Times, they are a changing...

After almost a year of freelancing as a food writer and editor, I’m excited to share the news that I’ve accepted a full-time role editing Open House magazine. Open House is a fantastic title aimed at the busy bods behind the scenes at your favourite restaurants and catering companies. I’ve already been contributing to Open House regularly over the last few months and I have lots of great ideas for making the title even more dynamic and exciting in 2010. Can’t wait!

I’m also very excited about what my new job will mean for this blog. As editor of Open House I’ll be keeping abreast of all the latest industry news, attending cool new product launches and chatting with the chefs and restaurateurs making waves, and I’m looking forward to sharing those insights with you. At this stage I’m going to try to keep posting here several times a week but forgive me if it ends up being a little less often while I find my feet.

Will let you know how I’m going next week!

Eat pork, feel sexy. Yes, really!

When Mr Pork himself, Stewart White, emailed me the following story from The Daily Telegraph yesterday the thought crossed my mind that Stewart had planted the story on behalf of his client Australian Pork but no, apparently it is the real deal!

President prefers pork over Viagra


ARGENTINA'S President has recommended pork as an alternative to Viagra, saying she spent a satisfying weekend with her husband after eating barbecued pig meat.

"I've just been told something I didn't know; that eating pork improves your sex life," President Cristina Fernandez said to leaders of the pig farming industry.

"I'd say it's a lot nicer to eat a bit of grilled pork than take Viagra."

She said she recently ate pork and "things went very well that weekend, so it could well be true".

Argentines are the world's biggest per capita consumers of beef, but the government has sought to promote pork as an alternative in recent years due to rising steak prices and as a way to diversify the meat industry.

"Trying it doesn't cost anything, so let's give it a go," Ms Fernandez said in the televised speech.

So there you go, the answer to a lacklustre love life is pork. Mmmm, bacon...

On the subject of pork, Australian Pork announced last week that they'll be sponsoring the new Food Blog category in this year's Australian Food Media Awards, put on by the Australian Association of Food Professionals (formerly Food Media Club Australia). Good to see bloggers finally being recognised as having an important and credible voice.

Food for thought

“Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.”
Erma Bombeck

Give me an "O"

A couple of years ago when I was going to the gym regularly, I used to try to time my sessions on the cross-trainer for 1pm, when The Oprah Winfrey Show was on. Sometimes I’d flick over to The View but mostly I’d plug my headphones in and watch the “Queen of Daytime TV’ (Sorry KAK, we love you but you are but a lady-in-waiting next to the Oprah) hold forth on topics ranging from decluttering your home to how to identify “toxic” friends and making friends with your vagina (yes, really).

Some days Oprah would interview some big star with some big project or not-so-subtle agenda to promote (hello Tom Cruise) but a lot of Oprah’s subject matter relates to coming to terms with your personal issues and learning how to be a better version of yourself. When Oprah says to stop using negative phrases such as “I can’t” or to change light bulbs to energy efficient globes or to vote for Obama, millions of people listen. An Oprah Book Club sticker on the front of a book is the difference between the remainder bin and a number one bestseller. And it’s not just the show – with a magazine, O: The Oprah Winfrey Magazine, and website, Oprah.com, the woman is a full-blown media phenomenon.

Robyn Okrant certainly thought so when she kicked off a year-long experiment in 2008 to live her life according to Oprah’s advice and blog about it. Every time Oprah said to do anything on the show, in the magazine or on the website, Robyn did it, effectively putting every aspect of her life from her wardrobe to her marriage, diet, spiritual life, finances, home and friendships completely in Oprah’s hands.

Living Oprah (HarperCollins, released this month) is the book based on the blog and it makes for fascinating reading, mostly because Robyn is not the obsessive Oprah fan you might expect. She is often out of her comfort zone, frequently worries about the inconsistencies and contradictions that emerge in Oprah’s advice over the year, and questions how much influence any one person should have over others.

Whatever you may think of Oprah, this is an interesting and thought-provoking book on many levels, not least Robyn’s own determination to keep going with a project that cost her not just financially but in terms of her own privacy and her relationship with her husband and family. As much as I enjoy blogging I don’t think I could commit to a project that was as all-consuming as this one.

2010 book project: update #2

Following on from my post 2010 book project: update #1, here are the books I've read in the last fortnight.

Dead as a Doornail and Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
Ahem, two more Sookie Stackhouse/vampire novels... Yes, yes, I know - I’m obsessed.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Death makes a remarkably sympathetic narrator to this book about loss and injustice, beauty and brutality, and finding peace in books.

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
The seventh book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, I read this book in one sitting while in bed with the lergie (or should that be “one lying”?). Come to think of it, I thoroughly recommended reading about the undead for the unwell – this series is fun, distracting, surprisingly well-written but let’s face it, not too challenging. Perfect.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
I loved this post-apocalyptic tale – it’s beautiful, haunting, challenging. The relationship of the father and son is almost like a love affair, all consuming because there is no one else and their survival, perhaps even their humanity, depends upon it. There’s a lot of buzz about the movie, to be released later this month, with Viggo Mortensen tipped for an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the father, but I’m torn about whether to see it. Movie adaptations are so often disappointing.

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris
This was my Saturday night’s entertainment and was easily knocked off in one sitting. You’ll be happy to hear this is the last Sookie Stackhouse book I have in the house. Yet.

The Boat by Nam Le
After telling friends in passing over lunch that I wasn’t a fan of short stories, I was bombarded with suggestions for collections that would “change my mind forever”, including this one, winner of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards’ 2009 Book of the Year. Well, OK then, I thought, I’ll give it a shot. Although this collection is undeniably well written I have to confess that I still put it down after reading the first two stories. I recognise that there is great skill in telling a story with succinctness but I find the brevity of the form unsatisfying and hard to get lost in. This book is still on my bedside table and I plan to return to it but one good thing about a book of short stories is that you can pick it up and put it down without losing track of the narrative.

Dexter in the Dark
The idea of a serial killer cop who hunts other serial killers tickled my fancy so I thought I’d like the Dexter TV series. One Ebay purchase and eight episodes later I confess I have mixed feelings about Dexter. Still, I thought, maybe the books are better and so I picked this one up second-hand from Rozelle markets. I won’t say I regret the $3 but I’m underwhelmed. My main problem with both the book and the series is the first person narrative, which I find much harder to believe in than the idea of a serial killer cop, funnily enough... I finished this over the course of a couple of days but it wasn’t really a page turner for me.

Pinkerton’s Sister by Peter Rushforth
At the turn of the 20th century, an unmarried woman of 35 who, good heavens, reads is considered an embarrassment. Good lord! I only started this book about loneliness, prejudice and the power of imagination last night but so far, so good.

Gordon Ramsay gets in touch with his softer side

Controversial potty-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay is apparently trying to ditch his hardman image and show a softer side.

Writing about his new series Gordon's Great Escape, which sees him travelling and cooking his way across India, the Guardian.co.uk's Word of Mouth blog quotes the show's production company Optomen as saying:

As well as a journey of discovery we’ll gain insights into the real Gordon Ramsay. We’ll see a very different side to the nation’s favourite chef: more thoughtful, confessional, and open-minded. 

Hmmm, forgive me if I'm a little sceptical but could this new approach to his public persona be due to an attempt to rehabilitate a reputation damaged by a series of scandals, including the infamous episode with Tracey Grimshaw, and the financial woes of Gordon Ramsay Holdings? And will anyone buy it after seeing him on screen in Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares? I guess only time will tell.

I'll certainly be interested in hearing from the man himself when he starts tweeting on Feb 1st.

Social networking madness

I’m as much of a fan of technology and social networking as the next person but I can’t get my head around the appeal of sites such as Foursquare which allow people - ok “my friends” - to track where I am. Yikes.

It’s bad enough that owning a mobile phone makes me (even if only theoretically) available 24-7, but at least people don’t know where I am when I answer the phone. If I'm having a romantic tete a tete the last thing I want is some sozzled friend wandering in because she's worked out the bar I'm in is on her way home.

And do I really want to know that friend X is playing the pokies at the North Ryde RSL, or that Y and Z have ducked into a swingers club on the way home from Great Aunt Ethel’s 80th?

Sorry but I think this is one social networking trend that is just going to have to happen without me.

Changes at Vogue Entertaining + Travel

It was sad to read on Monday that News Magazines is reducing the frequency Vogue Entertaining + Travel (VE+T) will be published from bi-monthly to biannually but it came as no real surprise.

Circulation and readership figures in the food segment of the magazine market show that the big interest is in the "achievable" lower end of the market, not the "aspirational" vantage point VE+T occupied. VE+T sells somewhere around 30,000 copies; Super Food Ideas sells about 270,000.

It's also worth remembering that News Magazine has seven food magazines including the Taste liftout in The Daily Telegraph, Courier Mail and Herald Sun newspapers, and the yet to be launched Masterchef Magazine. If streamlining was needed within the News Magazines portfolio of titles, then the food titles were an obvious place to do it.

Looking at the VE+T news in a more positive light, staff have apparently been absorbed into other News Magazines' titles and readers will be still be able to get their fix of "food and travel porn" twice a year.

Who wants a new national holiday?

Swapping emails recently with Sophie, a PR contact and twitter friend, about my post-Good Food blogging activities she shared an anecdote about a friend of hers from Uni, Thomas Clouet. Thomas is a French chef, food forecaster and food stylist who has apparently become quite famous in France thanks to the popularity of his book Les Petits Roules de Thomas, which although I haven't seen it, seems to be a modern take on the sandwich. Thomas's other claim to fame is that he is currently petitioning the French government to declare an official annual Fete de la cuisine or "kitchen celebration" national holiday.

Since my French isn't up to reading Thomas's website in the language it was written in, I'm relying on Google's translation (which is a little eccentric. to say the least) however the gist of it is that food is such a big part of French culture that the state should celebrate all things culinary on one day of the year by facilitating activities such as cooking demonstrations, sampling at fresh food markets and communal lunches and/or dinners, not just in the major cities but in towns and villages across France. I love this idea and wholeheartedly support Thomas's petition, available at http://www.lafetedelacuisine.fr/ and on Facebook.

It also made me think about the national holidays we should be petitioning for here in Australia. How about a "festival of the stubby", marked by the whole nation sitting around a Weber and drinking beer? Or a "national cargo pants and thongs day" where everyone wears cargo pants and thongs and hangs around their local Westfield shopping centre? Or perhaps we should add "Prawn Sunday"  to the roll call of summer festivities, with stimulus package-issued prawn peelers lobbing into every letterbox? Personally I think the possibilities are endless... Any suggestions? I'm happy to start the Facebook page!

Sometimes it's good to be a regular

As much as I enjoy trying new restaurants and bars I can understand why some people go back to the same favourite haunt week after week. There is something very comforting about being a "regular", whether it's at the local pub, Thai or grab-and-go coffee venue. As far as I'm concerned the greatest asset any cafe can have is a barrista who knows your order without asking it and starts making it as soon as you step towards the counter. Extra points if they ask and remember your name.

For several years in the early "noughties" I was a regular at the historic Hollywood Hotel in Surry Hills, stopping off every Friday after work with the same group of people, and often during the week as well, and getting to know the bartender Mark quite well. We'd chat as he poured our drinks and I'd put my David Jones Foodhall booty in the fridge behind the bar until it was time to dawdle the few blocks home. Other regulars would stop by our table and swap a few words, and if we were lucky the owner Doris - a fabulous old dame who'd been a Hollywood D-lister in the '50s and whose main claim to fame was playing a woman trying to kidnap Bob Hope in the movie The Iron Petticoat - would emerge from her apartment above the pub and sing a few raspy show tunes. Doris always dressed in original '70s floor-length gowns and an elaborately coffuired wig and would hold court from a stool at the bar, glass of "bubbles" at hand. Fabulous!

These days the only place I'd say I'm a regular at is Tre Viet, a Vietnamese restaurant in Newtown I often end up at with my friend Annabel. Tre Viet doesn't have a lot in the way of "frills" but the staff is invariably friendly, the food is excellent and prices are exceedingly reasonable.

Most recently Annabel and I stopped there for a quick bite on Monday night after seeing The Arrival at the Carriageworks, the first of several Sydney Festival shows we have lined up in the next few weeks. After handing over our bottle of  BYO wine to be opened, Annabel and I settled in the discuss what to eat. Two minutes later we'd decided on the Nem  Tre Viet rolls, spicy squids [sic] and caramelised fish hotpot - which, when we stopped to think of it, is our "usual". Oh well, we said happily, at least we know we'll enjoy it.

And that's essentially what being a regular is all about: finding comfort in familiarity. I wouldn't want to only ever eat the same food in the same restaurants but every now and again, yep, that's exactly what I want to do. Bon appetit!

Food for thought

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."
Virgina Woolf

2010 book project: update #1

When I decided several weeks ago to start an ongoing list of all the books I read I'm sure I was hoping it would reveal me to be a thoughtful and literary-minded reader but no, if these additions to my first list show anything at all, it's that I can't get enough vampires! Here's what I've read in the last fortnight:

Trueblood Omnibus by Charlaine Harris
1. Dead until Dawn
2. Living Dead in Dallas
3. Club Dead
Forget those insipid “vegetarian” vamps from the Twilight series, Trueblood’s vampires are sexy, seductive and dangerous... I recently watched – and loved - the first series of Trueblood on DVD and the books don’t disappoint. Telepath heroine Sookie Stackhouse is a sassy little miss and a great female character. I can’t wait to read the other six books in the series.

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson
The second book in the Millennium Trilogy, this book is less convoluted than the first and as a result, more readable, although it’s not pleasant subject matter (international sex trafficking). The “girl”, Lisbeth Salander, is strong, independent and resourceful but undeniably screwed up. Given what life has thrown at her though, it’s probably a miracle she's as normal as she is.

Interestingly, I read an article this week in the December issue of Vanity Fair which questions how much of Larsson’s fictional skulduggery comes from fact (who knew Sweden had such a dark underbelly?) and speculates that Larsson may have been killed by the extreme right, elements of whom he was known to have rubbed up the wrong way in his role as editor of Expo, a magazine not dissimilar to Millennium magazine in the books. His publishers, less romantically, put it down to a combination of over-indulging in cigarettes, junk food and coffee and an enormous workload.

The Children by Charlotte Wood
I found this story of grown-up children returning home after their father is critically injured incredibly thought-provoking, especially so soon after sharing Christmas with three generations of my own family.

Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
Since writing about the Trueblood omnibus above I couldn’t resist ordering the next five books in the Sookie Stackhouse series on Ebay. I am nothing if not obsessive about the things I enjoy!

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
I've been hearing such fantastic things about this book that I couldn't help borrowing it from a friend earlier this week even though my "things to read" pile is already threatening to take over my living room. I'm only about a quarter of the way through this but it's pretty compelling. I'm looking forward to seeing where Tsiolkas goes with the story.

Great opportunity to hear how social media can help restaurants

I received an invite yesterday via twitter to a meet-up for people in the food and beverage industry who are interesting in using social media for connecting with collagues, customers and new business.

Organised by Ken Burgin, the foodie and marketing guru behind Profitable Hospitality, the event is to be held at the MuMu Grill in Crows Nest and will feature MuMu's owner Craig McIndoe speaking about how he uses social media and online marketing to promote his business.

Craig is well known in the industry as an avid user of Twitter and Facebook and a regular blogger, and as such he was one of the restaurateurs I spoke to a couple of months ago for a story I wrote for Open House magazine on how restaurants can use social media to boost business. Craig had some interesting comments to make at the time and I'm sure his story will be well worth hearing. If you're in the industry and interested in coming along, details of the event can be found here.

In the meantime, here is my feature on the use of social media in the restaurant business, just in case you missed it.

9 ways restaurants can use social media to boost business


Social networking sites such as Facebook and micro-blogging service Twitter aren’t just useful for keeping in touch with friends and family, they can also be a valuable marketing tool for enterprising restaurateurs.

Recent research found that more than 70% of internet users in Australia visited a social networking site in June, up 29% from the previous year. What’s more, figures published by Neilsen suggest that two in five users published opinions specifically about brands and 86% read such content.

Having a presence on social media allows restaurants and cafes to engage with existing and potential customers in an online environment they already use, drive people back to their corporate website and boost business. Best of all, because joining social networking sites is free, the only investment operators need to make is time.

Stuart Knox, owner of Fix St James in Sydney, posts information on upcoming events on a Facebook page and spends upwards of two hours a day on Twitter (@fixstjames) posting photos of dishes, previewing the day’s menu, promoting changes to the restaurant and interacting with customers and industry peers. “A key benefit for us is that we have access to a focussed pool of people to make offers to and bounce ideas off,” he says. “Twitter also gives people a feeling for what your establishment is about, your personal passions and beliefs.”

Fellow restaurateur Craig Macindoe, owner of MuMu Grill in Crows Nest, estimates he spends about five hours a week using social media, updating his Facebook page with photos and news from the restaurant, sending out “tweets” on twitter (@Chefmumu) and writing two to three new blog posts for the restaurant’s website (www.mumugrill.com.au) a month. “The return on investment has been astronomical,” he says. “We’re up 30-40% on last year, and at least half of that is due to social media.”

Knox attributes a sizeable amount of new and returning business to their presence on social networking sites, and at least three fully-booked events held in the last six months directly to Twitter.

The very nature of social media means that if someone has chosen to follow your brand, you can be certain they’re interested in hearing what they say. Unlike other marketing strategies such as print or radio advertising, there’s also no down time. When you have a good idea, you can post it immediately.

Here are some of the ways restaurants can use social media to boost business and increase customer loyalty:

1. Listen and learn

Search social media sites to see what’s being said about you in conversations and comments forums. Knowing what customers like and don’t like means you’ve got the opportunity to respond.

2. Position the brand

If you’re a casual eatery with a great buzz, your online presence should reflect that with fun, vibrant posts. Also decide whether you want to speak to followers as the brand or in a more personal voice, (ie. as the owner or chef).

3. Interact with your followers

It’s not enough to simply pump out one-way promotional messages. The whole point of social media is to be social so it’s important to engage with your followers. Respond to questions and comments, ask for feedback on ingredients or menu items, and create conversations by posting outside links to relevant information such as a supplier’s website or interesting news articles.

4. Re-post or -tweet reviews

If someone gives you a good review or forwards on one of your posts, let other followers know and thank the sender for it.

5. Be visual

The enjoyment of food starts with the visual so whet followers’ appetites by posting photos of new menu items. Give people an insider’s perspective by posting photos from the kitchen and dining room, and of special events.

6. Be interesting

Simply listing dishes from the menu can be dull so be creative with your posts eg. Who’s in the mood for chocolate? We just made Double Choc Brownies and they’re wicked!

7. Share your news

Got a new cookbook to promote? Mid-week special? Closing for a week for renovations? Keep customers in the loop with regular up-dates.

8. Encourage people to try new menu items

Introducing a new menu? Offer your followers the opportunity to try it for free or discounted next time they visit by presenting a printable coupon or quoting a code word. Eg. Say “olé” when you order our new Beef Burritos and we’ll give you them for 50% off.

9. Find staff

Good staff are the key to great service so why not look for them amongst a group of people that are already familiar with and interested in your brand?

Putting my best foot forward for 2010

I've never been one for making New Year's resolutions but I do always find myself inspired to embrace healthy (or at the very least, healthier) living at this time of the year. After more than a month of non-stop hedonism I am craving salad, and grilled fish, and exercise. I know it won't last (hence why I don't make resolutions) but right now, if I never see another piece of brandy-soaked fruit cake, glass of nutmeg-dusted egg nog or dollop of whipped cream ever again, I'll be ecstatic.

I'm not going to boast here about how many kilometres I plan to walk every day or the exotic, yet kilojoule- and fat-conscious, masterpieces I plan to wow friends and family with, but if you do see me on the Bay Run or selecting stone fruit at Norton Street Grocer, feel free to say hi!