Late last year, in Australia, I was lucky enough to attend the best dinner ever and I love the shot below because it sums up what made it so incredible: teamwork. This is Quay's Peter Gilmore showing head chefs from Neil Perry's Rockpool and Ben Shewry's Attica how to plate his main course. These iconic chefs and thousands more Aussies worked together to showcase Australia to the world and they blew the world away, through the quality of their produce and the pride in their country. Read more here.
We Kiwis must make the most of what's on offer across the Ditch. I love being able to pop over to Sydney or Melbourne for a shop and a bite to eat but am never disappointed when I take the time to venture further. Next on my list is Western Australia, thanks to Sophie Zolokar who gave us a taste of the region at a marketplace event prior to our dinner.
On her farm within the Southern Forests region, Sophie runs Foragers Field Kitchen and Cooking School and the food she was serving was sensational yet so simple - dehydrated cauliflower was incorporated into lavosh and kale was wrapped around ricotta and served with a wattle seed za'tar. Her crispy kale caesar salad that we are serving for Monday night dinner, will give you a taste of what I mean.
Kathy Paterson popped over to Melbourne for the food and wine festival and came back all inspired, clutching recipes from three of Aussie's young, hot chefs. Ben Sears (Moon Park, Sydney) cooks this Korean beef and seaweed soup regularly at home. St Crispin's Joe Grbac makes this carrot risone using heirloom carrots pulled straight from his Melbourne garden and Dan Wilson pointed us to his red wine braised beef short ribs for his take on home comfort.
And then there's prawns - the Aussies make them good - and rather than throwing them on the Barbie Warren Elwin is turning them in to a very fruity salad, a remolade, some fritters and a Goan-style curry.
Here's to all our brothers in arms across the Ditch.