The Forager: chefs march on Macca’s
In this week’s column: Adelaide chef joins a fast-food protest in Italy, providore celebrates 20 years in the business, breakfast in a chocolate, and how to preserve new-season lemons.
Push to preserve Italian cuisine
How does a country like Italy maintain the purity of its food culture in the face of multinational food producers and cuisine fusion?
Adelaide-based Salvatore Pepe is one of many Italian chefs who no longer live in Italy, but who act as champions among their diaspora, working together to preserve the authenticity of Italian cuisine.
Pepe is part of a group called the Virtual Group of Italian Chefs (GVCI), a network of chefs, restaurateurs and culinary professionals working in the Italian cuisine industry outside Italy. It is a moderated internet forum which has more than 2200 members in 70 countries, a virtual community which provides support, professional development and the opportunity to discuss ideas.
“We make sure that wherever we are, we preserve the authenticity of Italian cuisine,” says Pepe. “That’s a very important part of it.
“Italian chefs in Italy take Italian cuisine for granted because they are immersed in it in their everyday lives, but for Italian chefs working outside of Italy, we appreciate it more.”
Pepe recently travelled to Italy for a GVCI summit in Florence “to see how we can get UNESCO to recognise Italian cuisine as world heritage, something that’s good for humanity that should be preserved and embraced”.
“It was one of the biggest events we have organised; 150 GVCI members met in Milan for Expo Milano 2015 [a global showcase of technology and ideas addressing food sustainability] before going to on to Florence.
“As part of the Expo 2015, original restaurants from different regions of Italy were invited to serve their regional food specialty, so everyone could taste the diversity. It was a highlight of the Expo.”
Pepe says the GVCI group was appalled that two of the sponsors of the Expo were McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, so it decided to take action.
“We got some Italian artisan cheese samples and marched from the entrance of the pavilion for two kilometres to the nearest McDonald’s and served the cheese to all the customers and staff,” he explains.
“Within about 10 minutes we were surrounded by television and news cameras and journalists.
“Within 30 minutes, the police arrived, but it was not just the police, it was the Colonnello, the big chief.
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“He asked, ‘Who organised this?’ and we said, ‘No-one – we did it by our own will. We want to protest against McDonald’s being here’.”
No-one was arrested, the staff and customers enjoyed the handmade cheese, and Pepe and the rest of the chefs achieved their objective.
“As far as we were concerned, the organisers of the Expo missed the point – it was an opportunity to showcase the diversity of what we have on our planet. It was a peaceful protest.”
Pepe says the group went on to Florence, where members voted unanimously to work together to lobby UNESCO to list Italian cuisine as unique in the world and something to be recognised and preserved.
Bottega Rotolo celebrates 20 years
Also working together to share their passion for Italian food is the Rotolo family, which is celebrating 20 years of supplying premium handcrafted Italian produce to a strong customer base in Adelaide.
Bottega Rotolo founder Rosalie Rotolo-Hassan began with a small retail store, which opened in July 1995 on Osmond Terrace in Norwood and supplied European gourmet food and wine to the public and restaurants, hotels and cafes. Now it has grown to a national business with a warehouse in Mile End supplying two shops in Adelaide and further outlets in Western Australia and Tasmania. In addition, it has a contract with Qantas that delivers 20,000 serves of cheese weekly as on-board snacks to first, business and economy-class passengers.
The business has also expanded its focus to include South Australian and Australian gourmet products, including locally-produced wines, butter, cheeses, olive oils and olives.
“My passion for food comes from my family and from growing up in the Central Markets, where my parents had a shop,” says Rotolo-Hassan.
“Food is a central part of Italian families … I also get a real kick out of sharing my passion for food with our customers.”
Chocolate for breakfast?
The Adelaide Hills has become home to what might be the world’s first breakfast chocolate.
Using smoked bacon from the local butcher (Max Noske & Son) and Canadian maple syrup, Hahndorf’s Chocolate @ No.5 (which recently rebranded after a legal threat from fashion label Chanel) has taken caramel to a new level, creating a chocolate that tastes more like breakfast than an after-dinner treat.
“I love caramel – it’s such a fabulous purveyor of flavour – but rarely is anyone challenged by the concept of salted caramel these days,” says chocolatier Sarina Waterman. “So I decided to take the caramel challenge to a new level by creating a Canadian-style smoked bacon and maple syrup caramel.
“The flavour of house-smoked bacon from Noske’s butchers in Hahndorf shines through, with just a little salt and a whole lot of smoke and a maple syrup finish. Perhaps I’ve created the first ever breakfast in a chocolate.”
The Smoked Bacon and Maple Syrup caramel joins other flavoured caramels in the Chocolate @ No.5 range, including Sage and Thyme, Blood Orange and Aged Balsamic Vinegar, Vanilla Bean, Mango Lassi, and the award-winning Murray River Salted Caramel.
Waterman says a tomato and basil-flavoured caramel could feature this summer season.
Best beers
McLaren Vale-based brewer Vale Brewing is toasting its success at the recent Royal Adelaide Beer Awards, where it scooped the title of Champion Large Brewery.
“We’re really chuffed with what we’ve been accomplishing in our brewery,” said head brewer Jeff Wright.
“And coming out tops against the likes of Coopers and Lion Nathan is well worth raising a glass to!”
Vale Brewing, which started out as the McLaren Vale Beer Company in 2008, was also awarded the Champion Dark Lager for its Vale Dark Lager and received a gold medal for its Fox Hat metric IPA.
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This week at the Adelaide Farmers’ Market – lemons
Lemon season is well and truly underway, and for those not lucky enough to have a backyard tree laden with lemons, the Adelaide Farmers’ Market is a good source of fresh lemons.
The lemon tree is native to southern India, northern Burma and China. The fruit’s juice, pulp and peel, especially the zest, have a variety of uses, including in cooking, aromatherapy, medicine and cleaning. A lemon’s sour taste arises from its 5 to 6 per cent citric acid content.
There are many varieties grown in Australia, with the more popular ones being the Eureka, Lisbon and Meyer (a cross between a lemon and possibly an orange or mandarin that was developed in 1908). There are also small plantings of other varieties including Fino, Verna, Yen Ben and the native Bush lemon tree.
Lemon juice, rind and zest are used in a wide variety of foods such as preserves and pickles, curds, marinades, and other sweet and savoury dishes.
Prospect Farmers’ Market patron, local chef and food identity Rosa Matto has shared with Forager her recipe for preserving lemons.
Moroccan Lemons
Ingredients
8 – 10 lemons
¾ cup salt
2 cinnamon sticks
4 bay leaves
Extra lemon juice as needed
Method
Cut lemons in quarters to within ½ inch from the bottom. Sprinkle inside of lemon with salt and place 1 tbsp salt at bottom of preserving jar.
Add lemons, pushing down and adding salt, cinnamon sticks and bay leaves in between. Add extra juice to cover fruit, leaving ½ inch airspace.
Storage: Preserved lemons will keep for 12 months without refrigeration.
To use: Remove fruit and scrape away any pulp from peels. Discard pulp and wash peels before using.
What’s on?
Murray Street Vineyards dinner – July 17
Pranzo Restaurant in Exchange Place in the city is hosting a four-course Italian dinner matched with award-winning Murray Street Vineyards wines from the Barossa Valley. Tickets are $89 per person. Bookings can be made here.
Slow Pinot Lunch – July 26
Join head chef Brendan Boothroyd and guest Pinot Noir producers at The Stirling Hotel’s The Grill Restaurant for a long, slow Sunday degustation by the fireplace including six courses with premium wine matches. Tickets are $130 per person. For bookings email Rosanne Doherty here.
Coonawarra Cellar Dwellers – Until July 31
Coonawarra wines are well known for their ageing ability, and Cellar Dwellers provides an opportunity to taste wines that are otherwise not available for tasting at one of the many dinners and degustations held throughout the month of July.
Winter Reds – July 24 to 26
Fire up your winter soul in the Adelaide Hills at the Winter Reds weekend, with more than 30 wineries offering ticketed and general-admission food and wine events.
Howard Twelftree Memorial Stir – July 26
Parnsips are the ingredient of choice for the eighth seasonal South-West City community cooking competition at the Duke of Brunswick Hotel. Information and expressions of interest for entries can be directed to the hotel manager. A wrap-up of the last competition can be found here.
Think.Eat.Save 2015 lunch – July 27
Join food rescue organisation OzHarvest for the 2015 Think.Eat.Save lunch prepared by some of Adelaide’s leading chefs on the University of Adelaide Goodman Lawns while you listen to panellists Keith Conlon, Simon Bryant, Richard Gunner and Nick Thwaites debate food waste in Australia and the global food crisis. Register to get your free ticket here.
Pinot Palooza Adelaide – August 8
Brought to Adelaide by the same folks as wine festival Game of Rhones, Pinot Palooza is a food, music and wine experience at the Published Art House featuring some of the best Pinot Noir produced in the Southern Hemisphere, including Ata Rangi, Bay of Fires, Shaw + Smith, Yabby Lake, Kooyong, Mt Difficulty, Giant Steps, Two Paddocks and Pegasus Bay. Tickets are $60 including a take-home Riedel Pinot Noir Glass. More information can be found here.
Barossa Gourmet Weekend – August 14 to 16
The annual Barossa Gourmet Weekend is celebrating 30 years next month. The 2015 program is packed with events such as the traditional ‘Winery Days’, as well as long lunches and dinners, cooking classes, wine master-classes and family-friendly events, all designed to showcase the best of Barossan food and wine. Download a copy of the program here.
Oz-Asia – September 24 to October 4
In a festival first, Adelaide’s Riverbank Precinct will be transformed into an Asian hawker-style market for the 11 nights of OzAsia. Expect food stalls with offerings such as dumplings, dosa, pad Thai, gyoza, themed bars, lanterns and nightly entertainment to delight market-goers. More information can be found here.
Asiafest – October 2 to 11
Food and cultural festival Asiafest will return to Rymill Park for 10 days this year, showcasing more than 20 of Adelaide’s restaurateurs in pop-up food stalls reflecting an Asian street market ambiance and the culinary delights of countries such as China, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea and Japan.
News, tips and information?
The Forager would love to hear about your news, events and suggestions. Please contact us at [email protected].
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