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Best Practice

BRAISING: BEEF DAUBE

Braising, in its purest form, emerged as a frugal one-pot dish that provided sustenance using simple, seasonal ingredients. It was a nourishing meal traditionally prepared for those toiling in the fields, often serving as their sole source of hot sustenance for the day.

The name ‘Daube’ refers to both the cooking method and the earthenware pot in which the dish is traditionally cooked. The Provençal daubière, known for its distinctive elongated shape and thick walls, was designed to provide even heat distribution and retain moisture, making it ideal for slow-cooking and braising over coals, giving the Daube its unique texture and flavour. In lieu of a daubière, I have used a heavy cast iron casserole or Dutch oven; with a heavy tight-fitting lid it gives the requisite amount of moisture retention and evaporation to allow long, slow and moist cooking.

The purpose of a braise is to transform a tougher cut of meat into something succulent and flavourful. Choose well-marbled cuts of beef such as shin, neck, tail or cheeks, as they have the most to gain from the slow-cooking process.

These cuts are hardworking muscles with a far higher degree of strong connective tissues and collagen content, which yields during consistent and persistent temperatures above 100 centigrade.

The other part of the equation is usually vegetables that you can use to flavour, such as carrots, onions, garlic and celery; or to extend, using starchy vegetables like waxy potatoes, celeriac, parsnips or turnips. Simple hard herbs like bay, thyme and rosemary add complexity; and spices like vanilla, cinnamon, star anise or fennel seeds, adds some exotic depth.

The slow, gentle braising process unlocks the full potential of humble ingredients and is the most efficient way to bring delicious Winter comfort.

BEEF DAUBE

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 kg beef shin (on the bone for preference)
100g plain flour
100ml olive oil
200g pancetta or lardon (skin on), cut into 8 pieces
2tsp salt
4 large carrots, peeled and cut Rangiri style **see note
12 small onions, outer layer of skin removed
1 bottle Shiraz
500ml veal or chicken stock
3 fresh bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
1⁄2 bunch of thyme
1 vanilla bean
2 allspice berries
2 cloves
1tsp black peppercorns
1 garlic bulb
Zest of 1 orange
2tsp cornstarch

Method

Have the butcher cut the shin through the shank or leave it in one piece if preferred. For this version I deboned the shank, cut the beef into 8 large pieces and added the bone to the pot to allow all the marrow to melt into the sauce.

Preheat the oven to 120°C.

Heat you casserole or Dutch oven over medium heat, add the pancetta or lardon and render some of the fat, turning to brown evenly. Add the carrots and onions to the fat and brown evenly. Remove them with a slotted spoon and reserve until required.

Dust the beef in the flour. Add the olive oil to the pot and then the beef shin. Brown on all sides. Add the bottle of red and reduce to a syrup. Add the vegetables back to the pot and the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer. Skim the first froth that comes to the surface.

Tie the bay leaves, cinnamon, thyme and vanilla bean into a tight bundle using half a dozen turns of butcher’s string and a good knot then add it to the casserole with the remaining spices, garlic bulb and orange zest.

Put the lid on the casserole and cook in the oven for 4–5 hours until the beef is gelatinous and just starting to fall apart. Whisk the cornflour with one tablespoon cold water to make a slurry. Stir the slurry into the casserole over low heat until it thickens.

It should be well seasoned from the pancetta but taste and season to your preference. Serve the daube in the cooking vessel with something glutinous to mop up the sauce.

**Rangiri is a way of cutting cylindrical vegetables such as carrots or cucumbers, and consists of random, diagonal cuts made while rotating the vegetable one-quarter turn between cuts. The large, evenly cut surfaces allow for absorption of flavour, making this method particularly suitable when braising.

People Places Plates

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For as long as people have taken the field or stepped into the arena to test themselves against each other, there have been spectators, and for as long as there have been spectators, there have been pies.

Well, not pies exactly, but something like a pie – something to eat while cheering (or indeed booing) the battle playing out before you. And while things have come a long way since the days of oiled Spartans duking it out in the original Olympics (everyone usually wears clothes now, for one thing), for most of our modern era in the West, the food served at stadiums hasn’t changed that much. Even as broadcasting, advertising, changing attention spans and the rise of the professional athlete have dramatically transformed the games themselves, food stayed basic.

Or at least it did until now. Restaurant chefs are getting in on the business of how we eat when we’re watching sport, and it is, as they say, a game changer.

The food eaten at games is more diverse than you might’ve thought. Bovril, the British beef tea, has been described in some quarters as being nearly as important to British football as the ball itself. Canada’s love of chips smothered in cheese reaches insane heights at Toronto FC’s home ground at BMO Field, the birthplace of the triple-pork poutine. In Istanbul it’s all about kofte sandwiches, while miles of sausages are eaten in arenas across eastern and northern Europe, not to mention Latin America, and a whole lotta biltong goes down in South Africa. Also: sunflower seeds. Lots of countries are really into sunflower seeds. Bear that in mind next time someone tells you they think Chiko rolls are out-there.

In ancient times, sporting events were often accompanied by feasts and banquets. In ancient Greece, athletes competing in the Olympics were fed a diet of meat, bread, and wine to ensure they were well-nourished for their competitions. In ancient Rome, gladiators were served a diet of barley, beans, and meats to keep them pushing their personal best. While the food served at these events may not have been the type of fare we associate with modern sporting events, the idea of feeding athletes and spectators alike has been around for thousands of years.

It was in the 19th century, though, that we began to see the emergence of foods that are more recognisable as stadium snacks. In the United States, baseball was hitting its straps, and there’s records of vendors selling peanuts and popcorn at games in the 1870s. These simple snacks were cheap, easy to prepare, and could be eaten on the go, making them the perfect food for a fast-paced sporting event. Also: good with a beer and easy to throw.

Australian Beef has entered its second year of sponsorship with the Brisbane Broncos – fueling athletes and every day Australians on and off the field

As stadiums and arenas became more established, food concessions were set up on the premises, with more varied menus and more comfortable seating. One of the earliest examples of stadium food was the hotdog – the first of them sold at a baseball game in New York City in 1893.

In the early 20th century, with the rise of organised sports leagues, the variety of food available at sporting events began to expand. In the US, hamburgers began to be sold at baseball games in the 1920s, while in the UK and Australia meat pies became a popular food served at football matches. As sporting events became more professionalised and commercialised, food vendors began to see the potential for selling a wider variety of foods to hungry spectators.

Take a look around today. At the FIFA World Cup in Doha last year, punters at Al Bayt Stadium had the option of potato chips, popcorn and (beef) hotdogs but also the more Qatari-leaning likes of faytayer, a triangular almost-pie, filled with minced meat and spinach, and luqaimat, a sweet flour dumpling drenched in sweet syrup spiced with cardamom. If you want to get really fancy, consider making a booking at Geranium, the fine-diner in Denmark named number one in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2022. It’s located on the eighth floor of Parken, the home of Copenhagen FC – so you could conceivably nip in for a taste of the Spring Universe menu (for a crisp $800 AUD a head) and smash a bit of salted herring in crisp algae with dill stems and aquavit before a game. Not so much with the pies, though.

And in 2023, Australia is now well and truly in the game, following a string of high-profile announcements connecting restaurants and major sporting venues. Melbourne chefs Guy Grossi and Alejandro Saravia signed on with the hallowed ground of the MCG last year, and today, when members roll into the Long Room on a game day, Saravia offers them a buffet laden with the likes of leg of O’Connor beef, cooked over a wood fire and served with smoked chilli salsa and chimichurri. Grossi’s menus at the swank Committee Room, meanwhile, place duck and porcini tortellini with caramelised pear, and a rigatoni sauced with a spiced veal ragù and a healthy dusting of pecorino alongside King George whiting presented with a Sicilian-accented arrangement of breadcrumbs, pine nuts, sultanas, saffron and zucchini, and a serious herb-crumbed veal cutlet with bitter leaves dressed with lemon and capers.

Matt Moran is culinary ambassador across CommBank Stadium and Accor Stadium in Sydney – Photo: Steve Burn

Speaking of the MCG, next door in and around Rod Laver Arena, The Australian Open has done an incredible job putting Melbourne well ahead of its international Grand Slam brethren in the food stakes. This year’s talent included Jacqui Challinor offering a Nomad menu (hello mushroom and bone marrow empanadas) on the rooftop, Saint Peter chef Josh Niland with his fast-casual Charcoal Fish concept, plus full-service versions of Rockpool Bar & Grill, Supernormal and Stokehouse and a Penfolds restaurant powered by the team from Magill Estate, not to mention Tacos y Liquor and Ca Com, the casual offshoots from celebrated chefs Aaron Turner, of Igni, and Thi Le from Jeow.

It is, says Matt Moran, a sign of the times. The Aria chef reckons it’s tied up with sport being such a key place for corporate entertaining, and also just the general elevation of the food conversation in Australia.

“It’s all about good produce and just done well. People just want good food that hasn’t been sitting in bain-maries for God knows how long. You don’t have to serve five garnishes with it and trick it up, we just want to make it fresh and clean.”

Moran is now culinary ambassador across two large Sydney venues, CommBank Stadium in Parramatta and Accor Stadium at Sydney’s Olympic Park, and he says his mission is to put good produce first.

“If it’s going to be a chook, it’s going to be a really good roast chook with a good gravy. Slow-cooked lamb shoulder, he says, is the perfect thing in this context for chefs and punters alike. “You can do it in advance, and it’s so bloody easy to reheat in a Rational and put it on a platter and let people share it. That’s delicious.”

Moran Family Lamb Shoulder – not your average stadium snack – Photo: Travis Hayto

Where Moran grew up eating pies and barracking for the Dragons in the NRL, Lee Ho Fook’s Victor Liong’s memories of sporting fixtures growing up in southeast Asia were more about dirt-bike racing and martial arts – both things loved by his dad – and of the satay vendors.

The flavours of Asia carry the day at Liong’s new outlet of Lee Ho Fook at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne. That could mean Rangers Valley short-rib with fennel, mustard and baby cos, or Xinjiang-style cumin braised lamb and bullhorn peppers tossed through noodles, or even a milk pudding with coconut sorbet, lychee, raspberry and rose granita. The restaurant caters for large numbers of people in very small amounts of time – pre-game, half time and so on – so clean menu design and minimal movements for plate-up are key.

At the end of the day, Liong says, wherever you are in the world, fans are looking to be comfortable and not too bothered with the service style while watching the game. “It’s all about food that’s not too challenging and easy to eat.”

Victor Liong’s renowned Melbourne restaurant Lee Ho Fook now has an outlet at Marvel Stadium – Photo: TJ Edwards

You might know Mike Eggert as the chef behind the smash-hit success of Totti’s, which has just spread its wings from its Sydney home base and opened in Lorne on the Victorian coastline. But he also answers to another label: lifelong cricket tragic. (He has fond memories of the sandwiches his nan would make for a test-match: chicken and lettuce with butter and white pepper.)

So when Merivale signed on to step up the food offering at the SCG and Allianz Stadium, bringing its exec chefs Jordan Toft, Dan Hong, Ben Greeno and Vincenzo Biondini into the mix, Eggert was ready to lead the charge. And while you can now get noodles and dumplings from Queen Chow and Ms G’s, “the elevated, coastal European stylings” of Bert’s, Coogee Pavilion, wraps from Jimmy’s and a pasta bar from Totti’s, it’s Eggert’s pie and a burger from Biondini that bring it on home for the crowd in the stands.

“We had a couple of parameters,” says Eggert of the signature SCG pie he developed with the team from Sonoma Bakery. “It needed to be a one-hander. None of this two-handed pie crap.” Structural integrity, as with all good sandwiches and pies, was paramount. “You have to be able to nurse both a beer and a pie.”

For the filling, braised beef was the starting point. “I didn’t want anything at all fancy. No red wine, mushrooms and stuff. I just wanted an elevated version of a classic beef pie.” The winning mix is simply seasoned with black pepper, “a micro-amount” of onion and garlic, and that’s pretty much it. No packet gravy-flavour, no veggie boosters or chicken booster or MSG. “Just a beefy, meaty, gravy flavour stuffed inside a pie.”

Merivale’s stadium burger – smashed dry aged beef patty, caramelised onions, pickles, cheese and sauce – Photo: Jiwon Kim

Then there’s the burger. It was inspired, appropriately enough, by a research trip to the Superbowl in Los Angeles with Merivale boss Justin Hemmes.

“When Vinnie got back from LA he started working with Haverick Meats to dry-age his cuts of beef and mince them with a much more open, coarse grind to do his smash patties.” Now the smash-patty burgers are available at the stadium across three kiosks, and Eggert reckons it’s a solid-gold ripper.

“I think it’s one of the best burgers you can get in Sydney – and I’m saying that with my Merivale hat off. It’s on a Big Marty sesame seed bun from Martin’s. Dry-aged beef, caramelised onions. Really delicious.”

In an age when we’re talking about serious money for seriously upscale restaurant-style food in a sporting context, it’s interesting to hear Eggert talking about keeping the value front and centre with the pie, and about not wanting it to be, in his words, too fancy.

“I’m all for variety in pie shops because if you’ve got an audience and you do it well, you should expand your repertoire. But we’ve got the guys and girls in the stadium for an hour, two hours, and they’re not looking to eat three types of pies – they just want to have a good beef pie with a little bit of salt and a little bit of pepper because it goes well with a beer. For me, if you make a really good gravy beef, that’s fancy enough. That’s a winner.”

Stadium snack favourites are still a-go with pies, sausage rolls, hot dogs and chippies available at multiple outlets across both SFS and SCG – Photo: Steven Woodburn

People Places Plates

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It might give the appearance of being perfectly changeless, but for this landmark of Australian fine dining, evolution is constant and quiet innovation keeps it on top.

To the casual observer, Flower Drum is about as classical as it gets. The carpet is red, the tablecloths are white, the dining rooms divided by lacquered screens. Some of the waiters give the impression they might’ve been working the floor for all of the restaurant’s nearly 50 years in business.

Flower Drum opened in 1975, and, apart from a move in 1985 from the original Little Bourke Street site to the current Market Lane address, for that casual observer, it has been a story of constancy and changelessness, its place at the pinnacle of Chinese dining in Australia secured by fine cooking and courtly service from a tight-knit and long-serving staff.

But in truth, that constancy is achieved only by constant work. Pick your analogy here. There’s the way the harbour bridge in Sydney is being painted with a new coat on one side just as the last coat is being finished on the other bank. Or the way good hotels never stop renovating, room by room, wing by wing. Or, this being a Cantonese restaurant, perhaps it’s the image of the smooth, seemingly effortless way a duck makes its way through the water, legs working hard below the surface all the while. However you want to slice it, the message is that staying timeless in this way involves plenty of hard work and no small amount of innovation.

Jason and Anthony Lui at Flower Drum – a landmark of Australian fine dining

Just ask Jason Lui, the GM. He hasn’t been around quite since the very beginning in 1975, not being quite yet born then, but he almost literally grew up in the restaurant. His father, Anthony Lui, moved to Australia from Hong Kong to join the kitchen, and bought it from founder Gilbert Lau in 2000, having never worked a day in another restaurant in this country. Jason has worked right across the business, as a busboy, at the bar, as a cashier, absorbing the lessons of a master maître d’ and restaurateur at Lau’s side, and his vision for Flower Drum is perfectly clear.

“We’re a traditional Cantonese restaurant working with the best Aussie produce we can find,” he says. “Our menu is quite broad; after 47 years you pick up a lot of things along the way, and we’ve still got regulars from 30 or even 40 years ago who still order the same thing, even if it’s not on the menu anymore. We still keep skewers in the kitchen in case someone comes in asking for satay.”

Glance at the written menu today and there’s everything you’d expect at the highest of high-end restaurants in Hong Kong: delicate dumplings in translucent gossamer wrappings, noodles dancing with the breath of the wok, soups of exceptional depth and clarity. You can have your rock lobster stir-fried with XO sauce and dried scallop, or whipped with egg whites and cream into an airy omelette. The Peking duck is one of Australia’s finest examples, served tableside on featherlight pancakes, and fried rice, crisp-skinned chicken and barbecue pork are all present and correct.

Anthony Lui moved to Australia from Hong Kong in 1980 to work in the Flower Drum kitchen – where he continues to work to this day

But there’s also a double-boiled soup made with wallaby tail and red dates – not something you see every day in Kowloon or Wanchai – and preserved egg wrapped in deeply savoury minced quail, like a Cantonese Scotch egg. The meat of the pearl oyster – not the usual eating family Ostreidae, but the Pinctada maxima used to culture pearls off the coast of Broome – is served on its shimmering shell, its dense, almost abalone-like flesh dressed with ginger and spring onion.

Zoom in on the red-meat situation and that quiet edge of innovation becomes even more apparent. While beef is prized as a special treat, Cantonese diners – southern Chinese diners in general, in fact – are traditionally not big eaters of lamb or mutton. Or, as Irene Kuo puts it rather more bluntly in her 1977 landmark The Key to Chinese Cooking, “beef is scarce in China and lamb is disliked by most Chinese because of its strong odor”.

At Flower Drum circa 2023, though, it’s a different story. Cantonese cooking is, after all, about bringing out the best qualities of the best ingredients to hand, and in Australia, that means fine lamb and beef. “It’d be silly not to use it,” says Jason. In the lamb department, Anthony Lui favours saltbush lamb, and works with Bultarra, the certified organic producer that runs White Dorpers in northern South Australia, grazing them on the saltbush and native grasses of the Flinders Ranges.

Typhoon Shelter Lamb Cutlets – traditionally made with seafood, at Flower Drum the dish highlights the quality of Australian lamb

One of the more unusual dishes that it appears in is typhoon-shelter lamb. The typhoon-shelter style comes from the fishing community of Hong Kong, the name referencing the refuge they’d take during heavy weather. It’s traditionally used for seafood, typically tiger prawns or mantis shrimp stir-fried with a vast quantity of fried garlic, ginger, black bean, spring onion and chilli. At the Drum it’s reimagined as a way of presenting lamb cutlets. They’re dusted and lightly fried together with a relatively restrained quantity of garlic chips and chilli: spicy, crunchy, delicious.

The claypots walk a more traditional path. “Again, it’s saltbush lamb, and we’re using brisket,” says Jason “We braise it on the bone for more flavour – after a couple of hours they just slide out – and it’s flavoured with red dates and ginger. There’s also some bean curd sheets with it that we fry first then braise with the meat so it gets nice and soft.” The finished dish is served with spinach leaves cooked in the sauce with the lamb, and a fermented bean curd that the kitchen breaks down into a sauce. “Very savoury, very pungent.”

Another dish takes its cues from Shanghai, working with bread pockets made with a semi-sweet white dough very similar to that you’d see used for barbecue pork buns, sprinkled here with sesame seeds. The kitchen stir-fries lamb cut from the rack with leek, miso bean-paste and ginger, which is then stuffed into the bread pockets like a sandwich.

Lamb spring rolls are a highlight, too. “This was actually born out of having some offcuts left from braising the claypot lamb,” says Jason. “We decided to make them into small parcels and serve them as spring rolls, so they have all the elements of the lamb claypot except for the beancurd sheets, plus spinach, ginger and water chestnut.”

Lamb Pockets – saute saltbush lamb from the rack served with sesame bread pockets

“Southern Chinese people have a perception that lamb is very … lamby,” says Jason. “Aussie lamb is very good, though, so when we have travellers here and we can convince them to try it, they find that it’s very nice.”

One of the secret weapons of the Flower Drum kitchen in winning southern Chinese diners over to Team Lamb comes as something of a surprise. “We use fish stock,” says Jason. “Instead of chicken or beef or whatever, we use a stock made from all the pieces left from filleting all our fish, and we use that as the base to braise the lamb. My dad came across that because in Chinese somehow the word ‘lamb’ has the word water or sea in it, and thought he’d give it a try – it takes away some of that lambiness. We’ve been doing that for 10 years now, and it works for us. It sells.”

On the beef side of the ledger, short-ribs do the occasional cameo, braised then battered and fried, as does wagyu cheek, and Black Angus appears in the form of a fillet stir-fried with a superior-soy mix, stir-fried with mushrooms. Westlake beef soup is standard, bringing together chopped Black Angus, coriander and spring onion, all thickened with egg white, and there’s also a pao fan, a variation for the colder months, that’s like a loose congee made up of rice cooked in a clear broth with, coriander, not-quite minced beef and topped tableside with a crisp rice. “You mix it all together and have it as something to finish a meal, garnished with coriander and century egg.”

Braised Lamb Claypot – saltbush lamb brisket slow braised on the bone

And then Jason throws another curve-ball. Flower Drum is famed for the breadth of its off-menu offering – most of the real regulars verbal their whole order without ever cracking the pages of the carte. But even so, learning that the Drum does a steak still comes as something of a shock. Will it be Black Angus eye fillet or Robbins Island wagyu porterhouse? “We do those with black pepper sauce or our Sichuan sauce,” Jason says. It’s more usual for these cuts to be sliced into strips before they’re cooked here, of course, as you would in any restaurant where chopsticks are the weapons of choice at the table, but the Drum also has guests who prefer it as a steak, and, this being a can-do sort of place, they’re always happy to serve them. “We’ve got seeded mustard here if you want it.”

So how does it work, this business of being both a timeless institution but at the same time constantly evolving?

“The techniques we use are still very traditional, they work for a reason,” Jason says, “but we have a bit of fun playing around with things and doing things differently with certain dishes. Even our spring onion cake we do with puff pastry rather than the usual pancake – you can’t just do the same thing all the time.”

Flower Drum is famed for the personal quality of its service. Jason Lui speaks fondly of Gilbert Lau’s total commitment to the job and his fastidious way of working, talking about him running his fingers under the chairs to check that they were clean all over, or drilling staff not just on the menu and the wine list but on the varieties of flowers arranged around the dining room.

“Above all it was him teaching us how to look after people, how to make them want to come back. Even if they’ve got to save for a year before they can come back, you overwhelm them with service and attention to detail, and the food is so wow – you make it so that they can’t not come back.”

Jason Lui says the key to return diners is to overwhelm them with service, attention to detail and exceptional food

What will Jason be doing this Lunar New Year? “I’ll be working. It’s the second-biggest week for us, after Cup week.” Menus for New Year at Flower Drum are months in the making, as is the wrangling of the tables because so many diners come from overseas and out of town for it. “There’s a bit going on.”

“New Year’s Eve is mostly Chinese diners, and it’s booked out a year in advance, and it’s the same families coming back year after year, booking 12 or 20 or 50 people. Every year it’s the same people. New Year’s Day is more of a mix, but it’s booking out well in advance now too.”

Flower Drum takes its name from a 20th-century Broadway musical, The Flower Drum. But that’s just its name in English. In Chinese, it’s quite different. “The best I can translate it,” says Jason Lui, “is Ten-Thousand Generation Palace.”

As we enter the Year of the Rabbit, as the restaurant eases closer to its own 50th year, what does Jason want the wider world to know the Flower Drum is all about?

“I’d say don’t be afraid to have a chat with us,” he says. “The menu can be daunting for some people but it’s just a snapshot of what we can do for you. Tell us what you like, tell us what you don’t like, and let us do something for you. That’s when most of my guests have the most fun. Do something different. You’ve made the booking and waited two months to come in – let’s go all in.”

Editor’s Letter

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Editor’s
Letter

When it comes to food, there’s always a reason to celebrate – and with this being our TWENTIETH ISSUE we are feeling particularly celebratory!

The festive season is snapping at our heels and it is always the busiest time of the year for foodservice with long lunches, work events, Christmas parties, New Year’s celebrations – any excuse really to indulge in some world-class hospitality at venues across the country.

In this issue I wanted to explore what celebrations looked like in a range of cultures and cuisines and one thing is clearly evident; food is almost always at the centre of celebrations – from the cooking through to the consumption, it is about coming together to share experiences and connect.

It’s memories of New Year’s Day in Mauritius that come to the fore when Pat Nourse chats with Nagesh Seethiah at his restaurant Manze in North Melbourne. Pat writes – “New Year’s day is big in Mauritius, bigger than Christmas Day, and a big celebration called for a goat or two, with the families making a day of it and everyone pitching in to cook every part of it.” Read more about Nagesh, Manze and celebrating Mauritian style in Pat’s People Places Plates section.

Meanwhile Mark Best explores The Taco-lypse – Australia has well and truly hit its stride in the taco-stakes, evolving from Old El Paso tex-mex to taqueria pop-ups in the Rocks from acclaimed Mexican American chef Claudette Zepeda. Mexican culture embraces celebration perhaps like no other, as Claudette says “Mexico is a nation of immigrants and their ingredients, and I think we are programmed to share and celebrate our similarities and differences.” There ain’t no party like a taco party and in this story Mark seeks out some of the best tacos in Sydney.

Auburn in Sydney’s inner west is a suburb quite unlike any other and Myffy Rigby explores its incredibly diverse cuisines with relish in this episode of What’s Good in the Hood. From Lebanese breakfast to Turkish mix plates; Uyghur meat pies to Afghani dumplings; East African platters to Peranakan curries – it’s a celebratory smorgasbord like no other.

Ross Magnaye tells me that to him, food has always been part of family and that the Filipino way of celebrating is always heavily centred around food. Magnaye is taking his Filipino heritage and sharing it with the world at Serai in Melbourne’s CBD – you can expect loud music, happy people, natural wines and modern Australian food with Filipino twists. If anyone can throw a party, it’s Ross Magnaye – read all about it in my Young Guns section.

Did you know October is Goatober? Well now you do. We teamed up with chefs Ibrahim Kasif, formerly of Turkish favourite Stanbuli and now head chef at Beau; and restaurateur and former Masterchef star Minoli De Silva of Ella in Darwin – for our Cut Two Ways section – and you guessed it, they are cooking goat. Be inspired to give goat a go with these two deliciously different dishes.

Until 2023 – be safe, be well and keep being inspired by Australian beef, lamb and goat.

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

Editor’s Letter

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Editor’s
Letter

Welcome to Issue 19 where we explore comfort food and its incredible ability to stir up feelings of sentimentality, warmth and happiness. Often associated with emotional stress, comfort food bounced back in a big way during the pandemic where we saw chefs cooking food inspired by their own notions of comfort and designing menus that appealed to their comfort seeking customers.

As we emerge from Covid’s clutches, the good news is, it seems comfort food is here to stay. Be it specific to an individual or a cultural classic; a childhood favourite (hello crumbed lamb cutlets) or a ‘treat yourself’ craving – the transformative power of nostalgia is informing menus across the country.

Pat Nourse catches up with chef Ben Russell at Rothewell’s Bar & Grill – Brisbane’s hottest new destination; an ode to the timelessness of the great bistros of the world and the comforting familiarity of menu classics. Here, it is the revival of the Beef Wellington that has taken diners by the hand and the heart – where the combination of time honoured technique is coupled with quality produce and meticulous preparation. The result is comfort at the highest level.

Mark Best reminisces on the warm feelings evoked on the coldest mornings when his mother served savoury mince on hot buttered toast. Around the world, mince has played a similar role in vastly different settings with dishes that transcend time and place, have a hold in history and are lovingly passed down, reinvented, and given new life. Mark explores memories of mince and the comfort dishes it conjures up for Palisa Anderson, Paul Farag, O’Tama Carey and Enrico Tomelleri.

I spend some cherished time at Baba’s Place where nostalgia drips down the walls and weaves its way into every part of the experience – where a menagerie of memories of growing up in Western Sydney are interpreted and elevated in every bite. Here, Jean-Paul El Tom, along with his mates Alex Kelly and James Bellos, are inviting you to experience their memories of food – while reminiscing on your own cherished experiences of food and family. Baba’s Place radiates warmth and familiarity – where you come to get fed and leave feeling part of something much bigger.

Myffy Rigby experiences the ultimate in Winter comfort with a trip to the balmy 32 degree days on offer in the Top End. What’s Good in Darwin uncovers a burgeoning food scene driven by a melting pot of cultures and hyper local produce. Underpinned by institutions like Jimmy Shu’s Hanuman and accelerated by the palette and passion of former Masterchef contestant Minoli de Silva at her first restaurant Ella – Darwin might just surprise you. If the sun setting into the Timor Sea while you indulge in an array of snacks from the Mindil Beach Sunset Market doesn’t fill you with a sense of happiness – I don’t know what will.

When you take dry aged mince, expertly prepared by Marcus Papadopoulo from Whole Beast Butchery, and put it into the hands of Barzaari’s Darryl Martin and Federico Zanelatto of LuMi, Leo, Ele and Lode – you know you’re going to be rewarded with some mince magic. The boys definitely passed the vibe check on the comfort brief and Cut Two Ways comes alive with Federico’s famed beef pithivier and Darryl’s take on kousa – stuffed Lebanese zucchini.

Finally – is there anyone more deserving of comfort than our loved ones in aged care homes around the country? Estia Health is shaking off the shackles of what we think generally constitutes aged care food with freshly prepared, culturally curated menus that provide residents with comfort and familiarity. Discover an uncompromising level of care for older Australians in this issue’s Big Business section.

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

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Welcome to Issue 18 where we explore a little slice of luxury – and what a journey it has taken us on.

It has been wonderful to be back on the road and in the sky, crossing state lines and visiting restaurants around the country. Some venues are reporting that diners seem to be making up for lost time with average check size up – they are opting for more premium wines, choosing supplementary options and splashing out on luxury steaks. In fact, Australians spent a record $4.465 billion in cafes, restaurants and takeaway shops for the month of February, an increase of 9.7 per cent on January and up more than $500 million on February 2020, just before the pandemic.

As Pat Nourse puts it – ‘rare is the delicacy that gets the mouth watering in quite the same way as a really good steak’ and I couldn’t agree more. In this issue Pat talks to some of the greats of the steak game – Lennox Hastie, Andrew McConnell, Ross Lusted and Corey Costelloe about what makes a great steak. From the producer to the preparation, the cut to the cooking, the salt to the service – it’s not a one size fits all scenario and we are more than happy to try them all on.

Mark Best pays a visit to the pioneer of luxury beef in Australia David Blackmore who, with his son Ben, produces premium Wagyu for some of the finest restaurants in Australia and around the world. David maintains that his customer is and always has been the person choosing to dine out once a year for a special occasion – a celebration where they forget the diet and forget the budget. It’s all about quality over quantity for the Blackmore family and we learn about their new venture into Rubia Gallega, the Northern Spanish cattle David Blackmore believes will be the best grass-fed beef in the world.

Myffy Rigby makes a run for the Nation’s Capital to discover what’s good – and there’s plenty to be excited about. Established favourites sit firm amongst vibrant newcomers – from fun fine dining and everything over fire; to the simple pleasures of pizzas and jaffles – there’s certainly something for everyone.

I take a trip to Adelaide where the buzz is all around young chef Jake Kellie’s first restaurant Arkhe – and it more than lives up to the hype. Kellie’s resume reads like every young chef’s dream career run and in a leafy suburb in Adelaide he’s making his boldest move yet. Arkhe is Kellie’s dream restaurant come to life – where produce is the winner and playing with fire is the game.

It’s wagyu with a view as we shoot Cut Two Ways from the lofty 55th floor setting of Vue de monde in Melbourne. Executive chef Hugh Allen and Donovan Cooke of Ryne give us their versions of luxury dishes using wagyu brisket.

With flights back in the air, we thought we’d pay a visit to dnata catering – Australia’s largest in flight caterer creating a mind blowing 64 million meals to be served on 250,000 flights a year. Now that is Big Business.

I hope you enjoy the luxury of Australian beef and lamb.

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

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Happy New Year – welcome to 2022 and Issue 17!

In this issue, we focus on the wonder that is Australian lamb as the nation patiently awaits the release of the annual Summer Lamb ad. More than just an ad, the Summer Lamb campaign is an integrative marketing campaign that drives consumption of Australian lamb from shopping trolleys to restaurant plates and celebrates Australia’s love of lamb.

Pat Nourse profiles chef Trevor Perkins of the aptly named Hogget Kitchen – hogget being a young adult sheep aged around 15-16 months between lamb and mutton. At Hogget, Trevor takes a nose to tail approach sourcing from a range of Gippsland lamb producers and takes diners on a journey of Gippsland’s finest.

Myffy Rigby heads for the hills for What’s Good in the Hood – the Blue Mountains edition. Just a stone’s throw from Sydney, the Blue Mountains is an incredible destination rich in history and spectacular scenery. It’s also sporting what Myffy thinks is one of NSW’s best new fine dining restaurants and a host of other epic places to eat.

Mark Best looks into the recent CSIRO study that labels Australian lamb as only one of two foods produced in Australia that is climate neutral – a good news story worth telling. He also delves into the world first Australian Sheep Sustainability Framework launched in 2021 and profiles one of Australia’s first organically certified farms – Cherry Tree Downs.

Cut Two Ways takes two chefs from the Seagrass stable, 6HEAD head chef Scott Greve and Meat & Wine Co-head chef Thomas Godfrey, and matches them with a dry-aged chump on lamb leg expertly prepared by Tony Mandaliti of Global Meats.

I profile talented young butcher Lachy Kerr who is progressing forwards by looking backwards and embracing the butchery of yesteryear. Kerr makes the effort to personally visit the farms of each of his suppliers, sourcing from independently owned NSW farms that align with his ethos. Whole carcase butchery that connects the customer with the origin of their purchases – Wollongong is in good hands.

Finally, our Big Business section looks at two hospitality groups leveraging the power of a nationwide summer lamb campaign with lamb menu specials for January.

I hope you enjoy the issue and share the love of Australian lamb on your menus this summer.

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

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Producing this entire issue from my living room was definitely not what I had in mind when planning our special PUB issue, but here we are!

The Aussie pub is a national pastime, a rite of passage, a place where the community congregates to share good food, good booze and good times. As the country slowly emerges from multiple lockdowns, it is set to be a red hot season of celebration and the local pub is primed to once again be the central meeting place for almost any occasion.

Pat Nourse takes it to Tassie to profile Tom Westcott from Tom McHugo’s in Hobart. This little corner pub punches well above its weight in all classes – the food, the booze and the people. It’s definitely one of my favourite pubs and I can’t wait to jump on a plane and visit Whitney, Tom and the team as soon as possible. In the meantime, sit back, relax and let Pat’s words wash over you as you imagine tucking into the haggis bao or hot house-made pastrami roll.

Fortunately we had the foresight to shoot an extra episode of What’s Good in the Hood way back in June before lockdown hit. This time it’s Newcastle that gets a dose of Myffy magic. Newcastle is booming and the food scene is an ‘edible adventure’ that you should be adding to your list. We’ve done the hard work for you – follow our lead and enjoy the ride.

Mark Best profiles the historic Royal Richmond in Sydney’s west – a hotel serving the local community for 173 years. After a complete refurbishment, the venue continues its local focus with a menu that showcases local produce including a unique relationship with Western Sydney University to provide beef and lamb produced on its Hawkesbury campus.

Our Young Gun is Michael Watson who has taken on his first bricks and mortar venue. If you have visited the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park for a sporting match, concert or festival – it’s more than likely you’ve had a pre or post drink at the corner pub. Previously PJ O’Gallagher’s and before that The Fox and Lion, the old haunt was in need of some young blood. The sparkling new venue Watson’s is ready to roll when restrictions lift – the EQ has been waiting on a winner and Watson’s has arrived.

It’s Veal’s turn on the chopping block for Cut Two Ways and it is in the capable hands of two chefs at the helm of some of Sydney’s most well loved pubs. From a tricked up schnitzel to a glorious veal-chetta it’s the veal-deal by all accounts.

Finally, I am excited to introduce our new section BIG BUSINESS. Ever wondered how 5000+ hungry miners are fed at an isolated mine site in the Pilbara? Or what goes into catering some of the biggest events in the country? Big Business will tell the stories you don’t often get to hear. First up for our PUB issue we chat with Australian Venue Co – operating 170 venues Australia wide and using 40 tonnes of beef a month.

Here’s to pubs across the country – may your beers be frosty, your patrons thirsty and your menu enriched by Australian red meat.

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

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Australian Beef – the Official Team Partner of the Australian Olympic and Paralympic teams for Tokyo 2020. Hold on. Make that Tokyo 2021. Either way, Australian Beef will be feeding the greatness of our Aussie sporting heroes when they finally take on the world at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

And so in this issue, we explore the theme of greatness – from one of the all time greats of the Australian culinary scene to the emerging greatness of the 2020 Josephine Pignolet Young Chef of the Year. Innovative producers finding ways to hero their older cattle who have provided much greatness through their lives; and the everyday extraordinary greatness of Australian beef on the menu.

Pat Nourse profiles the great Karen Martini who has recently opened a high-profile new restaurant aptly named Hero. Pat writes “It’s not a sprint, they tell you, it’s a marathon. But in professional cooking it can be both. Starting work in restaurants when she was 15 years old, Martini was quick off the blocks, putting in the hours in one of the most demanding kitchens in Victoria, and leaping into her first head chef role at just 20. But these achievements were only the beginning of a career marked by sustained performance and a willingness to forge her own path.”

In our Young Guns section, I chat with Anna Ugarte, the humble 2020 recipient of the industry’s most coveted young chef award – an award that has recognised many of the greats in the cheffing community. Anna talks candidly about the challenges of her first head chef role and her journey working with some of the country’s, and the world’s, greatest chefs.

Mark Best delves into the emerging use of mature-aged beef. An age-old tradition in Europe and particularly the Basque region of Spain, Australian producers and chefs are beginning to see the potential of teaching an old cow new tricks.

Our Cut Two Ways showcases the greatness of oyster blade in the hands of Guy Turland and Tom Walton, two chefs passionately driven by the creation of wholesome, nutritious and delicious meals. The boys show us that a healthy balanced meal doesn’t have to be boring – especially when you’ve got Australian beef to play with.

Finally, Myffy Rigby, the fabulous food finding host of What’s Good in the Hood takes on Chatswood in a whirlwind day fueled by beef breakfast noodles, bulgogi beef banh mi, robot hot pot and much much more.

I hope this issue feeds your greatness with inspiration and ideas fueled by Australian beef from paddock to plate.

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

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MJ with the team from Emilio’s Specialty Butcher in Rozelle.

Welcome to Issue 14 in which we explore the theme of DIY – doing it yourself.

In People Places Plates, Pat Nourse profiles self taught cook and the king of food trucks in Australia, Raph Rashid. When Raph started his food truck business in 2009 he had no experience and in fact had never even driven a manual car, let alone a truck! Now with six food trucks and two venues, Raph’s story is one of determination, drive and doing it yourself.

Mark Best explores different paddock to plate models in his Spotlight On section – where the venues are located on-farm and utilise their own beef or lamb on the menu. The ultimate in DIY, the four venues discuss the challenges and opportunities of producing their own livestock for the menu.

This issue, What’s Good in the Hood does the NSW South Coast and despite the torrential, record-breaking rainfall, Myffy Rigby uncovers some absolute gems of coastal dining. There are lots of DIY inspired stories from a half eaten pie on a fence prompting a father and son to open their own pie shop in Ulladulla; to a Merimbula girl recognising the need for a decent watering hole in her hometown. Hit the road and discover some incredible dining along the beautiful NSW coastline.

Our Cut Two Ways for this issue is Goat – and it sure does shine in the hands of two of our favourite chefs Nick Stanton and Alex Prichard with goat from The Gourmet Goat Lady. Our featured butcher is Emilio’s Speciality Butcher – two butchers who decided to do it their own way by opening a butchery committed to ethical and sustainable meat.

Finally, Young Guns features one of the hottest young chef talents in the business – Rosheen Kaul from Etta in Melbourne. We talk to Rosheen about the challenges of her first head chef role and her DIY journey of developing her style of food through cultural and family connections, historians and anthropology.

The stories, photos and videos in this issue are brimming with inspiration, ideas and incredible people who have found a way to do it their way – and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

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Welcome to Issue 13 of Rare Medium where I am proud to share with you the stories of just some of the wonderful women that produce, prepare and plate Australian red meat.

8 March 2021 marks International Women’s Day and I wanted to dedicate this issue to some of the Aussie women paving careers and leaving their mark across the traditionally male-dominated red meat and foodservice industries.

Until 1994, Australian women could not legally claim to be ‘farmers’ – the law defined them as domestics, helpmates and farmer’s wives. Growing up on a mixed farming enterprise and witnessing first hand the aptitude, tenacity and sheer hard work my mum put in to managing our herd of Angus cattle – this fact baffles me. At least now we are on the right path.

According to Department of Agriculture ABARES figures, women now comprise an estimated 32 percent of workers in agriculture. Looking to our future, women now represent 55 percent of university students studying agricultural science. They say the future is female – and I say the future looks bright.

In this issue we feature women through the supply chain – from the paddock, to the butchery and on to the plate.

Mark Best visits Maria Roach and her mother Betty who have single handedly run their own cattle property near Adelong NSW for most of their lives. In the January 2020 bushfires they lost a few hundred head of cattle and since then Maria has rebuilt every fence on the farm. Their story is one of resilience, dedication and determination.

We feature two young female butchers – Elke De Belder who originates from Belgium and is now finding her feet in the world of Australian butchery, and former chef Bonnie Ewan who was named the 2020 Apprentice Butcher of the Year. These talented young women are carving their own paths in a career heavily dominated by men – it’s not easy but they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Pat Nourse delves into the inspiration, application and dedication behind the impressive career of Fred’s chef Danielle Alvarez. Danielle effortlessly emanates such a feeling of warmth and kindness despite leading one of Sydney’s busiest kitchens – she is a chef that other women want to work for and it’s not hard to see why.

Finally, two tremendous talents take on the tri tip in our Cut Two Ways feature. Trisha Greentree from 10 William St and Fratelli Paradiso; and Jemma Whiteman from Cafe Paci turn out some tasty snacks perfect for summer snacking.

It is my privilege to have worked on this issue and to now share it with you.

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

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In this issue we put some weight behind a word frequently aired but often difficult to define – and explore what sustainability looks, and tastes like, through the red meat supply chain.

In his People Places Plates section, Pat Nourse talks all things sustainability with Josh Lewis of Fleet, La Casita and Ethel Food Store in the picturesque Brunswick Heads – a chef and restaurateur walking his own path and shaping a sustainable model that works for him.

Mark Best takes sustainability to the taste buds in his Spotlight On section, speaking with various beef brands with a claim in the sustainability space – from carbon neutral to highest animal welfare – and asking the question, what does sustainability taste like?

We head to Orange in NSW for our second episode of What’s Good in the Hood with Myffy Rigby. A hop skip and a jump from Sydney, this regional food and wine hub is brimming with good times and exceptional local produce plated up by passionate people. Do yourself a favour and add Orange to your hit list.

Our Cut Two Ways shines a light on the lamb neck and it certainly glows in the capable hands of Rob Cockerill from Bennelong and Daniel Puskas from Sixpenny who turn this humble cut (from Grant Hilliard at Feather and Bone) into dishes that dazzle.

This issue’s Young Gun is farmer Tim Eyes. Based on the NSW central coast, Tim’s number one priority is the environment and this impressive young beef farmer is keen to connect people back to the farm and show that agriculture can mitigate climate change.

What does sustainability mean to you?

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

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If 2020 has shown us anything it is that nothing is certain and whilst it is impossible to predict what will happen moving forward in relation to Covid-19, we can assume that the foodservice industry will continue to be impacted for the foreseeable future and beyond.

The foodservice community has demonstrated its resilience – your determination, your diligence and camaraderie are the true measures of hospitality. But if Covid-19 has taught the industry anything, it is that the model needs to adapt, offerings need to diversify and those with the ability to change will be the ones that survive.

The Australian red meat industry has itself faced a raft of challenges with foodservice shutdowns not only locally but around the world in every export market. Increased demand at a retail level somewhat softened the blow but demand for mince products led to carcase imbalances as premium cuts diverted from foodservice and into mince and sausages.

Moving back through the supply chain, livestock prices are at record highs as producers seek to restock herds and flocks after widespread rain brought some reprieve to long term drought conditions – meaning less livestock are available for processing.

The last few months have given me an opportunity to rethink what we bring you in our quarterly publication, to reconsider what matters and why. We have done some adapting of our own and this issue brings with it some exciting changes.

Firstly – I’m proud to welcome two incredible contributors to the Rare Medium family, each with their own dedicated sections. Pat Nourse, one of Australia’s most accomplished food journalists, takes on our new People | Places | Plates section – sharing the stories of chefs, venues and menus; while industry legend Mark Best brings us his Spotlight On section – an exploration of various components of the Australian red meat supply chain.

Our new What’s Good in the Hood section reflects the importance of community dining and celebrating neighbourhood favourites. First up we explore Sydney’s Inner West with the fabulous Myffy Rigby. If anyone is going to show us around town then it may as well be the editor of the Good Food Guide!

We also have a new Cut Two Ways section – featuring a different cut each time cooked by two different chefs and our Young Guns section that explores the stories of young professionals through the red meat supply chain.

The value of supply chain relationships has never been more apparent and I look forward to continuing to connect you with our wonderful Australian red meat producers, to grow and prosper together with whatever comes next.

Following your journeys over the last few months has at times been heartbreaking but more often than not it has been empowering. I hope that the stories of this issue inspire you as you have me – as together we come to terms with this strange new world.

Mary-Jane Morse

Meat & Livestock Australia
[email protected]
@_raremedium

Spotlight On

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SPOTLIGHT ON:

FLINDERS ISLAND

‘Farm to table’ is the aspirational aphorism used by many chefs to emphasise a direct relationship between a farm and their table. At its best, based on the distance between paddock and plate and the degree of commitment from chef and farmer, it can form an almost symbiotic relationship. At the same time, it remains an ideal fraught with tokenism, bureaucracy and logistical challenge.

On Flinders Island, where a roster of talented chefs take residence and for the first time in years a fully licensed on-island abattoir is operating – Jo and Tom Youl of Quoin Farm appear to have cracked the code.

Flinders Island, with a population of just 900, is the largest of the Furneaux Group amongst a cluster of about 100 islands in Bass Strait between Tasmania and Victoria. While mostly known for its rugged natural beauty, it is also growing a reputation for its grass-fed beef with Quoin Farm amongst those leading the way.

“My family has been running this farm since 1932, it’s really diverse and productive land with a lot of beach frontage. It was originally purchased by my great grandparents with Tom and I buying it from my uncle in 2014. We are the first people to live here full time, it’s a great property and we love our life here with our three young kids,” Jo said.

The original homestead block was first cleared as part of the soldier settlement program, a government scheme designed in 1916 to develop rural areas, encouraging returned servicemen to become property-owning farmers.

The first step in developing the property for beef production was to fence out native animals, whose numbers had soared to almost plague proportions in response to pasture improvement on the island.

Jo Youl on her family property Quoin Farm on Flinders Island

“When we took over the property it was running about 50,000 wallabies and thousands of wombats. We started off running 100 cows but they just couldn’t compete,” Jo said.

Tom built exclusion fencing around the entire property over the course of three years which means they can now safely invest in pasture development – realising substantial gains in productivity and allowing the family to now run upwards of 1,000 Angus cows for breeding.

While the heifers are generally kept to build the breeding herd, Quoin Farm steers are shipped to Tasmania from Lady Barron. Most make their way into the Cape Grim brand while the remainder are grain finished at the Powranna feedlot for export to Japan.

“We sell most of our steers at 450-500kg which is optimal for Cape Grim. We recently had some older steers weigh in at 600kg which is a bit heavy and a few that got left behind because they were just too big at 850kg,” Jo said.

Quoin Farm is set on 2,400 acres where Tom and Jo are working constantly to improve pastures and grow their herd of Angus cattle

One of the ironies of farming life on the island is that up until recently, if you wanted to eat Quoin Farm beef, the island’s only supermarket had to fly it in from the Tasmanian mainland. Fortunately, an on-island abattoir means that cattle weighing in outside of brand or market specifications have somewhere to go – while offering the opportunity for Quoin Farm to finally close the island supply chain loop.

The Davis Family reopened the Lackrana Meat Works 12 months ago after it had sat dormant for over two years. Managing director Charlie Davis said it took six months to bring the site up to scratch.

“It’s been a battle but the help from the locals has been phenomenal so it’s finally worked out. When you’ve got things like the abattoir processing local meats, it adds to the attraction to get people here,” Charlie said.

Jo and Tom opened their front gate as part of a virtual farm tour for the 2021 Tasmanian Red Meat Updates conference, to give an insight into life and red meat production in the Bass Strait. The virtual experience has now morphed into the Youl family’s vertically integrated luxe farm stay brand ‘On Island Time’ consisting of accommodation, restaurant, and tourism ventures; as well as on-farm accommodation for those wanting to experience life on a working cattle farm.

Island produced beef and lamb at the recently reopened Lackrana Meat Works on Flinders Island

“People really get to experience life on Quoin Farm with the cattle around the cabins and witnessing the amazing life that they have. We are also lucky that we’re so close to the beach, so people get the farm stay along with a private beach literally a kilometre away,” Jo said.

Flinders Island Wharf Restaurant is a pivotal part of the On Island Time brand and does the heavy lifting for locals and visiting tourists. Essential to the operation has been a roster of some of Australia’s best chefs in residence including David Moyle, Jo Barrett and Alanna Sapwell; with next season welcoming ex-Three Blue Ducks head chef Josh McMahon.

“The Wharf’s been running for about four years and we’re really lucky we have had some amazing chefs want to come here to experience island life and showcase our great produce,” Jo said.
Current incumbent Pip Sumbak has been running Pip’s Plate for almost 10 years. She took the long way round the fire pit via a Bachelor of Arts degree at Sydney Uni, a stint on MasterChef and then island-hopping using cooking as her ticket between France, Spain, Indonesia and Fiji. Known for her spectacular open fire catering, Pip has been treating the island to her craft for the past seven months.

Quoin Farm offers on-farm accommodation for tourists wanting the ‘farm stay’ experience

“Initially my brief was to come in and create a very simple bar menu for locals and tourists to have a drink and relax – some oysters, olives, nuts, island smoked fish dips, things like that, and only utilising island produce.”

“The biggest thing was to somehow showcase the island and create the kind of event that would pull tourists and the locals – and so we ended up creating an open fire cooking experience that we now do weekly at our Friday Night BBQ,” Pip said.

Pip’s barbecue experience is an open fire trellis in the style of Argentine chef Francis Mallmann. Local producers supply eggs, greens from their gardens, floral arrangements and edible herbs and flowers; and on the afternoon of our visit, Craig the fisherman drops off six gummy sharks. Now Pip also has the advantage of the local abattoir where she directly sources island beef, lamb and wallaby to showcase over flames.

Flinders Island Wharf Restaurant has included a roster of Australia’s best chefs including David Moyle, Jo Barrett and Alanna Sapwell

“People come here expecting a restaurant experience and what they get is this very kind of rustic trellis hung with Quoin Farm beef, seaweed, gummy sharks, and local wallaby,” Pip said.

Pip Sumbak prepares Quoin Farm beef for her Friday Night BBQ at Flinders Island Wharf

I can assure you that, having experienced Pip’s Friday Night BBQ, what ensues is a feast of epic proportions and a stunning showcase of Flinders Island produce.

“I was always drawn to experience style cooking – I like people to experience real food, to know where it came from and I love the reaction that people have watching their food get cooked on the trellis.”

“My first activity when I arrived was to get off the plane and go straight to the abattoir to meet them and understand exactly what they do. Having this direct relationship means that I can ask for specific cuts and preparations so it’s easy for me to carve on the night.”

“Living on the island has reminded me how important provenance is; we know the abattoir, we know the farmers, and that’s really special. What I take from this experience is that knowing how your meat is raised and killed is important – and that it tastes a hell of a lot better when you know where it’s from,” Pip said.

Pip’s first point of call when arriving on the island was to visit the abattoir

On their plans for the future, Jo is characteristically ambitious and upbeat.

“Medium term we would like to renovate more ground, we’re 65% improved at the moment on this block and it would be great to put in another 100 hectares of improved pasture. We’d love to buy some more land and to build the herd to 1,500 – 2,000 breeding cows – our aim is to keep improving and growing our herd.”

“Ultimately, we’d love to establish our own beef brand. That’s the dream; establishing our own brand and overseeing the entire process – working with the chefs who are cooking it and seeing our beef on the plate. We think it’s a really premium product and that’s what I’m really passionate about,” Jo said.

Quoin Farm – a story that almost writes itself and a business primed to launch its own beef brand

Best Practice

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SURF & TURF

Western Australia’s vast size, around 33% of the mainland, extensive 10,000km+ coastline, varied landscapes and diverse climate zones, enable production of a broad range of products. You may think it’s all FIFO, utes and jet skis, but Western Australia boasts 100 million hectares of fine agricultural land, running 12.5 million sheep and lambs, equating to 18% of Australia’s national flock, from 4,280 producers.

It’s a hell of a lot of land girt by sea which got me thinking about that perennial intersection, Surf & Turf. Some say, and I’m one of them, that pairing a good chunk of tender meat with some briny umami in a shell is possibly the best of both worlds.

Hard to pin down where it started but this bit of conspicuous consumption kitsch was invented to extract more coin from the nouveau riche. At its zenith in the 60s, “Surf & Turf”, “Reef & Beef” or “Ship to Shore” could do double duty as the directions for your taxi driver and a menu item. Typically, fillet mignon and lobster back in the day, the plating of strange bed fellows continues to appeal and can be quite delicious when done well.

Some of the classics like “Carpet bag steak” a tenderloin fillet incised through the belly and then stuffed with oysters is a bloody good one. I guess technically, a caviar bump isn’t too far from the concept either.

For this version I have chosen to pair the loin of a young fat lamb with a giant blue yabby indigenous to the South West called marron, some coastal sea blight, and a bit of South Indian influenced French curry. Whilst not technically “surf” (marron is a fresh water crustacean) – some wag coined the name “Smurf & Turf” which seemed apt enough to be worthy of stealing.

LAMB, MARRON & VADOUVAN

Serves 4

Roast Lamb Ingredients

1 Saddle of Lamb on the bone
Large bunch of sea blight
1 tsp Freshly ground Black Pepper
1/4 tsp ground star anise
1tsp Murray River Salt

Method

Remove the red skin from the loin. Cut along the spine on both sides of the vertebrae and follow the bone around to remove each loin. Also remove the tenderloins from the underside. Flatten out the belly flaps so that they will wrap completely around the loin.

Season the loin side with a good amount of salt, pepper and anise. Lay the tenderloin along the loin and layer in a good amount of the sea blight (removing the coarser stalks). Use kitchen string to tie the loin into a tight cylinder.

Season well and then brown well in a pan. You can cook it entirely in the pan, turning from time to time and removing the fat as it collects or place in a 170C oven and cook until the internal temperature is 55c.

Rest for 15 minutes in a warm place.

Serve slices of lamb with the marron tails, some of the cooking butter, fresh sea blight and fried curry leaves.

Vadouvan Spiced Marron Tails Ingredients

4 live marrons (250 grams each)
100g salted butter
4 teaspoons vadouvan spice mix
Salt to taste

Vadouvan Spice Mix
100g ghee
2 stems curry leaves
1 dessert spoon each: whole cumin, fenugreek, yellow mustard seeds, black peppercorns, powdered turmeric
250g brown onions, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Method

Prepare the Marrons

Using a large kitchen knife, cut through the head of each marron between the eyes. Separate head and tail, using a small knife, cut the membrane connecting the head and tail. Twist and pull to separate. Remove the large claws and devein the marron tail with tweezers. Cut down the sides of the tail with kitchen scissors to release the flesh. Blanch claws briefly in boiling water, then peel. Reserve blanched claws and marron tails.

For the Vadouvan Spice Mix

Heat the ghee to just before smoking point and briefly fry curry leaves until translucent, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel. Roast cumin, fenugreek, mustard seeds, and peppercorns until fragrant. Add turmeric and grind to a fine powder. Fry onions and garlic in ghee until golden then add the ground spices, salt, curry leaves, and cayenne pepper. Cook for 2 minutes. Spread the mixture on dehydrator trays lined with plastic wrap and dry at 50°C for 12 hours (or in a low oven until hard and crisp). Grind the dried mixture into a fine powder and store in an airtight container.

Cook the Marron Tails
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat until foaming. Add 1/2 teaspoon vadouvan per tail to the foaming butter. Add marron tails, spooning over spiced butter until they just start to curl.

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Award winning chef Khanh Nguyen is back on Sydney soil and heading up the kitchen at the Bentley Group’s corner-clinging restaurant King Clarence. While the general consensus is ‘modern-Asian’ – it’s really all about Khanh’s creative approach to cooking with his sharp interpretations of nostalgic favourites elevated by the best Australian produce and laser sharp technique.

On the menu at King Clarence, the Angus Beef Short Rib is served sliced with surgical precision and accompanied by horseradish oroshi and sweet soy. For us, Khanh considers the issue theme of ‘think big’ and reimagines the dish, taking inspiration from a classic san choy bow and stepping up the condiment offering for an epic build your own beef adventure.

Marble score 4+ Riverine short rib is marinated in chickpea miso before enjoying a long smoke in the custom-designed kitchen workhorse – originally built for Noma’s Sydney pop up and repurposed for King Clarence – before hitting the grill for service. The result is decadent, tender and magically moreish.

The short rib is artfully sliced from the bone and served doused in sweet soy. On the side, a dizzying array of flavour packed accoutrements including kimchi, chilli pickled radish, fermented chilli sauce, horseradish oroshi, smoked oyster cream, and confit garlic. Select from an assortment of crisp lettuce and cabbage cups, or layer a little of both, add slices of umami amped short rib and go all in on the accompaniments.

It’s classic Khanh – taking a core food memory like san choy bow, remixing it with flavour hits and technical twists from his astute arsenal, and rewarding the diner with an entirely new experience – one likely to live rent free in your head where a san choy bow used to be.
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Sydney’s not shy when it comes to its new cohort of eateries where protein takes pride of place – bountiful brasseries, swanky steakhouses, beefy bistros are aplenty, and we can’t get enough of it.

Enter Poetica, a coup for North Sydney in its gradual growth as a destination for dining, beyond the office lunch. From the team behind Loulou Bistro (also in the North Sydney area) and city showstopper, The Charles Grand Brasserie – Poetica is the first of a suite of new venues planned for North Sydney by the Etymon group.

Poetica proudly puts protein in the spotlight – from dry ageing cabinets on display at the entrance of the venue, to menu options like Black Onyx flank steak, beef short rib, Jack’s Creek MB3 sirloin on the bone, MB2 T-bone from Wagga Wagga, and a 1.5kg Ranger’s Valley MB3 tomahawk. Then, of course, there is the 15-metre open kitchen giving diners a first-row seat to the custom woodfired hearth and hulking Josper grill.

For us, it’s a colourful plate of Cowra Lamb saddle that gets the guernsey. It is dry-aged for at least a week and then skillfully butchered in house – resulting in a selection of saddle cuts to adorn the plate. Loin on the bone, the tenderloin or backstrap, and two strips of lamb belly that have been brined, braised and pressed.

Prepared with a combination of direct and indirect cooking over glowing coals, smoke swirls and engulfs each piece for optimum flavour. The loin is then sliced from the bone for service and precision plated with the tenderloin and belly, grilled zucchini, white anchovy and pickled lemon blossom salad, and a luminous green sauce of basil, zucchini, and garlic.

Almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

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Black Angus striploin on the bone with herbs d’Provence butter & frites at Bosco

Shiny new to the Newstead restaurant scene, Bosco opened in October 2023 in a converted warehouse on Austin Street. From the team behind Bar Alto, the venue offers high ceilings, black brick walls and blackwood benches and tables – the dark interiors brought spectacularly to life by an open hearth with a custom made parrilla grill and open-fire oven.

Executive chef Sajith Vengateri has spent 30 years cooking in kitchens around the world including time in the Carribean and, more recently, a 15-year stint at Bar Alto.

“Bosco is loosely based on the foods of the coastal regions of France, Spain and Italy – showcasing the best local Queensland produce and cooking it simply over wood and charcoal. Our dry-aged black angus striploin on the bone is cooked over the parrilla on wood sourced from Stanthorpe,” Sajith said.

The blushing medium rare steak is sliced off the bone then topped with herb d’Provence butter made in house with a whack of herbs and other secret ingredients. A burning hot Bosco branding iron is pulled from the fire and used to melt the butter – smoke curls up into the rafters carrying with it the succulent scent of melted butter and herbs.

Served with ribbon-thin hand cut chips and a house-made veal jus, the dish is the epitome of simplicity done to perfection.

Lamb rump with smoked harissa yoghurt, herb oil & jus at Allonda

Open near on 18 months, Allonda is the sister-restaurant to NOTA Restaurant and Wine Bar located across the city in Paddington. Tucked away in a laneway space, the venue seats 90 and offers diners a European-inspired menu including a burrata bar.

Chef Sam Todd started his cooking apprenticeship at 15 and has cooked around Europe and Brisbane, finding himself now heading up the kitchen at Allonda.

“Allonda is focused on good service and good food offering small plates, pastas and large format mains – it’s casual with a bit of flair. The meaning of the word allonda is when you achieve the perfect balance of stock, butter, and cheese in a risotto – so there is a theme of balance in all we do.”

Margra lamb rump comes in whole to the venue and is cut down to spec, brined in a saltwater solution overnight, and then gently sous vide. The rump portions are then finished on the chargrill for service and served like a spectacularly colourful work of art with smoked harissa yoghurt, herb oil and jus.

What’s Good in the Hood

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BONDI

No other suburb encapsulates Postcard Perfect Sydney quite like this beachside village – even when filming in sideways rain and blistering wind.

The city’s best-looking suburb on and off the beach, here’s what’s Good in the Bondi Hood.

THE PROMENADE

Bondi Pavilion Shop, 4a Queen Elizabeth Drive, Bondi Beach
promenadebondibeach.com

This is some serious Bondi real estate. The Promenade, the largest beachside restaurant in Australia no less, is a neutral pallet of creams and beiges against the azure of Bondi Beach. Find it inside the heritage listed Bondi Pavilion, which has been a mainstay in one form or another of the beachside community since 1911

Equally, chef Chris Benedet (ex-Cirrus) offers up a very serious beef tartare. He mixes hand-chopped Westholme wagyu with a mix of pickled enoki mushrooms, mirin-soaked capers, fine herbs and house-fermented chilli and tops it all off with an egg yolk. On the side, smashed herby potatoes and an orb of puffy bread. Perfect carb-to-meat ratio.

TOTTI’S

283 Bondi Road, Bondi
merivale.com

Owner Justin Hemmes and executive chef Mike Eggert have most definitely cracked the code when it comes to that elusive combo of ‘beach pub, but make it fancy, delicious and approachable’. Find this unicorn out the back of the Royal Hotel. It’s the mix of cream linen in the restaurant and high viz during tradie hour in the main bar that makes Totti’s so very good. That, and the tender wagyu schnitzel served with a watercress side salad and a cheek of lemon.

Elsewhere, there’s the venue top-seller of gentle lamb ragu tossed through silky, house-made pappardelle, and the heftier smoked brisket ravioli. Can’t snag a rez in Bondi? There’s also Totti’s in the CBD, and Totti’s Rozelle.

ICEBERGS DINING ROOM AND BAR

1 Notts Avenue, Bondi Beach
idrb.com

Welcome to Icebergs, restaurateur Maurice Terzini’s stunning cliffside restaurant where there are no bad views, and no bad snacks. Underneath the restaurant, there’s the Bondi Icebergs pool, famous for its swimmers who pound the lanes year-round. Indulge under executive chef Alex Prichard, with the signature salt-crusted rib eye steak and tableside mustard service. The dining room is a make-a-booking-or-be-sorely-disappointed kinda deal, and for good reason. Between that breezy Italian-leaning menu, linen-clad staff and those ocean views, it’s a hot ticket.

After a recent renovation, the bar has become a draw in-and-of itself. It’s here you’ll find a juicy cheeseburger on a potato bun, hotdog with perfect snap, a rump cap steak, and a lineup of very delicious cocktails. No need to book, just drop by from the beach for a serve of skin-on skinny fries with those same stunning view. Bliss.

THE DEPOT

132A Warners Avenue, Bondi Beach
link.com.au

Bondi has always been a strange but fabulous mix of wellnessmania and party vibes. And nowhere recognises that quite the way they do at the Depot. Guy (you might recognise the chef, surfer and free-diver from his show, Bondi Harvest) and Heather Turland (former gold medal marathon runner) run the joint.

It’s more than a cafe, it’s a hub where locals and visitors alike stop by for a green smoothie or a margarita; a 12-hour braised brisket, cheese and chilli jam toastie; or chai infused porridge. A chocolate, jam and almond croissant (so wrong it’s right) or a red rice nourish bowl. It’s that high-low mix that has people coming back. That, and a dining room that feels more like a lounge room filled with plants and cookbooks, surf mags and the smell of fresh-baked goods. Drag us away.

TAQIZA

The Hub at 75, Shop UG.03/79 Hall Street, Bondi Beach
taqiza.com.au

Taco party by name, taco party by nature. This mini taqueria, down the Hub precinct where you’ll also find Pasticceria Papa, Gelato Messina, and Da Orazio (more on that later), services the area with a staggering mescal and tequila selection (try the Tommy’s margarita), not to mention the birria taco. A specialty of Jalisco, that’s slow cooked beef served with a tomato-y dried chilli and coriander-heavy broth. That beef, all shredded and pull-apart tender, is combined with Oaxaca cheese, and placed on a fresh tortilla, painted in beef fat and then grilled till crisp. It’s served with that broth on the side, which is further amped up with chickpeas and egg noodles. Hot, spicy, moreish. Or check out Carbon, the group’s newly renovated Mexican steak house concept on Bondi Rd.

BONDI TRATT

34 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach
bonditrattoria.com.au

One of Bondi’s oldest running and most loved venues. Affordable, casual and all-welcoming, chef Joe Pavlovich dishes up a menu that speaks to the all-day vibe of the place. A venue that’s long been loved by Sydney hospitality and Bondi locals as a recovery spot, staff here know how to deal with tender customers.

Try the lamb kofta pizza – parmesan, provolone, cavalo nero, kalamata olives, caramelised onion and spicy lamb mince, and a drizzle of harissa spiked yoghurt combine to offer an oozy, cheesy, hot and spicy combo guaranteed to bring the most lifeless soul back from the dead. All in a room directly across the road from the beach. Take a swim, book a table, rule the day.

DA ORAZIO

The Hub, Boheme, Shop LG 09, 75/79 Hall Street, Bondi Beach
daorazio.com.au/

Plenty will know chef Orazio D’elia for his focaccia and woodfired pizza – and well they should, those puffy, blistered bases are hard to beat. But consider also the arrosticini – the Abbruzzese special sees tiny pieces of salty lamb skewered and cooked gently over charcoal, served in their own ceramic skewer jug, ready for a squeeze of lemon. There’s also the wagyu collar ragu tossed and layered with silky kerchiefs of fresh pasta served over whipped ricotta. Long lunches are the order of the day here. Start with a spritz and settle in.

BURGER PARK BY FISH SHOP

Shop 3/17 Warners Avenue, Bondi Beach
burgerpark.com.au

Chef Joel Bennetts’ brand new burger joint offers both on and off-menu fun, in a cute corner Bondi locale. If you know what to ask for, you might find yourself with a double smashburger, the patties all lacy and crisp, with a chunky tartare-esque burger sauce, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles and white onion on a potato bun from Organic Bread Bar.

On-menu, there’s Bennetts’ tribute to the old school milk bar works burger with a chunky grass-fed beef pattie, thin slices of pickled pineapple, and salt baked beetroot, all on one of those locally made potato buns. A juicy, delicious, updated Aussie classic. Find yourself at Fish Shop but craving a steak? The team are adding one to the menu – expect a Ranger’s Valley sirloin served with lashings of salsa verde butter.

What’s Good in the Hood

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ADELAIDE HILLS

You could argue South Australia is one of the most diverse states in the country when it comes to its landscape, its food production, and its incredible wine scene.

You’d be hard-pressed, however, to find anywhere quite as enchanting as the Adelaide Hills. A real natural beauty, in every sense of the word.

Here’s What’s Good in the ~~Hood~~ Hills.

Myffy in at Magill Estate – the home of Penfolds

THE SCENIC HOTEL

Old Norton Summit Rd, Norton Summit 
thescenichotel.com.au

A very special pub experience tucked away in Norton Summit. Sit on the balcony and watch the lights of Adelaide twinkle below, warm your toes in front of the open fire in the dining room, indulge in a few rounds of snooker (be warned: locals take it VERY seriously) or grab a group of mates and set up for the afternoon at one of the communal benches in the garden.

The menu is dialled in for comfort. Blushing slices of rump steak are served with local carrots, roasted until sticky. Make sure to order the lamb pie with its spectacularly short crust pastry. They’re all about utilising the whole beast here, breaking down a whole lamb, using the leg, shoulder and backstrap for roasts; whatever is left is minced for that pie. Oh, and don’t miss the juicy American-style cheeseburger with housemade ketchup.

SUMMERTOWN ARISTOLOGIST

1097 B26, Summertown 5141
thesummertownaristologist.com

A closed loop restaurant specialising in regenerative farming part-owned by renowned winemaker Anton Van Klopper, the winemaker behind Lucy Margaux wines. Hyper local, hyper seasonal, hyper delicious.

The menu changes weekly – sometimes daily. And while the restaurant has had a rotation of chefs pass through the kitchen, chef-buddies Jude Hughes and Calum Horn have settled in for the foreseeable future. The menu might include a barnsley chop, or hogget with mustard and lentils – the kitchen really is at the mercy of whatever the seasons throw at them. On our visit, that translated to a delicately made haggis (AKA Scottish incense) served with leeks, carrots and charred toast. Incredible. 

THE LANE VINEYARD

5 Ravenswood Ln, Hahndorf
thelane.com.au

Chef Tom Robinson (ex-Four in Hand under Colin Fassnidge, back in the day) works with very special produce at this winery-restaurant, located on The Lane vineyard. A beautiful, open plan setting allows the sun to filter in, making it a gorgeous setting for a long lunch. Horseradish, specially grown for Jurlique at the farm next door, is usually reserved for beauty products but today it’s shaved over gently cured furls of pastrami.

House-made sourdough is served with a very respectable amount of cultured smoked garlic butter. Elsewhere, an addictive mountain pepper brown sauce is served alongside house-made boerewors – part of a nose to tail experience showcasing Angus beef produced five minutes down the road by The Lane CEO Jared Stringer. 

DIRTY DORIS DINER

6 Strathalbyn Rd, Aldgate
dirtydoris.com.au

Generosity is the name of the game at this diner, where diner food rules. Four words for you: Breakfast Ice-Cream Sundae Negroni. Yes, it’s real, and yes, you can get it at this cute little Aldgate eatery where more is most definitely more. Whether that’s breakfast for supper (there’s a whole page devoted to pancakes, and you can order them all day) or supper for breakfast – perhaps the butcher’s cut steak special and a glass of wine?

To take away, there are tins of fancy maple syrup, local coffee beans and hot sauces, everything you need to up the umami quotient in your home kitchen. What started as chef Denny Bradden’s last-minute dinner after a busy service has now turned into a menu favourite. Yes, all hail the cheesy ragu toastie and those that order her. May it be a glorious reign. 

CRAFERS HOTEL

8 Main St, Crafers SA
crafershotel.com.au

A gorgeous sandstone-hewn boutique hotel built inside a heritage pub with one of the most impressive wine cellars in the country. There’s plenty of representation from the locals including Gentle Folk, Ochota Barrels and Lucy Margaux and if you’re really keen to push the boat out, the grand crus go as deep as your pockets will allow.

A jewel in the Hills offering boutique accommodation upstairs and fireside dining downstairs, you could really lose yourself for a few evenings here. There’s no need to leave, really. The menu spans a mix of old favourites all with a strong French accent (hello, French onion soup, crumbed chevre and steak frites) with a few choice snacks if you don’t want to leave the bar’s toasty open fire. There’s even a blackberry clafouti for afters. 

PATCH KITCHEN & GARDEN

143 Mount Barker Rd, Stirling SA
patchkitchen.com.au

Chef-owner Andrew Davies (he’s the guy behind Adelaide favourites Osteria Oggi, Press Food and Wine and Bread and Bone) is the mastermind behind this sun-drenched restaurant, set in an old sandstone architect studio. Originally the local post office and many business iterations since – it is now a haven for locals and visitors alike serving a seasonal, locally produced menu.

Dishes here are elegant in their simplicity. Goat ragu dresses house-made gnocchetti sardi with bitter greens; braised oxtail with root vegetables and creamy mash wards off the winter chill, and a rich chocolate tart punctuates proceedings nicely. The perfect setup for a long lunch.

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BRESAOLA PIZZA

ELEMENTI | PADDINGTON

Three friends were sitting in a bar and decided that they were going to open a restaurant. Enter Elementi, a neighbourhood Italian restaurant in Paddington.

Open for three years, the venue is built around a beautiful wood-fired oven and designed to feel like you are at a friend’s house. With 70 percent of their customers showing up as regulars, they’re obviously getting it right.

“We are an Italian restaurant that serves what Italian’s eat. Our customers like the food and the familiarity that we offer – we know their names and what they like. Our menu changes every three months, but we have weekly specials – a pasta special, a pizza special, a main special – we aim to create trust with our customers and to give them something new every time.”

In 2023, chef Stefano Spataro attended the Pizza World Championships in Parma, Italy. He competed against 450 of the world’s best pizza makers finishing 97th – and the number one spot in Australia. Accordingly, the pizza at Elementi is exceptionally good.

“Everything I am doing here is based around fresh ingredients and using produce as local as possible. We try and make and process as much as possible in house. Nothing comes out of a tin. My natural sourdough starter I have been feeding for six years, and the lady who gave it to me had been feeding it for five years prior – he even has a name, Tutti Frutti.”

This simple and classic Italian pizza is built on a sourdough base with fresh mozzarella, fior di latte, taleggio and a sprinkle of parmesan. It hits the blistering hot oven, fueled by Queensland sourced red iron bark, then topped with paper thin slices of fresh bresaola, broadleaf rocket, toasted hazelnuts, and balsamic vinegar from Modena.

The base is Tipo 00 flour sourdough base, fresh mozzarella, fior di latte, taleggio cheese, sprinkle of parmesan – into the oven – then topped with fresh bresaola, broadleaf rocket, toasted hazelnut and balsamic vinegar from Modena.

OVEN BAKED LAMB SHOULDER

GRECA | HOWARD SMITH WHARVES

Taking pride of place on the bustling Howard Smith Wharves precinct, Greca has cemented itself as one of Brisbane’s best loved restaurants and is constantly heaving with hungry diners keen to explore its modern Greek menu.

Greca is the sister restaurant to the Apollo in Sydney, part of chef and restauranteur Jonathan Barthelmess suite of venues in the Apollo Group. Group Development Chef Oscar Solomon has eight years under his belt with the group, having started his apprenticeship at the Apollo, and now splits his time between Sydney and Brisbane.

For Solomon, lamb shoulder is the dish that people want to eat when they head to a Greek restaurant – and with rave reviews in both Sydney and Brisbane, the Apollo or Greca are certainly the place to experience it.

Square cut lamb shoulder is rubbed with a house-made spice rub then placed in a tray with tomatoes, dried spices, bay leaf, thyme and cinnamon. Chicken stock and lemon juice are added then it is covered and cooked for 12 hours on very low heat. The next day, the lamb is removed, and the liquid strained off and turned into a lamb reduction. To serve, the shoulder is re-roasted for crispy skin and served with a big dollop of greek yoghurt tzatziki, lemon juice and olive oil.

“This lamb shoulder dish exists in two cities, at our sister restaurant the Apollo and here at Greca. I don’t think our restaurants would exist without it – it’s pretty much the cornerstone of the whole restaurant,” Solomon said.

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Best Practice

BRAISING: BEEF DAUBE

Braising, in its purest form, emerged as a frugal one-pot dish that provided sustenance using simple, seasonal ingredients. It was a nourishing meal traditionally prepared for those toiling in the fields, often serving as their sole source of hot sustenance for the day.

BEEF DAUBE

Serves 4

Ingredients

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People Places Plates

“It’s all about good produce and just done well. People just want good food that hasn’t been sitting in bain-maries for God knows how long. You don’t have to serve five garnishes with it and trick it up, we just want to make it fresh and clean.”

“I think it’s one of the best burgers you can get in Sydney – and I’m saying that with my Merivale hat off. It’s on a Big Marty sesame seed bun from Martin’s. Dry-aged beef, caramelised onions. Really delicious.”

People Places Plates

“New Year’s Eve is mostly Chinese diners, and it’s booked out a year in advance, and it’s the same families coming back year after year, booking 12 or 20 or 50 people. Every year it’s the same people. New Year’s Day is more of a mix, but it’s booking out well in advance now too.”

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Spotlight On

SPOTLIGHT ON:

FLINDERS ISLAND

“It’s been a battle but the help from the locals has been phenomenal so it’s finally worked out. When you’ve got things like the abattoir processing local meats, it adds to the attraction to get people here,” Charlie said.

“People come here expecting a restaurant experience and what they get is this very kind of rustic trellis hung with Quoin Farm beef, seaweed, gummy sharks, and local wallaby,” Pip said.

Best Practice

SURF & TURF

LAMB, MARRON & VADOUVAN

Serves 4

Roast Lamb Ingredients

Method

Vadouvan Spiced Marron Tails Ingredients

Method

Hot Plates

Sydney’s not shy when it comes to its new cohort of eateries where protein takes pride of place – bountiful brasseries, swanky steakhouses, beefy bistros are aplenty, and we can’t get enough of it.

Hot Plates

Open near on 18 months, Allonda is the sister-restaurant to NOTA Restaurant and Wine Bar located across the city in Paddington. Tucked away in a laneway space, the venue seats 90 and offers diners a European-inspired menu including a burrata bar.

What’s Good in the Hood

BONDI

THE PROMENADE

TOTTI’S

ICEBERGS DINING ROOM AND BAR

THE DEPOT

TAQIZA

BONDI TRATT

DA ORAZIO

BURGER PARK BY FISH SHOP

What’s Good in the Hood

ADELAIDE HILLS

THE SCENIC HOTEL

SUMMERTOWN ARISTOLOGIST

THE LANE VINEYARD

DIRTY DORIS DINER

CRAFERS HOTEL

PATCH KITCHEN & GARDEN

Tasty Meats

BRESAOLA PIZZA

ELEMENTI | PADDINGTON

OVEN BAKED LAMB SHOULDER

GRECA | HOWARD SMITH WHARVES

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