The week that was (21 May 2017)

- The Good Food Guide is going national this year. Presumably budget cuts, centralisation, bla, bla, bla ...

- The War on Waste aired on tv this week. Australia is the fifth highest at generating municipal waste in the world. That is a disgrace. Enough with the take away cups, enough with the plastic bags, enough with vegetable matter (one third of our bins is made from food waste - get some worms), heck, you can even recycle your mussel shells these days. Get involved.
 
- It raises many questions about what it is we actually need. Michael Ruhlman’s latest book Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America takes a look at the extravagance behind modern supermarkets. (The NYTimes also took a look at it.) Did you know that an American supermarket will have 40,000 products stocked in its isles? “Food manufacturers have found that they can increase demand and sell more products if they give you more variety. For instance, barbecue sauces: Caribbean jerk, sesame ginger, Hawaiian, teriyaki ... when's it going to end? There's got to be a limit as to how much we can actually absorb and choose from.” Our culture of consumption is terrifying.
 
- Apparently you’re also all eating too many avos. The Brits can’t figure out how to eat them without stabbing themselves, the yanks without pillaging the forests of Central America, and young Aussies without sacrificing a roof over their head. "Avocado smash" has become a global synonym for hipsterfication, and eating it gives off the same small-l liberal reek that sipping chardonnay once did.” Muu and I are safe, the rest of you ought to take a long hard look at yourselves. 
 
- There is something apocalyptic about the idea of a frozen store of all the world’s seeds, and something even more terrifying about the idea of the ice melting and flooding the joint. No seeds were lost this time, but let’s be a little more thoughtful about sealing the door, no?
 
- Of course, there’s always the good too. I have a crush on LA’s “guerrilla gardener” Ron Finley. “It kinda ain’t about food; it’s about food justice. If you aren’t eating healthy, nutritious, vibrant food, how’s anything in you gonna grow?” He's right - hunger isn't an issue of charity, it is absolutely an issue of justice - and you only have to take a look at a few of the articles above to know we can all be doing more to even up the ledger.
 
Postcards:
 
Ok, I have a little personal announcement - I’m writing a book, a book on all things meat. I’m writing it with my former boss and buddy Anthony Puharich – it’s all very exciting. There’s a lot to research and a lot to write. Any meaty articles, recipes or must read books you know of would all be warmly welcomed into my inbox.
 
To sweeten a deal that definitely did not need sweetening, I am upping sticks and moving to the Mediterranean. Over the six months, I plan to make my way around the edge of that sea – when I’m not thinking about flesh, I want to understand how the water in between impacted the lands on its edge – an idea of terroir that is bound by the sea in the middle more than the lands, religions, languages on the rim – I’m thinking Ottoman, Levant, Mahgreb (and, of course, France). To that front, where should I go? Who should I visit (butcheries, farms, markets but also Med must-visits)? And if you’re coming over, let’s play.
 
I leave in three weeks, but will continue to write this missive from afar. The content won’t change, save for a little gloating at the bottom when applicable/when I can't help myself. 

The week that was (14 May 2017)

- Let us start with Jonathon Gold, because I think he’s ace. Read his review of noma Mexico because, it too, is ace. “Redzepi’s many-coursed dinners have the same kind of narrative arcs you might expect in a well-structured novel, themes that barely register as a flicker at the beginning of a meal coming to roaring denouements toward the end, simple things like the taste of an apple or the curve of a tiny shrimp bending within their context to serve story more than they might any culinary effect.” 
 
He develops this idea throughout the article – one that I think is thoughtful, original and makes sense of much of the criticism. “You could probably think of the residencies as something like movies presented in another medium, and the stories his staffers tell about Redzepi’s abandoned paths — turtles in Tabasco, game in Chiapas — are nearly as compelling as what actually makes it to the plate.” He concludes: “Beauty and conflict are often intertwined.” A lovely image and a lovely review.
 
(We’ve touched on some of the other reviews, but here’s Eater’s wrap up if you are still not satiated.)
 
- Staying with Gold, I want to come back to last week’s mention of LocoL and food deserts – if you’re not familiar with the concept, you might find this article helpful. It looks at the way in which researchers are now making use of Instagram (via hashtags and geo-tags) to compare diets in different socio-economic areas: “The difference was marked enough that 80 percent of the time, the researchers were able to use a model to predict whether a given Instagram was from a food desert or not.” That's a problem.
 
- Rich vs poor, peasant vs industrial – it’s an interesting dichotomy. For this, you may want to watch Michael Pollan explain the horror behind making McDonalds fries. The very idea of “off-gassing” the chemicals to create these “perfect” long chips is terrifying. I also think Pollan is right that the scientific understanding of nutrition is still very primitive. Finally, perhaps despite the evidence to the contrary above, I was interested in his thoughts regarding (financially) poor people who cook having healthier diets than rich people who don’t. Surely this all comes back to education, whether traditionally learnt at the apron strings, or intermittently through good marketing campaigns (think rationing in WWII), but now ... well ...
 
- Let's talk a little about what’s going on in the world of journalism. Fairfax is fucked, News probably not much better. If staff aren’t being made redundant, they’re striking for those who have. Unfortunately, striking doesn’t do much good when there is no money in the pot. You don’t need me to tell you the world of media is changing rapidly, nor that the shift can be terrifying – I have no doubt that Trump’s ability to master social media amplified the bullshit and brought him the voters – but I also know our responsibility needs to reach far beyond the whinging. If we want better journalism we need to create it, we need to consume it. Read this feisty and rather excellent exchange between Winsor Dobin, Gary Walsh and Mike Bennie on FB – where Winsor had posted “new on my blog” a press release from Yalumba and Walsh and Bennie rightly took him to task (apols to those not on FB).
 
W: “My take on a press release yes! Also called a news story in today's environment … It is a very changed environment. I've been fighting for too long. The dailys do the same - and rate everything 95+. Feel free to have a crack at them.”

MB: "I have always admired that you came at writing from journalism, have cronies who admired your work, have an angle. I've been in news agencies 'relearning' the trade, investigating the way online works, a decade ago and decided to not follow the regurgitation line. Meanwhile, now you are an offender, so here's the crack..."
 
- But I think the best thing I saw all week was this, where art, sensory perception and food all crossed paths. A great little bit of content marketing (an interesting media genre in and of itself, here I think it's done well) by the people of Canon. In fact, I am not even going to try and explain it. Watch it, watch it all. (Particularly the mussel and the mouth … sensual, evocative, incredible.)
 
(Another) postcard from Adelaide:
 
Hmm, Adelaide. I have slept on it (granted, it was some much needed sleep) and have woken to find myself even more enamoured. 

Occasionally, I think, serendipity reaches out and bestows a place with a particularly special combination of people and talent - a perfect storm of creativity. Adelaide, somewhere between a town and a city, famously had one such moment in the 1980s.

The food scene of that era became the zeitgeist for the decade(s) that followed: think Maggie, Cheong, Phillip Searle, Cath Kerry in the kitchens; plus an academic movement that took food seriously (Symons had just published One Continuous Picnic, a book that remains the preeminent study on Australian culinary culture, The Symposium of Food was created in the backstreets of Adelaide in ‘84); and a wine scene that was hitting its straps, not just locally but internationally. A plethora of Australia’s culinary patrons converging on one rather small city. How excellent. 
 
Without getting too dramatic, it appears Adelaide is again at the coalface: their culinary landscape continues to blossom – a veritable melting pot of restaurants taking in all different genres, cuisines and price points – I think they’re punching well above their weight. Add to that many of Australia’s most established and acclaimed wineries now nestled alongside some of our most interesting and progressive regions; natural meets conventional, old-world meets new-world.
 
Of course, this scene of collaboration between soil and plate is an easy one in Adelaide, the ocean is 20 minutes in one direction, the hills 20 minutes in the other. But it was the spirit of conversation and shared interest that intrigued me most: wine makers, chefs, restaurateurs, artists, designers, musicians all working shoulder to shoulder ... sharing ideas, talking.
 
Take for example Africola, a perennial favourite, where this year the food and the restaurant’s design were flipped on their head - those beautiful cane lampshades replaced by golden orbs and the food of the south replaced by that of the Maghreb. I was intrigued not just for the beauty and bravery of the shift, but for the conversation it inspired amongst everyone and anyone while I was there. Alternatively, look at Summertown Aristologist (the aristologist name, previously belonging to Symons and Hillier, now in the hands of wine makers Anton van Klopper and Jasper Button) where they're serving beautiful food with excellent service and one of the most serious natural cellars in SA, and yet it's relaxed to the point you can rock up without your shoes on - as it is at Lost in a Forest. Is this cellar door 2.0?? 

Whatever the catalyst or the cause, there is a natural conviviality, an easy sharing of ideas and conversation that extends beyond the mundane or the individual's metier that I enjoyed and admired greatly – it felt a little like France and made me very happy. Thanks for having me kids.

The week that was (6 May 2017)

- I've been thinking a little of late about the democracy of fine dining and so I found this article about what’s up next for Mr Keller thought provoking. The “what next” for chefs of a certain age is a pretty standard question … but for his generation of chefs you can’t help but think the “next” will be accompanied by a changing of the guard for all of us. I hate sounding the death knell for the fine dining, but perhaps it will be through this evolution we see the shift.
 
- To understand the extremity, take a look at the list BI ran of the 33 most expensive degs around the world: Osteria Francescana at the bottom end at 33; Quay at 31, recently crowned numero uno EMP at 21 (at $US590 for two); Alinea came in at 12 ($US770 for two with 21 courses); while L’Arpege tied at seven with $US848 – like many Parisian restos, it’s significantly cheaper at lunch. It was, perhaps most interesting to note both number two (Ultraviolet, Shanghai) and one (Sublimotion, Ibiza) offer “experiences”: lights, music, audio visuals. For $US3266 an "experience" would be the least of my expectations. 
 
- Conversely, I loved hearing Jonathon Gold has awarded Locol, the skater-themed fast-food joint in the ‘food desert’ of Watts, the LATimes Restaurant of the Year. There’s a reason that guy won a Pulitzer, namely, he thinks. His criteria:

“An ideal candidate has delicious food – that’s a given – but also a sense of purpose, a place within its community, and the ability to drive the conversation forward, not just in Los Angeles but around the world. Its chefs should honor diversity, but not at the expense of focus; health, but not at the expense of flavor; and sustainability, but not at the expense of complexity. It should feel like L.A.”
 
You may remember Locol from TWTW’s gone by - run by Roy Choi, renowned king of the taco truck, along with Daniel Patterson, of dual Michelin-starred Coi. This is thoughtful food, beyond the quick and convenient it’s made with “… kitchen techniques you usually find in restaurants that cost 40 times as much: lightening it, taking out much of the fat and sugar, using fresh ingredients, but staying true to the preferences of the neighborhood. The employees, many of whom had never worked in food service before Locol, come from the immediate area.” Bravo.
 
- Leaving behind restaurants and moving into agriculture, this article about the tannat grape in Uruguay in Decanter blew me away, not so much for the wine talk but rather the beef. It’s a country where the cows out-number humans by four to one, but unlike the pigs of Denmark, this ratio has been used by the government to create good.
 
“All beef in the country is organic, pasture-reared, grass-fed, with hormones banned since 1968. But over the past decade the country has slowly turned from focusing not only on quality but on producing a completely computerized traceability system for its meat. Its ‘pasture to plate’ programme ... paid for by the government at a cost of around US$3 million to promote the country’s US$1.5 billion export market.” Whoah. 
 
- And, from beef to mussels and this little excerpt from Dan Hunter’s new book, in which he describes the way he cooks the bi-valves slowly, over low heat, covered in water, only then removing the beard. It is contrary to everything I was ever taught. I am looking forward to giving it a crack.
 
A postcard from Adelaide:
 
- I spent a delightful evening on Thursday at The Salopian Inn, a restaurant that was designed to function as a true inn, a social hub for the wine community in McLaren Vale, somewhat modelled on the auberges of France. I had the good fortune to talk to Pip, who ran it for 16 years from the early ‘80s onwards, a fascinating time in Adelaide’s past. The dinner was cooked by current owner Karena and Alex Herbert. It was such a treat, that beautiful, convivial food that I dream of cooking for my friends every night.

There were some great talks throughout the evening: from range management vs horticulture to the importance of shared knowledge and the need for agronomy and teachers outside the chemical world. I also loved the idea of revelling in the delight and privilege a winemaker feels in taking a product, a humble grape, all the way from vine to wine. 
 
Yesterday's adventures were slightly less romantic, but every bit as fascinating. I called in some favours and spent the morning at the Paroo processing facility: think roo carcasses, watching them skinned, broken up and sent through the boning room to packaging. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but there were some fascinating stories. One fact in particular blew me away - a female kangaroo can influence the gestation period of their birth depending on external conditions (i.e. if there’s drought, they can slow the development of their unborn child to wait out the poor weather). Talk about adaptation to your environment! Terroir … it's incredible. 

The week that was (29 April 2017)

- The James Beard Media Awards were announced this week. As always, there were a few golden nuggets in there. For those who enjoy a good read: Bourdain’s Roads and Kingdoms won best publication - among their articles The Last Dinner in the Jungle is a desperate must-read, looking at some of the meals cooked by refugees in the illegal encampments that have popped up in Calais – food is so simple and yet so powerful; the New Yorker won for their food issue (see this year’s here); the NYTimes eat:column was also mentioned for numerous articles written by Francis Lam. For the more visual among us, do watch the beautiful trailer for The Birth of Sake, you may also want to watch a couple of the “24 hours at” series on Bon Appétit (Franklin Barbecue was pretty excellent). The restaurant side of the awardsplays out on Monday …
 
- From booze and barbecues to the slippery world of farmed vs wild fish. The Fish on my Plate, an American doco, looks excellent. While I haven’t yet found access to the full thing, the clip about half way down this article looking at salmon fishing/farming/ranching in Alaska was well worth watching. As you make your way to the trailer there are some great little thoughts and insights regarding farmed fisheries, conversion rates of feed for different breeds (and where that feed comes from) and lumpsuckers – a fish that is used to help reduce the sea louse on wild salmon as they pass farmed fish. The upshot for the producer was to eat more mussels and seaweed, but there’s so much to digest here. While you’re contemplating, you may want to have a look at this post from Sus re a very cute baby lobster grown from an egg in a hatchery in our own backyard …
 
- So, I’ll be in Adelaide next week for Tasting Australia. I bloody love Adelaide and am very excited – I’ve also been very lucky to be invited to some truly delightful events. God knows what it means for next week's TWTW, but I suppose that has become part of this 'weekly' missive ... the total mystery of the arrival date. I'm pitching for Thursday, but making no promises ...

The week that was (23 April 2017)

- The big issue in hospitality this week was the Government abolishing the 457. Is this Mal just rearranging the red tape or are the ramifications far greater?
 
You will have likely read the details. In a nutshell, the 457 is to be replaced by a more restrictive "Temporary Skill Shortage" visa, available either short term (two years) or medium term (four years). The change brings tighter vocation parameters (cafes, bars and fast food are all at risk of losing access to TSS holders), longer work experience requirements and salary benchmarks. They have also removed some of the attractive elements of the old visa – like the possibility of a segue into permanent residency (now not available for the two year and with longer wait periods for the four). They're not saying no altogether, but they are making it significantly less attractive.
 
The hospo industry is one of the biggest users of the 457. I can’t think of a single kitchen without at least one 457 on the pans or on the floor. And so I was a little surprised by the rather pedestrian response from the AHA and R&CA, who, apparently, welcomed the idea. From the industry, the response was far less “welcoming” (watch the Mitchen’s vid here, or listen to the full ep they dedicate to it).
 
The change comes at a time when our industry is working harder than ever to find and maintain good staff (for example, read this delightful story about TafeTAS luring Alain Passard to Launceston to encourage kids to cook). Quite simply, there are not enough people in Australia to sustain our workforce and, more than that, most don’t want to do the job: the hours are gruelling, the tasks often thankless, the money not incredible. And, the thing is, they don’t have to, our unemployment rate is sitting at only 5.9%.

And so, I'm perplexed. Why wouldn’t we be doing everything we can to encourage skilled, or semi-skilled, employment from around the globe?
 
Let’s pause for a second to think about where our food culture comes from. We know tastes are culturally acquired and, in Australia, ours are woven from a tapestry of many nations. The Chinese immigration that accompanied the gold rush, the waves of immigrants post WWII who brought Baltic and Mediterranean sensibilities to our shores. These ideas were vastly at odds with Australia’s British tabletop traditions and yet the way they understood and cooked for their climates was much more in line with our weather. It was a culinary coup for our kitchens: a taste of their country, their region and of course their mother.
 
There were subsequent waves of immigration that rolled over ours shores from Asia, India and beyond. These immigrants brought different ideas of what constituted a meal, of what to grow, where to grow it and how to eat it. These people created the melting pot and open-mindedness that we now define ourselves, and our food, by. Remember that great article Huck wrote, a month or so back?  
 
I don’t know why we would feel the need to be more protectionist on an issue like this. It’s not nice,  it’s not convivial, and, quite frankly, I think it’s un-Australian … at least the Australia I would like to be affiliated with. I think we should make noise.
 
- The good news is, noise can work. This week Bangkok’s Metropolitan Administration announced they were waging war on street food in an effort to clean up the footpaths of Bangkok. DT wasn’t buying, and nor should he. ".. street food's not a fad, it's a community need. If you're poor in Thailand and you live in a small pokey room, you don't have room to cook. If they take away street food, the poor will have nowhere to eat. It's a desperately needed part of the community."
 
The news made headlines around the world, for perhaps slightly more selfish reasons, and the BMA are now back-tracking, saying that they were misquoted. The revised plans appear to focus on hygiene and pedestrian traffic flow in a few specific arterial roads only. Nice to see the pen is still mighty …
 
- And, while we’re at it, I noticed a flurry of stories on the importance of soil this week. There’s a lot to digest, but I like where it’s going. The argument about feeding future generations is on pretty high rotation in my beautiful little corner of Surry Hills. These articles take the dreamy approach I like to cling to, one where healthy soils, treated with minimal pesticides, polyfarms, run by small players, feeding local mouths, could create viable alternatives to the large scale carry on. Nature as nature intended is at the heart of it all.
 
- Finally, let's spare a thought for the winemakers of France this week. The new growth of spring has been met with a late frost – a diabolical combination. The photos are beautiful, the reasons behind them heart breaking.

The week that was (16 April 2017)

- Let’s start with the past, and this article reporting on the Vic Govt changing Mt Eccles National Park to Budj Bim National Park. The name change “… acknowledges the cultural importance of the Budj Bim area, which is regarded as the world’s first engineering project, dating back at least 6600 years and preceding Stonehenge or the Pyramids of Egypt … an extensive and elaborate system of channels and dam walls which were used predominately for catching eels.” Wonderful. There’s so much we don’t know regarding how Australian land was managed before white settlement and any steps taken to bring respect and awareness of that are fundamental.
 
- To the present: I was interested to read an article in The Land questioning the viability of only chasing efficiencies of scale in agriculture. The op. ed. piece argues that the get-big-or-get-out model of the ‘80s, while in some cases still valid, should not be the only solution. Instead, we need to encourage small and medium farms in order to ensure our rural communities thrive. “Don’t write off family farms. Rural Australia needs them. And there is plenty of space for them to be successful alongside the corporate outfits.”
 
- Following a similar vein, or perhaps presenting one solution, SA butcher Trevor Hill is arguing for fostering direct relationships between butchers and farmers in order to create a model to take on the supermarkets and thus nurture the smaller players across the board. His argument is that by banding together there would be better use of the whole animal, better quality, and more options for everyone. It’s interesting to note that for both ideals it may be the much maligned marketing department that is the missing piece of the puzzle. 
 
- And into the future, where Bestie had an amusing, if rather depressing, crack at what lies ahead for Hospitality Mag this month. “By 2067 … the process of commoditisation of all aspects of the dining process will continue. The supermarket will devolve even further (if that particular horror can be imagined) with more products based on fewer basic commodity ingredients … The super rich will eat in restaurants owned by ‘Restaurant Corp’ … the vast middle class will be eating protein bars from vending machines … The rest will be eating each other on a self serve basis.”
 
- Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom, there are plenty of baby steps in the other direction: this week we had news that Kris Lloyd has legally made Australia’s first raw milk soft cheese. Of course people have been toying with raw milk cheeses for personal consumption, and this is how all cheese was made back in the day, but this, a raw milk soft cheese made for commercial sale, is a big deal in our currently tightly regulated world.

- There are parallels to be seen in the steadfast angst about natural wine. This commentary, a couple of weeks old now, by Jamie Goode made me chuckle: “So you don’t like natural wine? I sense your pain, and I am here for you. Here to help. I can understand how distressing it must be to see other people enjoying wines that you don’t like … It’s clearly a fringe movement of lunatics. Like a religious cult. You have been wise not to try too many of the wines.” 

It was in response to an article in the NYTimes entitled: Ignore the snobs, drink the cheap, delicious wine. In a prelude to her book, Bosker argues we need to learn to love unnatural wine: “Like the Swedish Fish Oreos or Dinamita Doritos engineered by flavor experts at snack food companies, many mass-market wines are designed by sensory scientists with the help of data-driven focus groups and dozens of additives that can, say, enhance a wine’s purple hue or add a mocha taste. The goal is to turn wine into an everyday beverage with the broad appeal of beer or soda.” She goes on (and yes, this is in effort to strengthen her case) “More than 60 additives can legally be added to wine, and aside from the preservative sulfur dioxide, winemakers aren’t required to disclose any of them.”

There were, of course, a number of responses, including this from Marko Kovac. I'm not wishing to attack the other, particularly when there are so many shades of grey in between, but come on, what is natural must come first, minimal intervention must come first. It remains astounding to me that the onus remains on the most base preparation to add labelling or categorisation to their product - 'natural' wine, 'organic' vegetables. Shouldn't it be the other way around??
 
- Looking back to look forward, I'm leaving the last word to Fuchsia Dunlop. In the tradition of many wonderful cookbook writers over the past century, who are often women and not necessarily chefs, Fuchsia has a depth of understanding and diligence when it comes to extracting the essence of a culinary culture. I loved her article in Lucky Peach, carefully taking one chicken into nine different directions, using the Chinese model, a “combination of careful economy and deranged imagination.” 
 
“The bony head, feet, and wings have what my father would call a “high grapple factor”: the kind of intricacy of cartilage and bones that the Chinese adore, so they are simply boiled and dressed, so they can be gnawed and chewed and enjoyed in all their textural complexity. The succulent flesh of the thighs is showcased by a quick velveting and stir-frying, while the smooth, boneless breast meat is both stir-fried and, in two other dishes, magicked into a silken paste. And because any Chinese chef knows that viscera such as gizzard and liver become leathery when overcooked, they are thinly sliced and swiftly flash-fried, with seasonings that smooth away any coarseness of flavor. The intestines are only fleetingly scalded, to preserve their sprightly slipperiness. The result of such thoughtful cooking is a whole meal of dazzling beauty and variety.” It's a great read if you're looking for something beyond sunshine, food and wine to accompany your Sunday afternoon.
 
There is so much to be found in history, in tradition, in terroir and in simplicity - Maria was right, the beginning, it's a very good place to start.*

The week that was (7 April 2017)

Of course you would have seen the results for this year’s World’s 50 Best. I’m pleased to say Melbourne turned it on, in fact Australia turned it on. My buddies at Rockpool* also turned it on, and did an exceptional job of feeding a room of culinary luminaries a real taste of Australia – our best produce cooked simply but beautifully – a proud moment.

Beyond the chefs, Wine Australia brought 50 of the world’s best somms together to drink our wines and hopefully take our terroir, neatly bottled, back to their restaurants around the world. There was a palpable sense of hospitality everywhere you turned, coupled with that delightful sense of freedom Melbourne offers where you can snack in the streets, smoke a cigarette at the table and then wash it down with a whisky, served neat, after midnight.
 
As it does every year, the euphoria has quickly descended into the expected criticisms: where are the women; where are the Sydney restaurants; why spend so much of our tourism dollar; are there too many sponsors (I did think serving Italian sparkling in Oz was particularly odd); is this all just spin or, worse, simply a popularity contest? And finally, there are all the issues that come with having a numerical list at all, allegations of a broken judging system and even corruption (the rumour mill suggests that last year, while NYC hosted the event, some restaurants closed to the public for the week, comp-ing meals while, literally, plying the judging panel with champagne and caviar – it is my understanding that there is no requirement to pay for your meal when voting for 50 Best.)
 
Sadly, I think there are kernels of truth in all of the above, but I don't think this is actually about where you sit on the list as surely there's no more than a bee's dick between one and 50. And this is just one list, it has its own personality, its own goals. There is much to be positive about:
 
(1) My first ah-ha moment comes with the admission that while I am getting all Pollyanna on you again, I, too, was feeling a little disenchanted going in to this week, a little exhausted by the same conversations, the same questions, the same hero worship. But then I went to a talk hosted by the Roca brothers (those of 2015's number one El Cellar de Can Roca) where Joan referenced a poem by Joan Maragall, a poem that talks of the importance of loving your craft and treating it, irrespective of what it is, as the most important thing there is, a beautiful but simple idea that if everyone approached their profession in this way the world would be a much better place.
 
It reminded me of a story my Dad told me of his surprise at seeing a bus driver’s crestfallen face after being told he was doing a bad job by a passenger. Every job counts and doing it to the best of your ability turns jobs into professions. The shifted perspective allowed me not to see a room full of wankers, but rather a room full of people trying to be the best they can be. I think that’s important.
 
(2) I was interested to note the four speakers at the Opera House talks came at that goal from very different angles. For Pete the ingredient was the jumping off point, for Dominique it was about telling a story, for Brett it was all instinct and craft and for Massimo it was about creating a sense of place. It is no secret I adore Massimo and Lara and all the philanthropic work they do through Osteria Francescana. And so perhaps unsurprisingly it’s on Massimo’s thoughts my mind has lingered.
 
I met Rodolfo Guzman (Boragó) from Chile at the awards. He explained to me, with his earnest but rather beautiful eyes, the way the list had changed his restaurant. He talked of all the years he opened an empty restaurant, indeed the five separate occasions he tried to sell it, and then how that all changed when he made the list. Rodolfo is part Mapuche, an indigenous culture that has existed in Chile for 13,000 years. His cuisine is drawn from their food, the hundreds of varieties of seaweeds off the coast, the way they worked with fire. Rodolfo explained to me that while Chile does not have a strong tradition of dining now, the 50 Best gave him the means to start to put it back on the map, the means to preserve his culinary culture.

History should not just be the domain of academics. Joan Roca described gastronomy as the landscape in the saucepan, for Massimo the key ingredient is the culture and, I think, it is in that combination I think we find the true definition of terroir – a taste of the place and the culture. I think that’s important too.
 
(3) Finally, to Will Guidara and Daniel Humm, the newly crowned number ones from Eleven Madison Park, NYC. This is a team that celebrates both the front and back of house evenly. Sadly the media, the industry and even these awards, awards that are meant to be about the restaurant, do not do that. Take a look at the list online and you will find a collection of mug shots that only include the chef, to my mind a crazy misunderstanding of what our industry is actually about: conviviality, service, hospitality (even the official pic on the 50 Best site only has EMP chef Daniel in it).
 
On accepting their award, Will and Daniel talked a lot about their collaboration in the restaurant, the unusual nature of their shared spotlight. Of course this is important acknowledgement for our FOH professionals, but it is also in this wider appreciation of all the work that makes a restaurant run we may find better gender balance (see, for example, this lovely article about Balthazar in NYC). It should be noted those 50 somms gallivanting around the state included both men and women, in equal parts, just as we walk this world, they drank their wine. It's possible, no, it's not just possible, it's fundamental. Showcasing hospitality as the team sport it is should bring that to light. I think that’s very important. 

Please accept my vague, mumbled apologies for another Sunday send. I do hope you’re reading this at the beach or at the very least with a rosé in hand. I will endeavour to return to regular Thursday broadcasting next week, as things settle back down. And, just quietly, it was worth it.
 

The week that was (30 March 2017)

- Also heading south is every chef and his dog for Wednesday's World’s 50 Best Awards. This week they dropped the back half of the 100. There was the expected absence of Attica, but perhaps less so, that of Brae. Perhaps we have two in the top 50? All will be revealed Wednesday, all will be discussed in this missive next Thursday/Friday.

Because I am running so late this week and trying to cram in way too many adventures myself, I am rehashing this little explanation of the judging system from last year. As I need the refresher each year, I thought you might too:

The awards, now in their 15th year, are considered by many to have surpassed Michelin as culinary guide of choice - in part because of their global reach and in part due to their judging criteria (or lack thereof). This is also the very reason people find them controversial. 

Let’s start with the voting system (read 1- 5 below, or simply check out their snazzy little graphic here):

1. It’s an academy made up of just under 1000 members.

2. The academy is comprised of 27 chairpersons/chairpeople (both horrid words!), each chair represents a different geographical region (the geographical delineation is revised each year to ensure balance). GT's Pat Nourse is chairperson for our region (Oceania, Australia and NZ).

3. These chairpeople choose 35 buddies to further represent the region. The group must be chosen with a balance of 1/3 chefs and restaurateurs, 1/3 food writers and 1/3 gourmands. (Note the group also must change by 30% each year).

4. These chosen ones cast seven votes. What constitutes ‘best’ is left to the judgment of these "trusted and well-travelled gourmets". There is no pre-determined checklist of criteria.

5. There are rules: they must have dined at the restaurant in the past 18 months. They must also cast three of their four votes outside their own region.

This last point is where Australia has traditionally come unstuck. Given the Euro/US focus of the geo regions, how many of the 936 members out of our region will have been to Australia in the past 18 months? And, to be clear, we’re not talking about a fair dispersal by population (there are only 5 chairs across all Asia), instead the regions are determined by the location of cool restaurants - it's a vicious cycle. 

Enter Tourism Australia. Enter the Invite the World to Dinner campaign. Enter Rene Redzepi and Noma Australia. Enter the cash ($800,000) we are now spending to host 800 international guests for the 2017 awards. Food is an incredible, and well established, tourism driver. Personally, I think it's inspired.

Many think it's all too much - not just the awards but the restaurants themselves. If you are in that camp, you might want to take a moment to read this article on Osteria Francescana, 2016's number one. "This could be an expensive restaurant – or house, or art gallery – anywhere: luxury has no country. The whole of Modena ate here in the first year, I read; in the second year, almost no one; in the third year, the world." While it's no secret I think Massimo is pure delight, I am not alone. So, this is a rare criticism, but also an interesting read. 

- Thanks to the awards, there is so much going on all over Australia. It's hard to know where to look! Passard has been in Tassie, Massimo, Dominique, Brett Graham and Pete were at the Opera House yesterday, MFWF kicked off this week, Tasting Australia at the end of the month. 

- I'm down in Melbs and will be making the most of all of it, kicking off with my delightful buddies Giorgio and Pasi, who are doing 5 days more of That's Amore, popping up at Neighbourhood Cafe in Melbs from tonight through to Thursday (5.30pm - 1am). And rounding out the week with my favourite wine boys, who are hosting a Melbourne Rootstock party this Friday, pairing 6 brilliant chefs with 6 purveyors of delightful wine and booze.*
 

The week that was (23 March 2017)

- I was interested to read more about the death of Lucky Peach this week in the NY Times. It’s more complicated than first thought, and now appears to be about irreconcilable differences among the owners, rather than sounding the death knell for quality journalism. That said, the article has the slight undertones of an elevator pitch. Are they fishing for someone to pick it up and run with it? Or just protecting their reputations? No comment from Chang.
 
- I really enjoyed this GT article looking at where Melbourne chefs/restaurateurs/somms would take their 50 Best chef-of-choice for a day. It’s a great read with lots of thoughtful, out of the box suggestions from some great industry peeps – a nice little guide to the underbelly of Melbs. Good Food also had a crack at doing a 50 best, looking at 50 things to eat in Australia – slightly more generic, with what appears to be a little bit of a panic at the end, but worth a squiz nonetheless.
 
- Not so much, is this article on food trends in the SMH. “Curiously, mono-eaters are on the rise, with the percentage of people who bought the same food every week increasing from 29 to 37 per cent.” Mono-eaters?? Curious doesn’t really cut it …
 
- But in a case of Baader Meinhof, Adam Liaw had a little to say on "mono-eaters" (I think), in an opinion piece calling recipes out as the listicles of the cooking world: “If you’re halfway interested in cooking, you’ve probably skimmed a dozen recipes this week already, and yet statistically the average home cook rotates through just five dishes – not even enough to get through a full week. Most of the world’s recipes will languish uncooked forever in the depths of the internet.” I think that’s what a mono-eater is. Curiosity abated. The rest of his article was good too. I’ve been thinking a little about the proliferation of recipes in the ether of late. Too many? I mean, mono-eaters aside, how many do we really need? And Liaw is right, the system is a little busted. Cook smart, waste less, enjoy more. 
 
- On that note, I’m off to celebrate the ton with Lou, our tireless editor and my most wonderful friend. But before I do, I would also like to thank you. Thanks for reading. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me. And thank you to those who have shared this missive with friends and colleagues. I really enjoy the challenge of writing it each week, a challenge that is more keenly felt knowing it is read by you. Merci beaucoup.
 

The week that was (16 March 2017)

- In devastating news for our food media landscape Lucky Peach have announced they will be closing both their mag and their website. May 1 is the date they’ve put on the site, with the last regular mag due out then (the theme is “Suburbs”), followed by a double, bumper issue planned to farewell the mag. I love Lucky Peach, I love all the incredible articles, the historical and cultural explorations, the tongue-in-cheek humour, the essays and long form articles, the whacky illustrations. Critically acclaimed, I am certainly not the only one thinking this is pure culinary journalistic excellence. It's a serious loss for our industry and a worry for the future of food journalism. It can’t all be click bait, listicles and insta posts. It just can't.
 
- Let's celebrate lovely writing, like the beautiful thoughts of Paulette Whitney (for GT). In her column this month (not online) she visited producers Erika Watson and Hayden Druce who have just bought property in the Blue Mountains. I love the way this woman sees the world: “They can now invest in permanent fences, enjoy the luxury of the morning commute being done on foot across a paddock, and plant trees and stay to watch them grow.” To stay and watch them grow, such a lovely idea. Her article also talked of Sepia’s low plastic ethic – everything they get delivered is instantly transferred to kitchen trays, avoiding plastic waste. This is also a lovely idea.
 
- We recently talked take-away cups, which got me thinking about what makes a good recycler – and voila, an article answers. I was fascinated to know how a recycling plant works. Some things you can do to help: remove bottle tops and lids, wash out tins and containers where possible, no plastic bags (derr), no ropes, no hoses (seriously?? God knows why people would think hoses are appropriate for the recycling bin?).
 
- In more frivolous news, the SMH created a culinary field dictionary for 2017. I wanted to hate it and accidentally relaxed and had a chuckle. On the other hand, if you want eye-rolling fodder, read Jill on the future of food (according to London-based Future Laboratory), it’s all things flexitarian, instagramafication and adaptogenics. No, none of those things should be things.
 
- Instead, I am for a return to the simpler things, the true pleasures of the table. I have been having the best time following around Giorgio and Pasi on their That’s Amore adventure – the conversations these two are having each week to build their menu is unlike anything I’ve been privy to before. Sometimes they start with the wine, sometimes it's an ingredient, a herb or a culinary concept, but it always ends in a creating a symbiotic relationship between the two. It's very beautiful and thoughtful - I am trying to capture some of this on Insta.*  
 
- Mike Bennie recently explored this idea (in Men’s Style, sadly no link) by talking to a few chefs about wine’s place at the table. I was intrigued by Moyle's suggestion that bottle matching could be the way of the future, and also by Duncan pegging wine as a seasoning for his food - as important as salt and pepper. Bennie concludes: "Chefs at the top of their game understand their pantry should match their cellar, and that local, organic, small farm on a menu supported by a wine and drinks list that's weighted with industrial, large scale wines is completely counterintuitive." I agree - and believe this plays both ways - those who want to bang on about their natural cellar should be sure it's matching their pantry too.
 
- If you want to read more, try this article on treating wine as food in The NY Times “… the food revolution that has vastly improved both the quality of what we eat and the pleasure we take in it. Yet when it comes to wine, many who care deeply about their food are still drinking the equivalent of the square tomato.”
 
- I loved this story of nonnas in the kitchen at Enoteca Maria, a Staten Island restaurant where the chefs are actually nonnas from all over the world. What a delight this is. Eating nonna's food is the best. For me, cooking like nonna is the end game ...
 
- And while we’re on nonna’s, when they stop cooking for us of course we should start cooking for them. Maggie Beer’s leading the charge here, with her work around Australia to improve food in health care facilities. Her tips are simple and applicable to us all: fresh veg, no boosters, no marge, no low-fat, no preservatives, no processed, plant a herb garden. The bookends to these ideals feed into The Eden Alternative – it appears to be a version of Stephanie's Kitchen Gardens for the elderly. We should all pay attention and get behind this, we are not getting any younger …