December 04 2018
Whilst I approach the Christmas season with much excitement, there is still a tinge of panic about how much needs to be done. Despite the huge amount of organisation involved, the one aspect of the season that is never anything other than a true joy for me, is thinking about the food for Christmas and the holidays that follow. I have the advantage of tradition behind me, so some things just fall into place, yet there is always leeway to try something new, as there are many more events to think of than just Christmas Day.
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November 05 2018
Foodbank is Australia’s largest food relief organisation and every month they provide food and grocery relief to over 710,000 Aussies. Read the rest...
October 31 2018
The last two months have been a whirlwind; I know you will have seen on Instagram a few photos I sent from Vienna; Isle of Skye and London. What I hadn’t mentioned up till now is how our time in London was upended only days before we arrived there by having our Air BnB booking cancelled without anything other than a memo to say they would return our money. It made London where I had so much to cover from a business sense in workshops; a trade show and investigating trends with the difficulty of finding a hotel at the last moment for 5 nights to fit in with all our plans certainly has made us want to know we would have security in the future should we rebook anything with Air BnB.
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October 31 2018
So many food experiences from our first day in Porto waiting for the rest of the group with a dish of clams simply served with the cooking juices, garlic and parsley; or sea bass in a salt casing cooked in a hot pan and flamed with great theatre. A seafood porridge; full of mussels, scamp and razor clams in a tomato broth with the juices again from cooking with fresh coriander, EVOO and stale bread and ‘making’ the porridge by the waiter stirring at the table. The first night of the trip we were bussed to Matosinhos, a town by the sea, and ate at Casa Serrao where the grilling of the fish was done on an outside charcoal barbecue; lines of these outside kitchens taking over the street; the smoke bellowing over the street long which was where the most perfect sardines caught that morning as whole fish with just EVOO were cooked; then the largest sea bream I had encountered; gutted and opened up to cook on the grill; the amazing caramelisation of the skin and the sides and cooked again to perfection. Such plenty on the table as we dissected the fish off the bone to begin with but then a few of us attacked the bones and the cheek and every bit of it so succulent I definitely ate more than I needed and the meal was nothing short of unbelievable yet so incredibly simple. Read the rest...
June 29 2018
What an amazing night at the Sydney Opera House hearing Jessica Pratt debut as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor - it was nothing short of exhilarating! Her sureness, her clarity, her power, the beauty of her voice... I’m so proud to have created a dessert, La Dolce Jessica, in her honour. And, my great friend Matt Moran has had his pastry chef at Aria create a 21 st century version of my country style recipe that will be served every night at Aria until the end of July for the entire run of Lucia di Lammermoor. Read the rest...
