Ever wondered where salami comes from? Ed Charles spends a day learning the ropes from a family of winemakers in the Yarra Valley. Fattened on acorns, the end of three pigs Brick, Stick and Straw was always inevitable. A family meeting of the De Bortoli winemaking clan at their Yarra Valley property brought about a salami making day for winemakers, neighbours and friends and a celebration of wine and pork. On the second day of salami making, the action begins […]
journalism
Talking to Thomas Keller
Outside the US Thomas Keller isn’t as well known as Spain’s Ferran Adria and the UK’s Heston Blumenthal. But he is one of only two chefs in the world to hold three prestigious Michelin stars for two restaurants: The French Laundry in California and Per Se in New York. And his place in the culinary history of America is firmly cemented in place by one of the simplest most accessible dishes, a tiny savoury ice cream cone (or cornet), a […]
Rock Star Chef
He looks like a rock star and has a way with women. He smokes. And he says, he likes “fiesta, party. Party, fiesta.” That doesn’t make Iñaki Aizpitarte too different from most high profile chefs apart from the fact he doesn’t have much time for the ones on TV. But what does make the difference is his new approach to cooking and ingredients. This Basque-born self confessed natural cook takes what most people would chuck into the bin without thought […]
Meet Sat Bains
He’s big, bald and boisterous and swears the whole time, in a broad Midlands accent, with the rapid-fire delivery of a stand-up comedian. Ed Charles caught up with Sat Bains at the recent Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Sat Bains is the hottest of the new generation of British chefs, but he’s not based in the culinary capital London, instead he resides in Robin Hood territory, the regional city of Nottingham. Born to Sikh parents from the Punjab, he doesn’t […]
Culinary Car Crash
SBS Food caught up with the man who invented bacon and egg ice-cream when he was in town recently for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and asked: is he having a laugh? Heston Blumenthal says he is the kind of bloke whose happy to eat prawn cocktail, a cheap one bought from a supermarket straight from the plastic tub. He’s also happy at home eating a doner kebab with his son. But on screen he’s the very serious, clean, […]
Twitter is helpful for small business
WITH sales falling and a faltering reputation caused by dirt-cheap brands, Australian wineries have a problem abroad, but small Australian wineries are fighting back. They are building their brands online using the free social networking tool of the moment, Twitter, which allows people to post frequent short messages of up to 140 characters and keep fellow users updated on their world. Many wineries and wine websites are discovering the advantages of Twitter, which is simple to use, costs nothing more […]
Sites for sore eyes
From The Weekend Australian: Travel and Indulgence Ed Charles sorts the wheat from the chaff in the wide world of food websites. Harold McGee: Not everybody wants to know how to cook an octopus. But many of us want to know the difference between cheap frying pans and expensive ones, how and what to cook in a microwave and why cool-climate Victorian shiraz smells of pepper. McGee, author of the brilliant On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of […]
Profiting from piracy
From In The Black: In the trenches The likes of actor Johnny Depp, with plenty of help from Hollywood, have in recent times romanticised the image of pirates and privateers. There he was charging about as Jack Sparrow in the blockbuster movie Pirates of the Caribbean, causing many a swoon and coining around US$2.7 billion worldwide at the box office. However, truth can be much stranger than fiction. According to some leading academics, pirates and privateers were not only very […]
Food for thought
From In The Black: In the trenches Achieving an effective level of management is a fairly universal story no matter what business you work in or run. Just look at the restaurant industry. It’s a microcosm of the business world, picky customers and tight deadlines. And the man who has highlighted it, warts and all, is internationally recognised chef and restaurant owner, Gordon Ramsay. His UK and US TV series Kitchen Nightmares has made his name as a straight-talking, business […]