ACF Battle of the Chefs, by Suzanne Le Page
“There’s no point in doing molecular if everyone judging is over 65.” This comment was made by one of the entrants during a discussion between judges and chefs after completion of judging of the final heat of Battle of the Chefs.
While traditional cooking equipment is supplied at Regency TAFE, many of the entrants also brought extra modern equipment, such as pressure cookers, juicers, sous vide or low temperature cookers and blenders. Most controversial was the Thermomix, an expensive culinary machine which replaces a whole battery of machines as it weighs, chops, crumbs, whisks, cooks and virtually cleans itself. Its growing popularity is a testament to word of mouth and its reliability and versatility.
Why is this machine controversial, when others brought in for this cooking competition are considered acceptable? One judge said she would certainly give less credit for a risotto that was cooked in a Thermomix, even if it was perfect, as it does not demonstrate the chef’s skills. However a more senior judge, who does not personally use a Thermomix, would not demote a chef if the risotto were perfect. Is this a recipe for confusion?
By contrast, all finalists utilised sous vide for the lamb rump, and this was considered quite acceptable. Juicers brought in by the contestants produced beetroot and red cabbage juices.
The logistics of transporting extra equipment, especially for interstate candidates, means that they need to know if they will be penalised for using it. If the judges are unable to agree on the use of modern and cutting edge machines, and are prejudiced against certain items, perhaps this needs to be made very clear to competitors.
Macaroon Maestros, by Susan Lang-Lemckert
I’ve never been a cookie baker (as my family will confirm – and loudly), but even I succumbed to the passion for its European cousin, the macaron, that abounded at Tasting Australia’s Macaron Maestros class.
Presented by Edwina Peoples and Jonny Pisanelli of Adelaide’s From Scratch Patisserie, this relaxed how-to session demystified the process of creating the perfect macaron every time. Well, maybe not every time. Conceding that the previous day’s batch of macarons – his first prepared in the test kitchen – had been “a shocker”, Jonny reinforced the importance of getting to know your oven’s idiosyncracies.
“Over the years we’ve made every mistake under the sun with macarons,” Edwina added, “so we can tell you what not to do.”
The myriad of tips and tricks for perfecting this art were enthusiastically received by the participants, who had been inspired to learn for different reasons.
“We’ve always been mildly obsessed by macarons,” said Georgie, while whipping her mixture. “And my fiancé Liam and I love Jonny’s macarons so much we’ve asked him to make our wedding cake.”
“I tried making macarons at home from a commercial mix,” said Fay, “and I was so disappointed with the result, I just ate the chocolate instead of making it into the filling.”
No such disappointments marred this class. Each participant finished with a sumptuous tray of macarons tasting as delicious as looked.
“I loved this class,” Georgie enthused, handing me a macaron on my way out. “They might not be good enough to sell, but they’re good enough to eat. I’m happy with that.”
And so was I. I may never be a cookie baker, but a macaron chef … yeah. I can see myself doing that.
I Dream of Steaming with Poh Ling Yeow, by Sarah Mayoh
With her rosebud cheeks and girly giggle, Poh Ling Yeow immediately tells her eager students that in Western countries steaming is deemed to be a very bland way of cooking. However, in her L-Plates class I Dream of Steaming, she proves this is not the case.
Poh says that the street food culture in Malaysia, where she spent the first nine years of her life, has been a significant influence on the way she views, and loves, food. With obvious passion, she says “All the first experiences with food leave indelible marks on your palate.” The Malaysian way is to constantly have food on your mind, and be forever wondering where your next snack will come from.
The passion and natural affinity Poh has for food comes from a female family heritage of loving to cook. Her mother, late-grandmother and Aunty (her mother’s aunt) have obviously shaped Poh’s memories and love of food. One of the recipes in her L-Plate class is fondly called Mama’s Rice Bowl (ironically, it’s a steamed sponge), which she rarely makes any more because “it makes me miss my mama, or paternal grandmother Mary Yeow too much”.
Her connection to her Asian culture is also apparent, with the family favourite of savoury egg custard presented first on the menu – although her family likes to add the revered century egg to their version at home. Tiew Chew steamed fish, her mother’s recipe, uses the favoured Chinese technique of mixing meats – in this case, strips of pink pork belly, snugly placed next to the whole snapper.
Her wealth of food knowledge and unpretentious manner – much like when you watch her on her TV series Poh’s Kitchen – made her a delightful teacher. Steaming, much like Poh Ling Yeow herself, is a fairly gentle way of cooking.
L-Plates: Corn Supremacy with Andre Ursini, by Tania Paola
It’s not like cooking at home. Take a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen at Regency TAFE, add Andre Ursini from Masterchef fame at the helm and mix with a brigade of crisp white, starchly pressed uniformed chefs. This is kitchen heaven – a five-star cooking experience, and there are no ingredients to prepare or dishes to wash here.
A dozen keen-as-mustard amateur cooks gather around the head bench while Andre navigates and guides our way through the sea of mystery that often surrounds polenta.
Originating from Northern Italy, polenta grain, also commonly known as cornmeal, is humble and versatile, yet often misunderstood. Andre instinctively knew from his Italian roots that, “polenta was for a lot more than just sitting next to a piece of meat”. Andre’s Cucina & Polenta Bar was born from the desire to share his passion with this soft, fine grain.
Just like driving on real roads with L-Plates, we are working at real cooking stations. While the crisp white kitchen angels clean our benches and babysit our polenta on the stove, stirring and overseeing it with a loving eye, we are inspired as Andre shares his culinary knowledge. “Italian cooking is simple but the process is precise,” he says. “Learn about the produce and the products you are using.”
His other passion is gnocchi and we are privy to his trade secrets. “Boil the desiree potatoes for 15 minutes and then finish by baking in the oven on rock salt,” he tells us. “Traditional Italian gnocchi should have a bit of a bite.”
We all go home with the knowledge that it is sacrilegious to even consider using instant polenta, and that practice makes perfect. “The more you make gnocchi, the more you can feel the dough.”
L Plates: Charcuterie with Saskia Beer by Steven Wiltshire.
Charcuterie. It has long been regarded as one of the dark arts of the kitchen, and perhaps it still is. Done poorly or carelessly it will incubate a plethora of bacteria and other nasties including botulinum toxin, the most deadly neurotoxin known. Get it right, though, and a world of nearly unlimited delicious possibilities is unleashed.
South Australia’s Saskia Beer is renowned for her mastery of this food preservation technique – so renowned that she delivered a confit and terrine class at a Tasting Australia L-Plates event, where amateur cooks spend three hours learning from the experts.
Born of necessity as a food preservation technique prior to readily accessible refrigeration, confit is simply salt cured meat immersed in fat and cooked slowly at moderate temperature. The cure inhibits the growth of bacteria and can also be used to introduce flavourings, and cooking in fat excludes air from the meat. Combined, the preservation can be kept for months. The cooking process tenderises tough pieces of meat, leaving the choicer cuts for other uses and ensuring that nothing is wasted.
A terrine is a perfect use for some of the other bits. It is essentially a meat loaf, with a myriad of different preparations. The meat can be chunky or fine, flavourings are limited only by imagination, and the flavoured fat left over from the confit can be used. Liver is often a feature ingredient.
Jo, a participant in the class, says she loves confits and terrines but the style of cooking terrifies her. The techniques look complicated, she says, and learning from an expert in a group environment makes them easier to handle. Saskia says that such an attitude is common, but changing. Although it is no longer necessary to preserve meat with salt and fat, there is a growing interest in eating well-made charcuterie, and a growing interest in preparing it at home. It is easy, cheap, and delicious.
L-Plates Class Macaron Maestros by Liz Nicholson
"If you don't let the skin form you won’t get any feet." This is not a tip you would generally associate with baking, especially when thinking of such delectable treats such as jewel-coloured chewy macarons. But this tip was one of many that was greatly appreciated by a class eager to perfect what is known as a difficult dish to master.
Many participants of the macaron L-Plates class, conducted at TAFE SA's Regency International Centre as part of Tasting Australia 2012, were interested in getting techniques right and were very eager to hear what Edwina Peoples and Jonny Pisanelli of From Scratch Patisserie had to say. Having spent three years perfecting their techniques, including a trip to France to get firsthand experience in a patisserie, and after making every mistake under the sun, Edwina and Jonny were happy to pass on their knowledge to their captive audience.
Though there are not many steps in creating macarons, each step needs precision to achieve perfection. Therefore the focus of the class was on perfecting skills and not rushing the baking process. Learning how a macaron’s texture should be and resting the batter were very important parts of the baking process, to ensure a skin forms over the macaron and creates that silky smooth top when cooked.
The knowledge imparted by this easy-going patisserie duo included resurrecting macarons from runny batter and split chocolate filling, letting participants know that they can still be used.
Participant and home cook Marina Rositano was very impressed with the class saying that after many flawed attempts at home, she finally created a smooth batch of professional-looking macarons.
Battle of the Chefs: The Final, by Melissa Barnett
Why do they do it? Five hours of gruelling competition, weeks of preparation and practice, an unfamiliar kitchen, judges, an unrelenting stopwatch and, for the final challenge, a mystery box of ingredients?
This was the Battle of the Chefs final, the inaugural competition run by the Australian Culinary Federation at this year’s Tasting Australia event. Chefs of all levels, from apprentices to experienced chefs, were invited to battle it out for the honour of ACF Chef of the Year and $20,000 in prizes and cash.
The three categories – restaurant/fine dining, café/bistro/pub/club and catering/institution – were each represented by the final six contestants chosen from 26 participants.
Junior chefs Tyler and Dan from North Queensland are already veterans of 25 competitions, and are obviously adrenalin junkies. They enter culinary competitions because they believe they offer a great opportunity to hone their cooking skills, check out other chef’s work and meet their culinary idols.
Fellow competitor Ayhan Erkoc, Adelaide Advertiser’s Chef of the Year in 2008, doesn’t have anything to prove. He has worked at Copenhagen’s Nomu, Marque and Pier in Sydney and Adelaide’s The Manse but his reasons for entering the competition are the same as Tyler and Dan’s. For Ayhan, the mystery box ingredients weren’t such a challenge and the pressure-cooker atmosphere was nothing compared to a Saturday night at his restaurant Celsius. Still, he wanted see what he could do at the competition, what others could do and how they did it.
Ayhan is confident in his cooking; it showed in his serenity in the competition kitchen and his beautiful plating. The judges thought his final dish was good looking, perfectly seasoned and obviously cooked with love, showing skill, technique, expression and passion. Even accomplished chefs sometimes like to feel validated by their peers.
L-Plates: Masters Impart Their Secrets,
by Victoria Miranda
It’s all about depth of flavor, not your depth of knowledge at the L-plate Sessions, held for the first time by TAFE SA and The Advertiser in conjunction with Tasting Australia. It’s a program of 25 individual cooking classes with an extensive list of topics from making pasta to steaming dumplings, kneading breads to producing macaroons or stirring up a curry. The classes, as the name suggests, cater for learners, but skill levels aren't important. There is something for everyone.
In the class The Corn Supremacy, beginners make notes about simple instructions such as adding salt to boiling water when mentioned by our host Andre Ursini, owner of Andre’s Cucina and Polenta Bar. The more advanced members of the class have light bulbs shining over their heads after learning the tip of using a light béchamel to thicken a pasta sauce instead of using cream. The classes allow you to explore cooking, not just a demonstration by a celebrity chef sitting high on their pedestal imparting words of wisdom. Participants are able to get their hands dirty and ask questions which can be answered immediately by knowledgeable professionals.
Set in the commercial kitchens at Regency TAFE, each person in the class is paired and allocated a working bench and stove. The quality of the kitchens is world-class, normally the home of Le Cordon Bleu students, and it is a privilege to have access to such facilities and experience a taste of what it is to be a professional cook.
Another extremely valuable tool in the L-Plate classes is a qualified teaching chef, in our case Chef Paul Beech, who not only observed the class but also approached participants and helped them with problems or encouraged good work.
At the end of the class, participants walk away with something of value – either a little something for dinner, a tip or trick, or the knowledge that you will be able to competently produce a quality dish.
Battle Of The Chefs: High Expectations by Bridget McNulty
“The Australian Culinary Federation has foundations based on history,” says Deb Foreman, competition director at the Battle of The Chefs held at Regency International College. This history involves working with apprentices and professional chefs to further their skills through cooking competitions held over many decades.
Finalists appreciate and understand the importance of this competition and the reputation it holds in the culinary world.
Arriving at the competition site, six contestants worked intensely at their individual stations with one objective in mind: to impress judges with their creativity, organisation, presentation, execution of technical skills and, above all, good taste.
Faced with a mystery box, finalists had two hours to complete a main course. One finalist said “two hours was too long”. One judge responded by saying “You need to go over and above expectations. We are looking for a high level of skill to create a dish that you’ve never done before.”
Expectations are high in this competition, evident by the judges’ critical but fair comments and feedback. One finalist, Stewart Wesson, from Cole Thomas Culinary Solutions, says “A hundred things go through your mind when you are trying to work out where to start”. He will head to Germany later this year as part of a 21-member team for international competitions. Stewart travels to Perth regularly to hold fundraising dinners. “You have to be recommended for this competition, followed by formal application,” he says. A fundraising dinner will be held in Adelaide during June.
Guest judge Matt Stone, commenting on overall standards of this competition, said “There were distinct differences between each category of restaurant, bistro and catering, in terms of plate presentation and execution of techniques.”
One finalist, Stephan Clarke from Clarks of North Beach, Western Australia, received some favourable comments. “Your dish had finesse, a delectable style and was technically good”, said Darren Ho, chief judge from the South Australian branch of the Australian Culinary Federation.
The competition winner will be announced tomorrow evening at The Sebel Playford Hotel, Adelaide.
Battle of the Chefs: The Finals, by Brett Tizard
Learning about sustainability is imperative for today's chefs. So much that the industry includes sustainability within its cooking competition rules, with points allocated when assessing a contestant's professional practice.
Chefs-in-training and L-plate Sessions participants also at Regency TAFE yesterday are compelled to understand sustainability and reduce waste – as reported by Megan Saw yesterday in The Digest2012.
Sustainability is now part of being a chef, noted Ayhan Erhoc, a finalist in the Battle of the Chefs and chef at Adelaide's Celsius Restaurant. He says it's about using all of your produce and respecting your ingredients.
Judges quizzed each of the competition finalists on how they would use their off-cuts and leftovers, including what will end up as compost. Ingredients for the contest heats were all pre-ordered from contestants’ lists to minimise waste. Deb Foreman, competition director for the Australian Culinary Foundation, says using leftover ingredients is part of the foundation's commitment to sustainability. So the eight unused tomatoes from the heats reappeared as part of the following day’s mystery box.
Economics and the environment feature in these calculations. What will the "waste" be used for? Soups, sauces and stock all benefit from a closer eye on the triple bottom line. Ayhan Erhoc says this is becoming more important to restaurants in the current tight economic climate.
Does a commitment to sustainability mean that chefs take their eye off the final product, which is delicious meals for us to eat? Not according to the judges for the finals. They noted that dishes were cooked with skill and passion, and this is good news for diners across the country.
Battle of the Chefs, by Angela Malberg
“Salt flakes need to be crushed so that the seasoning is more evenly distributed in the dish,” commented one of the judges at the finals debrief of Battle of the Chefs. “Beautiful looking, perfectly seasoned and cooked with love,” commented another.
Judging a competition such as the Australian Culinary Federation’s Chef of the Year is serious business. This competition was judged according to criteria based on World Association of Chefs Societies rules, which award 30 per cent of overall marks to kitchen skills and 70 per cent of the overall mark to taste and presentation.
It was easy to see the competitors who understood the judging criteria, remarked judge Neil Abrahams. “You can see the competitors who didn’t do their research,” he says. “They miss a lot of easy points.”
Abrahams also felt that competition rules provide a “safety mechanism to help eliminate some of the subjectivity” that makes deciding a winner difficult.
Out of a total of 100 points, accredited judges need to carefully record what marks are awarded for what and why. In the event of more than 10 per cent discrepancy in marks, judges are required to justify their marks, with the final call made by the head of judges. Fortunately, this competition’s decision was easy, with judges having no dispute about consistency of marking.
For finalists Stewart Wesson, Richard Pascoe, Stephen Clarke (who are all members of Australia’s Junior and Senior Culinary Olympics teams) and Andrew Shepard (who is also a culinary judge), these rules are not new. The remaining two finalists, Li-Hsiang Lin and Ayhan Erkoc, are relative newcomers to culinary competitions but welcomed an opportunity to learn more. Still, all of these worthy competitors will be biting their nails until 8pm on Saturday April 28, to see who made the most of their research and experience and performed best against challenging judging criteria.
I Dream of Steaming: L-plate workshop with Poh Ling Yeo, by Kate Yates
What does steaming mean to Australians? For many it immediately brings to mind memories of bland, over-cooked vegetables and misery at dinnertime. Not so in South East Asian and Chinese cookery, where steaming is one of the favoured ways to gently cook meat, seafood, meat, egg and dumplings.
Poh Ling Yeow, a local food hero, led a hands-on class to educate a loyal following that gathered to learn from the enthusiastic dynamo about the wonders of cooking by steaming.
Steaming is a delicate way of cooking. It lends itself to subtle seasonings that infuse their flavours to simple dishes such as savoury egg custard. Poh insists on using Asian-made peanut oil from roasted peanuts as a finishing seasoning for this dish, to give a nutty fragrance. Australian peanut oil is made with unroasted peanuts and is bland by comparison.
Peanut oil, noted for its high heating point, was heated to smoking and drizzled over the steamed custards that had been topped with chopped spring onions. It heightened the flavours, texture and seasoning to round out the otherwise plain steamed egg custard.
Poh prefers white pepper to the black pepper found in most kitchen cupboards. Black pepper is “not compatible at all with Chinese cooking”, according to Poh. White pepper is a fundamental ingredient at the base of many Asian dishes. Poh explains that white pepper is “more fragrant, a delicate flavour, lighter in colour, does not leave black dots, and makes for a cleaner dish (when cooking light dishes such as custard).”
Cheryl, one of the participants, was surprised to learn that using ingredients sourced from Asia is paramount to the success of Asian dishes. Likewise, I found the simplicity of steaming food, to create delicate yet complex flavours, was not bland at all – and a technique I am eager to try again at home.
Battle of the Chefs: The Final Challenge, by Martha French
Even with a pane of glass separating me from the final contestants in the Battle of the Chefs, I could feel the tension as the competitors bent intensely over two white plates applying the finishing touches to their labours of the last two hours. Even I breathed a sigh of relief as the plates were carried away for the ultimate test.
But, as I watched the contestants pack the left over ingredients into little plastic containers, I pondered their final resting place. Does their fate possibly undermine the validity of such a competition? Is it just self indulgent and excessive or does it serve a higher purpose?
Professional car racing is always under fire for being environmentally harmful and wasteful however the retort is that the new technology that is spawned from the need to go faster around in circles filters down to the commercial auto industry in the form of more efficient and environmentally sound cars. Culinary competitions are now being subjected to similar scrutiny.
Organisers of the Battle of the Chefs competition are doing their best to be environmentally and morally responsible by attempting to utilise all of the food purchased for the competition. For example, the focus of today’s challenge was a Mystery Box centered on lamb rump plus yesterday’s unused vegetables. Contestants are also encouraged to observe sound environmental practices. For example, during an impromptu discussion between the judges and the competitors, one of the contestants was chastised for not acknowledging that the leftover vegetable scrapings should have been composted instead of being tossed in the bin as he had suggested.
Competition stimulates innovation, change and awareness. A competition such as the Battle of the Chefs provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and the development of new practices which then become industry standard, or it may be as simple as creating greater exposure for the loved/hated brussel sprout which now finds its way onto plates in unrecognizable but palatable forms. All of these reasons combine to make the Battle of the Chefs a valid and unquestionably entertaining exercise.
L Plates: Saskia Beer by Lizzie Moult
Saskia Beer lives and breathes the Barossa. Saskia started farming chickens, and over the years has developed her own feed mix that is mostly corn based, making the birds fatter and adding flavour. Rearing the birds for four times longer than most commercially run operations, she produces a premium product. Some birds reach the size of 3-5 kilos, destined for roasting pans, across Australia.
Many of the birds go to fine restaurants in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, which demand specialised cuts instead of whole chickens, defeating Saskia’s philosophy of using the whole bird, from beak to feet.
Saskia resolved the problem by creating a new range of products which use the leftover components of the chicken. Saskia explains “we use all of our bones to make our stocks and glazes”. Livers go to make pates, while fats rendered from the skin of the chicken are combined with duck fat for confits.
At L-Plates, a cooking program run in the Tasting Australia program, Saskia’s class embraced her rustic methods of cooking by feel. Everyone was enthusiastically deboning marylands to make Barossa chicken terrine wrapped in vine leaves. The ingredients from this class were true to the Barossa, from fresh herbs and vine leaves to quinces and Barossa chicken.
Ronnie Bombell, a chef from Sydney, keeps coming back to Tasting Australia to experience the food and dive into cooking classes. She shared Saskia’s cooking philosophy, respecting the fat as much as the whole animal. “With good produce you have to treat it with special care,” says Ronnie.
Saskia’s products can be found in the Adelaide Central Market – and each week, one of the members of the class proudly declares they religiously pick up her whole Barossa chook.
Battle of the Chefs Finals, by Nikkita WoodIt feels like some of the oxygen has been removed from the room. Apart from the hum of exhaust fans or the occasional clatter of a pan, there’s a hush over the kitchen. The chefs are deep in concentration, carefully plating their dishes to be submitted for judging. This end product is the result of their hard work over the past two hours and 30 per cent of their mark is based on presentation. So it’s got to be perfect. Purees, sous vide and roasted meat, vegetable chips, leaves, sauces and oils are all delicately arranged, each ingredient and placement having been given considerable thought.
Having succeeded in their heats yesterday, Ayhan Erkoc, Stewart Wesson, Li-Hsiang Lin, Richard Pascoe, Stephen Clarke and Andrew Shepard made it through to the finals. Two participants came from each designated category: restaurant/fine dining, café/bistro/pub/club and catering/convention/institution.
All were given a mystery box of ingredients, a concept that has been made famous by Masterchef but has been around for decades among the culinary competition scene. The competitors were able to bring in extra equipment, enriching the kitchen with modern implements including sous vide machines and thermomixes. Most showed a combination of classic and modern techniques, with 30 per cent of the points being awarded for their kitchen practices, presentation and hygiene.
After tasting the dishes, accounting for 40 per cent of the score, judges unexpectedly conducted an informal feedback session. Neil Abrahams instilled the importance of “show(ing) some love to your ingredients” and asked the critical question “can you serve it to 100 or 200 people?” While comments from the judges praised the techniques, skills and finesse, the final outcome was kept quiet, with the awards being announced on Saturday night.
Battle of the Chefs Final, by Megan Saw
Judges at Australian Culinary Federation Competitions are required to be up-to-date with modern food trends and terminology. But observing the final of Tasting Australia’s Battle of the Chefs, I was left wondering if this is the case.
The ACF judges were Neil Abrahams, Darren Ho, Ross Hannah and Ingo Schwarze, all seasoned competitors of similar competitions and who work for culinary teaching faculties. They were joined by a fifth celebrity guest, Matt Stone, executive chef for the Greenhouse restaurants in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
Matt stood out in the kitchen as, unlike the others, he wasn’t in formal chef get-up: no white jacket or tall hat, instead wearing a plain white T-shirt, skinny leg jeans and sneakers, with tattoos covering both arms.
Matt’s judged several other competitions, so he knows what the other judges are talking about, although at this competition he expressed concern about the lack of diversity in the judging panel. “The expectations of the other judges were extremely similar, essentially the competitors are presenting their final dish to four of the same person, and me,” he said. “There’s no real difference in opinion between those guys.”
So, should the title of Australia’s Best Chef be bestowed on culinary school lecturers of similar age and experience, or should the ACF look at trying to diversify its judging panel? Why not include a prominent food writer or renowned chef working in the industry, perhaps a blogger or even a keen foodie from the general public?
Surely these people would be just as up-to-date on food trends – if not more so – than the ACF judges. Perhaps, if this were to happen, competitors would be more likely to push the boundaries of cooking rather than playing it safe. Ultimately, this would result in a competition that reflects the industry more accurately.
Getting Steamy, by John Tomich
I Dream of Steaming is an event title that reflected the passion of TV celebrity chef Poh Ling Yeow for steam cooking when she presented her L-plate tasting session on Friday at Regency TAFE as a part of Tasting Australia 2012. Her refreshing and enthusiastic approach focused on the role of steam cooking in a range of food preparations, including Chinese cooking.
Steam cooking, a moist heat application, was known in ancient China some 3000 years ago. It was subsequently used in India and then North Africa, where couscous was made from steamed semolina. In a world of microwave ovens, steam cooking has been somewhat superseded but is now making a resurgence with conventional bamboo style baskets, and 21st century versions including steam combo units that can combine both moist and dry heat applications.
Healthy eating is a prerequisite of healthy living. Cooking food is an integral part of this equation, and published research has shown distinct health benefits when cooking with steam. These include better preservation of bioflavonoids (anti-oxidant such as broccoli), water-soluble vitamins (B1 B6 and C), essential omega-3 Fatty acids and minerals when cooking vegetables in particular. Steam cooking is gentle and promotes greater aromas and flavour
This process also allows the addition of flavours to food during the cooking process. Variations include wrapping in bamboo leaves, bark, or in a French style of “en papillotte” to preserve the cooking juices and retain moisture – an ideal way to use the wonderful fresh produce available in South Australia.
Poh demonstrated the advantages of steaming in her savoury egg custard with prawns and shitake that was light but revealed vibrant freshness.
The main course was a whole snapper suffused with ginger, tofu, chilli and coriander, and the result was succulent, moist and flavoursome. Poh’s emphasis of using white pepper as opposed to black pepper showed in this dish’s gentle aromas. This and the green coriander flavour suggested that a wine such as a Gruner Veltliner, with its white pepper and celery flavours, would compliment this dish.
Her finale was a dessert, her Mama’s Rice Bowl Sponge – steamed, of course!
