Laklak Burarrwanga - Welcome to My Country

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

How do I thank all the people who have made it possible for me to write this book? It all started so long ago, and many people have been instrumental in my life as a cook well before this project started and many have directly helped to put this book together. So I guess it all started with my father; he taught me to care about food thanks Dad. All the great cooks I have met in my life, thank you. My business partner Trish Richards, you gave me the opportunity to live my dream, run a great restaurant and work with the most fantastic, energetic staff you could imagine. To you, the biggest thanks of all. To all at Rockpool, in particular Khan Danis and Catherine Adams my food would not be half of what it is without that dynamic duo a very big thank you. Thanks to all my staff in my restaurants and particularly the Qantas team, all you guys know who you are; you keep the dream alive. Thanks Sarah Kodicek for checking the manuscript and asking what did you mean? countless times: the book will mean more because of it. Thanks also for being the jack of all trades who keeps all the other projects we have going, actually going. Thanks to Kate Barker for all her help through testing and shooting, and keeping Sarah focused. Thanks Belinda Smith, my assistant, for getting me to the right place at the right time and making all these things possible.

Thanks to Juliet Rogers and Kay Scarlett, who commissioned this project and went with it when it was totally out of control. Maybe next time I will stick to the brief. Thanks to Margaret Malone, my editor; you let my voice come through when others in your position would have gone for the scalpel, and thanks for your enquiring efforts I sometimes forget that I have been cooking for years. Thanks to Marylouise Brammer your design and excitement over a new font has left me holding a truly beautiful book. Earl Carter, what can I say? I love you, mate. This book is about the energy that we felt at the shoot, and should be called Earl Carters favourite food photos with words by Neil Perry. Sue Fairlie-Cuninghame, MATE, I love you too, and it is your understanding of what Im capable of and making me do it that is the reason the book is what it is, but thank you most of all for just being my friend. Lastly to my beautiful wife Samantha and gorgeous daughter Josephine, you both endured long hours of me sitting and typing when I should have been spending time with you. I thank you for your patience, and love you both heaps. The week that I handed in the last of the manuscript my second daughter Macy was born; when youre old enough to read, here is a thank you for bringing so much love into your mothers and your sisters lives and mine.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

My father was a butcher, mad fisherman and keen gardener. He had the most amazing effect on me, though I didnt know it until I was many years into my working life. As with many things in life, I didnt fully understand the impact he had on me until he was gone. It is a great shame that he never got to see the three books that I have written, as he was instrumental in me being able to evolve them. Its not that my mother didnt have a lot to do with it as well, she was and still is a great Mum, and the one who taught me most about loving and caring in the way she created a loving environment not just for her kids, but for all the extended family and beyond. I wouldnt be who I am now without her, so my balance really comes from having a great Mum and Dad. However, this is a cookbook and I have to acknowledge the first cook who had an enormous influence on me and that, as you may have guessed, was my Dad. I cook and feel about food the way I do today because of his great skill, understanding and love of everything that tasted good in this world. He taught me to taste, to question, to care for produce and to develop a palate that is the driving force in my life. He instilled an understanding that eating was for pleasure, not for fuel. I learnt that if food was thought about, then it was remembered, and it is this that makes me who I am today.

If you asked what are the main factors in my life as a cook, I could say skill or technique, understanding and taste. But, while I suspect that they have something to do with my cooking, the main reason I do what I do now is because I am completely committed to sourcing the finest ingredients. They are the only ones I am interested in, and why? Because my father was a butcher, a fisherman and a gardener: what a great start in life. But he wasnt just those things, he was the best at those things. He put the very best quality meat on the table, he caught and handled fish well, and he grew superb fruit, herbs and vegetables in the garden. We picked and dug a lot of our food in the early days. His chooks would lay eggs and we would eat them fresher than you can imagine. We had all this and his desire for food to be pleasurable. I didnt have a good upbringing, I had an exceptional upbringing and at the time I didnt even know it. I thought that everyone ate like that. I now know that I was very privileged and that I would have no hope of being who I am today without that upbringing.

So, with that great start, I have dedicated myself to cooking the food I love, influenced by my father and all the great chefs I have had the privilege to work with and see work, both here and around the world. My cooking has also been shaped by the multicultural nature of Sydney and the wonderful produce that comes in the door at my restaurant, Rockpool. I have, over time, written two other books. Ten years ago, when I wrote my first, the Rockpool cookbook, I thought the world probably didnt need another cookbook. I really feel like that now as well, but I also think it is important to communicate something that you havent said before, so here I am, doing it again. I hope with Rockpool that I communicated some of the restaurants ethos on food, among many other things. I hope with my second book, Simply Asian, that I communicated clearly that Asian, or what I called modern Asian, cooking can be achieved at home with simple and delicious results. I hope that I can encourage you to read this book, cook from it, and that I can either give you new simple skills or remind you of how wonderful some of these classic recipes are. I hope that you start to think about what temperature you are cooking at, or when pan-frying a piece of barramundi or a rump steak you think about changing the garnishes to suit the season and availability, so that you dont cook from a recipe, but are simply inspired by one. Rockpool was about my love of modern Australian cooking; Simply Asian was about my love of Asian food; and this book is about the great pleasure to be gained from the cooking of the Mediterranean. If you look at all three together, it really does tell the story of what it has been like living in Sydney for the past forty-eight years. Together, they are a true reflection of how multiculturalism in Australia has had a profound effect on not just what I cook in my restaurant, but how I cook and eat in every part of my life.

THE THREE PARTS OF MY LIFE

Im involved in three different areas of the food industry, each of them just as important as the other. First, I am a cook who loves cooking beautiful produce in my restaurant, surrounded by a group of young, energetic and enthusiastic people from both front and back of house. They keep me inspired and looking forward to cooking each day. The restaurant is where we have the chance to create food that draws on all the influences of my life, and which hopefully inspires customers and other food professionals. Second, I am a food communicator, in books, magazines and on television. In this role I try to encourage people to cook better, spend more time doing it, and hopefully derive pleasure from it. Finally, I am a food producer, with a line of fresh sauce products. I have recognized that people are, in the main, time-poor, particularly during the week, and they may have to throw together pre-prepared dishes to create a quick meal. I felt that it was important to make sure people had a fresh offering at their disposal, which would mean they could create a truly fresh food experience with real restaurant flavours for their family, without compromise. That is why Im doing it and am very proud of my dedicated team and the way in which Woolworths has supported a little company like mine with a big vision.