry from Attica at

the World's 50 Best Restaurants reception. 3 Spain's El Celler de Can Roca came second.

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Good, better, best?

The announcement of The S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant list grabs headlines around the world but is it worth the paper it’s written on, asks Ylla Watkins.

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n today’s culture of the celebrity chef, there’s arguably no bigger event on the global culinary calendar than the announcement of The S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. The “Oscars” of the restaurant world, the list ranks restaurants around the globe, making careers and breaking hearts into the bargain.

This year’s event, announced at a gala event in London’s Guild Hall last month, saw Denmark’s Noma regain the title of World’s Best Restaurant from last year’s winner, Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca. Noma had previously held the title in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Explaining the decision to return the coveted title to Noma, awards organisers said that chef-owner René Redzepi’s “meticulous attention to detail, innovative approach to foraging and experimentation with fermentation – all driven by passion and a relentless curiosity – has once again brought his

restaurant to the pinnacle”.

El Celler de Can Roca moved to second spot on the list, with Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana (Italy) remaining at number three for the second year running, Eleven Madison Park in New York moving up one spot to number four, and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal climbing two places to round out the top five.

Waving the flag for Australia was Ben Shewry’s Attica in Melbourne, the only Australian restaurant to make this year’s list, which took out the title of Best Restaurant in Australasia for the second year running, coming in at number 32 (down from 21 last year). Restaurants headed up by expat chefs to make the list were Brett Graham’s The Ledbury in London at number 10; David Thompson’s Nahm in Bangkok at number 13 (recently named Asia’s Best Restaurant); and Tetsuya Wakuda’s Waku Ghin in Singapore at number 50.

26 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

While newspaper headlines around the globe suggest that the awards have traction with the restaurant-going public, is it really possible to say that any one restaurant is “the best”?

around the planet, then you probably think that the choice for Miss Universe influences world peace,” he wrote, adding that the “The 50 Best really should be renamed the 50 Hottest”.

Speaking after the awards presentation Redzepi himself played down the importance of the title.

“It’s more about the vibe thing and what’s hot in foodie circles than a serious critical assessment of the global dining scene,” he added.

“The world’s best?” he asked. “Is the colour red the best colour in the world this year? Of course I don’t believe Noma is the best in the world.”

Other commentators have taken issue with the list’s elitism, with restaurants making the list typically small, hard to get into and expensive.

Here in Australia, well-known restaurant critic and food journalist Simon Thomsen put his doubts into words following the awards in an article posted on businessinsider.com.au called “The World’s 50 Best Restaurant list is really just a popularity contest for the cool kids”.

Most complaints about the Best Restaurants List focus on how the list is compiled – from the votes of the 900-plus members of “The Academy”, food writers and critics, chefs, restaurateurs and highly regarded “gastronomes” handpicked by regional chairs. Each member can cast seven votes, listed in order of preference, based on their best restaurant experiences of the

“If you think the World’s 50 Best Restaurants is a definitive guide to the finest places to eat

previous 18 months. Of those seven, at least three votes must recognise restaurants outside of the academy member’s own region. With Australia so far away from most of the other regions, it’s little wonder that our restaurants struggle to make the grade.

Pat Nourse, deputy editor and chief restaurant critic for Australian Gourmet Traveller, and the chair for Oceania, Australia and New Zealand cautions against taking the list too seriously.

“It’s a survey, not a guide, and while I don’t think any two people (even any two of us chairs) would agree on the exact composition, I think we all agree that it’s done wonders for the international restaurant community,” he says.

“It’s about celebration more than competition. These lists are only as serious as you take them. There’s no harm here, and plenty of good.”

John Hart, chief executive of industry body Restaurant & Catering Australia, says “the Top 50 is great at doing what it does, selecting the favourite restaurants of the gang of foodies that do the selecting”.

“The list is certainly not the best 100 Best Restaurants in the world,” he says. “The only way to do that would be to have a strict criteria-based system like ours [used to judge the Savour Australia Restaurant & Catering Hostplus Awards for Excellence] and of course assess a stack more restaurants.

An approach like this would definitely mean we [Australia] would get a whole lot more restaurants in the 100!”

Problems with the selection criteria notwithstanding, Hart acknowledges that the list’s organisers have done a great job of promoting it.

“In addition, the concept of a list does get public attention because everyone likes a ranking,” he says.

With the number of best restaurant lists, awards programs and where to eat guides seemingly increasing every year, it pays for chefs and consumers alike to be aware of how restaurants are assessed and think of lists as a guide rather than a definitive ranking.

The Restaurant & Catering Australia Awards for Excellence, for example, uses trained judges to rank restaurants on more than 50 universal criteria that are weighted in terms of importance, while the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide relies on reviewers.

“Long-story-short, we expect certain standards of comfort, but food is still the key thing,” says Nourse. “We might or might not list a place that has good food in a less than great setting, but we’ll never list a place that has bad food, no matter how flash the seats and service, the bells and the whistles.

“We publish reviews of 400 or so places and we pick them solely on merit – we don’t make concessions for geography or to represent particular cuisines or anything like that – if 50 really great new places opened in Canberra, Adelaide or Broome tomorrow, we’d have to boot 50 places from Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and wherever to make room.

“If that means we end up with no French restaurants or limited

representation in one city, them’s the breaks. It’s our point of difference. We don’t aim to give you everything – just the best.”

The guide has a team of more than 50 reviewers around the country, with state editors checking their reviews, according to Nourse.

“We like to pick reviewers who get around the place (and the wider world) a bit so they’ve got some perspective, and to that end I also trade reviews with our other state editors.”

While the ultimate value of the Best Restaurants List and other awards programs is up for debate, Hart is keen to point out that “recognising restaurants that achieve is a good thing”.

“No matter what award system or what criteria, by whatever means, we are promoting those that are the best at what they do,” he says.

“Eventually this also promotes the state or the country that restaurant is in. So yes, awards are good. and do keep consumers eating out more often.” OH

KITCHEN CONTROVERSIES Restaurant awards and rankings may be hotly anticipated, but they aren’t always well received.

Sydney’s Quay, widely considered to be one of Australia’s best restaurants, was a shock exclusion from this year’s World’s 50 Best Restaurant list.

The restaurant slipped from number 48 last year to number 60 this year after five years on the list. “Any list like this is going to be a bit controversial”, Quay’s Peter Gilmore told The Australian newspaper after the list was announced, adding that he feels “more Australian restaurants deserve to be in it”.

When chef Tetsuya Wakuda’s Tetsuya’s restaurant lost a coveted hat in The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2011, it was the shock upset of the awards. While he felt bad for his staff, Wakuda later told the SMH that “In the end, though, I’m cooking for guests, diners, people who like us; they come to us, that’s why I’m doing it. I’m not cooking for a particular food writer.” The chef won the awards’ People’s Choice Award in the same year.

Chef Bernard Loiseau committed suicide in 2003 after a French newspaper suggested that the Michelin Guide was threatening to take away one of its three stars from his restaurant, Le Relais Bernard Louiseu in Burgundy. Guide editors denied the allegation, however it was revealed last year that the guide had been highly critical of Loiseau’s restaurant shortly before his death. The restaurant went on to retain its star and still has three stars today.

Despite Noma being ranked number one in the World’s 50 Best Restaurant list for four of the last five years, the Michelin Guide has failed to award the restaurant a third Michelin Star, inspiring outrage in Denmark. Jan Krag Jacobsen, president of the Danish Gastronomic Academy, suggested that the Michelin system is outdated. “Perhaps it can’t catch what goes on in very modern restaurants anymore,” he said.

www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 27

SOCIAL INITIATIVES

Comfort food Sharing food is a great way to connect with people, whether they be friends, family or colleagues, but for several Sydney-based organisations food is used to support members of the community most in need, writes Sheridan Randall.

“A

lot of shit happens here and it all has to work in together,” says the straight talking co-founder of Bondi-based community kitchen Our Big Kitchen (OBK), Rabbi Dovid Slavin.

Established in 2005, OBK sees around 40 different programmes run out of its commercial kitchen. On any given day the kitchen is alive with different users, from professional bakers and caterers who rent out space to school groups, volunteers and homeless people.

“This is a different way of running a charity,” Rabbi Slavin says. “Instead of ‘I think you should, it’s much more what do you want to do?’ We are your vehicle.

Our role is to put that Ferrari in front of your house – tyres are good, tank is full, insurance is paid, key in the ignition, where do you want to go?”

Working to the same strict guidelines as any commercial kitchen, albeit with multiple users, requires some outside help, often in the form of Sofitel Sydney executive chef Boris Cuzon.

“I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and it was a very rough part of the world,” Rabbi Slavin says. “There was a lot of street fighting going on and the first thing I learnt was whether it was a fight I could handle on my own or whether I needed my big brother. That’s the same with Boris [Cuzon]. Is it something I can do myself or do I need my big brother [Cuzon]?”

Cuzon, who came on board three years ago, says the kitchen has been evolving during that time.

“First thing I needed to help with was hygiene and how we run a professional kitchen,” he says. “We really focused on that during the first year.”

With the kitchen currently working on a establishing a pilot programme to deliver food to a local children’s hospital, Rabbi Slavin is aware “that it is something we cannot do on our own so we get the professional expertise of someone like Boris”.

“He always here at the drop of hat and is always happy to help,” he says.

The kitchen also appointed a general manager, Greg Fisher, around 18 months ago as the demands on the kitchen increased.

“Going into a hospital is a whole new level for us, because the parent could potentially feed some of that food to their sick child so you have to think very carefully of their low immune system,” he says. “That’s where someone like Boris comes in and helps to elevate what we do.

28 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

We have been given very clear guidelines

by Boris and the hospital.”

To keep the kitchen running requires a constant juggling act. Donations come in from various producers and suppliers, but OBK also raises funds from activities such as MasterChef-style corporate team building sessions and the rental of its space to fledgling food businesses, such as Brooklyn Boys Bagels, who have already snagged a contract to supply David Jones.

“My job is to balance the business side of it with the social side of it,” says Fisher.

“We rent out spaces for people who want to do commercial work at an hourly rate but charging community rates not commercial ones. There is a balance between social and commercial to make it work. Rather than putting $2 million 1 into their own kitchen they can use our $2 million kitchen and we are happy with that as it means we can buy in ingredients that aren’t donated.”

Food rescue charity Second Bite partners with OBK, bringing in raw produce which the kitchen converts through its various programmes into meals, which are then distributed by Second Bite to various agencies.

As Rabbi Slaven says, “food connects, supports and empowers and that what’s we do here”.

The Bread & Butter Project in Sydney’s Marrickville is another kitchen that directly helps some of the most disadvantaged members of the community. The brainchild of Bourke Street Bakery owners Paul Allam and David McGuinness the project takes on refugees and trains them in all aspects of artisanal baking.

Celebrating its first anniversary, the social enterprise is about to see two of its first crop of participants graduate and be offered continuing employment with the bakery.

Delivering more than 10,000 units of bread per week to 100 regular wholesale customers, the Bread & Butter Project now aims to employ and train up to 12 annually, a situation general manager Brett Jordan describes as an “interesting dilemma”.

“We have lots of people wanting to take our bread on board but as we are not yet able to meet that full demand we have to temper the growth so that we can continue to maintain the quality of the bread and the quality of the training on the production floor,” he says.

2

3

1, 2 The Bread & Butter Project. 3 Our Big Kitchen general manager Greg Fisher and Sofitel Sydney executive chef Boris Cuzon.

“The bread is wonderful and well received and we continue to get referrals from chefs to other chefs and café operators to other operators because of the bread, which is great.”

i

Although a simple process in theory – use workplace training to help refugees settle into their new home with the aim of finding sustainable employment at the end – the support network needed to facilitate this runs deep, with Kayleigh Ellis brought in as a support manager for the participants.

www.thebreadandbutterproject.com www.obk.org.au

“My role looks over quite few different needs of the project, including their social and emotional wellbeing, and also looking at their learning needs within the TAFE course,” she says. “It’s about connecting them with additional support. We work with a number of partner and support agencies.”

With the project helping the refugees come to grips with what may well be a very alien work environment compared with the one they are used to, the support does not stop once they complete their 12 months training.

Outline

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“As they prepare to leave the traineeship they will be connected with a volunteer mentor who will help them transition into permanent and sustainable employment,” Ellis says. “There will be an alumni of sorts that will gradually develop over the years of the project and they will be invited back to participate in events that hold. Looking We don’t intend forto- lose contact with people once they have the project.”

As a working and learning environment, the production floor seems TAMPER EVIDENT to work very well.

TAIL PACKAGING ? in our “Everyone is working at the same level, particularly environment,” says Jordan.

Talk“Once to us about our or floor they are all tasked with people are on the Plain production In-Mould-Label (IML) options ! the bread for delivery the the same outcome which is producing

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next day, so it does act as a great leveller. We have males, females, different ages, different ethnic backgrounds, different religious backgrounds, all working happily together and I think food is a great Choice intoDisposable medium work with.” OHFood Packaging 110 mm

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www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 29

FOODSERVICE AUSTRALIA 2014

Fresh new ideas With new features, seminars, masterclasses and competitions, there’s even more reason to visit this month’s Foodservice Australia expo.

T

he Foodservice Australia exhibition kicks off in Sydney this month, giving chefs, restaurateurs and caterers the chance to discover the latest in food, drink and equipment ideas. This year’s expo, which will run from May 25-27, will feature more than 150 exhibitors plus a series of free seminars, workshops and competitions including the Rare Medium Chef of the Year, World Chocolate Masters and the Global Pizza Challenge.

According to event director Tim Collett, the show is perfect for cafes and restaurants looking for a new idea, new product or supplier.

“Unlike other shows you don’t have to walk through six halls to find something interesting,” he says. “Every exhibitor is focused on foodservice and keen to do business. It is perfect for people looking for inspiration or just solving everyday challenges.”

A new exhibitor highlight will be the Regional Producers Pavilion, showcasing boutique food, drink and ingredients suppliers from all over Australia. Visitors at the show can literally taste the new ideas and meet the people behind the products.

Major food companies at the show will include Nestlé, Inghams, Fonterra, Parmalat, MCormicks, Kikkoman, Lindt, Callebaut and Goodman Fielder, while equipment suppliers include Robot Coupe, Unox,

Euroquip, Phoeniks and FED. New to the expo this year is the Café School.

Aimed at the lunch and food-to-go sector, workshops will help you pour the perfect coffee, build a better sandwich and roll a snappier wrap. Seminars will include a special briefing on global café innovations led by Graeme McCormack and British chef Jack Brennan. Sessions will be run on the show floor and are free for visitors.

Returning bigger and better in 2014 is the Rare Medium Chef of the Year competition. From a record 80 entries, the judges have chosen 32 finalists to cook live at the show. They will be given one hour and a mystery box of ingredients to prepare their best dishes. The scoring system has been simplified so there is a clear winner of each heat.

Visitors to the show will also be able to check out the World Chocolate Masters on day one of the show and the Global Pizza Challenge on days two and three in a new tiered competition theatre built specially for the occasion. Good fun to watch, these events also offer some great ideas that can be incorporated into menus.

i

30 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

The Foodservice show will be held at the Royal Hall of Industries at Moore Park from May 25-27.

For more information or to register for your free ticket, visit www.foodserviceaustralia.com.au.

eet m o t Wa n t e n H o u s e p the O eam? t

Visit us on stand D34 during the show and you can sign up for a free 12-month subscription to Open House.

Plan your visit Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

10am

World Chocolate Masters begins

8.30am

FSAA Conference begins

10am

Global Pizza Challenge – day 2

10am

Australia’s Best Pie begins

10am

Global Pizza Challenge – day 1

10am

Chef of the Year – heat 7

10am

Chef of the Year – heat 1

10am

Chef of the Year – heat 4

10.30am

Café School – catering equipment for small spaces

10.30am

Café School – expand your menu with innovative equipment

10.30am

Café School – catering equipment for small spaces

11.30am

Café School – sandwiches

11.30am

Café School – sandwiches

11.30am

Café School – sandwiches

12pm

Café School – salads

12pm

Café School – salads

12pm

Chef of the Year – heat 5

12pm

Chef of the Year – heat 8

12pm

Chef of the Year - heat 2

12.30pm

Conference lunch at the show

12.30pm

Conference lunch

12.30pm

Café School – burgers

Café School – burgers

Cafe school – the construction of amazing wraps

Café School – the construction of amazing wraps

12.30pm

1.30pm

1.30pm

2pm

Chef of the Year – heat 6

1.30pm

Café School – the construction of amazing wraps

2pm

Chef of the Year – heat 3

Chef of the Year – grand final

Café School – cafe economics

Café School – café economics and coffee

2pm

2.30pm

2.30pm

3pm

Café School – barista master class

3pm

Café School – barista master class

2.30pm

Café School – café economics and coffee

3.30pm

Café School – building other beverage sales

3.30pm

Café School – building other beverage sales

3pm

Café School – barista master class Chef of the Year presentation

Chef of the Year – semi-final

Chef of the Year – semi-final

3.30pm

3.30pm

3.30pm 6.30pm

FSAA gala dinner at Pyrmont

3.30pm

Café School – building other beverage sales

3.30pm

Australia’s Best Pie presentation

4pm

Global Pizza Challenge presentation

4pm World Chocolate Masters presentation 5pm

Exhibitor cocktail party

Don’t miss...

A highlight of this year’s show will be the Rare Medium Chef of the Year Competition, which will see 32 finalists go head-to-head in four purpose-built kitchens on the show floor.

Competition director Gary Farrell says the competition has been growing every year and this year attracted a record number of 80 entries.

“Professional chefs really like this event because it showcases the talent of the individual without consuming too much time,” said.

“They get one hour and a mystery box of ingredients to create their best dishes. It is race against each other and the clock.”

Changes to the competition this year will see a clear winner in each heat. The winners will then compete in a Grand Final and share in a total prize pool of $10,000.

“It’s a true test of a chef’s skill and ability to work under pressure,” says Farrell. “The incredible standard of entrants has raised the bar even higher this year, so we are expecting some very impressive dishes to come out of the competition kitchen.”

Rare medium marketing Manager Claire Tindale says the competition is an ideal way to showcase the versatility of red meat.

“We love seeing what the chefs can produce and sharing this with the food community,” she says. OH www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 31

REGIONAL SNAPSHOT

4

1 Wyndham Estate Winery. 2 Audrey Wilkinson Vineyard. 3 Tyrrell's Wines. 4 Troy Rhoades-Brown, Muse Restaurant & Café. 5 Hunter Valley wine country.

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2

3

5

The Hunter Valley Long famous for its wine, the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, is also gaining a solid reputation for its food and produce as well, writes Sheridan Randall.

A

ustralia’s most visited wine region, the Hunter Valley is home to 150 topclass wineries, vineyards and cellar doors, 65 restaurants and is renowned for its crisp Hunter semillon and ripe Hunter shiraz. It is also increasingly becoming a hotspot for lovers of gourmet produce.

Boutique cheese producer and retailer The Hunter Valley Cheese Company, in Pokolbin, produces award winning handmade cheeses such as its Branxton

Brie, Grape Vine Ash Brie, Hunter Gold Washed Rind, Riley’s Fromage Blanc, Hunter Valley Marinated Feta and Pokolbin Smear Ripened.

The Hunter Valley is also home to around 100,000 olive trees, with farms such as Pukara Estate and Belarna Grove producing quality extra virgin olive oils.

Table grapes, figs, peaches, nectarines, plums, citrus, avocados and watermelons are just some of the fruits on offer

32 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

throughout the year.

One hat Muse Restaurant and Café, headed by chef Troy Rhoades-Brown, is a huge fan of the local produce, which underpins its menu. Donna Hollis, executive chef of RidgeView Restaurant, says that the restaurant’s extensive organic vegetable patch “will be providing majority of our fresh fruit and vegetables for the Ocean to Paddock dinner”, being held at next month’s Hunter Valley Food & Wine Month.

VIEW FROM THE KITCHEN

DIARY DATES Hunter Food & Wine Month June 1-30, 2014

Hunter Valley Wine & Food Month is a monthlong celebration of the region’s unique culture of fine wine and food. The Ocean to Paddock degustation at RidgeView, Whispering Brook Olive Long Table Luncheon and Winemaker’s Table Series are some of the events on offer. www.winecountry.com.au/events/wine-andfood-month

Chocolate Festival July 5-6, 2014

Donna Hollis, executive chef, RidgeView Restaurant

1

How did you get involved in the Hunter Valley Food & Wine Month? We started the Ocean to Paddock degustation last year in conjunction with Food and Wine month to help showcase the extraordinary produce that is grown in the Hunter Valley as well as here at RidgeView. The dinner also allows us to showcase both our food and wine on the one night and is a perfect opportunity to highlight exactly what we are about here at RidgeView.

2

What local produce really stands out?

In the Hunter Valley we are lucky enough to have not only some of the best wine in the world but we also have some of the freshest fruit and vegetables that are grown locally. We also have a local duck farm, assorted cheeses that are made locally and beef farms.

3

Any favourite produce markets in the Hunter? The Newcastle City Farmers Market is quite high on my list of favourites but I prefer finding the little farms that sell their own produce and buying directly from them.

4

What ingredient can’t you live without?

RidgeView being a Cypriot-inspired menu means I can’t be without fresh oregano from our garden and also lemons off our lemon tree.

5

What local ingredient is on your menu at the moment? We try our best to only use fresh local produce. What we can’t grow here at RidgeView we will source locally.

www.hvg.com.au

A Taste of Wollombi June 29, 2014

6

Best advice you’ve ever had in the kitchen? Those who say it can’t be done should get out of the way of the ones getting it done.

7

Favourite food indulgence at home?

It would have to be some good local Hunter Valley cheeses and assorted cured meats, paired with a glass or two of Hunter Valley wine. OH

4

Held at the Hunter Valley Gardens, this festival celebrates all things sweet, with a live bakery and patisserie kitchen, chocolate exhibition and celebrity guests with Adriano Zumbo, Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School’s Kirsten Tibballs, and Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney executive pastry chef Anna Polyviou.

Local vineyards and farmers will host A Taste of Wollombi, showcasing the wines and produce of the Wollombi Valley, with great wine, food and live music all on the cards. Discover the delights of local wineries such as Stonehurst Wines, Undercliff Winery & Gallery, Wollombi Wines and Noyce Brothers Wines. www.wollombivalleywinetrail.com.au

4

www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 33

COOKING THE BOOKS

A light touch Having lived and worked around the globe, Tessa Kiros’ food is both international and timeless.

Filo millefeuille with oranges Serves: 8 5 oranges 3 sheets filo pastry 60g butter, melted 30g sugar 3 tablespoons runny honey

last minute, or serve it over ice cream.)

Squeeze out all the water from the gelatine with your hands and whisk the gelatine into the sabayon cream, making sure it is well incorporated. Now whip the cream to soft peaks and fold this into the sabayon.

Leave in a cool place, even in the fridge, until you are ready to use it.

Orange confit Grated zest and juice of 1 orange 30g (1oz) sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place a sheet of filo pastry on a work surface, brush with melted butter and sprinkle the surface evenly with half the sugar. Place another sheet of filo on the first, brush with butter and sprinkle with the remaining sugar.

Add the last sheet of filo, brushing with butter. Cut the filo in half horizontally and then cut each half into 12 strips, giving you a total of 24 rectangles. Put them on a baking tray lined with baking paper, drizzle the honey in long thin lines all over the filo and bake for 10 minutes, or until crisp and golden brown. Set aside to cool on a clean sheet of baking paper so that they don’t stick.

Orange sauce Juice of 3 oranges 15g butter 30g sugar 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier, port or Vin Santo Sabayon cream 1 x 2g gelatine leaf 1 egg, plus 2 egg yolks 50g sugar 1 teaspoon orange blossom water 300ml whipping cream Icing (confectioners’) sugar, to serve Slice the tops and bottoms off the oranges.

To fillet the oranges, sit them on a board.

With a small sharp knife, cut downwards to remove the skin and pith.

Hold the orange over a bowl and remove the fillets by slicing in between the white pith. Remove the pips. You should be left with an orange “skeleton”. Put the fillets in the bowl and squeeze out the remaining juice from the skeletons, then discard the skeletons.

To make the orange confit, put the ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer for 7–8 minutes, until a jam forms.

To make the sauce, put all the ingredients

in a saucepan and pour in the juice from the orange fillets as well. Boil until thickened and reduced.

To make the sabayon cream, put the gelatine in a small bowl (you can snap the leaf if necessary), cover with cold water and leave it to soften completely.

Put the whole egg, egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water. Whisk constantly for about 12–15 minutes or until the mixture is thick and fluffy.

Whisk in 2 teaspoons of the confit and the orange blossom water and take the bowl off the saucepan. (If there’s any confit left you can add it to the cream or oranges at the

34 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

To serve, place a filo rectangle on each plate. Add a good dollop of sabayon cream, a few orange segments, another layer of filo, more sabayon and orange segments and a final layer of filo. Scatter a few orange segments around the plate, drizzle with sauce, dust the top with icing sugar and serve.

Recipe and image from Tessa Kiros: The Recipe Collection by Tessa Kiros (Murdoch Books, $59.99).

Photography by Manos Chatzikonstantis.

What’s on shelf this month?

Eating with the chefs

This is Brazil

Thailand: the cookbook

by Per-Anders Jorgensen Phaidon, $75

by Fernanda de Paula and Shelley Hepworth Hardie Grant, $34.95

Phaidon, $59.95

For many restaurants the staff “family” meal is the glue that cements a successful team together, with chefs and front-of-house staff coming together before service. But what do chefs at the world’s top restaurants cook for themselves? Eating with the chefs goes behind the scenes of 18 of the world’s most celebrated restaurants including S.Pelligrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list number one restaurant Noma (Copenhagen), The French Laundry (California), El Celler de Can Roca (Spain) and Australia’s Attica (Melbourne) and Quay (Sydney) to reveal the authentic, unpretentious food top chefs chow down on.

With the world’s largest sporting event, the World Cup, set to kick-off in Brazil next month all eyes will be on the soccer mad nation. A companion to the six-part SBS television series of the same name, this book showcases the unique interplay of food and culture in the 12 capital cities playing host to the world cup. Focusing on home-style and street food, dishes are colourful, hearty and joyous, just like the people of Brazil.

With information on more than 500 recipes gathered from chefs and home cooks throughout Thailand this is an excellent reference guide for those interested in regional Thai cuisine. A guest chef chapter also includes recipes from top international chefs working with Thai food including Ty Bellingham from Sailor’s Thai in Sydney, Harold Dieterle from Kin Shop in New York and Saiphin Moore from Rosa’s Thai Cafe in London, who put their spin on contemporary Thai cuisine. OH

Get it while it’s hot!

Open House is now available as an iPad app, offering even more ways to enjoy industry news, views and feature stories on the key issues and trends affecting the hospitality industry.

This exciting free app is packed with bonus extras including recipes, behind-the-scenes videos and interactive features.

Updated monthly, the Open House iPad app is available to download free at the iTunes app store or www.openhousemagazine.net.

www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 35

PRODUCTS

Heaven sent

Speedy slice

Kitchen Angel’s dessert spreads, combining quality ingredients and artisan Italian techniques, are now available for wholesale and bulk purchasing. The latest spreads can be a sweet option on breakfast menus or can be used instead of icing and ganache in dessert recipes – choose from the traditional chocolate and hazelnut spread Gianduja, and Ciocodamia, a fusion of white chocolate and macadamia. Both products are gluten free, whilst the Gianduja is also dairy-free. ● www.kitchenangel.com.au

Pizza Pronto, the authentic Italian wood-fired pizza base and compact Italian oven, is ideal for hotels, pubs, bars, event centres and clubs. The 30cm bases are made in Italy in a wood fired oven then blast frozen; they come complete with tomato paste, oregano and mozzarella. With consistent quality and minimal preparation time, Pizza Pronto is perfect for late night service as well as kitchens with limited space or skill levels. The fully maintained oven is loaned to the venue based on pizza base usage, with bases distributed through Bidvest Sydney. ● prontocuisineaust@gmail.com

Bags of tea

Simply simmering

Somage Fine Foods have launched their Chamellia Iced Tea range into the foodservice market with English breakfast with Lemon and Mint, and Lemongrass and Ginger flavours now available.

Introduced by Roband, the Dipo Induction Cooker is made to withstand the demands of busy commercial kitchens and deliver precise fast heat settings with true energy efficiency and reliability.

The portable machine can be used for everything from tempering chocolate to sautéing, to cooking steaks and stir fries. The simple design enables flexible set up and easy storage, and features seven simmer and 10 cook settings, automatic over-temperature shut-off and automatic pan sensing technology. ● www.roband.com.au

Chamellia Iced Tea range is a blend of single-origin tea and fresh, organic fruit. Each iced tea is cold infused overnight before being pasteurised, which leaves the nutritional value of the tea and fruit intact. Chamellia Iced Teas are available in two litre bottles in cartons of six as well as 10 litre casks. The teas are best served chilled, on ice or as the basis for creative cocktails. ● www.somage.com.au

36 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

Steam clean

Shell it out

Duplex, distributors of food and beverage steam-cleaning equipment, has introduced four new machines ideal for commercial kitchens. The use of steam during the cleaning process is essential in reducing cross contamination when dealing with tough, daily cleaning conditions, such as oils, fats, grease and conveyor belt cleaning. The latest machines are designed with a powerful steam temperature volume in a portable and compact size. The steam cleaning machines are available via Duplex’s online store. ● www.duplexcleaning.com.au

Ready Bake is now producing gluten free shortbread pastry shells.

Ideal for catering to the growing number of Australians consuming gluten free products while also saving on preparation time, the new recipe has been developed by Ready Bakes’ professional pastry chefs.

The authentic, sweet shortbread taste and texture incorporates a blend of tapioca, rice and potato flours as well as real butter. The shells are the ideal size for desserts and suitable for all foodservice businesses. They come with 64 units per carton. ● www.readybake.com.au

Whip it up

Mexican brew

Save time when making freshly-prepared sauces and desserts with the HotWhip from Kisag, now available in Australia. The HotWhip enables chefs to prepare recipes in advance, allowing sauces and desserts to be kept ready to serve in the right quantity and at the desired temperature.

Easy to use and simple to clean. The gentle stirring motion prevents a skin from forming to maintain the proper texture. ● www.phoeniks.com.au

The Australian Brewery have brought their popular Mexican Lager back, with the brew now available in cans and kegs for bars, pubs, clubs and hotels. With 20 per cent maize and just a small amount of hops to keep the bitterness down, the Australian Brewery’s recipe ensures the Mexican Lager remains light and clean, yet full of natural flavour. The addition of US Liberty hops post-fermentation produces a lemon aroma and the balanced crisp flavour features citrus overtones.

The Australian Brewery is based in Sydney’s North West, where they locally source their ingredients, and brew all their beers and cider. ● www.australianbrewery.com OH

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PROFILE

Visual feast Interior designer Paul Papadopoulos, of Sydney based design firm DS17, talks about how getting a venue’s look and feel right is vital in showcasing the menu.

D

esign firm DS17 is busy with projects all over the world, including Los Angeles, New York and Dubai, but it is restaurants closer to home that diners will be more familiar with.

Alpha Restaurant, China Republic, Lotus Dumpling Bar, The Meat and Wine Co and Candelori’s have all benefitted from the DS17 touch.

to keep it simple as it had a lot of beautiful elements to it and we just needed to put the rest of the pieces of the puzzle together. When you walk in its white and fresh – we called it Grecian modern.

We didn’t need to put images of Mykonos and Santorini on the wall.

1

With each of these venues being vastly different in look and feel, the single connecting factor is that the menu was paramount in reaching 2 each venue’s look and feel, according to interior designer Paul Papadopoulos.

“The menu relates back to the type of kitchen and equipment that will be used and the size of the kitchen, and then ultimately what type of equipment will fit,” he says.

“There is a lot of science to it before we even put pen to paper.

“The key attributes are where is the site located, what is the menu that you want to achieve, what level of expectation do you have, is there a master chef involved and what is the budget.”

With a budget nutted out on a square metre basis, “we take the ‘what if?’ factor out at the beginning rather than designing it and seeing what it ends up as,” he adds.

“Unfortunately every job has restrictions and we need to gauge that at the beginning,” he says. “It’s interesting dealing with chefs. When they don’t put their own money in there is no budget but when they put their own funds in it always becomes a bit more refined.”

Discarding a cookie cutter approach to design, inspiration comes from a range of sources including architecture, sculpture, parks, and in the case of Sydney’s Alpha Restaurant the heritage building it is situated in. Derelict for decades, the building’s façade was “very unusual but appealing”.

“There was a lot of history in that building,” he says. “We wanted 38 Open House, May 2014 www.openhousemagazine.net

3 1, 3 Alpha Restaurant. 2 China Republic.

“The key thing for us when you look at our last four or five restaurants is that every one of them has a different dynamic and look and feel.

When you look at China Republic you have got dark, stage set, moody open kitchens and a totally different thought altogether.”

Unlike the hidden kitchens of China Republic’s sister operations in Beijing, which remain “tucked away”, the Sydney-based concept looked to embrace the Australian lifestyle by putting things “on show”.

“When we saw the way they do their food it was all about gastronomy, beautiful presentation, nice display, everything lines up nicely,” he says. “It’s not your traditional yum cha slapped on a plate. It was more an art in the way they put things together. So it was important for us that we didn’t take away from that.

“How we did that was to create this beautiful dark, moody interior and specifically spot lit the centre piece of every table so when you see the food come out the light shines on the beautiful product that is on display. It’s almost like an art gallery, where all the beautiful paintings are highlighted.”

Papadopoulos says that in global design terms Australia is “up there in what we do and how we do it”.

“The challenge is always to get the right message across because you stop before you shop so to speak,” he adds. “If I see theatre or a beautiful display of seafood or the pizzaiolo behind the wood fired pizza oven spinning the pizza around all on show then I feel comfortable, invited and engaged. I think that’s why we do it so well in this country.” OH

AUSTRALIAN CULINARY FEDERATION NEWS

In full swing A

s I was reviewing our website, www.austculinary.com.au, the other day I started reflecting on all the work Australian Culinary Federation (ACF) has done so far this year. Fine Food Queensland, Chefs of the Sapphire Coast Degustation Dinner, SA Networking Dinners, masterclasses across all states, the fantastic events the ACF VIC Junior Chefs Club runs and the Australian National Team and the WA Junior Gourmet Team competing at Food & Hotel Asia held in Singapore were just some of the highlights.

Looking ahead the ACF is getting in knee deep with apprentice and junior chef development. The state finals of the Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge are in full swing with teams now registering for the competition in Queensland, ACT, South Australia and for the first time Northern Beaches of Sydney, which kicks off next month at the Manly Food Fair.

The Nestlé Golden Chef’s Hat Award will

commence on June 7 with the first regional heat to be held in South Queensland and running through to the July 31. On an international platform we will see a junior and senior NSW, ACT & Region team head to Fine Food Auckland to represent Australia in the Gourmet Pacific Challenge in June. The ACF Victoria Chapter are presently organising a handful of events to raise funds for several young passionate apprentices to attend the WACS Congress to be held in Norway on the July 2-5, 2014.

Long standing member of ACF and Australian representative of Bocuse d’or Lyon 2015, Shannon Kellam will be attending Bocuse d’or Asia and heading to Norway to represent Australia and ACF in the Global Chefs Challenge. A fundraising and final presentation dinner at Royal Canberra Golf Club will be held on Saturday, June 14.

As we are coming in to the busy months ahead we wish teams and individuals

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Neil Abrahams Australian Culinary Federation (ACF)

all the best in their endeavours, and as celebrated US chef and author Julia Child used to say, “try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun”. OH

ON THE MOVE Vicinity Dining Alexandria has welcomed food industry consultant James Kidman, formerly of Doltone House and Otto Ristorante, to the team, as well as new head chef Erik Janssen who brings over 20 years of experience and will oversee the restaurants entire food operations.

Jupiters Hotel & Casino has announced the appointment of Salvatore Silvestrino as executive sous chef. He has 28 years’ experience in the hospitality industry having overseen restaurant operations in numerous five-star luxury establishments in Italy, Bangkok, Singapore and the Middle East.

Jason Rodwell will now head the team at Albert St Food & Wine after taking on the position of executive chef. Rodwell’s experience includes Michelin-starred restaurants Nahm and Royal Hospital Road in London as well as Auberge du Bon Laboureur in France’s Loire Valley.

World Pizza Champion Johnny Di Francesco has announced that he will open a sibling to his iconic 400 Gradi pizzeria at Crown Resort in Melbourne this year.

The new restaurant will feature two large pizza ovens which have been designed to produce Di Francesco’s signature pizzas.

Merivale’s pop-up bar offering, the artthemed Work In Progress, opened its doors in Sydney’s CBD this month with the venue’s kitchen headed by Pacharin ''Air'' Jantrakool. Jantrakool joins Merivale following many successful years at Sailors Thai and Sailors Thai Canteen.

Restaurateurs Sam Christie and Jonathan Barthelmess (pictured) have announced the opening of their new joint venture, Cho Cho San. As chef and co-owner, Barthelmess will be joined by head chef Nicholas Wong formerly of Kylie Kwong, Rockpool, Bodega and Ester.

www.openhousemagazine.net Open House, May 2014 39

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