Warning: unsubstantiated claims follow Creamy porridge 1 measure of cheap rolled oats 1 measure milk 1 measure and a bit more water A substantial pinch of salt Cook slowly, for an hour or so. Serve with drizzled honey and milk There is one secret I want to share with you. It’s the reason I’m not the size of Falstaff – or if you are into serial TV rather than theatre in the round – Hurley from Lost. It’s the reason, […]
Tag: Melbourne
Listen to Heston Blumenthal and Thomas Keller talk the new cooking with Neil Perry
Packed into the new recital centre in Melbourne were a star-studded audience to hear Neil Perry, Heston Blumenthal and Thomas Keller discuss “A new approach to cooking”. Sydney chef Tony Bilson was taking notes sitting next to the legendary Cheong Liew. I think I spotted Karen Martini and Martin Boetz. The audience was also packed full of a who’s who of local food media as well as few bloggers and quite possible a few more food twitters. We were all […]
Andrew McConnell’s Cutler and Co takes Gertrude St to another level
The dessert that made me a plate licker. I’m not the only one worrying about the recession. But I’m probably the only one in Cutler & Co thinking about it. The reincarnation of chef Andrew McConnell’s Three, One, Two at the top end of Gertrude St is packed. So packed, McConnell later tells me that it took them by surprise which explains a couple of timing issues that a few of you will have seen on Twitter. But the whole […]
30 minutes with Ferran Adria. What do you want to ask?
Ferran Adria arrives in Australia on Thursday next week for his sold-out audience on the 19th at Hamer Hall (put on by the good folk at Melbourne Food and Wine). He’s here with his translator to spruik his book “A day at El Bulli” and I’m lucky enough to have 30 minutes with him on behalf of some on the people I write for. I’ve hundreds of things I’d like to ask. But with so much written about Adria and […]
Confessions of a cheese judge
First off I was late, dawdling this rainy morning. I missed the briefing and my lab coat was too small even for a ten year old child. On a bright note though, the hairnet was just perfect and I was wearing the correct all-terrain underwear and cashmere socks. I’m at the 2008 judging for the Melbourne Specialist Cheese Show (open Sunday 17th August 2008 at Crown) run by the Australian Specialist Cheesemakers Association. I admired chief judge Ian’s red hairnet […]
Truffle hunters come home victorious
Spice finds a giant Perigord truffle. The whole of Australia is Perigord truffle crazy right now. In the past few weeks alone I’ve eaten some of the best and most aromatic truffle dishes that I have ever come across. Chefs report they have never seen so many from Australia and summer ones imported from France. Today, one hour out of Melbourne about ten minutes the other side of some McBungalows I was part of a group hunting for truffles led […]
First glimpse at Andrew McConnell’s Cumulus Inc in Flinders Lane
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt writing about the opening of restaurants is that it rarely goes to plan. As a writer it is easy to be caught out. Openings can be delayed by months or even years. And so it was that on Thursday the 26th I rocked up to Cumulus Inc (45 Flinders Lane +61 3 9650 1445) for supper to find the chef (Andrew McConnell of Three, One , Two and formerly Circa The Prince) and architect, […]
Anada tapas restaurant on Gertrude St
I want crispy rabbit with alioli The English want to watch football. The Spanish bullfighting. They scream and shout at each other. Hair is pulled. Somebody spits in another’s face. The police arrive wearing their funny hats and, worrringly, with machine guns. Such are the memories of some pretty dreadful tapas and raciones in Spain, Benidorm to be precise. Much of the same rubbish has now come to Australia, although thankfully we don’t have to sit through the “Full English […]
Lunch most popular:Movida
Spanish chef Frank Comorra is a laugh. When he sent me a copy of his sell out Movida cookbook he signed it as the CEO of Ikea. He’d read by blogpost where I’d complained Movida didn’t conform to the stereotypical Spanish restaurant and owed more to the Swedish superstore than dark oak, Pablo Picasso or Anton Gaudi.Of course, I’m nothing but inconsistent. Shannon Bennett’s Bistro Vue I complain is a French theme park with its beams, French furniture and a […]