Reflections at 25

If my subconscious could speak, it would probably say this:

Happy birthday! Congratulations! You are now a quarter of a century old. Congratulations for making it through another year. Congratulations on your three high distinctions and 6.75 GPA. Congratulations for not failing. Congratulations for not hurting anyone this year. Congratulations for not living in a twenty-seven storey apartment. Don't you wish you did though sometimes? Don't you miss living alone? Being left alone? Don't you miss that great big window over the city - night lights illuminating everything in sight but that beneath? Feet dangling in the open air, just one step, just one push. Don't you wish you could relive that moment and do things differently? Take a leap of faith instead of picking up that phone. Don't you wish you could repeat all those moments of mistake? No. Don't go. Stay. I love you. What is it like to carry the world on your shoulders? What is it like on every birthday, every Christmas, every New Years Eve to feel a gaping expanse in your heart where her hand should be, connecting you to all of the things that are right in the world? What is it like to never feel content or forgiven, to ache from the emptiness that you created, to wish to rewind time to right the impossible? Today will be filled with meaningless congratulations. Only twenty-five years passed, and still a lifetime remaining.

We've Got Waste

One of my picture/poster ideas generated for the

Sustainable Campus Collective, UWS Hawkesbury

Waste is probably not something that is high on everyone's agenda. However, what happens to food waste or any biodegradable waste for that matter, is incredibly important.

Tiny little microorganisms that live in healthy soil are imperative in the decomposition process of organic matter and nutrient cycling. To put it simply, without these organisms soil virtually becomes a dead substance.

Every time crops are harvested, nutrients are removed from the soil. Without returning organic matter back to the soil, nutrient levels become depleted. When inorganic synthetic fertilisers are used, soil slowly becomes more acidic and more saline which is not conducive for flourishing microbes. When certain herbicides (such as those containing glyphosate) are used, soil life is wiped out altogether and the vicious cycle of synthetic fertiliser dependency ensues...

In order to create a sustainable 'closed loop' system, all we need to do is return biodegradable waste to the earth instead of burying it under tonnes of shit in landfill where it decomposes anaerobically, creating methane (which is over 20 times more toxic than CO2) and leachate (to join our lovely, pristine waterways). Whoever invented the flushing toilet will no doubt be remembered as the biggest dick in history.

Not only does returning organic matter to soil improve conditions for all-important nutrient cycling microorganisms, but it also reduces the need for chemical fertilisers and even some herbicides. In addition, increasing the organic matter content of soil improves its structure and water-holding capacity which means that less water is needed to maintain growth and plants fare much better in our quintessentially hot, dry Australian summers.

Our current systems seem so.. illogical.

Yes, change will require some effort but why ignore science and stick with methods that we are well aware are not only damaging but also impossible to continue indefinitely? Sustainable practices that incorporate a holistic view of environmental preservation and longevity should be the norm and not the exception as they are today.

I joined a student group called 'Sustainable Campus Collective' at the start of this semester and it's so damn frustrating. We can see what changes need to be made but the bureaucratic bullshit we have to deal with to get things done seems ridiculous and at times thoroughly disheartening. I sure wish things were less complex sometimes.

A Different String

chilli ristra in the making

It's Valentine's Day today, there are one hundred and sixty-eight hours to the week, twenty-eight days of February in 2011 and only nine shifts before I leave the job I love.

It's about time I left. Life wasn't meant to be static. I'm trading in my full-time work for full-time study and it's a little scary stepping back out into the unknown.

I'm going to miss my awesome boss and the inspiring people who I've spent the last two and a half years with. My time here really helped me to discover what it is that I'm passionate about, and for that I'm most thankful.

I'm not leaving the food industry, merely wandering down the path less taken, admiring a newly completed scenic route.

It's going to be hard. I can see it being completely overwhelming - the house, the car, the mortgage, the weekend work, the forty plus hours of study per week, the self-motivation and dedication that I'll need to get through the next three years and come out sane.. and successful..

While some people might ask: "How long is a piece of string?", I want to analyse the damn thing before hurrying along to find out what lies at the other end.

Leaving you with words from Joel Salatin himself:
                   
                        
                               "May all your carrots grow long and straight,
                                may the foxes be struck blind by your chickens,
                                may your customers love cooking your food in their kitchens,
                                may the rains be gentle on your pastures,
                                may your fields grow with soil,
                                may your earthworms dance with celebration,
                                may the wind be always at your back,
                                your children rise up and call you blessed,
                                and may we all leave a better world than we found."

(Chef & soon-to-be Food Sustainability student @ UWS)

Active Ingredient in Roundup Weedkiller Causes Cancer

Revealed: the glyphosate research the GM soy lobby doesn't want you to read

Changes need to be made. Chemical applications containing glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller) should be banned, period. Tell all of your friends to stop using any products containing glyphosate as they have been found to cause miscarriages, birth defects and childhood cancer.

Gone Travelling.. Back in a Month!

Own Stephanie Alexander for 25 Bucks!

Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion is a book that I've long been craving. I spent a whole afternoon at Kinokuniya bookstore reading and re-reading the first few chapters while I was in the midst of planning out the execution of my no-dig garden last year. Six months later, I found myself glued to its open pages in the middle of a David Jones hall, completely oblivious to having lost my friend in the frenzy of a kitchenware sale. As much as I loved to flick through the pages of this encyclopedic cookbook, I could never bring myself to justify the $125 price tag but then, only yesterday, a serendipitous moment occurred.

Searching online through booko for the cheapest available copy of 'Bakewise' by Shirley O'Corriher, randomly clicking on another title called 'Sorted: A Rookie's Guide To Crackin' Cooking', I saw it. Down the bottom of the page amongst a jumble of other books I read: "The Kitchen Garden Companion 88 days to go Pre order AUD$25.79". TWENTY-FIVE BUCKS?!?! That's one hundred dollars off the original price! *Click click click* well that's my copy sorted! Hoo! Hoo! I sure as hell can't wait to be holding it in my hot little hands! 

I remember reading somewhere that kitchen gardens were once commonplace. In America, Canada, Germany and the UK, "Victory Gardens" were designed to provide food and keep up morale in times of war. Community allotment gardens are gaining popularity in leaps and bounds, as are vertical window gardens and green roofs. Working on the outskirts of the CBD, I've walked past a few terrace houses where people have even reclaimed the tiny verge outside on the street.

I love food and the many pleasures derived from frolicking in the front yard, pruning a little here and there, poking insects with a stick and tending to my fruit and veg. It's just so darn peaceful, I'm often surprised and it saves me money too! I can't remember the last time I went to the shops to buy a bunch of herbs. If you've ever pondered over starting a vegie patch or potted herb garden, I have a few words of advice: "Just get on with it!".

a little surprise

4 Days in Melbourne

Ahh, Melbourne! We haven't known one another for long, but there's something I must confess. You weren't quite what I expected when we first met but you drew me in with your rusticated charm and love for all things green. There's something about you, shrouded in mysterious romance, that causes me desire to explore every dark corner of your soul. Who would have thought that you would be the one to teach me something new; that you would lead me to experience the exquisite sensation of ice-cold glass pressed against my lips, white smoke and fiery caramel enveloping all of my senses.

Oh Melbourne, you may not be a rose by sight but your looks belie your scent by tenfold. Your passion for the arts is inspiring and your cooking has me weak at the knees. Despite your cold demeanour, I know that there is more to you than at first meets the eye. I want to spend more time with you if you'll allow me. There are so many things I'd love to discover with you.. 

How To Take Better Food Photos: Basics

Do you ever wonder what you're doing with your life? I mean really? Do you ever wake up thinking 'Gosh I think I'd like to be a farmer so I can grow lots of blueberries and make goat's cheese'? I do all the time! Though funnily enough, photography was never one of those things.

My Dad gave me my first camera - an old Olympus OM10 when I was 16. You can find the camera body on eBay for under $100 now but just to give you a rough idea of just how old it was, he bought it before I was born. When I was 20, I took a course in black and white print processing at community college then ran away to Europe for 3 months and lugged the damned thing with me, all the way.

I never became interested in food photography until after I started my blog back in 2005 and for a very long time I satisfied myself by looking at other peoples' photographs. Eventually when I began blogging more seriously, I would revisit some of the incredibly inspiring blogs that I'd found and yearn to be able to take photos that did as much justice to my food as did theirs. My friends were probably sick of seeing my amateur happy snaps taken with a craptacular camera phone and encouraged me to get a DSLR which I finally did in 2009.

Spain - Olympus OM10

I bought a Canon EOS 450D and have since swapped the 18-55mm kit lens with a EF 50mm f1.2L which I use almost exclusively. It's a lens that I think works exceptionally well for portraiture and intimate food shots. It's outrageously fast which is handy for when I'm out and want to take action shots. When I open the aperture right up it gives beautiful bokeh too.

Not one to do things in halves, I signed up for a few photography classes at ACP in Paddington earlier in the year which have really helped me to become aware of the basics in digital photography that I've been trying to learn by myself all along. I've also learned that if you want to take good photos, it is imperative to know your camera and its functions. Also, it probably doesn't hurt if you're lucky enough to watch professional photographers shooting in a restaurant for a certain celebrity chef's new cookbook!

It's no fun learning if I can't share my knowledge so I've compiled a small list of things that I think are really important. If you're a beginner DSLR user you might find something useful to help you improve your photography too.

Aperture vs shutter speed:

Opening up the aperture (eg. changing from f22 to f1.8) lets more light into the camera, which means you can use a faster shutter speed and makes it possible to freeze movement. It also impacts the 'depth of field' or the area in focus. If you've ever wondered how to blur out the background and keep the front in focus, open up the aperture to the smallest number (with my lens it's f1.2) and shoot something really close-up. This is referred to as a shallow depth of field. The opposite applies so when you close down the aperture (eg. from f2.8 to f11) you're letting less light into the camera so the shutter speed needs to be longer to compensate. You'll be able to capture blurred motion and the depth of field or area in focus will be greater.

The relationship between shutter speed, aperture and ISO:

Say you have the correct exposure but you want to change the depth of field so there is more in focus. If you close the aperture down by one stop, you'll need to compensate by either lengthening the shutter speed by one stop or increasing the ISO by one stop to achieve the same exposure. 

Shoot at the lowest ISO:

Food is in most cases static, so if you have a tripod, set your ISO to 100 for the best picture quality and increase shutter speed to gain the correct exposure. If you set your ISO to 800 you will notice an increase in 'noise' which is like graininess in film, especially at night. Using a higher ISO such as 800 means that you can take 'faster' shots in low light conditions or freeze motion that may have come out blurry if you used a 'slower' ISO like 200 for example. Just like in film, a higher ISO makes the camera more sensitive to light, hence a faster image capture.

Shoot in RAW:

This lets you adjust the white balance on your computer later. It's important if you want true-to-life colours, or even if you want to distort colours. Shooting in JPEG is faster and convenient but often means that your photos will be stuck with a colour cast that is hard and sometimes impossible to fix later. If you edit your photos with a program such as Photoshop, it's best to save your file as an 8-bit TIF and then save it as a JPEG at the final stage. Saving a file repeatedly in JPEG will result in a massive loss of information and be detrimental to the quality of your final image.

Shoot in manual:

Your camera assumes that every picture you take is mid grey (ie. 50% white and 50% black). If you take a picture of a white cat on a white bedspread for example, you will have to expose by 1 or 2 stops above the recommended meter reading to reach the correct exposure. Bracket by taking a few shots at different exposures to make sure you end up with one that you like. If you shoot in automatic, the white cat and white bedspread will come out grey. Similarly, if you shoot a black dog on a black rug, you'll need to underexpose by 2 stops or the dog and rug will become grey. Unless you're Chinese like me, a dog will never make it into your food shots but it's important to keep this piece of information in mind when you're shooting with light or dark backgrounds.

Use natural light where possible:

I've never ever used my built-in camera flash. It's too harsh. Even if you set your camera to underexpose by a couple of stops, light from the front makes things look flat and you may as well be using a point a shoot. It's a good idea to avoid shooting in direct sunlight for the same reason as you'll end up with lots of bright spots, lots of deep shadow and not much detail. If you want to emphasise the texture of an object, adjust your setup so that the light comes from the side. The best light is ambient light or indirect window light.

If you don't get much ambient light in your kitchen you needn't worry. I often sit an old jamon box on the desk in my bedroom and shoot there as the afternoon light is much better. Remember, you're in control of the camera and it's ultimately your choice what is included or excluded from a picture.

I hope this has helped! :)


Cathy x.

Published in Desserts Magazine!

So last week I found out.. I somehow managed to score the front cover shot for issue #14 of American publication: 'Desserts Magazine'.. I'm still in shock! There's a double-page spread featuring my recipe for green tea macarons on page 15 with full photo credits and even a mention of my blog. How tremendously awesome! :D

Big as a House

 
I haven't had time to blog much in the last month or so. There have been some pretty big things on my plate recently. Big BIG things, as 'big as a house' sort of things.

I started a photography course at ACP in Paddington and it's been hard work adjusting to getting home at 1am the night before, getting up at 6am, dragging my butt out of the house in a zombie-like daze, napping on the train during peak hour without drooling on the unfortunate person sitting next to me, working from 8:30am - 5pm, grabbing a quick bite to eat before rambling down Crown then up Oxford to Paddo, sitting in a studio/classroom from 6:30pm - 9:30pm, walking all the way back down Oxford to Central Station, jumping on the 10:15 train to Wenty and getting home at 11:30pm. Phew! It's only one day a week mind you, but it's bloody hard work.


Also with assistance from my Mum and Dad, I've bought my first house and finally gotten all the initial paperwork out of the way. Exciting.


Jamie Oliver came in for dinner with a posse of 30 after only 3 hours of notice before the start of service on Sunday. It seemed to be a big chef night. Brent Savage from Bentley, Mark Best from Marque next door, Tetsuya (he needs only one name like Madonna) and Ben O'Donoghue came in, though the best was left to very last - Thomasina Miers of Wahaca, London and 'Wild Gourmets'!!! Oh and tomorrow I get to accompany my boss to the set of MasterChef and hang out for the day! Double exciting!

This is a shot I submitted as homework for class. My teacher thought it would be fun for me to do a little food photography since it's my main interest but I didn't have time, had to work 6 days straight and really just couldn't be stuffed cooking anything. We had some freshly podded peas sitting in the freezer compartment so I poured a little water in with them, froze it, then bashed it like a crazy woman with the back of a spoon until it came apart in little chunks and threw that on a plate with a fine dining setup. My teacher loved it, said it poked fun at commercial food photography. Anyway, for the record, that's butterscotch schnapps swimming in the wine glass, a white chef necktie masquerading as a napkin and a whiteboard 'table'.

The ironic dietary habits of modern man:

A common convenience food of 2010

DMBLGIT Award

I can just imagine myself striding purposefully across the dark carpeted floor, yet feeling for each step tentatively as if learning to walk for the first time. When I climb to the top, the acute nervousness that wasn't there before takes hold over me and the bright studio lights suddenly feel much too close overhead. It's so hot up here. Why did I wear this jacket? Does my blog look good in this? I can't take it off, it's too late for that. Everyone is watching.

Perspiration is beading on my forehead and I brush it away, looking solemn, pretending to run my fingers through my hair. A woman whose face I know but whose name I can't seem to detach from the roof of my mouth at this very present moment, greets me on stage with congratulations and presents me with an award I've spent months coveting in secret. I clear my throat and lean in..

'I'd like to thank my friends and family foremost for their unwavering support. Without their creative criticism and encouragement I would not be where I am today. I'd also like to thank my agent for providing a platform from which I have been able to express myself in all creative aspects. And a big thank you to those who have followed me throughout the years and knew me from humble beginnings. Thank you and God bless you all!'

I manage to stutter through a speech I've said many times before in a semi-conscious state of daydreaming. And then relief washes over me. I step back from the microphone, astounded. I finally did it! I DID IT! With the trophy camera held tightly to my chest, I make a quick retreat down the stairs, nodding to the judges in earnest and grinning proudly. There's a congratulatory drink waiting at the table and as I nestle down amongst friends I raise my glass above our heads to a cry of 'Cheers!'. This year couldn't have started in a better way.

This Is All

cherry tomatoes from my garden

It's that time again when we can wipe our slates clean of all things passed and start anew with fresh resolve and resolution. This year has not been an easy one for many of us, with all that is going on in the world. I've had a few ups and downs, stops and starts, a shade too many periods of emotional turbulence, lightning and stormy weather caused by nothing more than a nondescript drop rippling the surface of a distant ocean. And then, this year has also been one of the most grounding, as a colleague, slightly drunk and more than a little rowdy, summed up in one profound statement: "This (life) is all you get."

Let's help one another to make those resolutions for the new year and a final cheer for 2009 (for me, a year of firsts) and some of the highlights:
- Giving in to impulse and buying my first digital SLR camera,
- Meeting a very lovely Cassandra on a market tour, chatting away idly for hours like old friends and then saying goodbye without getting her number (so stupid!),
- Completing 'The Science of Baking', a 2 year correspondence course run by the Bread Research Institute of Australia, in 8 months by studying laboriously on the train ride to and from work every evening,
- Discovering with horror, the unfortunate depth of my suspected 'minor' seafood allergy,
- Digging up the front lawn to make way for a small 1.5 x 2m vegetable plot,
- Presenting a pastry chef friend with bright yellow nasturtium flowers, picked from my garden, which ended up on a restaurant dessert,
- And uncovering the first hairy, little muncher burpless cucumbers hiding amongst scattered pea straw.

I have my fingers crossed that 2010 will bring just as many exciting moments and cucumbers (of course!) to fruition, and hopefully also a little more personal growth for myself, friends and those around me.

Happy holidays everyone!

CMC: Culinary Mastodonic Calamity

Celebrity MasterChef is set to air at 7:30 tonight. For a fleeting moment a short while back, I was under the impression that it was going to be about celebrity chefs.. Until my boss went to Melbourne for a shoot with Anna Bligh vs. Underbelly Guy cooking or should I say murdering Szechuan pepper duck. Oh how wrong I was. All my hopes and dreams of seeing professional chefs on free to air TV were cruelly dashed. So it most definitely won't be as good or as exciting as I was hoping it would be, though I'll probably watch it tonight anyway. Just to confirm that it's crap.

(By the way, does anyone know what the go is with this Macca's Chef thing? I clicked on the link out of curiosity, thinking "Is this shit for real?!"..)

Anyway back to the line-up: George Negus, Simon Westaway, Kirk Pengilly, Josh Thomas, Ryan O'Keefe, Alex Lloyd, Rachael Finch, Faustina Agolley, Alex Perry, Michelle Bridges, Peter Fitzsimons, Eamon Sullivan, Anna Bligh, Indira Naidoo, Kathleen De Leon, Peter Rowsthorn, Simon Katich and Wendy Harmer.

I'm wondering what market this new version of MasterChef is aimed at. At this present moment I'm expecting it to be a cross between 'Dancing With The Stars' and 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here'. For the record, I only ever viewed 'Dancing with the Stars' on two occasions and then, it was only to catch glimpses of the highly attractive professionals.

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Regrettably, I don't think I have anything positive to say about this. It seems almost blasphemous to the original MasterChef. Oh well.. At least it appears that Matt Preston has partially removed his abhorrent sideburns.

Change is in the Air

PS. my blog has finally moved home to http://aficionado-x.blogspot.com/

Hello new blog! Goodbye ridiculously irrelevant url!

What Happens to Fat?

To mark the World Congress on Oils and Fats and 28th ISF Congress held in Sydney from the 27-30th of September 2009, Foodservice Magazine - an industry publication released monthly, will be focusing on the use of frying fats after life in the kitchen. I was approached for an interview in the media office after attempting and failing miserably to obtain photos of the Fine Food expo at Darling Harbour.

"We just use generic canola oil.. I think.. Umm.. But don't quote me on that." I stammered.

What I meant to say a little more eloquently was:
"Having just been awarded the newly appointed SMH Sustainability Award, it's clear that the restaurant (Billy Kwong) is at the forefront of sustainable practices in the foodservice industry. We take great pride in using some of the best produce available and while it is inevitable that waste is created, we do our best to recycle as much as possible, including the oils used for cooking during each service."

Phew. If only my mouth was as quick as my feet.

According to the cute interviewer there are chefs who recycle their dirty oil to be used as biofuel for their own cars. An interesting proposition indeed. At Aria I was told that the rancid oil we dumped into a huge stinking vat in the carpark was picked up and recycled into cosmetic goods and soaps. At Catalonia a big truck came along and took all our tins of dirty oil to only god knows where. Currently, noodle man Jimmy filters our oil twice a week and sends it off for a second life at another restaurant before it goes to lipid heaven. What happens after reincarnation though, I have no idea..

Should I Be Projectile Vomiting?

"Food becomes blood, blood becomes heart and brain, thoughts and mind stuff. Human fare is the foundation of human culture and thought. Would you improve a nation? Give it, instead of declamations against sin, better food. Man is what he eats." - Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach

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Never have truer words been spoken. We are affected by all that we digest through our eyes, ours mouths, through the air that we breathe. Food is one of the greatest (and sometimes sinful) pleasures in life that warms the heart and nurtures the soul. Good food unites nations and creates everlasting memories. Great food has the ability to transport us to another world or to take us home, wherever that may be.

It saddens me to think that despite being granted great opportunities, there are many deprived individuals who really have no idea what good food is. I have a small handful of friends who are vegetarian by choice although admittedly we don't talk much. And I do have an obsession with chicken.

I hold much respect for those who must refrain for reason of allergy and so forth (I myself have recently discovered that consuming crustaceans of some variety results in urticaria and indeed it takes a great deal of restraint despite knowing the dire consequences). And so it makes me terribly angry to discover that people don't really give a damn and will eat shit that resembles a shrunken foam mattress and be positive about it.

For the record, the crust-making technique is all wrong and it's disturbing that a jerk I mean woman with 38 years of eating experience thinks that coconut cream replicates the taste of egg in any way, shape or form. And on top of that, still hopes for some sort of book deal.

All I can say is: BLEURRGGGHH!

Saved!

 
I want to say a BIG thank you to the good people at Everten Online. I experienced what Julia on MasterChef refers to as a brain fart, momentarily at the point of alighting the very last train home for the night whilst carrying my knives. Or should I say not carrying.. Needless to say I probably won't be seeing them again unless by some miracle. Fingers crossed that they don't turn up at a murder scene.

Head over to Everten as they're having an end of financial year sale on at the moment (postage is $6.90 Australia-wide via registered post). Don't forget to sign up for the newsletter for a chance to win $2,000 worth of SKK Titan Cookware! I saved 43% off the RRP on a 21cm Ice Bear Chef Knife, 40% off a Global G-2 Cooks Knife, 26% off a Global Meat Cleaver, 32% off a Global Birds Beak Peeling Knife, 44% off a Global Nakiri Vegetable Chopper and 30% off a brand spanking new Global Professional Knife Case. The estimated delivery time is 3-10 working days but I received my order in only 2 days. Thanks Skye!

Learning Block

 
I rocked up to Ultimo TAFE last Thursday to enrol in the second semester of the retail combined baking and cake course. It seems that history is cursed to repeat itself. Exactly as my attempted enrolment in first semester went, I was placed on the waiting list again. Apparently only the first 15 people to pay are guaranteed a spot. I'm so disappointed. I wish the faculty had told me that when I called them asking about the course 6 months ago. I would have camped outside E block and hidden all the public signs pointing to the enrolment room until my paperwork had been completed.

To date, my pastry experience has been fairly limited so I'm pretty pleased with what I've managed to learn so far through reading blogs, cookbooks and magazines. It didn't hurt that I spent a few short months working in the Aria pastry kitchen making macarons, bombe alaskas, jellies and chocolate truffles but I was probably too young to fully appreciate the situation.

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Humility, knowledge and pride in one's work all take time to develop and despite desperately wanting to have that amassed knowledge and understanding of everything now I'm very well aware that it will take years if not decades to be what I want to become.

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With a little hard work and persistence, I've managed to complete half of my 2 year Science of Baking course in just over 3 months. I decided to buy the TAFE baking training book anyway, despite missing out on enrolment. Hopefully in another 3 months I'll have put theoretical lessons of the Science of Baking behind me and be moving onto learning the more practical and hands-on-get-in-there-and-get-dirty-isn't-this-just-AWESOME! side of things.

Obviously I still have a long way to go..

Pesto Pasta

Last months edition of Gourmet Traveller covering the "Best of Italy" with a four page spread debating various bolognese recipes had me jazzed up to give pasta making a go. Paolo Laboa, Head Chef of Farina demonstrates his method of making champion-winning pesto on Chow along with traditional Genovese pasta sheets using white wine.

The general rule when making pasta seems to be 100 g flour : 1 egg plus a little water or olive oil to moisten the dough for a softer finish. Deep yellow pastas owe their richness to a higher ratio of egg yolks to flour, consequently reducing or leaving out egg whites altogether. A sprinkle of salt helps to reduce the necessary kneading time and allowing the mix to rest for at least an hour acts to fully saturate the flour for a smoother and more pliable dough.

I gave the Farina method for pesto an attempt. The idea of soaking basil to prevent discolouration through the removal of chlorophyll is a new one for me but it seems to work quite well. The pesto isn't cooked but merely heated through by the warmth of the pasta itself and a little cooking water to melt the parmesan so I opted for the addition of roasted garlic instead of raw.

Gastronomic Failure

The moment that we've all been waiting for has come. Aaron has finally left the MasterChef kitchen and not a moment too soon. From memory over the last 30 episodes screened this month, he produced a multitude of dishes (how they qualified as such I couldn't tell you) and all but one were said to be weird (ie. crumbly "puff pastry" made in a robo) or just totally shit (remember that shrivelled up rabbit leg with burnt leeks and balsamic syrup?).

"For those people that don't know what molecular gastronomy is, it's basically a very precise way of cooking that involves taking an ingredient and then presenting it in a dish in an entirely different way and in a different form and texture. So basically I took peas, and then using spherification techniques reformed them to a different shape." - Aaron

Yes.. Well.. Unfortunately my knowledge of molecular gastronomy is somewhat lacking and I'm having a little trouble understanding this concept of round peas being a totally different shape to spherified round peas. You'll have to excuse me.

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That Aaron is really, really annoying. He wasn't even able to make a basic caramel after three tries at the Royal Easter Show challenge and the kid wants to open up his own 3 hatted restaurant by the time he's 25? PFFT! HA!

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Seriously now, if he manages to transform from an arrogant fucktard into a well-renowned chef in four years I'll go down to his future Melbourne restaurant myself and eat my hat. Tops to George for taking him on as an apprentice. I hope he's able to instill in him a little humility and grace. If not, a punch in the face will be just as satisfying on my part.