Happy Halloween

This morning's SMH reports that sales of fangs have apparently skyrocketed in the lead-up to Halloween, thanks to a Twilight led resurgence of interest in all things vampirish but my favourite Halloween costume, is without a doubt this one... Lobster baby!

Mum and Dad may regret this particular choice when they're forking out for years of therapist's bills ("I can't understand it Doctor, I just have this fear of being eaten...") but I think it's hilarious!

For more impossibly cute photos of kids' Halloween costumes (including a Thanksgiving turkey and a hamburger), check out Celebuzz's photo gallery.

Dresses to dream about

Several months ago I was asked to proofread a book called Dreaming of Dior by Charlotte Smith (HarperCollins Publishers). As it happens the timeframe of the job changed at the last minute meaning I wasn't able to do it, but as I'd already been sent a few pages of the manuscript, I read them for curiousity's sake. And wasn't I pleased that I did?

Dreaming of Dior is a lovely little book about gorgeous frocks and the stories behind them - the women who wore them; the events they wore them to; the things they stood for, and the memories and emotions they evoked...  Each story in the book is accompanied by a stunning illustration by renowned fashion illustrator Grant Cowan.

As charming as the book itself is the story of how it came into being: the author apparently inherited a priceless vintage clothing collection from her American Grandmother Doris Darnell. Collected over a lifetime, the collection included more than 3000 pieces dating from 1790 to 1995, from flapper dresses, edwardian bustle skirts and modest pioneer frocks to Chanel and Dior originals. Most had been given to Doris by friends and acquintances who'd heard about the collection, passing not just their gowns but also the stories behind them which Doris filed away for posterity. As Doris herself notes in a letter to Charlotte, "each piece was a springboard to history."

It isn't possible to do the stories justice here but after coming across this slideshow of illustrations from the book, I have to share it. Enjoy!

Waste not, want not: part 2

StreetSmart may be asking diners to help the homeless by leaving a small donation on their bill (see Tuesday's post), but another organisation Foodbank is taking the opposite tack to help alleviate hunger, asking big business to donate food in bulk.

Known as the “pantry of the welfare system”, Foodbank Australia is Australia’s largest national food relief organisation, distributing more than 18 million kilograms of food last year to welfare agencies nationally for use in prepared meals and food parcels. That’s the equivalent of about 60,000 meals every day.

While the corporate feel-good factor for the more than 500 producers and retailers who regularly donate (including Campbell Arnotts, Golden Circle, Goodman Fielder, Coles & Woolies) is a no-brainer, there’s another benefit to the scheme which shouldn’t be underestimated: the reduction of food waste. Producers and retailers often end up with food that is perfectly safe but is unable to be sold for one reason or another – perhaps because the packaging is damaged or it’s close to its use-by date – and which would usually end up at the tip. Skips behind supermarkets are notorious for being full of dented tins, deleted product lines and day old bread.

Such profligate waste has led a small but growing number of people to turn to “skip dipping”, a form of conscientious objection to consumerism which involves going through commercial skips and rubbish bins for useful goods, including food. Also known as “freegans”, the majority of skip dippers are well-educated urban dwellers for whom saving money is secondary to making a point about the amount of “stuff” - about 1.6 tonnes per person - Australians send to landfill every year.

While supermarkets are understandably less than impressed with the idea of people turning their trash into dinner, and actively do what they can to discourage it, freegans maintain it’s possible to live well (and without risk to their health) on food that is thrown away.

Skip dipping isn’t for everyone – you won’t find me skulking around behind my local Coles – but is it really such a bad idea to minimise the amount of waste that goes to landfill? Items such as beauty products, light bulbs, electrical goods, tools and clothing are apparently also up for grabs. You could argue that it’s no different from picking up a funky lampshade or old stool from a neighbour’s nature strip on council pick-up day. At the very least, the practice should serve as a reminder to be more conscious of what we throw away.

Food for thought

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
Charles M. Schulz

Help solve homelessness, one meal at a time

They say that charity begins at home but in this case it begins with a pleasant meal out at a restaurant of your choice.

Street Smart Australia’s 2009 Restaurant Campaign has a tag line of “dine out... help out” and the idea really is as simple as that. From November 9th until Christmas Eve, Street Smart joins up with restaurants in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory to ask diners to help the homeless by adding a small donation - $2 or more - to their bill.

Now in its sixth year, last year’s campaign raised $260,000 plus an extra $100,000 for bush fire survivors, with 100% of donations going to small grassroots organisations (everyday operational expenses are funded by corporate sponsors).

According to Street Smart’s website 238 restaurants have signed up so far, with more joining daily. A quick search of the site shows that the Sydney list includes dining hotspots such as Bistro Moncur, Bondi Trattoria, Danks St Depot, Fix St James, Glebe Point Diner, Kazbah on Darling, Le Grande Bouffe, Longrain, Nilgiri’s, Oscillate Wildly, The Book Kitchen, Universal Restaurant and Vini.

With such great restaurants participating there’s absolutely no reason not to get behind this fantastic campaign by planning your silly season socialising around venues that have signed up. Your donation may be less than the cost of a takeaway cappuccino but it will make a big difference.

Food for thought

"If we're not willing to settle for junk living, we certainly shouldn't settle for junk food."
Sally Edwards

Hair's looking at you

Congratulations to Melbourne’s Vue de Monde restaurant, which was namees Restaurant of the Year at last week’s 2009 Savour Australia National Awards for Excellence. A favourite with Melbourne foodies and assorted celebs, Vue de Monde also took out the award for Best Fine Dining Restaurant at Restaurant & Catering Australia’s annual shindig.

I have to admit I haven’t eaten at Vue de Monde but I did see chef and owner Shannon Bennett do a cooking demonstration at a Meat & Livestock Australia function a few years ago. This particular day he was sharing his ideas on utilising less expensive cuts of meat in slow-cooked dishes, a subject after my own heart. What a shame I was too distracted by the chef’s scraggly, unruly, slightly dirty-looking hair to enjoy what he had to say. I don’t have a problem with long hair on men and I’m sure Shannon’s wasn’t actually dirty but I just couldn’t help thinking ‘Dude. Please. Tie it back’. I have no evidence that any of Shannon’s hair has ever ended up in any dish he’s ever cooked but is there anything worse than finding a stray hair in your meal? Personally I find my own hair off-putting enough once it’s no longer attached to my head but someone else’s? Eeuww!

On the menu tonight

After several extraordinarily busy months of going out at least three to four nights a week, I am finally settling back into my usual routine of staying in and cooking dinner from scratch most nights. While my home cooking arguably doesn’t offer such good material for this blog, I find cooking both relaxing and immensely satisfying, even when I’m the only one sitting down to eat. Throw in some lovely company and a decent bottle of vino, as I plan to tonight, and well, that’s a five-star evening in my book...

With the silly season just around the corner this current “domestic goddess” phase won’t last but in the meantime I plan to wallow in it. On the menu tonight? Chicken and mushrooms cooked in white wine, served with spring greens polenta.

Waste not, want not

In the same week that the ABC news reported  that Australians are estimated to waste more than $5 billion worth of food and drink every year it was interesting to read the following quote in Good Living from Slow Food founder and “high priest” Carlo Petrini: “The refrigerator was invented to preserve food; now it is just a step on the way to the rubbish bin”.

With Australians throwing away, on average, the equivalent of one out of every five bags of food they buy, including $630 million of uneaten takeaway, it’s a point worth making. As a nation we need to be more aware of how much we’re buying and how much we’re really going to use.

An often unacknowledged problem is that not only are we wasting money every time we throw out a punnet of furry strawberries or bowl of leftover steamed rice, is that we’re also wasting all the resources that went into producing it – for example, water used to irrigate the crops, electricity for powering refrigerators, and fuel used to transport produce from the farm to your local supermarket.

University of Western Sydney academic, Professor Phillip O’Neill, believes the waste is a product of good intentions to buy fresh food and cook it at home.

"I think by the end of the week our good intentions have been eroded by our busy lives, about the ease of a takeaway or an eat-out," he said in the ABC report.

As a freelancer who lives within a pleasant stroll of a number of excellent food providores including Costis Seafood, AC Butchery, Bakers Delight, Norton Street Grocer and of course, Coles, I get around the whole food waste dilemma by shopping daily, or at most every second day, for only as much as I know I’m going to use to use in the next 24 or 48 hours.

While I understand this isn’t going to work for everyone, especially if you have a large family, anyone can cut down on the amount of food they waste by being organised. There are dozens of websites dedicated to the subject (including fantastic UK site Love Food, Hate Waste) but the top three tips to keep in mind are:

1) Make a shopping list to cut down on impulse buys

2) Plan meals in advance

3) Check the pantry and fridge before you shop to avoid doubling up

If I had a garden I would also add “throw scraps into a compost bin or worm farm”, to ensure food waste isn’t really wasted, onto that list. As it is I’ve been in contact with my local council about getting their food waste recycling program extended to our apartment complex. Will let you know how I go.

Keeping it all in the family

Australia’s first lady of food Margaret Fulton celebrated her 85th birthday last week with a gala dinner in the Strangers’ Dining Room at Sydney’s Parliament House, an event which coincided with the arrival in my letter box of the “blad” (a pre-publication sampler of a book’s content) of My Thrifty Kitchen by Suzanne & Kate Gibbs. The food director of BBC Australian Good Food, Suzanne is Margaret’s daughter. Kate, described in the book’s press release as "a third-generation foodie and home cook", is Suzanne’s daughter and Margaret’s granddaughter. Obviously the apple that is a passion for food and cooking doesn’t fall far from the Fulton/Gibbs family tree.

The phenomenon of professions running in families, when there isn’t an actual family firm for second and third generations to work in, is one I’m interested in, especially since we Wrights, like the Murdochs and the Packers, are a multi-generational media family (albeit on a marginally less affluent scale!).

Growing up, one of the few pieces of career advice my mum, an advertising copywriter, and dad, a photo-journalist-turned-PR-exec, gave us girls was not to pursue a career into the media and yet here we both are. My sister Sam, the art director of a glossy newspaper magazine, even went so far as to marry another magazine art director.

So how did Mum and Dad fail so spectacularly in steering us away from the stressful, deadline-driven, often poorly paid and at times head-bangingly frustrating world of media towards something more sensible like, oh, I don’t know, medicine or accounting? Leaving aside our shared lack of interest in anything vaguely scientific or mathematical, I think it’s because my parents showed us by their everyday example how exciting and rewarding working in such a vibrant, creative industry could be.

As children Sam and I were exposed to a myriad of interesting, artistic people and challenging, exciting ideas and experiences. How could we have ended up doing anything different? These days, I often look at my niece and nephew growing up in the midst of Sam and husband John’s large extended “family” of friends – photographers, artists, cartoonists, graphic designers, journalists and editors – and I can’t help but wonder if the kids will be as attracted to a career as we were.

What the media will actually be by the time Hope and Jack are ready to enter the workforce is a completely different question...

Food quiz answers

Here are the answers to yesterday's quiz. How did you go?

1) False. Strong flour is flour with a high gluten content, used for making bread. 2) Margaret Fulton 3) (c) 92% 4) Bottle opener 5) Pate has a heavy texture while a mousse is lighter, usually due to the addition of cream or egg whites, or because the ingredients have been beaten together to incorporate air in the mixture. 6) Gourmet 7) Chocolate syrup 8) Saffron 9) (b) wheat 10) Indian

Friday food quiz

Happy Friday! Doesn't this photo of watermelon make you want some? Roll on summer, I say... In the meantime, here is quick quiz to test your foodie knowledge.

1. Strong flour is flour which has a stronger, more definite flavour to it. True or false?

2. Which Australian cooking legend celebrated her 85th birthday this week with a gala dinner at NSW’s Parliament house?

3. What percentage of a watermelon is water? a) 75% b) 88% c) 92%

4. A waiter’s friend is a type of what?

5. What is the difference between a mousse and a pate?

6. Which iconic US food magazine closed this week after more than 60 years?

7. What edible substance did Alfred Hitchcock use for blood in the famous shower scene in the movie Psycho?

8. What is the world’s most expensive spice?

9. Bulgur is a form of what type of grain? a) oats b) wheat c) barley

10. Chapattis are a type of unleavened flat bread found in which cuisine?


Answers tomorrow!

A simple sorry would have sufficed

Someone should perhaps remind Sydney celebrity chef Neil Perry, of Rockpool, Rockpool Bar and Grill and Spice Temple fame, of the old adage about happy customers telling two people about their experience, unhappy customers telling 10.

The chef got an nasty surprise earlier this month when he opened his email inbox to find that an angry email exchange he’d had with an unhappy customer had gone viral, dropping into potentially thousands of inboxes under the heading "Neil Perry ... what a tosser".

After customer Fleur Clapham emailed Perry to complain about an incident-riddled evening she and her partner had experienced at Perry’s Rockpool Bar and Grill, he fired off a series of defensive and, according to Clapham, "unnecessarily sarcastic and incredibly rude" emails.

There are, as Perry points out in today’s  SMH story about the incident, two sides to every story, so I’ll let you make up your own mind as to who's in the right but from my point of view, these few misguided missives may have severely put a dent in the public good will earned for Rockpool Bar and Grill by being named best new restaurant in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards last month.

Read Clapham and Perry’s email exchange here.

Food for thought

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
J.R.R. Tolkien

A buffet of food memoirs

Recommending Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain's drug fuelled expose of what really goes on in professional kitchens, as good holiday reading to my friend S on the weekend reminded me of some other chef’s autobiographies and food-related memoirs I’ve enjoyed. Here are a few of my favourites:

Humble pie, Gordon Ramsay
I admit I had a bit of a crush on Gordon Ramsay when I read this enjoyable and surprisingly insightful autobiography but who could fail to be fascinated by the life story of arguably the most f****** controversial celebrity chef of all time.

I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, Giulia Melucci
This deliciously funny and sometimes poignant tale is Giulia Melucci’s account of her dating history, the dishes she used to seduce the men in her life and the comfort food she consoled herself with after her relationships fizzled out – with recipes! (For more on this fabulous book, see my post from 20th July, “Food + relationships = a perfect partnership”)

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, Ruth Reichl
The editor of the now defunct Gourmet magazine focuses on her life as a food critic in this great book, dishing up a feast of fabulous meals enjoyed during her time as a restaurant critic at The New York Times, often dining in disguise.

Lilla’s Feast, Frances Osborne
This is the story of Lilla Eckford, Frances Osborne’s great-grandmother, a British colonialist who sustained herself through three years of semi-starvation in a Japanese camp during the second world war by writing the cookbook that lies at the heart of lovely memoir.

Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
Only a third of Elizabeth Gilbert’s gloriously evocative spiritual travelogue is about food but it makes me want to abandon everything, right this second, and hop on a plane to Italy in search of la dolce vita.


And some that I’d like to read:


White Slave, Marco Pierre White
Another British chef with a fearsome reputation, most of what I know about Marco Pierre White comes from Gordon Ramsay’s Humble Pie. I’d be interested to read White’s version of their falling out.

Waiter Rant: Behind the Scenes of Eating Out, The waiter
This book is based on the blog Waiter rant and has been described as "a front of house version of Kitchen Confidential".

Julia Child: A Life, Laura Shapiro
After watching the movie Julie & Julia recently, I’m fascinated with American cookbook writer and TV chef Julia Child and think that she deserves a full bio-pic. I’d certainly like to read more about her amazing life.

Heat: an amateur's adventures as kitchen slave, line cook, pasta maker, and apprentice to a Dante-quoting butcher in Tuscany, Bill Buford
Journalist Bill Buford recounts his experiences as "slave" to chef Mario Batali in the small, chaotic, only-the-best-will-do kitchen of three-star New York restaurant, Babbo.

Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell.
This classic book is often quoted by foodies and apparently contains a remarkably graphic behind-the-scenes look at restaurant kitchens in the ‘20s and ‘30s.

Any other suggestions?

Just because you are a judge, it doesn't mean you should

Is it just me or is Matt Preston, the cravat wearing judge from Masterchef, a touch overexposed right now? When a press release landed in my in-box this morning asking “Would You Like to Have Lunch with Matt Preston?” the words “no thanks” flashed into my mind before I’d even had a chance to properly register the question.

I understand that the man is on the promotional trail for his new book, the abominably named Cravat-a-licious (below, Random House), but he is everywhere... Reflecting on his giddy rise to fame in The SMH; eating his way though The Michelin Guide’s top five restaurants in Good Weekend; sharing snapshots from his photo album in a weekend newspaper supplement; talking up Don’s salamis at a Sydney function last week; making bookstore appearances, and of course, presiding over the launch of the book itself at Fratelli Fresh. Media commentators such as The Australian’s Amanda Meade write about his newfound position as a “household name”, unlikely “sex symbol” and “powerful media player”. The Age’s Catherine Denevy wrote on the weekend about having a “crush on Matt Preston” despite him being a man whose motto is “’No hair too floppy, no pants too white’.”

I could perhaps forgive him his moment in the sun, if it wasn’t for a couple of cracks in the soulful, passionate foodie facade he so successfully presented on Masterchef. The first thing I’m struggling with is that the cover of Cravat-a-licious declares Preston the “World’s best food journalist”. Ummm, yes, he did in fact win  Le Cordon Bleu's 2007 World Food Media Awards' Best Food Journalist award, but if the biennial awards had been held again this year as I would have expected them to be, he might already have lost his crown. Instead, they are being held in 2010. At the very least I would have liked to have seen the title sourced back to Le Cordon Bleu to give it some sort of weight and credibility. As it stands at the moment, it seems a little immodest.

The other thing I’m seriously unimpressed with is his ill-conceived jibe at Spicks & Specks team captain Myf Warhurst. Waxing lyrical about his vast collection of cravats in a  SMH feature Matt casually mentioned that he’d named one of them Myf after the TV and radio presenter because it is "short and slightly wide". Leaving aside his own physical stature, it’s completely inappropriate for anyone in the public eye (or anyone at all) to make a joke at someone else’s expense because of their weight, size or body shape.

Myf, responding in a column in Friday’s The Age obviously took the comment personally (as I would have), although she handled it with applaudable good grace and good humour.

"I had a crush on TV's newest glamour boy, and now I want to take it back," Warhurst wrote. "This was like high school when I was told that I had been 'dropped' by my first boyfriend; the message delivered by his best friend. If I was 14, I'd scratch Matt's name off my pencil case."

Her column goes on to discuss the pressures of looking slim in the public eye, and her love of food.

“I'm not making excuses for my weight, but I am the height of Kylie Minogue (five foot nothing) and, quite frankly, in order not to look fat on screen, Kylie must eat like a bird and work out harder than Olivia Newton-John in her Let's Get Physical clip. Being short, there's just nowhere for it to go. Except sideways. And I can't eat like a bird. I like to eat bird! Roasted, with gravy. And scalloped potatoes.”

Good for you Myf, that’s normal. Starving yourself to look super-skinny on television is not. If the response on twitter to her column is anything to go by, I’m certainly not alone in thinking that Myf is lovely, just the way she is.

In Matt’s defence, he did apparently call Myf afterwards to apologise and said “the article had omitted the part about the cravat being beautiful”. Fair enough but it still shouldn’t have happened. As I recall, one of the things the Masterchef judges prided themselves on was eschewing the negative Idol-style put-downs for feel-good feedback and encouragement. Surely, we should be applying that rule to people in general and not judging them on how they look.

Food quiz answers

Here are the answers to yesterday's quiz. How did you go?

1) Vegemite Cheesybite  2) True  3) (b) Cream cheese  4) At least four  5) Remembrance  6) Soybeans  7) The stomach lining  8) (b) Beef  9) Champagne or sparkling wine and orange juice  10) She shrunk until she was just 10 inches tall

Friday food quiz

Happy Friday! Here are a few trivia questions to help the day go faster.

1. What have Kraft changed the name of the product briefly known as iSnack2.0 to?

2. The type of yeast used in making bread (above) and beer is a type of fungi. True or false?

3. The Italian ingredient mascarpone used in the dessert tiramisu is a type of what? a) sour cream b) cream cheese c) custard

4. How many serves of grain-based foods do Australian nutrition guidelines recommend adults eat daily?

5. What is rosemary known as the “herb of”?

6. The Japanese bar snack edamame is made from which type of beans?

7. Tripe is the name for which part of a cow’s anatomy?

8. Yorkshire puddings are traditionally served with which type of roast meat? a) pork b) beef c) lamb

9. What are the ingredients of a mimosa cocktail?

10. What happened to Alice in Alice in Wonderland when she drank from the bottle labelled “drink me”?

Answers tomorrow!

Do you want fries with that painting?

Sacre bleu!, is this the end of “capital c” Culture as we know it? McDonald’s has announced that it is opening its 1142nd restaurant next month, to be located in none other than the Louvre museum in Paris. The UK’s Telegraph newspaper has reported that French art lovers and gastronomes alike are "choking on their gitanes" in outrage. The general consensus seems to be that Mcdonalds is too low-brow to grace the hallowed halls of the Louvre. God forbid that the smell of fries should waft past the famously aloof visage of the Mona Lisa...

A museum spokesperson confirmed the news, saying that “it had agreed to a 'quality' McCafe and a McDonalds 'in line with the museum's image'.” The two outlets will apparently represent the American segment of a new food court, and be situated ''among [other] world cuisines and coffee shops''.

I am not a fan of McDonalds personally. I stop in at McDonalds in Lithgow with my sister a couple of times a year en route to our parents place in Mudgee, mainly because it has clean bathrooms, not bad coffee (these things are relative and it is Lithgow) and a decent playground for my niece and nephew to let off steam in. The food doesn’t really come into but at least it’s consistent – I know exactly what I’m going to get every time I order.

In an ideal world I would prefer McDonalds, along with other global monsters such as Starbucks and KFC, didn’t exist but given that it does, why shouldn’t it be in the Louvre? One of the consistent criticisms levelled at institutions such as the Louvre is that they’re elitist, positioning art (and other forms of “high culture” such as opera and ballet and classical music) outside the realm of common experience. Given that Mcdonalds is the antithesis of elitist, perhaps the ‘Big Mac factor” is just what museums such as the Louvre need to make them more accessible to people who might otherwise feel intimidated. It’s unlikely that anyone will visit the Louvre just to eat at Maccas but if eating a “Royale with Cheese” (as John Travolta famously proclaims the Quarter Pounder with Cheese is known in France in cult film Pulp Fiction) makes their experience while there more enjoyable, is that so terrible? It’s not as if there aren’t other food choices on offer.

Certainly, not everyone in France is aghast at the idea of eating under the glow of the golden arches. The Telegraph reports that “while business in brasseries and bistros is in free fall, the fast food group opened 30 outlets last year in France and welcomed 450 million customers”. C’est la vie, unfortunately.

Something for your reading list

Writing about Women's Health yesterday reminded me of a foodie blog I've been following for the last few weeks, How to shuck an oyster, written by one of the women I worked with on that magazine, Charlotte Wood. The award-winning author of three novels, The Children, The Submerged Cathedral and Pieces of a girl, and editor of an upcoming anthology of stories about siblings, Brothers & Sisters, Charlotte writes with intelligence and insight about "food, reading and writing" on her blog. I definitely recommend checking it out.

RIP Gourmet magazine

I was sorry to hear yesterday that Conde Nast in the US will close Gourmet magazine, not only because Gourmet offered some top-notch food-porn but because I know how devastated the staff must be feeling. Upset about losing their jobs, yes, but also emotionally bereft at having the plug pulled on a magazine that they passionately believed in and gave 110% to produce every month.

I felt the same way when Pacific Publications announced they were closing Women’s Health back in 2001. It was the Friday before Christmas and I’d stayed late the previous night, putting the finishing touches on a fitness feature for the next issue. Arriving in the morning it was business as usual, right up until the point where the CEO walked in and, to borrow a word from Batman, kaboom!, it was all over bar the drinking.

Women’s Health (no relation to the Women’s Health magazine now available) was a fantastic magazine but I believe it was ahead of its time. Of the many health magazines now available, only Good Health (formerly Good Health & Medicine) was up and running in 2001. Consumer interest in healthy living was still weak and advertising was weaker. Good Health & Medicine had the advantage of being able to package ad pages with those of other ACP titles such as The Australian Women’s Weekly, but despite fresh, inspirational, exciting editorial content, we floundered. Given time and ideally, more marketing dollars, I’m sure Women’s Health would have found its feet but management, in their wisdom, decided it wasn’t to be.

Gourmet apparently also suffered a severe decline in ad pages in recent years but with a 70-year history and renowned foodie Ruth Reichl at its helm, it still must have come as a shock. According to a blog on the New York Times Website the Gourmet staff held a wake at Editor-in-chief Reichl’s apartment with “wine and liquor carted away from the office”.

From memory, our team went for a boozy lunch at Cargo Bar in King Street Wharf that stretched way past dinner and was charged as a last hurrah to our editor’s corporate credit card. As devastating as the reason for that get-together was, it was, ironically, a great team-bonding exercise.

Glib as it may sound I’d like to say to the Gourmet team that sometimes bad things happen for good reasons, even if those reasons aren’t immediately obvious, and that there will be other fantastic opportunities for them in the future. In my case, if I hadn’t been made redundant that day, then I probably wouldn’t have found my niche in food writing.

Julia & Julia: finally!

Having finally seen Julie & Julia as part of the Sydney International Food Festival, I have to say that while it was enjoyable it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be. Yes, I probably did build up my expectations beyond the flick’s realistic potential but given my newfound obsession with food blogging, I felt I could really relate to the story of Julie Powell, the novice cook who blogged her way through 520+ recipes from Julia Child’s classic cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a single year.

Unfortunately, in the end, I found Julie to be a bit of a drip. In fairness to both Julie and actress Amy Adams (above right) who plays her in the film, it’s probably not her/their fault. The tagline for the movie’s publicity materials declare that it’s based on “two true stories” and the fact is that Julia Childs’ life story, with the legendary Meryl Streep playing the French home-cooking guru, by far eclipses Julie’s story. The richness of Julia’s life as an American diplomat’s wife in ‘50s Paris contrasts with Julie’s day-to-day existence in 2002 Queens like butter and low-fat cooking spray.

This movie is largely about parallel lives and yet  for me, there is no parallel. I admire what Julie did - it showed passion, dedication and vision at a time when food blogging was still in its infancy (on a dollars and cents level, I think she’s still one of the few people to make money out of it) but for me the Julie Powell half of the story felt too thin to anchor the twin storyline. Julie herself came across as whiny and self-absorbed. Julia on the other hand exudes passion, elegance and eccentricity, and despite Meryl’s somewhat exaggerated (surely?) mimicry of the real life Child’s accent and mannerisms, is by far the more well-rounded person.

It goes without saying that the other star of the movie is the food itself. Mastering the Art of French Cooking has made it on to US bestseller lists since the release of the movie there in August and I wouldn’t be surprised if it does the same thing here.



PS: I stumbled across Julie Powell’s current blog a couple of months ago and have been dropping in intermittently since. I’ve found stepping back to the original Julie/Julia Project pages quite fun but otherwise, it seems to lack direction. I’d be interested to know what you think.

Quiz answers

Here are the quiz answers. How did you do?

1) Queensland Premier Anna Bligh 2) False. Abalone is a type of sea snail. 3) The carrot family. 4) b) their smell. 5) Gingerbread. 6) Strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. 7) True. 8) Tracy Grimshaw. 9) Pistachios and almonds. 10) Vodka.

Friday food quiz

Ok, here’s this week’s quiz. Good luck!

1) Which state Premier is currently appearing on Celebrity Masterchef?

2) Abalone is a variety of sea cucumber. True or false?

3) The herbs chervil, parsley, coriander and dill are all members of which vegetable family?

4) Durians, also known as the “king of the fruit”, are banned from many hotels in South East Asia because of which characteristic? a) their phallic shape b) their smell c) their aphrodisiac qualities

5) What was the witch’s house in the classic children’s fairytale Hansel and Gretel made from?

6) Neapolitan ice-cream consists of layers of which three flavours?

7) Basil is Greek for Royal or kingly. True or false?

8) Which Australian TV host recently called Gordon Ramsay an “arrogant narcissist” after falling foul of his potty mouth?

9) Which two types of nuts are mentioned in the Bible?

10) What type of spirit is in a Bloody Mary?


Answers tomorrow!

Food for thought

"If you can't love me at my worst, then you don't deserve me at my best."
Marilyn Monroe

Searching for authentic Mexican

Since returning from three weeks in the US late last year I have been searching for a decent Mexican restaurant in the inner-west. Our fair city may be amongst the worlds best for food but when it comes to Mexican, Sydney is a big cheesy mess. Even the chicken burrito I had in San Francisco airport was better than the usual fare dished up by local restaurants such as Montezumas, and let’s face it, airports aren’t usually known for their food. The Mexican food I ate in New York was amazing – varied, subtly nuanced and immensely satisfying. Unlike the Mexican food we’re used to, it didn’t all taste the same (insert choice of tortilla here) and it wasn’t all smothered in cheese.

Unfortunately, finding authentic Mexican food in Australia isn’t easy, possibly because we don’t have a whole lot of authentic Mexicans here to show us the error of our ways (I’ve only met one Mexican living in Sydney and he’s in IT).

The best restaurant I’ve come across so far is Flying Fajita Sisters in Glebe, which gets my vote on the strength of the fish fajitas alone, smokey cubes of chargrilled fish teamed with a range of fillings such as Mexican rice, black beans, guacamole, jalapenos, chilli sauce, sour cream and salad in a roll-your-own tortilla.

Guzman Y Gomez Mexican Taqueria in Newtown also gets points for authenticity but with a brisk takeaway trade and overbright lighting feels more like a fast food joint than a “real food” joint.

I also confess to having a soft spot for Cafe Pacifico in East Sydney but that’s less about the food than the fun party ambiance that makes it feel as though you’ve just stumbled across a village fiesta.

Any other suggestions?