Marilyn July 13th, 2006
Our peaceful road of civilised alfresco dining and exclusive shopping is set to be ‘all shook up’ with a huge street party on Sunday July 23 (10am-5pm). The Brisbane Arts Festival, which runs from July 14-30, has put together a wonderful program of top international, national and local artists, dancers and bands (jazz, r&b, latin, soul, gypsy, soul, funk). They will perform on 3 stages in Racecourse Road, which will be closed to traffic. All the entertainment is FREE.
There will also be over 100 stalls selling handcrafted gifts and food, street performers, kids theatre & circus workshops and a miniature train will transport the littlies and adventurous parents for free, up and down the road.
Bus tours will take people for a look at historic houses on Hamilton hill, telling their stories.
Racecourse Road has a history for doing amazing festivals but this one looks like being the daddy of them all!
Baguette Restaurant will do a casual menu of gutsy winter dishes mostly under $20. The bar will be open from 10am-5pm.
Marilyn July 7th, 2006
Having been in the restaurant industry for 30 years Francis and I have seen it all. In the 1970s in Brisbane badly cooked Anglo food morphed into ”Continental Cuisine” (Veal Schnitzel, Duck a l’Orange and Steak Diane). This became over-worked stuffed, wrapped and napped “Modern Food”, and then we lurched into a misunderstood Aussie version of “Nouvelle Cuisine”. You know the sort of thing — tortured, carved miniatures on over-sized plates. In response “Nostalgia or Nursery Cooking” returned to be followed by “Modern Australian” cooking.
I was reminded of these fashions when reading Michel Roux’s book ‘Life Is A Menu’. Only a Frenchman could come up with this:
‘One of the most chilling experiencesof my life was discovering the British pea. I happened on this fluorescent green object … soon after arriving in London. Through a window I saw plates with these peas, a dollop of tomato ketchup and bleached white bread … I was appalled not only by this sight, but also by the fact that people seemed to be tucking in with such gusto. Like a witness to an atrocity, I told myself I had to put this out of my mind.
Boiled vegetables were served swimming in water with no seasoning and no taste. Then there was sudden switch to the new fashion on eating vegetables crunchy. Asparagus as rigid as a pencil…carrots that flew off the plate when you tried to cut them …”
For many years my husband Francis (also a Frenchman) and I have fought about his insistence on cooking peas until they were the colour of army fatigues – in a stock, for a long time. It must be something in the mothers’ milk in France that dictates that peas must not be green!
Michel Roux, by the way, will be in Brisbane for the Hilton Brisbane Masterclass (see previous post). His book is a fascinating read on how far cooking has come in Britain — and and he and his brother Albert were at the forefront of this change. A very interesting man.
Marilyn June 17th, 2006
Ballistic Chickens
The US Federal Aviation Administration has a unique device for testing the strength of windscreens on aeroplanes. The device is a gun that launches a dead chicken at a plane’s windshield at the speed the plane flies. The theory is that if it doesn’t crack from the carcass impact it will survive a real collision with a bird during flight.
It seems the British were very interested in this and wanted to test a windscreen on a new high speed train they were developing. They borrowed the FAA’s chicken launcher, loaded the chicken and fired. The ballistic chicken shattered the windscreen, went through the engineer’s chair, broke an instrument panel and embedded itself in the back wall of the engine cab.
The British were stunned and asked the FAA to recheck the test to see if everything was done correctly. The FAA reviewed the test thoroughly and had only one recommendation: “Defrost the chicken.”
Reprinted from ‘Feathers’ a California Poultry Industry publication.
Marilyn June 10th, 2006
Brisbane now hosts the longest running successful food and wine Masterclass in Australia. Over the past 12 years The Hilton Hotel Masterclass Weekend has brought in some of the greatest chefs and winemakers from around the world – people like Charlie Trotter and Gordon Ramsay.
The Masterclass offers an interactive 2-day program where you can mingle with chefs and wine professionals, enjoy stimulating debates and indulge yourself in some exceptional food and wine.
This year organisers have enticed acclaimed authors Antonio Carluccio and Michel Roux to demonstrate their cooking mastery. The line-up of epicurean talent from around Australia includes Maggie Beer, Greg Malouf and Continue Reading »
Marilyn May 29th, 2006
Crystal Waters Village (see Slow Food story below) has its own baker, Les, who is happy to explain the process. He also sells at the organic co-op shop in Maleny or at the Noosa markets -delicious organic pumpkin, olive or country loaf sourdour for $5 per loaf. He explained some fascinating facts about why it is better to eat sour dough bread, rather than bread made with (brewers) yeast – which inhibits our ability to absorb protein and is really not suitable for the human gut. Does this explain why so many people these days seem to have problems digesting gluten? He only uses stone ground flour, his own starter and no mould inhibitors or other chemicals commonly found in supermarket breads.
Marilyn May 29th, 2006
Followers of Slow Food want us to rediscover flavour, savour regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food. So yesterday the Brisbane Convivium of Slow Food organised a lunch at Crystal Waters Permaculture Village in the Mary Valley not far from Maleny (Sunshine Coast hinterland). Here everything is lovingly grown in organically enriched soil and the resulting lunch (freshwater crays, organic chicken, beef and venison, salads, farmhouse cheeses and rainforest liqueurs) would put most Brisbane restaurants to shame.
The sheer quality of the ingredients, simply but expertly cooked was superb. Continue Reading »
Marilyn April 24th, 2006
An hilarious article by John Lethlean in The Age (weekend of 22 April) highlighted the lousy literacy and pretentious bullshit of many menus. Bizarre translations drew a big response from his readers. As well as phonetic spelling and the inexplicable Tourette-like random capitalisation mid-sentence’ — guilty as charged!
My favourites are: ‘shatto Brian’ and ‘bosom of chicken’ but the one that won the prize was ‘steak of the day with an accompanying jew’ (the sender was desperate to ask if it was orthodox). For more read the whole article, preferably out loud to some friends after a few drinks — Arise, Sir Loin of Beef
Do you have any examples, or things that bug you about restaurant menus?
Marilyn April 15th, 2006
No ….
…. this is not about cooking food slowly. Slow Food is an international movement based in Italy and it came about as a reaction to fast food giant McDonalds opening a franchise at the bottom of the Spanish steps in Rome, in 1989. Some Italians were particularly incensed at this intrusion into their world of good food, and since then the movement has grown to 83,000 members in more than 100 countries.
Australia is very active and in Brisbane we have 140 members who participate in tastings, dinners and food and wine tourism. Great fun, though at its core Slow Food is very serious about many issues including biodiversity worldwide.
For more information go to www.slowfood.com or if you are interested in the Brisbane activities ring Bob MacLennan 07 3289 0160 or email: bobM@qimr.edu.au
Marilyn April 15th, 2006
One of the hardest things about the restaurant industry is … surviving in the restaurant industry. There are lots of examples of restaurants with great decor and rave reviews that don’t make it past their second birthday.
Baguette Restaurant’s main dining area
In the April 2006 Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine there are two articles about Sydney restaurants that have lasted the distance. The inimitable Claude’s which has had 4 chef/owners over 30 years, plus Bayswater Brasserie (an old favourite since 1982) and The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay (a mere 8 years old).
Gourmet Traveller writes … “The James Beard Foundation Awards in the US are bestowed only on restaurants that have been in operation for a least 10 years … In the precarious world of fine dining — not least of all in neophile Sydney — any restaurant that can reach double digits is doing well. To do so while retaining a cherished position in the hearts (and palates) of a city’s diners is a greater feat still.”
Last year, in conjunction with Style Magazine in Brisbane, I ran a competition to find the oldest restaurant in Brisbane. It had to be a proper restaurant (not a cafe), be in the same location and under the same ownership.
The final contenders were … Continue Reading »
Marilyn March 16th, 2006
Warning!
As someone who has been doing it for 30 years, it has always puzzled me why perfectly normal, intelligent people harbour a dream to own their own restaurant.
Perhaps they think it will give them a life of fun and glamour, with lots of good food and booze thrown in. Hang off the bar entertaining friends, and never having to pick up the bill ..
Unfortunately life wasn’t meant to be that easy, and the reality is quite different. In recent years profit margins in restaurants have become smaller and smaller — the industry average is 3% and if you’re really firing and are a good business person to boot, you may make 8-10%. That’s before tax. Continue Reading »