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September gourmet news

ONCE MORE, WITH GUSTO
Exploring the regions of Italy in Australia, fork in hand.
“I don’t want to take anything away from lasagne and spaghetti Bolognese,”says Giovanni Pilu, “But there’s a lot more out there.“ Italian food, he says, is not Italian food, it’s regional food, and this is the key message of this year’s Gusto festival of Italian food and culture held at the Sydney Fish Market by those paragons of cucina vera, CIRA, the Council of Italian Restaurateurs in Australia. Pilu and his fellow CIRA members, including such celebrated talents as Buon Ricordo’s Armando Percuoco, Lucio Galletto from Lucio’s, Massimo Bianchi from Uccello at Ivy and Danny Russo from The Beresford  lead masterclasses, kids’ classes and wine tastings, and cook for La Sala degli Assaggi (aka tasting room), while leading providores show their wares in L’Esposizione Culinaria. It’s one not to miss. Gusto: An Exploration of Italian Regions, Sunday 21 September, Sydney Fish Market, Bank St, Pyrmont, NSW. For bookings call (02) 9004 1111 or visit cira.com.au.

IT SLICES, NOT DICES
You could use Triangle’s julienne slicer to finely slice cucumber for your next chicken salad, or shred green mangoes for a less effortful som tum next time the Thai mood strikes. Either way, interchangeable blades make fast work of it. The three-blade set costs $74, 1800 650 601.

COD ALMIGHTY
What happier sight than the mighty Murray cod rendered in chocolate and wrapped in gold foil by the good people at Haigh’s? Part of the $7.95 each 125gm fish is sold for goes to the Waterfind Environment Fund, a not-for-profit working to improve the welfare of our waterways. We’re hooked. haighschocolates.com.au

TEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FOOD IN AUSTRALIA
We’ve got world-class restaurants and some sterling produce, but who really gets to eat what in Australia and at what cost? A new book examines our food equality.
This month sees the publication of Eating Between the Lines, a study of what and how we eat in Australia, from the food court to the market garden and beyond.   We asked author and social researcher Rebecca Huntley to cherry-pick some key talking points from the book:
1. One in five Australian children are classified as being from ‘food insecure’ households, forced to skip meals due to lack of money.
2. The average family meal lasts about 25 minutes. About 60 per cent of Australians report they usually eat dinner with the television on.
3. Women make up 58 per cent of the catering industry workforce and yet they make up only 23 per cent of head chefs.
4. Australian men spend 28 minutes a day on food preparation and clean-up, whereas women spend twice as much time on these tasks, around an hour and eight minutes. Eighty-four per cent of all women are involved in food-related chores, compared with 60 per cent of men.
5. Australians living alone are more likely than either couples or families with children to eat fewer than four servings of vegetables a day and more likely than couples to eat one or fewer servings of fruit a day.
6. Sixty-one per cent of indigenous Australians are classified as overweight or obese compared with 48 per cent of non-indigenous people.
7. In the 2004 wet season, residents of indigenous community Kowanyama on the Cape York Peninsula were paying $4.50 for a loaf of bread, $4 for two litres of milk and up to $4.50 for a lettuce.
8. In 2007, the consumer watchdog CHOICE surveyed 111 supermarkets across 23 Australian cities and found the cheapest food in the up-market Melbourne suburb of Prahran. The dearest supermarkets were in regional areas such as Wagga Wagga, Corrimal and Dubbo.
9. In 2003 the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported that Australians who were employed were more likely to be overweight than those who were not in the labour force.
10. The organics sector constitutes about one per cent of retail sales in Australia.
From Eating Between the Lines by Rebecca Huntley (Black Inc, $24.95, pbk). Published 8 September.

BLACK PIG SMALLGOODS
Saskia Beer flies the flag for artisanal pork products in the Barossa Valley, with a new line of salumi and charcuterie from Barossa Farm Produce.
What Black Pig smallgoods.
Where Barossa Valley, South Australia.
Who Saskia Beer (yes, the daughter of that other well-known Barossa food identity, author, broadcaster and ice-cream-making genius, Maggie Beer) had her head turned by the charms of the Berkshire breed of pig after talking to a local breeder at a Slow Food event in the Barossa four years ago, and decided she wanted them for her Barossa Farm Produce line, alongside her famed Barossa chooks.
Why An older breed of pig, the Berkshire, unlike the large whites used for the bulk of pork production in Australia, are a slower-growing beast prized for the quality of the flavour of their meat and its fat marbling. “We’re blessed to work with committed farmers who appreciate what we’re trying to achieve and the need for attention to detail in every stage of the life cycle to ensure stress-free pigs,” says Beer. Her initial range runs to bacon, prosciutto, lachsschinken, coarse-grind casalinga, soppressa and chorizo, fresh pork (distributed to the likes of Icebergs and Billy Kwong) and, perhaps most excitingly, suckling-pig hams. barossafarmproduce.com

THE NEW MR T
If Dad has been very, very good, Grandhall’s T-Grill might be the perfect Father’s Day treat. Beyond its good looks, it deploys an unusual cross-directed ceramic gas burner array to make for cleaner, more consistent barbecuing. It gets Neil Perry’s seal of approval, and ours. From $999, grandhall.com.au.

RESTAURANT NEWS
VIC
STATION HOTEL
The story's an easy one to tell: former Botanical executive chef Sean Donovan opens a gastropub in the western suburbs and reinvents pub food. The reality matches the rhetoric. Think classy soups and perfect oysters, aged steaks and fish à la meunière, and brilliant, old-fashioned puddings at prices they just couldn't match in South Yarra. 59 Napier St, Footscray, Vic, (03) 9687 2913.

BALZARI
Lurking among Lygon Street's rubble is this not-so-rough diamond: four years old and still as satisfying as the day it opened. Balzari combines seriously professional hospitality and an inspiring wine sense with the rustic, Italian cooking of new-ish chef Joel Valvasori-Pereza. The result is a warm, quirky restaurant in an unlikely location; a consistently pleasurable dining experience. 130 Lygon St, Carlton, Vic, (03) 9639 9383.

THE UNDERTAKER
It's taken trial and a bit of error but creating a swish new dining room (and kitchen) on the first floor of this heritage building, where a bar used to be, has been a step forward for The Undertaker. Chef Ian Alexander's Middle Eastern-inspired food is refined and stylish; the wine list is easily one of the best in suburban Melbourne. After a rough start, this place is worth revisiting.  329 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn, Vic, (03) 9818 3944.

AND ALSO
Plans are on track for the opening of The Press Club’s informal Brunswick taverna – Hellenic Republic – in November. George Calombaris and his partners are nothing if not busy; over winter, they opened a branch at Mykonos’ Belvedere Hotel and began another licensing agreement in Kuala Lumpur at the Traders Hotel’s Sky Bar. Meanwhile, September sees the opening of Duck Duck Goose at QV. It’s a new venture for Sydney’s Kam Fook Group and will combine traditional Cantonese food, including a yum cha bar, with some more contemporary Asian fusion ideas.queenslandWord came too late for our restaurant guide, but Glenn Bowman has sold Sunshine Beach’s mod-Spanish Alegria to an unnamed Melbourne entrepreneur and is now looking for a position as head chef.

NSW
THE KAISER CHIEF
The weather's only going to get warmer from hereon in, so now's your chance to make the most of the suitably chilly nights and head to Kaiser Stub'n, Terrey Hills' homely home of all things Austrian and edible. Don't miss the wheelbarrow filled with kassler, roast pork, bratwurst, sauerkraut and bread dumplings. Cnr Mona Vale and McCarrs Creek rds, Terrey Hills, (02) 9450 0300.

GET BENTLEY
One of the best lunch deals in town, alongside those now seen at Restaurant Assiette, Marque, Foveaux and Quay, is the new offer at Bentley Restaurant & Bar. Brent Savage is dishing up a degustation of eight Bentley tapas for a tiny $50. There are some exceptional dishes on show; throw in a nicely priced glass from Nick Hildebrandt's list and you're laughing. Available Tue-Sat. Cnr Crown and Campbell sts, Surry Hills, (02) 9332 2344.

ROLL WITH IT
The Gourmet Traveller staff is obsessed, down to a man and a woman, by bánh mì, Vietnam's chilli-laced baguettes, and we're intrigued by the growing number of semi-fancy foodcourt places trying to elevate them from backstreet-bakery status. Summer Rolls comes closer than any of these to marrying polish to authenticity, and the mini-baguettes are very cute indeed. Shop 4, Foodbase on Park, 201 Elizabeth St, (02) 9283 7771.

AND ALSO
Bodega, Surry Hills favourite and home of chefs Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz, winners of our Best New Talent Award, has expanded, opening a space next door that's a bar by night and a South American-styled café by day. Abrahanowicz's parents, Adan and Hilda, oversee the café's menu of exceptional empanadas. Don't miss the choripan, a chorizo sausage roll laced with chimichurri. North of the bridge, meanwhile, this month sees the opening of the new Hugo's Manly at Manly Wharf. The pizze so popular at the Kings Cross restaurant will appear alongside a mod-Oz menu featuring everything from burgers and buckets of prawns to Pete and Dave Evans' mum's spag bol.

WA
The owners of Must Wine Bar in Perth have purchased Vat 107 in Margaret River. Business partner and executive chef Russell Blaikie plans to revamp and relaunch by the end of the year, offering a bistro-style menu and a strong focus on local produce.