Gut Instinct or Seven Seconds Again

On Jan 17 the Age ran the following story on what was probably a quiet news day during the hot and steamy holiday period.

"Irish food critic Trevor White applies his seven-seconds rule to five of Melbourne's best restaurants. He says...
I BELIEVE it is possible to review a restaurant within seven seconds. This is not, I admit, a scientific theory, and it is true that some chefs manage to outshine the dumps where they work. Still, the seven-seconds rule has served me well in 17 years as a professional restaurant critic....

Full article here:http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/01/16/1231608986736.html

I found the story a little disturbing as despite calling himself a "professional restaurant critic" of some 17 years standing, he has chosen to use what most of us would call gut-instinct to make up his mind about something that he is supposedly reviewing professionally .

But the more I read the story the more it seemed to ring true. I found myself agreeing with him..

Yes my vast experience of dining out combined with my " 30 years of professional expertise in the business" can indeed give me a quick instinctive accurate analysis of any restaurant that I visit.

Looking back over recent and not so recent dining experiences just confirmed it, yes that's quite true after a while of course we can pick the duds and the gems in possibly 12 if not seven seconds.

I started to congratulate myself on how clever I was and that yes we should just trust our highly experienced instinct and just go with it.....

A couple of days later I found myself in one of the places that Trevor White gave his 7 seconds away to and within the given short time frame I realised that his 7 seconds combined with the column inches he devoted to his seven second rule had given the place a sense of hubris that was lamentable. My seven seconds antennae told me to leave but I stayed and while the overpriced food was delicious my own seven seconds analysis was indeed correct I should have left after 5 seconds. So to my mind the question is this: civilians like you and me often apply what is really just a gut reaction, and usually, yes, its correct. But a "professional" restaurant critic cannot be so presumptuous that he can make an instant judgement. And this is the difference, tell a very wide readership of his instant Epiphany. The staff at the place I went to had such swollen heads and thought themselves so cool that they even mentioned that they had just been reviewed and that I should read it while I was waiting for my meal. Really?

Would a respected theatre critic leave after the first act? a film critic after the intro?

Yes you and I can and be quite content in knowing that we have good gut [intended again] instincts but professional reviewers have a deeper responsibility. Or am I just dreaming?

I prefer the soundtrack here.http://www.videosurf.com/video/youssou-n%27dour-featuring-neneh-cherry-7-seconds-150617601.

New Cooking Classes 2009

Cooking Classes 2009

New Cooking Classes for 2009 will commence on Monday March 2
Classes begin at 9.30 for 10 am with a good coffee and a snack before we sit down informally to discuss the days cooking. Bread baking in one form or other is always covered in every class and the wood oven is often also used if the occasion calls for it.
The new format will be to prepare a four course seasonal lunch utilising the freshest and most interesting ingredients we can source from as close to Sunnybrae as possible.
The maximum class size is 12 which allows time to cover any specific questions or techniques that each participant may wish to explore.
Often a class takes a completely different direction to the one we have planned from input by the group . While we take our work seriously and try to provide as much accurate information as possible we also like to enjoy our kitchen adventures while cooking as well as tasting some fine wines around the dining table. Convivialityand conversation is a big part of the experience of cooking and dining together at Sunnybrae.
All cases are hands on, but not like a formal class room, we divide all the tasks between the group and I demonstrate all techniques as required. We pick whatever is suitable from the garden and also from the gardens of our neighbours.
You can also request certain techniques or use of ingredients with which you may not have much confidence or things that you may enjoy, but do not often get the chance to cook.
We sit down to lunch around 1.30pm and partners or friends can join us for lunch for $55 per person.
Please bring an apron or you can purchase one of Diane’s design.
Good sensible shoes, a sharp knife as well as a good sense of humour/adventure are also welcome.
Costs $110 person including wines and GST or $100 per person for groups of 4 or moreStandby: Call one day before on the Sunday and if there is room the same discount applies. Telephone bookings only 03 52362276

The Performance Enhanced Kitchen

Talking to the new barman pictured, he starts officially when I can get 2, 1950's vintage batteries that will fire him up to [as described on the box] mix a martini, drink it, then glow red and blow smoke out of his ears.. cant wait! Until then he is sitting behind the bar doing what all good bartenders are known for...listening .

I was telling him the other night that Big Tony Bourdain is to hit our shores soon and as part of the summer light reading recycling campaign I thought you might like to read this review un-edited of his first book Kitchen Confidential it was printed in The Age in 2001.

The Performance Enhanced Kitchen

Excerpts in the New Yorker, critical acclaim from the major reviewers, Anthony Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential has even been touted as the new ‘Down and Out in London and Paris’ by Newsweek.
The title is from the 1958 Jack Arnold directed cult movie classic High School Confidential. You remember the one with Mamie Van Doren in that sweater, Russ Tamblyn as the cool nark posing as a hepcat, Jackie Coogan [uncle Fester] as the evil pusher and Jerry Lee Lewis as himself. Occasionally featuring as a late night double with Reefer Madness for the stoned lounge lizard set. A film so ridiculous that nobody took it seriously. Well, here we go again. This one is bound to be optioned.

Bourdain’s book hit the stands in Australia during the Sydney Olympics, a time when we all got an education in performance enhancing substance abuse.
Not a bad briefing for this entertaining but equally ridiculous, purportedly true biography.

The wild card in this very neat and well-written tale is heroin.
Bourdain’s book takes us into the “culinary underbelly” of the New York restaurant scene, through the stoned eyes of the author. A Vassar dropout turned line cook. A self-made bad boy, desperately trying to be a working class hero amongst the hard men of the kitchen.
It’s all very ‘cool’ but for the assumption that this is how it is, and its OK.

The full article is here http://www.scribd.com/doc/10413030/The-Performance-Enhanced-Kitchen

Squid Row!

One from the archives, I wrote this in 1994? it appeared in The Weekend Australian Review.

SQUID ROW!

The first taste of a new ingredient often determines our long-term affinity to it.

If your first encounter with Parmesan cheese was one of those dry yellow powders masquerading for the real thing, you could be forgiven for dismissing a lot of Italian cooking as very scary. If after spending a good part of your pocket money on what tastes like a black golf ball from Perigord, you may think that black truffles are also a bit of a mystery.

Sweet and Sour Pork has had a rough ride, properly made it is one of the true classics of Cantonese cooking.

Also you could easily be put off good olive oil by tasting an ordinary example that’s past its [usually not displayed] use by date.

Calamari is an ingredient that many cooks and diners reject as difficult to prepare and tough.
Surprisingly few food writers differentiate between the main members of this family.

Ask a fishmonger what the difference is between calamari and squid and he will probably reply “about $8 a Kilo”. They are different fish, or more accurately different cephalopods. The “wings” on calamari extend along the full length of the body or “tube”, in squid the “wings” only come up about 1/3 of the way. Surprisingly, few recipes differentiate between them. Calamari is simple to cook always tender [including the tentacles and quite forgiving. Squid, well? You get what you pay for.

If the calamari is already cleaned in a tube or ring form, it is probably squid.

Seriously fresh calamari straight out of the water is more translucent than an old iMac, each hour out of the water it gets more opaque. The skin does not have to be removed and results in a fine crisp coating, not unlike tempura batter, when dusted with spiced flour and fried.

Cuttlefish, another cephalopod, is even more delicious and tender and sometimes as reasonably priced as squid. If you order calamari and it’s tough and rubbery, odds on you have been squiddled.

This dish is based on an early Mediterranean style of balancing sweet and sour. Rhubarb, verjuice and lemon for the acid, currants and honey for sweetness.

SWEET AND SOUR CALAMARI

Calamari including tentacles, cleaned and cut into strips

Rhubarb cut into fine strips

Currants soaked in 5Oml of Retsina [yes retsina, but vermouth or Riesling will also work]

Sliced onions, garlic a little honey.

Olive oil, verjuice and lemon juice.

Saute the onions and garlic in a little olive oil. Add currants and the honey and cover.

Add the rhubarb and simmer for a minute and taste. Balance the sweet and sour with the verjuice and lemon. Season and set aside.

Drain a little of this sauce and use it to poach the calamari when tender add the rest of the sauce taste again and season. The rhubarb can be a bit crisp it adds a surprising texture.