It was a trip that just didn’t start well. Mr NQN and I were looking forward to visiting the mid north coast of NSW region including Coffs Harbour where he grew up and when the time rolled around he couldn’t make it due to work commitments. I then asked a friend in his place and when three days before we were about to leave she cancelled on me in a frantic state. Luckily I found someone to come with me! Enter the lovely Julie from Gourmet Getaways who happens to live in Coffs Harbour. Sometimes things just work out nicely

So that’s how I find myself in Julie’s car being picked up from Port Macquarie airport on sunny morning. We’re off to taste what the mid north coast of NSW has to offer and in one day we’ll be sampling from macadamias, avocados, cheese, chocolate, blueberries, strawberries and tomatoes. And somehow trying to still fit in our clothes!

Our first stop is Lorne Valley Macadamias where Jo and Ray Scott grow a variety of macadamia nuts and mixed citrus for the Australian market on their 50 acre property. Out the front is a cafe open four days a week with a lovely lush green view of macadamia trees. They make all of the food in-house (excluding the bread, that proved too troublesome Jo tells us). They are part of the Nambucca Nuts cooperative and here they grow, dehusk, sort and dry their macadamias which are then sent to Macksville to the cooperative to be further dried to 1.5% moisture level, sorted and priced. It’s a family run business that has been here for 15 years and Ray’s 86 year old father even helps out with harvesting while his 83 year old mum helps in the cafe.

Lorne Valley Macadamia Farm

The cafe has a good range of salads and sandwiches mostly featuring macadamias but with some exceptions. And instead of using almond meal for their flourless chocolate cake they use a luxurious macadamia meal which is more buttery than an almond meal (and which I cannot wait to try!). But before lunch Ray shows us around the macadamia trees which are mid harvest at the moment with some in bloom.

They have 1,400 macadamia trees and also use about 20 acres for a mixed citrus orchard where they grow tangelos and blood oranges  They grow several varieties of macadamia and they are all hybrid varieties grown for a combination of taste and harvest. There is a variety called H2 which has a particularly tasty nut but they have a thicker shell and therefore a lower return on the weight so other hybrids are more popular with farmers. Each tree has a long flower raceme which has about 100 flowers on it. From these 100 or so flowers you can get between 1-10 nuts on each raceme and variables such as weather can affect the flowers with temperatures above 30-40C killing off the flowers.

Over the years they have learnt that they need to concentrate on quality nuts rather than quantity as there was a recent influx of macadamia nuts from South Africa which were priced at $6-7 a kilo. However it isn’t possible to grow and harvest them here for under $13 a kilo as our costs of labour are higher. This last year they harvested 10 tonne of macadamia and a good year has 12 tonne of macadamias harvested.

And the best way to package macadamias? Vacuum seal them in foil. But of course the problem with foil is that consumers can’t see the macadamias and they like to see the product.  The “00″ nut is the most expensive nut as it is the largest but these are rare and they concentrate on the middle of the range here. Like many farmers they aren’t certified organic but they use organic practices and don’t spray as they live right near the trees and the cafe is nearby. And if you are curious enough to want to grow a macadamia tree, what kind should you buy? There is one breed which has pink flowers and it is self dehusking with thinner outer shells for easy cracking.

Harvest salad $14.90

Speaking of the cafe we’re headed there for lunch. Jo recommends us some salads and I’m very happy about that as the weather is warm and sunny. There’s a harvest salad which has a lovely sweet macadamia and basil style dressing and a mix of roasted vegetables including pumpkin, mushroom  and red capsicum and little cubes of feta amongst the mixed salad leaves and cucumber as well as three crispy lavosh crackers. And of course chunks of roasted macadamias!

Chicken salad $15.90

Now chicken salad can be a risk if the chicken is tough but this is tender and juicy with four generous pieces of chicken and a slightly sweet but well balanced different dressing which has a distinctly Asian flavour to it. The chicken is marinated in chilli, ginger and macadamia satay and there is a layer of caramelised onion on top of the pieces of fresh tomato and salad leaves.

Carrot cake $7

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A few years ago I thought it would be fun to make pies for a living. I made them for a restaurant and I made them using the owner’s secret recipes. They were brilliant recipes but sadly I was sworn to secrecy so I am not able to share the recipes with you. So when I come across a pie shop that makes their own pies I always get a bit excited. Because it gets me closer to my favourite thing in the whole world: pastry (well after Mr NQN ).

Just off King Street in Newtown, The Pie Tin is housed in a heritage listed building. In the front is a large cafe area with separate tables and a large communal table made from a converted trolley. Ordering is at the counter which is where the selection of pies begins. I’m meeting my friend Christie from Fig & Cherry for lunch with her adorable bub Poppy and I go up to the counter to order. It’s a hard choice-we want to start with a savoury pie but we walk past the tempting display of fourteen sweet pies including a peanut butter and chocolate pie, coconut cream pie, cherry ripe cheesecake, American style sweet pumpkin pie, sour cherry pie, a massive apple pie and Oreo pie…oops there I lost myself for a second didn’t I?

But I’m trying to set a good example for Poppy who is eating her own version of carrots and risoni so we start with a savoury pie. There are several options with beef, lamb, pork, chicken and vegetarian pies with flavours like butter chicken, Moroccan lamb and hearty lamb and rosemary as well as a couple of sausage rolls and a Cornish style pastie. A pie meal with two sides on a metal plate is $10 and so we go for the Southern Style pork with apples and a beef & ale pie with potato based on a staff recommendation.

Poppy, just because I adore her

Vintage pie tins and pie funnels

There are four sides to choose from to go with your pie including mushy peas, potato mash, sweet potato mash and baked beans and I want them all but I also love chips and gravy so we have that with one and the sweet potato mash and baked beans with the other. There is also a choice of three salads but I honestly forgot about selecting them-truly! On a side table are house made condiments including a slightly textured tomato sauce and a bbq sauce. And while you’re choosing , behind the counter is a large kitchen where the chefs are preparing the pies.

Big Bertha $7.60

Because I tend to love anything either oversized or miniature I bought a Big Bertha beef pie to take home to Mr NQN. A stocky six centimetres high it is topped with buttery, flaky pastry and generously filled to the top with nicely seasoned tender beef mince and no gristle in sight.

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Zumbo’s Willy Wonka tattoo

The first time I came into contact with Adriano Zumbo‘s creations was in November of 2007. I remember being so excited when I saw them in the store that we drove them home nursing them gingerly like newborns. We took them to my parents’ house eager to try them together and I then rushed home to write about them. It now seems like aeons ago that that happened and now Zumbo is a household name and not just with the food obsessed in Australia. So four years later, what is life like for Australia’s most recognised patissier abd Willy Wonka and torturer of MasterChef contestants? Is it all cakes, macarons, models in bikinis, sportscars and relaxing? The answer to that is yes, yes, sometimes, yes and no. Read on, Dear Reader!

7am

Zumbo in his lounge room

It is 7am on this Friday morning and Adriano Zumbo slips on his shoes in the lounge room of his Balmain house. He’s 29 years old, about to turn 30 in a couple of months as well as open a new place in The Star (formerly Star City), participate in the World Chef Showcase, be a major drawcard at Masterchef Live and has now been lassoed into Macaron Day, the yearly macaron extravaganza that coincides with his birthday where all of his stores carry 60 flavours of macarons and nothing else. He is the boy from Coonamble in country N.S.W. who arrived in Sydney at age 15 from a town of under 3,000 to a city of 3 million.

The wall of his study

And if you’re wondering, his house is kept tidy-the only notable exception is the kitchen which is being used as a temporary test lab with labelled boxes of ingredients on the island in the centre. The patissier is getting ready to leave for his day at work and before anything can be done, he must have his cup of coffee.

7.12am

Zumbo walks to Little Ethel’s cafe where he greets the barista. He is a regular here and while he waits another gentleman holding a baby starts talking to him in what I will learn today is a regular pattern. He is well known among Balmain’s residents and many of them are either patrons of the shop or have met him in one way or another. Cup of coffee in hand he slides into his turbo charged black Renault Megane, and with a deep growl of the engine, his start has begun while most of us are waking.

7:25am

His first visit of the day is the hub of the whole operation, the Rozelle kitchen on Terry Street where thousands of macarons are made a day. They’re aiming for about 20,000 macarons today-reinforcements for the busy weekend ahead. As well as these, there are cakes, breads, pastries, chocolates and just general sweets from the salt and vinegar chips coated in chocolate to nougat to “macaroni road” (rocky road made with macarons-oh so good, just don’t look at the calories per slice ). These are then distributed to one of his four stores ready to be bought and consumed by hungry sweet craving mouths or doled out by people seeking favour with others.

The factory shop is quiet at this hour save for the occasional customer buying coffee. The eating area in the factory has a large window and a few bar stools so that people can perch and watch the chefs making and filling macarons and creating cakes or try and catch a glimpse of him-the last time I was there with him and he was giving us a macaron making masterclass I looked up and saw a crowd eagerly pressed up against the windows and mobile phones taking photos of him.

Zumbo goes upstairs to the office which is his base for his activities and puts down his hessian bag with a large gaping hole. “I really need to get a new one” he says looking at the enormous hole where cords, cds and papers threaten to spill out.  He rests it on a long red banquette with a small built in table and this he calls his desk. Black and white Zumbo themed posters line the walls, all done by a local artist.

7:30am

Macaroni Road

First things first: he walks around the kitchen to greet the staff. He starts on the second floor which is where the chocolate room is located. Chocolatier Karen slices up pieces of the macaroni road. The kitchen goes through 11 tonnes of chocolate a year and currently it is all either Callebaut or Cocoa Barry with a move this year to use Cocoa Barry exclusively and for Zumbo to become an ambassador for them. He is somewhat wary of endorsements or ambassadorships but says that to be included in the list of ambassadors is flattering because of the company that he keeps with many of the chocolatiers or patissiers having a lot more experience than him. He also likes the idea of being loyal to a company.

7:35am

This second coffee for the day is delivered upstairs from the barista in the cafe. Zumbo makes his way downstairs where many of the staff are busy in the main kitchen. He greets his second in charge Dean who has been with him since the very beginning. Dean looks like he has been through the wars-the cake wars as his covered arms sports a spill mark and Zumbo chats to him about how the day has unfolded thus far.

Zumbo and Dean

Inspecting the cakes

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