From The Herald Sun, Citystyle
By ED CHARLES
ED CHARLES meets a chef bringing world-class culinary innovations to a regional kitchen
IT’S 7am. Chef Dan Hunter is collecting baby carrots, herbs and flowers from the garden at the Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. Later, in the kitchen of the southern Grampians getaway, he picks tiny blue flowers from rosemary, ready to be used in a dish plainly called “lamb rump, hazelnut, sheep’s milk, rosemary”.
Hunter is going back to the basics of ingredients and using the best and youngest shoots, leaves and flowers from the Royal Mail’s extensive gardens.
“That side is definitely of interest to me and where I’m going now,” he says. This is all part of the spin on cooking he has brought from working as head chef at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, where his interest in botany blossomed.
One of several Spanish restaurants at the cutting edge of culinary innovation, Mugaritz was recently voted the seventh best restaurant in the world by Britain’s Restaurant Magazine.
A key part of its cuisine are the shoots, herbs, tiny salad leaves and delicate flowers from its own gardens that are used to dramatic effect.
Its founder Adoni Aduriz worked at El Bulli (No.1 in the world), famous for innovations such as air, foam and transforming everyday ingredients into the outrageously unexpected.
Hunter, 33, found his way to Spain four years ago. He came late to cooking, starting his apprenticeship at the age of 25, winning a scholarship for apprentice of the year. He worked at Langton’s under chefs Phillipe Mouchel and then Jeremy Strode before moving to Verge.
The Dunkeld Pastoral Company, owned by the wealthy Alan Myers, QC, is giving Hunter and his team whatever they need to make the Royal Mail a world-class culinary destination.
In addition to its own long-established kitchen gardens – a rarity for Australian restaurants – there are sheep, murray cod and yabbies on the property. Truffles are planned. There have even been whispers of ethical foie gras, the luxurious fattened liver of goose.
A new restaurant building is due to be completed next year and a giant wine store, which already holds nearly 9000 bottles across about 1500 labels, will house a cheese room. The hotel will start butchering its own meat and ageing it before it gets Hunter’s special treatment.
Most chefs in Australia work in searing hot kitchens and all meat and fish are cooked at searing high temperatures.
At Mugaritz, Hunter learned the temperatures at which different proteins cooked and transformed. There was even an art to barbecuing. “We roasted meat over grapevines, but we still made sure that the heat was only 80 degrees,” he says.
Chefs hand-turned the meat over red embers keeping the distribution of heat just right. The result was that there was no grey oxidation on the outside of the meat, just a luscious pink inside where the meat had reached 46C in the centre.
“It is absolutely stunning and you don’t get this raw redness in the middle,”
he says. He promises it is this kind of attention to detail that makes the difference between the merely good and Mugaritz.
Royal Mail Hotel, Parker St, Dunkeld. Ph: 5577 2241. www.royalmail.com.au
Taste of the Royal Mail
Smoked tuna broth, scallop, flowers, shoots and leaves
INGREDIENTS
Broth makes about 1 litre, enough for 4-6 people
15g katsubushi (Japanese smoked tuna or smoked bonito flakes)
1 litre water
50ml soy
1 large scallop per person, sliced into thin rounds
Flowers (per person): rocket (2), nasturtium (1), chive (1), garlic chive (2), oxalis (1)
Shoots (per person): coriander (3), daikon (3), purple radish (2), mizuna (2), chickpea (2)
Leaves (per person): chard (2), tatsoi (2) sliced shiitake mushroom (5 slices per person)
Sliced radish (5 per person)
Sliced baby turnip (5 per person)
Bring one litre of water to the boil and pour over the tuna flakes. Cover with an airtight seal and leave to infuse for 20min. Strain and season with 50ml of soy sauce.
In a bowl place slices of raw scallop, shiitake mushroom, radish and turnip and top with the flowers, shoots and leaves.
Bring smoked tuna broth to the boil and pour over the other ingredients.
Using a spoon, spread the floating ingredients evenly in the broth and serve.
TIPS
This broth is an infusion based on water. It goes cold quickly, so serve immediately.
Serve with Sanchez Romate Olorosso, Jerez, Spain.
Shoots and flowers should be available from the organics sections of Queen Victoria and Prahran markets and the katsubushi should be available from Asian and Japanese grocers.
HOMEGROWN FLAVOURS
Here are some restaurants that use ingredients out of their own kitchen gardens
Jill’s at Moorooduc Estate
501 Derril Rd, Moorooduc.
Ph: 5971 8507
Cook Jill McIntyre makes full use of her gardens for herbs, salads and tomatoes. Her spinach and zucchini torta is famous for being made with her hen’s eggs.
Healesville Hotel
256 Maroondah Highway, Healesville.
Ph: 5962 4002
Michael Kennedy uses vegetables grown on his property including artichokes, pumpkins, turnips and tomatoes. Hydroponically grown salad greens and soft herbs come from his in-laws’ nursery.
Simone’s Restaurant
98 Gavan St, Bright. Ph: 5755 2266
Patrizia Simone is well known for using local produce such as stinging nettles.
Tearooms of Yarck
6585 Maroondah Highway, Yarck.
Ph: 5773 4233
Owner and chef Pietro Porcu uses produce from his farm and sells many at this outpost of South Yarra’s Da Noi.
Verge, 1 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.
Ph: 9639 9500
Three, One, Two, 312 Drummond St, Carlton. Ph: 9347 3312
Verge’s Simon Denton and Three, One, Two’s Andrew McConnell have an organic vegetable patch in Denton’s Yarra Valley vineyard.
Fenix
680 Victoria St, Richmond.
Ph: 9427 8500
The kitchen is now focusing on the pure ingredients. Potatoes are specially grown in Daylesford, and oxalis, wild mushrooms, wild garlic and rocket are collected from the banks of the Yarra and other public places. Dan Hunter worked in the kitchens for three months this year.