…or experiments in molecular gastronomy parts 2 and 3 He’s a tricky one to have in the kitchen our Heston Blumenthal. Everything is very technical, usually takes about two days to prepare and I’m too scared to argue with him about any of his techniques. I’m even having trouble finding some of the stuff he uses like his stainless steel injection baster. I feel that I really need to work up to his recipes. To do this I’ve recruited a […]
Recent posts
The future of food and fascism
The future of cooking: In the kitchen at Interlude A couple of weeks ago I spent the afternoon in the kitchen of Robin Wickens and his chefs at Interlude. He was developing a new lamb dish which involved spraying coffee in the air while eating it (you may recall later that night I sucked on the glass straw). This weekend my account of that afternoon and subsequent meal was published in The Australian. Local chef George Biron points me towards […]
Who knew science tasted so good
THE CURIOUS COOK Ed Charles June 02, 2007 I’M in the Melbourne restaurant of much-awarded molecular chef Robin Wickens, who is inventing a new dish, and I’m sneaking a preview. My experience of professional kitchens so far has been through Gordon Ramsay’s Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. But in Wickens’s kitchens at Interlude (211 Brunswick St, Fitzroy), the 32-year-old British chef doesn’t stomp around and clatter pans; everything among the five chefs here is calm and hushed. In fact, the quietly spoken […]
Searching for the best phố in Melbourne
It’s not something people talk about a lot but whenever I bring up phố there is enormous interest about where to eat it. People are always interested in the best places to eat in Victoria Street Richmond. When they hear I have a list of the best local phố restaurants from a phố expert in Sydney their notebooks and PDAs come out as they copy out the list. I discovered the “I Love Phố” exhibition that was held in Liverpool […]
In the trenches: The coffee business
From In The Black – May 2007:? You know that coffee is a big and profitable business when the drinks and snackfood giant, Coca-Cola Amatil, turns its attention to it. Two years ago it bought Grinders Coffee, whose founder Giancarlo Giusti is one of Australia’s coffee pioneers. Grinders was founded in 1962, when coffee in the English-speaking world, including Australia, was considered pretty awful, and the Asian market for coffee had yet to evolve. When sold it had a turnover […]
Grange Hermitage launch at Dan Murphy’s new flagship
Once upon a time there was a big wine store on Chapel St Prahran. It was called Dan Murphy’s and was pretty flash. Then it was bought by Woolworth’s and moved into a smart new warehouse building across the road – it was the flagship. It is still there but now the flagship is in East Malvern (811-823 Dandenong Rd) and it has a flash tasting room for all the posh wines it sells. I was there Monday for a […]
Sweet success in chocolates
The Australian, Entrepreneur ONCE upon a time chocolate was the preserve of the rich. That’s if you could find any decent chocolate to eat — a chocolate culture didn’t really exist in Australia. Then, inspired by their travels, local entrepreneurs began trying to replicate what they had found abroad. One of the first was Yarra Valley winemaker Peter Wilson who — seduced by the taste of Valrhona chocolate in France — started making his own in the late 1990s and […]
Herald Sun: Ed Lines
ED CHARLES dishes up the latest on Melbourne’s food, wine and bars BEER DE LUXE As the fourth owner of the Upper and Lower House space in Federation Square in two years, the Belgian Beer Cafe’s George Christopoulos is renaming it Beer De Lux. Old-fashioned burgers are on the menu and upstairs is a grill. Italian food is served downstairs and sweets are available in the atrium cafe. A beer garden is planned. DOGS DINNER Food at the Dogs Bar […]
Herald Sun: Ed Lines
ED CHARLES dishes up the latest on Melbourne’s food, wine and bars KITCHEN CRACKDOWN Nobody at Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar (66 Bourke St, city) wants to comment on the impounding of its meat slicer or the future of its kitchen table. Health chiefs at the City of Melbourne are denying any restaurant crackdown, but restaurateurs are complaining about draconian enforcement. Appeals are pending, but the days of eating at the table in the iconic Pellegrini’s kitchen could be numbered. UNCOMMONLY GOOD […]