Fertile Minds of Dover

It was so great to have the chance to again attend the Symposium of Gastronomy in Tasmania recently; this year held in Dover, with the panel sessions and meals addressing the theme "Beyond the Supermarket - Learning to Overcome Gastronomic Poverty".
Co-convener Scott Minervini said many people today continue to face poverty in its many guises, including food poverty brought on through a lack of resources, a lack of knowledge and of limited choices in a society that is increasingly divorced from the production and source of its food.
So this year the committee decided to take the symposium out of the city into one of Tasmania’s most fertile regional areas, finally settling on Dover because of its proximity to the sea, the abundance of its Channel and Huon Valley hinterlands and the local community's welcoming and can-do attitude.

To say we began the 3 day event with a meal of pies seems a little out of context when serving over 80 food obsessed symposium goers - but these were no ordinary pies! Made by Steve Cumper (an previous member of the Pheasant Farm Team), they included a scallop pie - so traditionally Tasmanian, with a veloute filling of mustard, capers, anchovies and dill; a venison pie - a sweet/savoury blending of western and eastern condiments; and a rich, chunky beef and burgundy-style pie. Steve certainly got the idea of the event across – packaged in pastry and served from the side flap of a mobile kitchen; a nod to ‘The Pie Cart’.

Far from being exclusively about eating the evidence of the argument, there was just so much to take in with the thought provoking presentations given in conjunction with the edible information.

Nancy Pollack certainly had some interesting points to make in her presentation with the idea that "gastronomic poverty goes beyond the lack of money to buy food. It includes the inability to provide adequate healthy food, to meet tastes and to meet social obligations outside the household."

This concept ties in perfectly well with Stephanie’s push on the importance of school gardens in forming early food values, knowledge and tastes and the enormous success of her Children’s Kitchen Garden Scheme. Growing your own fruit and vegetables and/or sourcing produce from suppliers that understand seasonality and the window of peak ripeness, then taking it that next step to the kitchen, is just so important. And all the while we ate a boxed lunch composed around a beautiful sorrel soup and ingredients the French sailors tried to grow after explorer Bruni D’Entrecasteaux dropped anchor in Tasmania in 1791 – a wonderful example of food at its simplest being a thoroughly convincing education for our palates.

One of the standout features of the event programme for me was with chef Justin Harris - crayfish sandwiches with Mumm champagne, served seaside. Sitting on the jetty, feet dangling but not quite touching the water and juggling the brown paper bag full of the thickest, most luscious lobster sandwich ever. Followed by a huge paella that Justin cooked in a specially made pan filled with local seafood, saffron, rice, rabbit and Spanish chorizo all cooked over a barbecue.

I came away from the 3 days having had all of my long term beliefs reiterated – when we speak of gastronomic poverty it is almost always a comment on food knowledge as opposed to any financial reference and that encouraging interest in the foods we eat, how we cook them, where they come from and how to grow them can only benefit us all. It only takes a bite out of a perfectly ripe pear at this time of year to prove all the points above in the most delicious manner!

Fifteen Out Of Ten

What a great meal I had last week with dinner at Tobie Puttock’s Fifteen in Melbourne. Stephanie Alexander and I were having enormous trouble choosing just one option for each course with a menu that bases itself so solidly on fantastic seasonal produce. The answer to this was to share and have the opportunity to try more rather than less. Fifteen does have a degustation menu, accompanied by an impressive list of Victorian wines, which looked beautiful but Stephanie are too far gone with our need to control every food situation to hand over the reins! So we created our own, of sorts, in the moment. To start, the kitchen sent out a taste of their signature dish of scallop crudo with pomegranate, fried ginger, coriander cress, coconut and lime – so fresh! Then because of Fifteen’s obvious Italian influence we shared the pumpkin ravioli with mustard fruits and the gnocci with salt cod. Then I chose my favourite breed of pork; roasted berkshire belly with fennel seed and rosemary, cavalo nero, lentils, jus and salsa verde. Tobie really makes full use of the abundance of wonderful Victorian produce, creating fresh, simple Italian-inspired dishes that allow the ingredients to speak for themselves and Stephanie and I are both declared fans! I had no room left for dessert, yet we shared the molten dark chocolate tart with vanilla anglaise. Delicious.

Advance Delicious Fare

My reasoning behind dining at Fifteen was not solely for Tobie’s delicious fare, although that would certainly have been cause enough. As it happens he and I are joining forces in the launch of the government initiative, ‘Australian Grown’ brand at the Sydney Opera House and chatting over a glass of champagne at the bar was just one way (and I’d argue the best way!) to better discover just how similar our food philosophies are, and how well aligned with the concept of ‘Australian Grown’.

The Australian Grown campaign will be launched by the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Peter McGauran on 1 June 2007 in Sydney.

The new Australian Grown brand is an extension of the famous green and gold Australian Made logo but will include products that are not ‘substantially transformed’ such as fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy, eggs, fish, horticultural products and other similar types of product – hence it will have a much greater food focus.

The 12-month Australia wide campaign will spread the word to every Australian resident, producer and industry stakeholder of the importance of the Australian Grown initiative and in simple terms to ‘buy Australian’. I feel very proud to be a part of it.

All the Baron's Horses

As promised in my last newsletter, here is my ‘Devils on Horseback’ recipe from the wonderful ‘Decadence’ dinner that I so enjoyed being part of with my daughters Saskia and Elli. While never being one to really follow food trends as such, this recipe definitely holds very special memories of times gone by for me. It was such fun to play with its reinvention!