“Flemington Markets?” the cab driver says looking at me dubiously like I’ve landed from another planet. It’s 5:30am and I guess my half asleep state makes him question my destination (or perhaps I mumbled incoherently). It was my second 4am rise in 2 days. And like the Breakfast on the Bridge, it was something that I gladly rose for. When I was invited to experience a Day In the Life of Justin North, I had an idea that it would be busy (he owns four establishments after all) and full of good food. Little did I know, just how exhausted I would be by the end of it and still no closer to solving the mystery about how he has the energy to do it all.
It’s pouring today – only yesterday, rains had pounded Sydney furiously and they had continued throughout the night into the next day. I’m waiting in the main office at Flemington Markets with a few other people including four competition winners, two from Melbourne and two from Brisbane who had entered a competition to experience “A Day in the Life of Justin” and dine at his restaurants Becasse and Etch.
Justin and his lovely PA Victoria arrive and he explains that there are three large sheds at Flemington Markets and that he and James his Head Chef at Etch head to Flemington markets 2-3 times a week to stock up on fruit and vegetables. The reason why they don’t use a buying agent is so they can get to see the produce themselves and the price fluctuations are so varied that it makes sense to make the decision themselves then and there whether to purchase or not based on what they want to put on the menu. “Watch out for the forklifts” he warns us a couple of times. I’m ready for them having experienced something like this at Tsukiji Markets in Tokyo.
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December 14, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
Or I could subtitle this story as “Mr NQN’s favourite restaurant meal” such was his adoration for the food served to us this day.
” Look, he’s actually cooking here!” I grab Mr NQN’s arm when I see the familiar curly grey flecked hair of New Zealand export to London Peter Gordon. I mean I knew this was one of his lunches but he was well and truly cooking in the kitchen and not just here in name only. I had seen Peter speak at the World Chef Showcase only the day before and he had told us of his upbringing involving plastic corks and a pet lamb which they ate. It was a very much Hunter Gatherer lifestyle typical of NZ at the time. He recalls the first time he had an avocado and the pleasure they had eating it.
Martin Boetz from Longrain
Peter Gordon
I have a quick chat to Peter before he gets started and he talks about the restaurant scene in London. I ask if the GFC has hit his restaurants, The Providores and Tapa Room and he says that it hasn’t much at all, they’re open for breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week and on the ground floor there’s the Tapa Room (named after the large traditional Rarotongan Tapa cloth made from block printed and hand beaten paper mulberry bark on the wall) and on the 1st floor there’s The Providores restaurant. Even since the GFC, in a city as badly hit as London, they’re busier than usual. And this is the man who owned The Sugar Club who Calvin Klein said was his favourite restaurant yet he had never visited and who made headlines when they turned Madonna away.
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December 12, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
If anyone were in any doubt, here in Australia it’s definitely ice cream weather. A couple of 40c plus days resoundingly puts us in ice cream weather and when we’re invited to a Northside BBQ one hot Summer’s Day we feel it our duty to stop by the newly minted Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream shop in Manly on the way home. Open with a soft launch for a few weeks already, this Saturday the 28th of November is the big launch where people can meet Ben & Jerry in person and enjoy some free ice cream (and keep reading for my interview with Ben and Jerry!).
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November 26, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
Justin North
The recent World Chef Showcase was exciting for me for a few reasons. One if them was getting to meet Justin North, the chef and owner of Bécasse restaurant (along with Plan B, Etch and Le Grand Cafe) and the SMH 2009 Chef of the Year. When we got to talking after the show he mentioned the Producer’s lunches assuming that I had been invited but had been too busy to come along. Not so I said and Justin promised to ensure that I’d be on the list for a future Producer’s lunch, an initiative where Justin hosts media and other guests and introduces them to the actual producers that supply the restaurant with their special produce. And sure enough, a couple of days later, I received a phone call from Justin inviting me to a very special one – one with Carlos Petrini as the guest.
Carlos Petrini started the Slow Food Movement which started in 1989 as a way of consciously combating fast food and life and preserve a quality of life in response to people’s waning interest in the food they eat and its origins and it also looks at how our food choices impact the rest of the world. He visited Sydney to be part of the Sydney International Food Festival and held a talk just a few days before at the Opera House.
Margaret Fulton
The crowd is full of media including Helen Greenwood, Lyndey Milan, Indira Naidoo as well as the guest of honour Carlos and his table of guests. Next to him is an interpreter as he does not speak English. Smooth voiced Simon Marnie from ABC 702 is hosting and just as we’re about to start, the 85 year old Margaret Fulton (and shameless flirt who told the crowd when he’d won Chef of the Year that she’d rather see North undressed) arrives, sharp as a tack. Later, when Simon can’t immediately remember the name of the Australian of the Year she names “Tim Flannery” without missing a beat. Justin in his chef’s whites introduces us to everyone and gives us a quick overview of the Producer’s Lunch concept as well as the canapes, breads and amuse bouches.
Canape: Goat’s curd, olive and lemon thyme biscotti sandwich
We start with a canape – what looks like a delicate biscotti sandwich is one speckled with black olive and lemon thyme with a goat’s curd sandwiching it together. The crunchy biscotti combined with the salty goat’s curd makes my tastebuds rather excited.
Freshly baked Becasse bread: pumpkuin brioche, stout epi and garlic Rosemary Auverge
Justin tells us about the bread which is baked every day when the baker arrives at 2am. They are still warm which is always good in my books and the pumpkin brioche is sweet, buttery and with a centre of smooth pumpkin. The stout epi is a bit hard for my taste but the garlic and rosemary auverge is gorgeous and heady in rosemary. Served alongside it is butter or an olive oil solid square – I recall seeing him make something similar at the World Chef Showcase using a product called Glice.
Amuse Bouche: Spring bay Scallop with organic radish stems, green chilli and black pepper served with 2008 Freeman Rondo rose
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October 30, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
I’ve often said things happen very serendipitously for me, especially as far as this blog is concerned. One afternoon I was strolling through Woollahra and I decided to pop into the Donna Hay General Store. I enquired about Halloween decorations (as I tend to do) and the salesperson said that she’d go downstairs and ask Donna. My head did a swivel. Was Donna Hay in the actual store? It turns out she was! She came upstairs with Petrina her business manager and when I mentioned needing the Halloween decorations for my blog they said “Oh you’re Not Quite Nigella?”. You could have knocked me over with a feather. They knew who I was? “We were just talking about you!” they said. It turns out that they actually read my blog!
Donna was dressed casually and she is small in height-I always assumed that she was quite tall from her appearance on Masterchef. They even mentioned taking down the prices of the macarons and making them bigger after reading my comments on it and how for the next 5 days after reading that they asked the customers in the store about how much they’d pay for a macaron! We also discuss her brush with Nigella Lawson – literally, as Nigella rushed past Donna while exiting a London Department Store and getting into a waiting car (she has good manners and apologised for bumping into Donna) and it is with reluctance that I leave as it felt like we could have chatted for a long time.
Rum & Craisin Ice Cream Puddings using a Donna Hay recipe
I had to dash so I chalked that up to one of those funny coincidences and wonderful moments that happen in the food blogging world. Fast foward a few days later and Donna had happily agreed to an interview! So without further ado, here is a Q & A with Donna Hay!
How did you make the transition from a food stylist to food editor at Marie Claire to a cookbook author? Was it hard? What obstacles did you face?
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October 20, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
What is NQN up to now?
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