Looking Back

The Heat Is On

by Christine Salins on February 8, 2012

Culinary Olympics Practice RunEvery four years, there are the Olympic Games, the Paralympics and the Winter Olympics, but you might be surprised to know that there is also a Culinary Olympics. What’s more, it’s taken just as seriously, right down to the competitors marching into the stadium in their national teams.

The world’s largest professional competition for chefs and pâtissiers, the event is organised by the World Association of Chefs’ Societies, which represents more than 10 million chefs worldwide.

This year’s event will be held in Erfurt, Germany, from October 6 to 9. The Culinary Olympics have gained a reputation for setting trends and benchmarks, and to take out a medal in the competition is a very high honour.

Australia has a good track record in the competition, with both the junior and senior teams finishing in the top 10 in the world in the 22nd Culinary Olympics in 2008. The junior team came sixth with a gold and a silver medal, while the senior team finished ninth with two gold, one silver and a bronze.

Can this year’s Australian team top that? They’re certainly giving it their best shot, and after tasting the results of their second practice run, I think they’ll do a great job of defending our culinary reputation.

I was a guest of the National Press Club, which hosted Monday night’s dinner where Shane Keighley (Qld, Captain), Shannon Kellam (Qld), Steve Clarke (WA), Jennie Key (SA), Royston Clark (WA), Patrick Carlin (WA), Matt McBain (Vic, pastry team), Dan Hurley (ACT) and Che Tam Nguyen (WA) prepared the three-course menu they plan to do in Germany.

Australian Culinary TeamThey had spent the previous two days prepping at the National Convention Centre, whose executive chef, Mike Scheumann, is president of the ACT chapter of the Australian Culinary Federation.

The dinner was organised by the Federation to raise much-needed funds to send the team to Germany, as well as gain valuable feedback.

The three courses were incredibly intricate so it’s almost impossible to describe them without listing a huge number of ingredients, but here’s a summary of what we enjoyed:

EntreeEntrée: Lemon sole soufflé, kipfler potato and fennel pollen crisp, apple cured and smoked Tasmanian salmon (out of this world delicious!) and cucumber terrine.

Main DishMain dish: Dorper lamb loin wrapped in pancetta, milk-poached kidney, gremolata-crusted sweetbread, wild mushroom polenta, beetroot glazed shallot. (Beautifully matched with Serafino 2009 Shiraz from McLaren Vale.)

DessertDessert: Chocolate and raspberry bar, chocolate pudding, strawberry macaron (filled with strawberry gelato, a nice twist) and other yummy morsels.

According to team manager Patrick O’Brien, the team members were being assessed on Monday night as only six would be able to compete in the hot kitchen team in Germany, and they were looking for the “best fit”.

The selection process is, understandably, rigorous as the chefs will work in a five metre by four metre space, with just five hours to prepare a three-course meal for 110 people, as well as a buffet table displaying their work.

Other team members will have duties in the cold table team. All up, a total of 21 people will be going to Germany, with a full complement of senior, junior and pastry teams.

It’s a huge job raising sponsorship as the expense of getting three teams to Germany is enormous. According to the president of the Australian Culinary Federation, Peter Wright, they are about a quarter of the way towards their goal.

I’m sure they’d appreciate any extra help so do contact the Australian Culinary Foundation if you’d like to get involved.

Peter Wright has a broad vision of where he’d like to take the Culinary Federation. “One of our big goals is to drive the future of Australian culinary arts,” he said.

“We have a shortage of chefs in this country; what we’re trying to do is give these chefs an avenue to stay in the industry so they’ll be the leaders of the future.”

 

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Emily of Emerald Hill

by Christine Salins on February 3, 2012

Emily Of Emerald HillMy food writer friend, Carol Selva Rajah, called this week to tell me about a great play that was having its Australian premiere at the Phoenix Theatre in Wollongong. I wouldn’t normally drive three hours to see a play but this one, Emily of Emerald Hill, has won rave reviews in Singapore and Malaysia.

The story is centred around Emily’s Peranakan heritage and as we had only just returned from Singapore and Malaysia, where we immersed ourselves in the Peranakan culture, the timing was apt.

Carol was unaware we had been visiting the land of her birth, so there seemed to be a message in the fact that she was contacting me out of the blue to invite me to a play about the places we had recently been exploring.

In Penang, we had spent hours at the wonderful Peranakan House, which vividly portrays the intriguing blend of Chinese and Malay culture that has developed over hundreds of years of Chinese settlement in the region.

I’m a great fan of Nyonya cooking – “nyonya” is the term for a Peranakan woman and the name has been given over to their cuisine. Sydney-based Carol Selva Rajah is one of its foremost exponents, and I was pleased to see one of her cookbooks prominently displayed in a newsagent in Singapore’s Changi airport during my travels.

Carol Selva RajahCarol cooked a special Nyonya meal which preceded Wednesday’s premiere, with theatre goers tucking into an assortment of beef, fish, chicken and noodle dishes, including her piece de resistance, beef rendang.

The Phoenix Theatre, formerly the Bridge Theatre, is committed to expressing the cultural diversity of the region, and the premiere of Emily certainly exemplified that. The room was exceptionally crowded but there was a great conviviality and a strong Malaysian presence, not just among the invited guests but also among the posters and decorative objects on the walls.

The theatre has very comfortable tiered seating and is quite intimate, making it the perfect venue for Emily’s monologue. Pearlly Chua gave a riveting performance as Emily, holding the audience in her hands as she took us through the full gamut of emotions, even getting us to join in with singing Happy Birthday at one point.

There’s a beautiful scene where she cooks a dish, taking us through the recipe step by step, and although it is done without props (save for a single spoon), you could almost smell the dish being cooked.

I’m not going to give away the story for it is one you need to see for yourself, but let’s just say Emily is a compelling character. At times, she is bossy and manipulating and it is hard to feel sympathy for her; at other times, she’ll have you in stitches, and there are times when your heart aches for her. As director Chin San Sooi says, she is “beautifully authentic with warts and all. She is an open book”.

First performed in 1984, the play was written by Stella Kon, who is descended from two families with strong links to Singapore’s historic Emerald Hill Road. The play is fictitious but based on stories told in many families, thus providing an evocative portrayal of Singapore life in the early decades of last century.

Pearlly Chua has performed the role of Emily more times than any other actor, and her energy, facial expressions, mannerisms, voice and command of the audience are remarkable – not to mention her memory in being able to recite a couple of hours of almost non-stop monologue.

Emily of Emerald Hill is on at the Phoenix Theatre in  Wollongong until the end of February; from Wednesday to Saturday at 8pm and Saturday matinees at 3pm. I heartily recommend it.

It will also be performed at the Zenith Theatre in Chatswood, Sydney, on March 1, for one night only.

 

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Renaissance exhibition: National Gallery of Australia

by Christine Salins on December 12, 2011

“Renaissance – a dazzling era of genius, invention and exploration, a golden age for the art of painting.”

Resplendent with the works of Italian masters such as Raphael, Botticelli, Bellini and Mantegna – artists whose paintings have never been seen in Australia before – the National Gallery has opened its latest exhibition, Renaissance.

The more than 70 artworks are on loan from the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, a small hilltop city in Lombardy, northern Italy.

Raphael

Saint Sebastian, Raphael, c.1501-1502

The priceless works have never left Europe before and have only done so now because the Accademia is closed for renovations. Once it gets its treasures back, it is unlikely that they will ever be lent again.

So the NGA exhibition represents an unparalleled opportunity to see these works while they are on our shores. Canberra is the only Australian city where they will be shown and the Gallery must be hoping it will emulate the Masterpieces From Paris exhibition in 2009-2010, which drew an unprecedented 480,000 visitors in four months.

Renaissance opened at the National Gallery on December 9 and will continue until April 9.

The National Gallery always puts on a great opening night and this one was no exception. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating and the United States Ambassador, Jeffrey Bleich, were among those I spotted in the crowd.

Ten and a Half, the company which has the catering contract for the Sculpture Garden restaurant and other outlets at the Gallery, turned out a great selection of piping hot finger food, while Chandon bubbles flowed freely.

Neroccio de’ Landi

Madonna and Child, Neroccio de’ Landi, c.1470-1475

In conjunction with the exhibition, chef James Kidman has produced a beautiful book, Renaissance Table, which I’ve looked at in a separate blog post. Australian pasta company, San Remo, has partnered with the Gallery to help bring the exhibition to Australia, and there are apparently some special dinners planned as part of the Enlighten Festival in March.

The Director of the National Gallery of Australia, Ron Radford, Federal  Arts Minister Simon Crean and ACT Chief Minister Katie Gallagher, spoke at the opening, along with Bergamo’s very gracious Councillor of Culture and Tourism, Claudia Sartirani, who spoke of the rich cultural exchange between Italy and Australia.

 

Renaissance Exhibition Opening

From left: Katie Gallagher, Ron Radford, Claudia Sartirani, Simon Crean.

The works, on panel and canvas, were created by some of the most celebrated artists of the Italian Renaissance, some commissioned by the Church, others by private patrons.

Radford says the 15th and 16th centuries of Italian art were the foundation of European painting. “Although the genius of master artists Raphael, Botticelli, Bellini and Titian is well known, visitors to Renaissance will also discover the talents and significance of lesser known artists such as Vivarini, Carpaccio, Lotto and Moroni,” he said. “Raphael’s teacher Perugino’s work is also featured.”

Portrait Of A Child Of The House Of Redetti

Portrait of a child of the house of Redetti, Giovan Battista Moroni, c.1570

The Accademia has operated as an art gallery and art school since it opened in 1810.

Incredibly, and in a decision which seems incomprehensible in hindsight, much of the collection was auctioned off in 1835, leaving just 500 paintings.

But oh how exquisite they are. Among them are an altarpiece from Vivorini, numerous Madonna and Child paintings, and a number of depictions of crucifixions and heroic saints.

There are a few secular works such as Giovanni Battista Moroni’s beautiful Portrait of a Child of the House of Redetti, which shows a small girl in exquisite dress wearing a crystal necklace and a coral bracelet to ward off the plague.

The detail like this is quite extraordinary, and in one painting, Birth of Mary, a roll of paper is rendered so perfectly it appears the paper is unfolding before our eyes.

Birth Of Mary

Birth of Mary, Vittore Carpaccio, c.1502-1504

What really struck me about this exhibition – apart from how beautiful many of the Madonnas are and how ugly most of the babies are! – was the intensity of colour in the paintings. This is why you really must see them for yourself, because pictures can never convey the intensity and luminosity that such masterpieces have. Don’t miss it.

Fact file:

Renaissance is open at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, from 10am to 5pm daily (except Christmas Day) until April 9, 2012.

There is a timed ticketing system. Visitors can choose a time and day to visit and once in, can view the exhibition at their leisure.  Bookings can be made at the Gallery’s front deck, by phoning 13 28 49 or online at www.ticketek.com.au/renaissance

The Gallery’s Renaissance premium experience allows you to view the exhibition with a limited number of visitors. Available on Saturdays and Sundays, doors open at 9am, prior to the public opening time at 10am. Visitors who book the Premium experience also have the option of breakfast in the Sculpture Garden Restaurant.

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