Marcia Pelchat is a sensory psychologist specializing in food and beverage selection (USA) said:”Women are genetically predisposed to prefer sweeter tastes, with greater sensitivity to bitterness. As a result, cocktails and alcoholic drinks aimed at women tend to be sweet — as an attempt to mask the burn — and colorful (because, you know, pink will make anything more palatable). Drinks for men, on the other hand, tend to let the bitterness take the fore: “Men who drink hoppy drinks don’t just not notice the bitter taste, they actually like it.”

Most radical development have been spotted in Italy. Last week the Italian government moved to ban some of the chemicals and techniques used in molecular gastronomy from Italian kitchens. In a nation where a huge number of voters are involved in agriculture and all are cheerfully obsessed by their regional cuisines, high-profile legislation against foreign culinary influence will be a sure vote winner, so such moves probably shouldn’t surprise us. But does the move by the Italian government mark the end of an era?

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Nowadays, the amber fluid has a more sophisticated image. Aussie blokes – and sheilas – are just as likely to sip on a boutique, international beer as, say, a lower-end, local brew.

Beer lovers are seeking to sample more varieties, from diverse places, and to even be able to – like wine – match their fave beverage with food.

Yes, finally, beer has found its rightful place on the dining table!

Providing beer menu lists at your venue – which match beer products with particular dishes – could prove a boon for business. So, why not join the food-beer movement, like others have?

Premium beverage company Foster’s has recruited Sydney chef and restaurateur Peter Evans, of Hugo’s, to promote food-matching with Belgian beers in its portfolio.

Fellow company Lion Nathan also established a nationwide James Squire Chef’s Match contest, which encouraged chief cooks from each state to go head-to-head in pairing their recipes with Aussie craft beers.

And, matching beer with food is actually quite the art. The first step often involves smelling the drink’s aroma and just concentrating on the flavours. Next, beer lovers can take a sip, together with a small amount of food, breathing in a little air through the alcohol. From there, they can judge whether the flavours highlight, sharpen, disagree with or even overpower the fare.

Combining different flavours and textures and, of course, applying one’s own personal taste can also contribute to the fun. For example, highly carbonated and bitter brews can help cleanse the palate and “cut through” strongly-flavoured dishes.

Sydney-based Kirrily Waldhornis

beer

an expert at matching beer with culinary dishes. Last year, she was a guest judge and speaker at the Great British Beer Festival.

On her site, Waldhorn lists various “made in heaven” food/beer matches, including an Australian-style pale ale with a scampi salad appetiser and a hoppy Czech Pilsener with a main course of spicy Moroccan marinated lamb and couscous. Another tempting idea is a glass of chocolate stout with a mud cake dessert. Yum!

As meal and beer pairing becoming increasingly popular, there are more and more foodservice operators taking advantage from newly emerged trend. For example a Spring Feast at The Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst, NSW is coming in September. Here, customers can ring in the start of the season with a four-course meal and eight spring-inspired beers.

Also in September, a tasters’ club, dubbed The Beer Experience, is being held at the Penrith Panthers club. Here, diners will get to feast on a six-course degustation, expertly matched with beers to bring out their true flavours. The guests will also learn a little of the history of beer and just how to marry dishes with their fave beverage. Food for thought, indeed.

Matching beer with food? We’ll drink to that!

Last November Canadian cattle ranchers began feeding red wine to their herds, and the product has been met with thunderous applause from everyone from regular consumers to top Canadian chefs. Jandince Ravndahl started feeding her cows one liter of red wine a day, the equivalent of about one glass for humans. Ravndahl claims the cattle enjoy eating the red wine mixed into their feed, and that the resulting beef tastes more tender, almost like it’s self-marinated. Ravndahl’s grass-fed, wine-drunk beef is taking off among the culinary elite. And while red wine and grass-fed beef are two great tastes that undoubtedly taste great together, wine-fed beef threatens all the recent progress made in the sustainable meat movement.

There are some scientists who are working on uncovering potential benefits of wine-fed beef. One study hypothesizes that wine-drunk cows may lessen methane production, which could have some green benefits for our planet. Livestock produce about 18 percent of the world’s global greenhouse gas emissions, with one cow burping up 26 to 53 gallons of methane each day, according to Food Safety News. And another research team thinks the resveratrol in red wine might boost heart health in cows the same way it does in humans.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Zannie Flanagan, recently   made a Member of the Order of Australia for promoting regional produce believes that the primary role of farmers markets is to serve the local community and that the benefits of promoting ‘regionality’ to high end restaurants and tourism are secondary.

“Regionality does not come from high-end restaurants,” Flanagan told a food tourism summit at Tasting Australia in Adelaide. “Such a marketplace is not created in and of itself for tourists.”

Flanagan, who founded the Willunga Markets in 2002 and then went on to establish the Adelaide Showground farmers markets says that such markets are bigger draw cards than many of the Government funded tourism events.

‘Authentic’ and ‘hands-on’ are the new buzz words in food tourism as people look for an experience or skill to take home.

Fifteen per cent of the 1010 Australians polled in April this year, said they go out for breakfast once a week or more.

Thirty-two per cent enjoy dining out for an evening meal each week while 38 per cent go out for for lunch.

Overall, the Galaxy Research found 20 per cent of Australians aged 18 or older were eating out more this year than in 2009, with one in three Australians going out for a meal once a week.

But the American Express Dining Insights Research also found one in four Australians were ordering healthier meals than they were 12 months ago. 
”Australians have a love affair with eating out but more and more they are balancing up the need to look after their health and their waistline,” said Mr Geoff Begg, vice president of Merchant Services Australia at American Express.

“More than ever, Australians are better educated about what they are eating and the area of demand is great tasting food that is good for you,” said John Hart, CEO of Restaurant and Catering Australia.

The Dining Insights study revealed it was the 18 to 34-year-olds choosing healthy meals in NSW, with 33 per cent opting for salads when eating out. This compared with only 12 per cent of those over 50.

More men are choosing to eat healthy meals when eating out in Victoria and NSW compared to women, while in South Australia and Queensland it’s the women who are choosing to eat healthy meals.

Chefs will always, where possible, build menu items from the ground up (stocks, portions, seasoning, garnishes) and the management of time and labour factors that allow for this is the strength of any good kitchen roster. Yet, would chefs be willing to roll up their sleeves any further? Attempting to build those flavours from beneath the ground up? This article stems from BISTRO’s furrowed investigation into unearthing the distinct advantages chefs might glean from cultivating their own herbs which, we discover: can help cut costs, articulate menu engineering, craft fuller flavours, deliver on consistency and— can even bring you pleasure!

The ‘pitch’

One man’s chore is another man’s indulgence, the main difference being our attitude to the procedure and the results we gain from it (washing the car, off to the gym anyone?). So how do you pitch the prospect of growing your own herbs to a busy Head Chef (averaging 12 hours a day) for use in their commercial kitchen? Dan Hunter, Head Chef of The Royal Mail Restaurant in Dunkeld, Victoria (winner of the 2010 AHA Award for Best Restaurant: Country) says, “It’s important to factor in the enjoyment you can get from growing these plants,” and as for the costs? “Compare a bunch of herbs for $3 to a packet of 200 seeds for $3”. Okay, so now we have the attention of our Italian readers—there is a savings to be had!

Speaking of Italians, we approached Geoff Hudson from The Italian Gardener (www.theitaliangardener.com.au) who explains, “Herbs start to lose flavour and appearance immediately after they have been picked.” So what, we ask, are the advantages to growing your own? “They are always fresh and consistent. You know their origins. The ability to pick your own herbs is a great advantage. Farmer’s market produce is good and will last a week or so, but supermarket herbs can sit in a cool room for weeks. There is no wastage and the flavours are more pungent, so you use less of the produce.” Bells ringing yet?

Sowing seeds: Annuals & Perennials

Simply put, perennials are plants that last more than two years whilst annuals germinate and flower and die all within a year (or a season). This distinction might help you structure the arrangement of your pots or garden. Hudson suggests chefs begin with perennials such as sage, thyme and oregano or annuals like basil, parsley, coriander, dill, chives and chervil (all so good for taste and garnish). Dan Hunter suggests getting started with those used commonly, such as parsley (annual) or thyme, sage and rosemary (perennials). Although—if you excuse my pragmatism— why not cultivate the herbs you’re already using to define your own comparison?

We talked to Frances Jackson, the General Manager of Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, who explains that annuals (such as basil and dill) require a lot of water and a lot of sun. For those who wish to cultivate their own quality herbs, you will need to be able to access as much sun as possible; a minimum of ¾ day (or 6-8 hours) in open sun is preferred or difficulties may arise. Hence, a rooftop terrace, Jackson says—for urban restaurants— is ideal.

Herbs to avoid

Hudson says, “They are all worth giving a go, it’s just annuals need more work as they need to be replanted each year,” whilst Hunter’s word of advice is, “Stay away from mint, as it will tend to take over a garden. Tropical herbs can be difficult if you live in the South. Frost can be difficult for things like coriander, but the worst thing you can do is to allow any herbs to go to seed.” On this, Jackson reiterates, “the challenge with all herbs is to stop the plant from flowering.” By tip-pruning, or picking leaves by hand and cutting above the node, you can avoid this. “Flowering is only a problem with annuals not for perennials,” she says, “and thyme and rosemary require good drainage so they don’t get wet feet.”

Note on irrigation: when planting, use water crystals in the potting mix. They create a good reservoir and keep your potting mix damp. Don’t allow your soil to dry out, keep moist. Some herbs wilt faster than others and may require more frequent watering, particularly during hot weather, and if grown in containers. Herbs bounce back from wilting, but try to avoid it.

Specifics to get started

In most cases, for herbs to be grown at a restaurant, pots can be accommodated more readily than the space required for a garden. For commercial use, the medium sized pot (400mm diameter) is recommended and square pots are more spatially efficient. There is no advantage to using bigger pots. “No more than four plants per pot,” says Jackson, “Plants compete for space, and any more means they won’t grow as well, but Rosemary only needs one plant per pot.”

“Perennials,” she says, “need a good potting mix and a complete fertilizer (plant food that contains all three primary nutrient elements: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) such as Osmocote®. For commercial kitchens, stay away from using ‘poo pellets’– which can be a health problem. Use a coated fertilizer pellet instead.”

When planting, seedlings are recommended over seeds but if you can’t get seedlings, cultivate your own seedlings from seeds, and transplant them into those rooftop pots you have selected for your ‘garden’. The main reason being, that not all seeds grow to seedling stage so it’s best not to gamble on your allotted commercial pot space. The flipside to this though, Hudson says, is that “Many good varieties are not available in Australia, such as the Italian heirlooms produced by Franchi.” So to really ‘roll up your sleeves’ in the cultivation of your own flavours, commit to nurturing seeds into seedlings and access the 40-odd varieties of herbs (some with over 200 years of pedigree) with the click of a button at The Italian Gardener website. Pretty good value for an average spend of $4.50. Maggy Beer is a fan, saying “Some of my favorite meals have come from produce grown from seeds from the Italian Gardener… the result is exactly what I remember seeing in markets in Tuscany.”

Guerilla dining sets a new pace in the food scene. Traditional establishments would do well to take note

They have no signage. They don’t advertise. And, their seating space is limited. In fact, it’s like dining in a friend’s home.

Welcome to a new phenomenon making waves in the culinary world in Australia – underground or “guerilla” dining.

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver lifted the lid on the trend in a TV special on secret supper clubs in New York last year. Since then, such exclusive dining spots have sprung up across Australia’s eastern seaboard.

Michael Fantuz is behind underground dining spot Tablefor20 in Sydney. (Check out the blog, www.tablefor20.blogspot.com.) While not in his home, the eatery is based in a converted terrace building in the inner-city suburb of Surry Hills, with an open space downstairs with two long tables, seating 44, and an upstairs watering hole, known as Sticky Bar. The only sign of activity outside is a business card holder out the front. Diners text or call to book a seat at the venue, open Wednesdays to Saturdays.

Fantuz, who has worked in the restaurant trade since he was 17, including as a food and beverage director at the Ritz-Carlton internationally, said a “combination” of factors led to him starting the venture four years ago. “I used to have a lot of friends and regulars from my previous restaurant, who’d come over and bring a bottle, and I’d cook dinner for them. It was very low-key and just at home. (Then) some friends of mine really encouraged me to do it on a ‘larger scale’, so to speak. I’d been to a few places that roll in this type of way in Tuscany and Milan. I didn’t know if Sydney would be ready for it. (But) the numbers stacked up – and the passion.”

The risk appears to have paid off. When we contacted Fantuz in July, both Tablefor20 and Sticky Bar were booked out for the entire year. The Italian-style eatery offers diners a three-course, set menu, which changes daily depending on “how the weather is, what we feel like doing and what’s in season”, according to Fantuz.

The eatery has a real communal dining feel. “All the food is served in platters, which get put down between every five people. People just pass around the food and share, like how I ate at home,” Fantuz enthuses. While he originally cooked all the dishes each night, he’s since handed the reins over to Steven Zielke – a “young, energetic chef, who enjoys home-cooked, robust Italian meals”. Fantuz says: “We’re using fresh ingredients, as opposed to cooking so many things in advance or pre-cooking and then just ‘finishing off’, like conventional kitchens do. (Doing that) you can lose that desire for actually cooking food, as opposed to just finishing it.”

Another place keeping in step with this trend is Bite Club, which is actually based in a home abode in the well-heeled Sydney suburb of Woollahra. (Check out biteclubsydney.blogspot.com). The venture was started by interior designer Debra Cronin, who owns the pad, but is now managed by housemate Virginia Hookham.

From the street, the building is fairly nondescript but, inside, there’s antique French furniture and intricate, high ceilings and, in the courtyard, a trickling fountain. “We are very underground. Our neighbours don’t even know what we’re doing,” Hookham quips.

The eatery’s blog is updated daily, so potential diners know how many seats are left at its degustation dinners, which cater for up to 16 guests several times a month. There are singles events and open-to-all-foodies events. On the popularity of the venture, Hookham says: “I think that people are just looking for something different -
a bit of intrigue.”

As for what other establishments can glean from the success of these underground dining spots? Fantuz says they’ve put the spotlight back on the romance of hospitality. “The first thing (in hospitality) is how you serve and treat the customer – it’s not how refined you put down a plate in front of them. It’s how you make them feel first – how you anticipate their needs, acknowledge your regulars by name, know what they like to drink, and have it there before they ask for it. There is a romance to genuine hospitality.”