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132: Luisa Brimble: Photography, Food and Relationships

July 20, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Luisa Brimble on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.
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Luisa Brimble on The Dinner Special podcast talking about photography, food and relationships.

Luisa Brimble

Luisa is a food and lifestyle photographer, based in Sydney, Australia, who strives to capture images that exude warmth, simplicity, honesty, and connection. Her work has been published in numerous print and online publications, including Kinfolk magazine, Frankie magazine, and Food & Wine magazine, just to name a few. When she is not photographing, Luisa is collaborating with other creatives to hold food photography and styling workshops.

I am so happy to have Luisa Brimble of lbrimble.com joining me here on the show today.

(*All photos below are Luisa’s.)

On Her Photography Journey:

Luisa Brimble on The Dinner Special podcast talking about her photography journey.

(Photo by Hugo Sharp)

I basically started at being a wedding and portrait photographer. When Kinfolk magazine came along in 2011, that’s when I fell in love with the whole gathering and all the food. I started shooting food and mainly gatherings. It basically started when I started doing the Kinfolk gatherings in Australia and organizing workshops here and there. Since then, it just fell in and then I started shooting for Broadsheet in Sydney. They’re like the guide to where you want to eat around Sydney and Melbourne. They didn’t pay me a lot of money, but I actually did say to people that I think it’s like baptism by fire. If you wanted to get your foot in the door in photography, you do this stuff to get your name out there. I would not have gotten my first cookbook photography, without the experience of working with Broadsheet.

This is really amazing, and kind of story that I actually tell people every time I do workshops. This is the very first cookbook that I photographed, Community by Arthur Street Kitchen cookbook. Actually, I met Hetty McKinnon. This is the first cover. There’s only 1,000 copies of this being printed. I think in a space of three weeks or a month or something like that, the book was sold out, and then it was picked up by a publisher called Plum Books. This is the second edition of the book, and I think it’s about 60,000 copies now that’s been printed in Australia. So we photographed the cookbook, and her second cookbook in New York, which is called Neighbourhood. It’s actually going to be released in September, which is really exciting.

Anyway, because of  the Community cookbook, because of love, I said to Hetty when I first met her photographing for Broadsheet, and we just started talking. We hit it off. We talked about…and I think the one common thread that we talked about is because we love Kinfolk. I loved it, and she loved the aesthetic, too, at the time. We were talking about it and then all of a sudden she said, “I really want to publish my own cookbook.” I said, “My God! I would love to shoot it. I will shoot it, I will shoot it for love.” There was money involved when we photographed this. It was both our time, her time and she paid for all the ingredients and her time cooking it. Anyway, I think when the book was released and it was sold out, it was just the biggest opportunity that I’ve ever had.

Then all of a sudden I started shooting. I shot a cookbook for Penguin, Lantern. It was one of the MasterChef guys. I’ve never been in such a legit photo shoot, where we had a stylist and we had props. It was an amazing experience. Since then, that’s when I just said, “No, I’m not shooting weddings anymore and I just want to concentrate on food.” So since then, I’ve just basically done cookbooks, shooting cookbooks and shooting food or shooting for small businesses which I love. Just doing lots of personal projects.

On Cooking and Food:

Luisa Brimble on The Dinner Special podcast talking about cooking and food.

I could never be a food blogger, and the only reason for that is because I can’t concentrate on doing two things. I would definitely prefer to be behind the lens. This is why I was so glad I met Sarah Glover because I kind of could blog through her because she cooks all the food and I shoot it. I always wanted to have a food blog, but now everything is just that way. But I do cook at home, but I can’t create recipes. I get inspired, but it’s only to share around the house. If I do have a recipe book in front of me and I don’t like one of the ingredients, I would usually just swap it or kind of change a little bit of the method.

On Hosting Styling and Photography Workshops:

Luisa Brimble on The Dinner Special podcast talking about hosting styling and photography workshops.

I think the first workshop was kind of initiated by the fact that I just wanted to collaborate with other people. My first ever workshop would’ve probably had been with Beth Kirby, Local Milk, which I organized here in Sydney at Glenmore House. That’s probably about three years ago now, and we did probably about three workshops. So she came back to Sydney. Since then Aran Goyoaga from Cannelle et Vanille invited me to teach a workshop in Seattle, which is like, “What? Are you serious? It’s like, Aran. Why would she even ask me to come to Seattle? Then since then, we’re like…I collaborate a lot with Sophie Hansen, Local Is Lovely, because they have a big property where she grew up with her mom. She’s got this property about two hours’ drive from Sydney, and she actually teaches art classes as well.

But it actually accommodates probably about 15 people, and we were able to do the workshops there. That’s how I  started doing a collab. The one thing that Sydney is really hard to kind of organize a workshop for is finding the right venue. It’s really hard because it’s very expensive. By the time you organize a workshop and work out all the logistics and the people and the food, and the scenes and the props and everything, to really make money off workshops, you should be charging about $3,000. But we were charging half of that, especially for a Local Is Lovely workshop. Because, obviously, we didn’t have to pay so much with the accommodation, and that really helped a lot.

It’s basically giving people the chance of going to a workshop that is so affordable, and it’s three days. I like that workshop, because I feel like if we do two and a half days, we’re kind of giving people a lot more value for their money. And it’s really nice to get to know everyone. It’s like I say this a lot to people, I meet the next person I’m collaborating with at a workshop. I’ve met so many already that’ve been to a second shooting with me or I mentored them and all that sort of stuff. I do a little bit of a workshop now with Annabelle Hickson of The Dailys where it’s actually 10 hours’ drive. It’s all the way down to the country, 10 hours’ drive from Sydney, but yet, people still go there.

I think one part of why we do workshops is, this isn’t money making. We’re not making money off it. We have a big team of people and only because we like to hang out with people that we really like working with. I think it’s all about relationships as well. So collaborating with a lot of people is what I love doing best. This is why workshops happen. I only have two left this year. Next month we have Molly Yeh coming. This is with Local is Lovely with Sophie Hansen. So we’re now in full swing to kind of plan what we’re going to be doing next year in 2017. I think the plan is, hopefully, fingers crossed, there will be workshops in Europe. And that’s the plan. So we’re working on that.

The Pressure Cooker:

Luisa Brimble on The Dinner Special podcast answering The Pressure Cooker.

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

Chef’s Table! But I do love the local ones, the Australian local ones. The ones that I really love is, I know there’s River Cottage and there is also Mathew Evans’ show, Gourmet Farmer. Gourmet Farmer is my favorite show.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

I love following Hugo and Elsa and Local Is Lovely, obviously Sophie Hansen. I love her food blog. My Darling Lemon Thyme, obviously. Also Cook Republic. I also do love Local Milk, Lean & Meadow is great. Matters of the Belly, obviously, Noha.  There are so many out there. I think once you can go from one place, it just spreads out. Those are some of my definite favorite blogs.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

Number one is Lisa Marie Corso. She’s the editor or managing editor of The Design Files. I know it’s more interior. It’s not really food. But her personal Instagram makes me laugh all the time. I love it. Just really good with the way, with her words and all that. The Dailys, really beautiful aesthetics and country life and all the things that she shares. Amelia Fullarton, amazing work. Again, it’s not food. I find my inspiration not necessarily with food, and I think I feel like Instagram is so bombarded with so much food now.

I just want to get away from so much of that, and then follow people who are actually amazing at capturing the light and the shadows and all that. Saskia Wilson, she does fashion.  She does a lot of fashion, but again, I follow them because of the way they work with the lines and the elements of design. Oli Sansom, again amazing portrait photography. Tim Coulson because of his family and the way he just shares his life and love of life.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

I would probably say this one plate. The plate that…when my mother-in-law passed away probably about five years ago now when they sold everything, and they sold the property, and I said the only thing that I want from that house is the dining, everyday plates. Whenever we come and visit, an everyday plate. I think there was only one plate that was left. It was rescued and that was it. It’s this really simple floral, and I love eating from it.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

Brussel sprouts. I’ve never really been introduced to that, only quite recently, actually. But Hetty McKinnon made me love it. I think when we were shooting for her cookbook, she made me look at it differently. It’s such a bitter vegetable, but she just put it in an oven, roasted it and comes out and it’s just really amazing. It just brings out the sweetness in it, sweet and bitter kind of thing.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Oh my gosh. Nigel Slater. When I buy cookbooks, though, I only really look at it for photos. Sometimes I do read…I read the recipes and just go through. I really like the way he just explains it. It’s just straight to the point. No beating around the bush, simplicity. I like it, just simple. It doesn’t have to be complicated. This is A Table in the Orchard by Michelle Crawford. I love it because it’s all about her stories and also her favorite recipes. It’s a beautiful book. Again, can’t go past Arthur Street Kitchen and Emiko Davies’ cookbook, Florentine. She now lives in Italy. And yes, there are some amazing, really great recipes there. Some of the pastas and some of the really nice cakes and biscuits. Again, also photographed by one of my favorite photographers, which is Lauren Bamford.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

You know what? I don’t have a favorite album or a favorite theme, but I do listen to Spotify and then I put like a playlist on the 80s. Just listen to the 80s music. You know what? When I’m cooking, I actually don’t listen to music a lot. But I listen to podcasts like, The Dinner Special podcast. Boom!

On Keeping Posted with Luisa:

Luisa Brimble on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.

Definitely Instagram. I’m always just posting. If not, Snapchat. Same name, Luisa Brimble.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: A Table in the Orchard, Amelia Fullarton, Arthur Street Kitchen, Australia, Broadsheet, Cannelle et Vanille, Chef's Table, Cook Republic, cookbook photographer, Emiko Davies, Glenmore House, Gourmet Farmer, Hetty McKinnon, Hugo and Elsa, Kinfolk magazine, lbrimble.com, Lean & Meadow, Lisa Marie Corso, Local is Lovely, Local Milk, Luisa Brimble, Mathew Evans, Matters of the Belly, Michelle Crawford, Molly Yeh, My Darling Lemon Thyme, Oli Sansom, Photographer, River Cottage, Sarah Glover, Saskia Wilson, Sophie Hansen, Sydney, The Dailys, The Design Files, Tim Coulson

128: Noha Serageldin: An Introduction to Egyptian Cuisine and Beyond

June 22, 2016 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Noha Serageldin of Matters of the Belly on The Dinner Special podcast featured image
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Noha Serageldin of Matters of the Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about an introduction to Egyptian cuisine and beyond.

Matters of the Belly

Noha was born and raised in Egypt where food was such a huge deal that it felt like a member of their family. She moved to Australia with her husband in 2013 and is where she currently lives. On her blog Matters of the Belly is where Noha shares with us the food she likes to cook and eat, and the memories that they evoke, hoping to inspire us to put on our aprons and to pick up our wooden spoons.

I’m so excited to have Noha Serageldin of Matters of the Belly joining me on the show.

(*All photos below are Noha’s.)

On Growing Up in Egypt:

Noha Serageldin of Matters of the Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about growing up in Egypt.

I come from quite a big family. And to us, in Egypt, food is so central to everything we do — all the events, all the birthdays, all the special occasions — everything is centered around food, and so it’s been a massive part of my life growing up. Every social gathering, every holiday, everything has a special food for it, and we always looked forward to that and my parents were very big on making things themselves rather than buying.

My sisters and I learned to cook and to make things and to get excited about food from a very young age, especially my younger sister and I. My older sister was not as interested. Food has always been wonderful and a big part of growing up for us.

The norm is that food is a big deal, but it’s not necessarily made from scratch, if that makes sense. Lots of people rely on bringing food in, buying food, not really making it, and our family was very much interested in gathering around making it, so making an event out of making the food and spending time together in the kitchen, and planning it, basically, and doing it all together. So that’s where ours was, I think, a bit special.

On Egyptian Cuisine:

Noha Serageldin of Matters of the Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about Egyptian cuisine.

It’s not very widespread, not like, for example, Lebanese food which you can find almost anywhere. Egyptian food is very similar to Lebanese and other foods of the area where it’s very simple food. It’s very highly reliant on vegetables and beans and things like that because they’re staples and they’re very cheap. Most normal families in Egypt would be on the poorer side and they’d want something to sustain them and keep them going through the day that doesn’t cost that much.

Most of our most famous national dishes are actually vegan or vegetarian without even…not on purpose, but it just happened to be that way.

Lots of big flavors, quite a bit of spices. Our meats are very simply prepared, nothing fancy, when we do have meat, but yeah, that’s pretty much it, sums it up.

When I think of Egypt, the spice that comes to mind instantly is cumin, instantly. So cumin and coriander are very, very widely used in Egyptian dishes, as well as cinnamon, I would say.

Cumin and coriander always go together. Cinnamon, it’s separate, it goes by itself, more like maybe some nutmeg and things like that, more warming dishes. It’s often added to desserts as well. Lots of desserts are flavored with cinnamon.

On What a Typical Egyptian Meal Looks Like:

The typical Egyptian meal, that if you walk into any Egyptian home, you’ll see has to be a massive plate of rice on the table at all times, and there’s probably bread too. Our Egyptian pita bread is really, really special. It’s a bit different to the types of pita bread that you see that are nice and smooth and white. It’s more whole grain and it’s very rustic, and it has the bran of the wheat covering it, all of it, so it’s a very special bread.

These are always there, and you’ll find some sort of stewed vegetable always, with tomato sauce stewed slowly, like green beans or okra or even peas. And if it’s a day where the family is having meat, then there’d probably be fried chicken or maybe grilled kofta meats, like beef kofta or maybe even lamb. Lamb is quite popular as well. That’s your typical Egyptian meal.

On Must-Have Dishes for Visitors to Egypt:

Noha Serageldin of Matters of the Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about must-have dishes in Egypt.

I’d say there are three dishes that cannot be missed for anyone visiting Egypt, and they’re quite easy to get because they’re widely available on the street. Most Egyptian food, you’d need to go into an Egyptian house, in a home, to eat them but these three… The first one is koshari, which is, pretty much, I would consider it the fast food of Egypt because it’s what people eat during work for lunch and typically have on their working day. It’s made up of, again, rice and lentils, cooked lentils, cooked chickpeas, a spicy tomato sauce, and fried onions on top. People usually even have it in a big plastic bowl or even a bag. I think that’s popular in Asia, as well, where you can get drinks and food in plastic bags. That happens a lot. So koshari is a must, must have. It’s a very spicy and very filling dish while being a vegan one as well.

The other two that usually go together are ta’amiya which are Egyptian falafel. They’re very similar to most of the falafel you know, but they’re made with fava beans rather than chickpeas, and they’re very, very green inside. So you’d take a bite and they’d be bright, bright green inside from all the herbs. And these are often eaten with ful which is, I would say, the number one national dish of Egypt, which are very slow-cooked fava beans. It’s a stew. It’s dark brown, and it’s very often flavored with cumin and coriander and olive oil, and maybe chopped tomatoes and cucumber and eaten with the pita bread. So these are the must, must haves.

The Pressure Cooker:

Noha Serageldin of Matters of the Belly on The Dinner Special podcast - The Pressure Cooker.

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I’m hooked on MasterChef and I’m never going to stop.

What are some food blogs or food websites we have to know about?

Well, food websites that I go to back and back again are Food52, The Kitchn, and Bon Appetit. I always go there if I need a basic recipe. As for food bloggers, they are endless. I’ve discovered so many talented food blogs and food bloggers around. I’m going to say a couple of the Australian ones that I’ve discovered here.

I love Cook Republic by Sneh Roy. She’s just wonderful and her recipes are never failing. I love, for desserts, I really like Thalia Ho from Butter and Brioche. I love, what else, My Darling Lemon Thyme of course.

Who do you follow on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat that make you happy?

I’m not big on Snapchat yet. I’m still trying to figure out how to work, how that works, but I’ve started following a few people and I do enjoy following very little video stories. I love following Local is Lovely, which is a wonderful local blogger here called Sophie Hansen that lives in regional New South Wales. Their stories and photos and events always make me so happy and make me actually want to move to the countryside, because she just focuses on the local growers and the local farmers and everything that this beautiful land has to offer, which always really, really makes me happy and makes me want to explore more of what Australia has to offer.

What is the most unusual or treasured item in your kitchen?

Actually, this is a funny story, but when I first came here for the first year, I started trying to collect all the things that I need in my kitchen from around Australia, and there were two things that I could not find anywhere that I was used to use back home. So when I went back to visit, I carried them back with me in my luggage, which is one, my rice washer. It’s just a bowl with slits down the side that you can easily wash rice in without it falling through. So it’s very thin slits and it’s a very simple thing, but it just saves me so much time washing my rice, and rice is such a big thing in Egyptian cooking. So that was something I had to bring back. And the other thing was the tool we use to hollow out vegetables for stuffing. It’s a really thin, long tool, and I couldn’t find it anywhere. So these two things are, they’re very precious and I guard them all the time and make sure I pack them first whenever we move.

Name one ingredient you used to dislike but now you love.

So many, because my mother used to always try to feed us all the wonderful Egyptian food, and we’d just say, “Oh, I don’t like eggplant,” or I don’t like one other very popular dish in Egypt is called Molokhia which is… I mean looking at it, you’d probably think it’s gross because it’s basically a green, slimy soup, and it’s not very appetizing, but I cannot have enough from it now. And I go specially, I trek out to the western suburbs, to the Middle Eastern grocers to buy it specially frozen so I can have it often. I used to make fun of my mom because she could have it every day, and I was just very grossed out by it, but now, I’m just completely addicted to it. I love it.

What are a few cookbooks that make your life better?

Definitely Ottolenghi cookbooks. I use them like a resource. It’s just like an encyclopedia for how to cook vegetables well. He knows his vegetables. He’s tested every sort of method there is and he always gives you the final verdict. So that, for sure, and I do have the Cairo Kitchen cookbook with me from back home, which is written by an Egyptian who opened a restaurant by the same name. So that has lots of classic and slightly modernized versions of our classic Egyptian dishes. I love having that whenever I need a quick tip on how to make something that I miss, I go for that.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

The soundtrack for Amelie, the movie. It always makes me want to cook.

On Keeping Posted with Noha:

Noha Serageldin of Matters of the Belly on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with her.

Definitely Instagram, I’m quite active on there and use it to also do micro posts because I don’t always have time to do full blog posts anymore, but I try to keep every other day, at least, on Instagram with a bit of an update, a bit of a story, anything like that.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Amelie, Australia, Bon Appetit, Butter and Brioche, Cairo Kitchen, Cook Republic, Egypt, Egyptian Cuisine, Falafel, Food Blog, Food Blogger, Food52, Ful, koshari, Local is Lovely, MasterChef, Matters of the Belly, Molokhia, My Darling Lemon Thyme, Noha Serageldin, Ottolenghi, Sneh Roy, Sophie Hansen, Thalia Ho, The Kitchn

035: Adrian Richardson: What to be Mindful of When Cooking Meat

May 6, 2015 by Gabriel Leave a Comment

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about some of his favorite things inside and out of the kitchen.
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Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about what to be mindful of when cooking meat.

Chef Adrian Richardson

Adrian is the chef and owner of the bustling La Luna Bistro in North Carlton, Victoria in Australia. A cookbook author of books called Meat and The Good Life, and the host of a number of TV shows, including one that I recently stumbled on called Secret Meat Business.

I’m Gabriel Soh and I’m so excited to have chef Adrian Richardson here on the show today.

On His Journey to Become a Chef:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his journey to becoming a chef.

My father was an airline pilot, so as I was growing up, my destiny was to sit next to him in the front of a plane and fly around Australia. But, as I got towards the end of my schooling, I wasn’t doing that well, so I decided to take a year off and do some flying lessons. But to pay for the flying lessons dad said, “You know, you got to pay for part of it,” so I got a job in a kitchen. And do you know what? I just really, really fell in love with being in a kitchen. To me, there’s no other place I could be.

I love flying in planes, but I like to sit there with a glass of wine in front of me. Cooking is what it’s about for me. And I’m so lucky that the flying actually helped me to find what I want so early.

I just loved the hustle and bustle of kitchens. I love the people in kitchens. I love being able to cook for people. I love being around food and tasting food and, you know, every now and again I taste a little bit too much food.

But, I just love the environment, and to me, no day is the same. There’s always something different going on and you’re able to move around. It’s a fun life and I really enjoy it.

I have a great background in food. My mother was born in Ethiopia. My grandmother in Cairo. My grandfather in Italy. That’s my mother’s side of the family. So there was a lot of North African and Middle Eastern and Italian food around and we ate a lot. And my grandmother was a most amazing cook.

The other side of my family, my dad’s side, he was an English chef who was trained in France and London, and then came over to Australia. So I got both styles of food, I suppose, that homestyle and that professional style. And to me, it’s just a beautiful thing to have the two together. It’s fantastic.

On His Style of Cooking:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his style of cooking.

My style of food is, I like to call it bistro. I like to use a lot of influences from around the Mediterranean. I think there’s so much influence there. I really like the ingredients. The people, the food. And there’s so many different things you can do.

You know, I spent some time growing up in Asia as well, in Malaysia for three years. I’ve traveled through Asia. I love Asian food. But that’s more for home, so that’s my secret stuff that I cook at home. My professional style tends to be that modern Australian.

However, when I do TV shows, I often bring in some of those Asian influences because I think it is so much a part of Australian cuisine – is the Asian food as well. I love pretty much anything from all over the world. It’s probably all my style. But I like to present it in a simple manner that’s easy going and friendly, and, slightly challenging but enjoyable. That’s probably what I’d like to say.

Just on the Malaysian input, I hadn’t been to Malaysia for probably 18 years, and I was there a couple of years ago, and as I arrived, we got out of the car at the hotel, you could smell the spices in the air. The satay, they’d actually cooked satays for me, and it’s just amazing. For me, I feel really connected with Asian food. I grew up eating Asian food, it’s really important to me. But also, you throw in there that Middle Eastern and that Italian food as well. I really connected with that as well.

On His Restaurant and Cookbooks:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his restaurant and cookbooks.

I think early on in the career I realized that I just wanted to work for myself, I wanted to do my own thing, I wanted to set up my own bistro or business. And along the way, I tended to work for people who had already done that. Owner-chefs, restauranteurs or chefs that had done really well, some of them really nice, and some of them not so nice. But I sort of mapped my career path out to follow these people, learn as much as I could from them, and apply that to my own business.

The cookbooks and the media stuff headed out after a few years of business. The restaurant was doing well, and I started to get a lot of attention. So I got a media agent, and it started from there. All of a sudden I did a commercial here for someone, and then a small TV show came along, and it sort of snowballed from there. But I love it! I really enjoy it. It’s a good part of my life.

I’ve got the restaurant on one side, and that’s busy, and that’s fun, but it’s opened the door to so many other things.

As you’ve probably worked out, I’m not a very shy person, so me being in front of the camera, in front of people and demonstrating is what I love. But the important part of it, Gabriel, is I like teaching people.

I’m really inspired by cooking and food and for me to be able to pass on a few tricks and techniques with a few dishes, so that it can make your eating experience and your life better, to me, I really get that. I really like it.

I try and keep it really simple so that you can listen to what I say and you pick up some stuff. And there’s nothing better than hearing from someone across the other side of the planet who’s seen the show and has been inspired by it. To me, that’s a really great thing.

On His Passion for Meat:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about his passion for meat.

I’ve always been around good quality meat. I think one of the things when I first started training, I was put into the butchery section of a kitchen, and I just got it. It just worked for me. So, I’d always had an understanding and been quite skilled at breaking things down and butchery as I’d moved through different kitchens.

It’s a bit of a plum job, it’s an important job in a kitchen, and so I was always put on that job. And to me, I just love cooking meat. I think it’s an amazing thing to cook. You know, we kill an animal to eat it, so to me, it’s really important that we understand exactly what we’re doing, that we use every part of it, and that’s what I try and do. That’s what I try and teach.

It’s not about eating more meat. It’s about eating better quality meat, paying a little bit more for it, but actually using parts that are not used, and respecting the animal. An animal’s been killed. We’ve got to do the right thing and make sure we eat every single part of it.

Tips on Cooking Meat:

I mean cooking white meats like chicken and turkey and pork, you really have to know that they’re cooked properly. One of the things that I would recommend is using a digital thermometer. I know that if you’re cooking a piece of chicken breast, you sear it, you pop it into the oven. If you put the probe into the center of it, if it gets to 72 degrees Celsius, it’s cooked.

That’s the scientific method and it works with all types of cooking. But another way of doing it is to take it out, let it rest for a second, cut it open, and if it’s pink in the center, if it’s bloody, well then you put it back in.

I reckon that the scientific method works at the start, then you probe it, you know it’s cooked all the way through. But then, when it comes to chicken breasts, you want make sure you don’t overcook it, so cutting it nice and thin and breading it and doing a little bit of olive oil or ghee and cooking it, that’s a nice way of doing it.

With things like chicken legs and chicken thighs, you can cook them all the way through. Put some tomato passata in it, and some olives and some wine, and you know you can cook it for an hour and a half. You know it’s going to be cooked. But then, when you touch it with your fingers or a fork, and it falls apart, that’s when you know it’s nice and tender. And that’s the best way. That’s the best bit of advice.

The Pressure Cooker:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about some of his favorite things inside and out of the kitchen.

Which food shows or cooking shows do you watch?

I enjoy watching Rick Stein, I like the way he talks through what he’s doing, and he’s got an amazing narrative voice.

I also like Food Safari, which we have in Australia. It goes around lots of different cuisines and different nationalities. Fantastic show.

Within the last year, where did you have the best meal, and what did you have?

The best meal I had was in a tiny little dumpling noodle house out of Melbourne, in one of the outer suburbs, and it was fantastic. They make the best dumplings there. It’s in a broth with some chili oil in it.

There are little old Chinese ladies that make the dumplings there, and there’s a little old Chinese man that makes the noodles. It’s so fresh and so clean. It’s so cheap! And one of the best meals I’ve had.

What is a professional chef tip that all home cooks should know?

A professional chef home cook tip would be use salt, put plenty of salt on your meat. Meat loves salt and salt loves meat. Make sure you season your meat because that’s what brings out the flavor.

What is something all home cooks should have in their pantry?

I think they should have salt and fresh pepper. I think from there, you’ve got to have pasta. You’ve got to have tomato passata, to make some sauce. Of course some butter. And I believe some bacon as well.

You’re going to have to stop me here because I’ll just keep on going. These four ingredients, from those things, I can make anything.

Name one ingredient you cannot live without.

I would have to say fresh herbs. Fresh herbs and continental parsley is my favorite. Without that, I can’t live. I need to have that flavor in just about everything I cook.

What are a few cookbooks that make you life better?

I use an old series that I think is still available.

Time Life is the publisher, and The Good Cook series, that’s the series. I think it’s one of the best.

What song or album just makes you want to cook?

I like heavy metal music. I’ll turn that on, and I’ll play heavy metal music and my kids will run around and climb all over the place. I like cooking to that. But my wife, when she comes in, she likes it nice and soft and gentle, like jazz. So, one of the two is fine by me.

I just have it on shuffle. Slayer was something I was listening to last week, and that was good. Iron Maiden’s good, Metallica, they’re all good.

On Keeping Posted on Adrian:

Chef Adrian Richardson of La Luna Bistro on The Dinner Special podcast talking about keeping posted with him.

You can start with Twitter, it’s @tastysausage, with Instagram, which is @verytastysausage. Facebook, you can just go to the Adrian Richardson page and there I’ll be. You can go to our website, www.lalunabistro.com.au, and also adrianrichardson.net, so there’s a couple of different ways to get in touch.

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Filed Under: Podcast Tagged With: Adrian Richardson, Australia, Chef, Cookbook Author, Food Safari, Iron Maiden, La Luna Bistro, Meat, Metallica, Rick Stein, Secret Meat Business, Slayer, The Good Cook series, The Good Life, Time Life

Hello! I'm Gabriel Soh, home cook, food enthusiast and your host of The Dinner Special podcast.
Everything here on The Dinner Special is an experiment, just like with cooking. Thank you for listening and being part of the adventure.

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