SARAH HUDSON talks to creative chefs working wonders across country Victoria
If food has become the new religion, then the gods of the kitchen can be found in rural Victoria.
These are chefs and cooks renowned around Australia for their use of seasonal, local produce, who celebrate the work of farmers and create acclaimed, award-winning meals.
Here we speak to five of the best.
Aaron Turner, Loam, Drysdale
When did you first know you wanted to be a chef?
I studied graphic design. But it wasn't until I was 23 and working in an Irish kitchen that I found I loved the pace and creativity.
What do you love about the food in your region?
My style of cooking means it's important to be in a rural location, with a direct connection to suppliers.
Every Wednesday, the staff and I go out to producers, to see what they do - from milking goats to farming mussels and growing shiitake mushrooms.
It gives you a deep appreciation of their work.
I also forage on a nearby farm that doesn't use any sprays, so I pick things like wild mustard, stinging nettles and purslane.
What's a tip and recipe for the home cook?
Buy fresh every day.
I'm interested in food that's ethical, so I like to bake a jack mackerel or a yellow-eye mullet - sustainable fish with great flavour - with lemon and salt.
Dan Hunter, Royal Mail Hotel, Dunkeld
When did you first know you wanted to be a chef?
When I first got in a kitchen it reminded me of experiences I had playing team sports. That appealed.
What makes a good chef great?
Good chefs tend to have a style or skill that is unique to them, have super high expectations of themselves and their teams, can translate experiences gained outside a kitchen into food, are good leaders and, even if at the top of their game, have some humility.
Learning never really has a finishing line and new knowledge is always around the corner.
What's a tip and recipe for the home cook?
Don't try to do too much at once. Try a couple of raw, seasonal dishes.
At home, I enjoy eating tomatoes from my garden with torn buffalo mozzarella (I use Shaw River), a good amount of chopped chives and torn basil, olive oil and muscatel vinegar.
It relies on freshly picked produce.
Alla Wolf-Tasker, Lake House, Daylesford
When did you first know you wanted to be a chef?
I knew I wanted to cook professionally by the time I was completing school.
There's no doubt that memories of food prepared with love in a household where both my parents were great cooks contributed to this.
What do you love about the food in your region?
I love that now, after three decades, we have the beginnings of a real local food system here.
We now have five excellent organic farms within a few kilometres, excellent cheese, smallgoods, biodynamic lamb, a Wagyu herd, rare breed pork and a great deal more.
What's a tip and recipe for the home cook?
Cooking should be a joy. Try making your own fromage frais - the first step in cheesemaking.
FRESH GOATS CURD
1 litre goats milk, 2 tspn cider vinegar or lemon juice. In addition, salt, garlic and herbs for flavouring as desired if you wish to make it savoury.
Heat the milk gently to about 90C. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to about 85C. Slowly add the lemon juice or vinegar.
Curds should begin to separate out.
If separation does not occur add a little more lemon juice or vinegar. Pour the mixture into cheese cloth or muslin. Tie and hang.
Refrigerate. Season or add herbs as desired.
Matthew Fegan, Mr Carsisi, Kyneton
Do you still make mistakes in the kitchen and, if so, what?
Recently, while working when too tired in the middle of Saturday service, I lost concentration and sliced the tip of my left thumb off.
Only the third time in 22 years of cooking I have cut myself, but it was a good one.
What's a tip and recipe for the home cook?
Buy great quality ingredients and keep it simple. The best meals are not complicated.
SPECIAL SALAD
Roasted asparagus, pastirma, hardboiled egg, pickled Syrian wild cucumber & zaatar dressing
2 bunches of asparagus, 1 clove crushed garlic, extra virgin olive oil, 4 slices of pastirma, shredded, salt and pepper
Dressing: 1 lemon, juiced, 1 hardboiled egg grated, 1 Syrian wild cucumber, finely diced (any Middle Eastern deli have jars), 100ml olive oil, 1tbs zaatar spice mix, salt and pepper.
Trim the asparagus spears of their woody ends, blanch in boiling, salted water until tender. Refresh under cold running water. Roast or grill the asparagus with the crushed garlic and olive oil. Lay out on a platter, add shredded pastirma, drizzle with dressing.
To make the dressing mix the lemon juice and oil, add the egg, cucumber and zaatar spice mix, season.
Emma Handley, Villa Gusto, Buckland
What makes a good chef great?
It is important in a small country town to use local suppliers and what is grown in your backyard, to stop by the road to collect mushrooms, or knock on a farm door and collect quinces they aren't using. That is the country way.
What is your favourite thing now?
At home I've been experimenting with pure cacao, agave syrups, black Himalayan salt, ghia seeds, maca powder and coconut oil.
Also Mexican recipes for dinner parties.
