EATING HEAVEN

Pear cake

I love pears. They are an elegant fruit, and can add a sense of class to a fruit bowl, or to a meal for that matter. The right pear is a perfect accompaniment for a slow roasted pork, a fine match with ricotta, caramelised onion or balsamic. At the sweet end of things they make…

Dad’s lamb stew

My dad came for dinner tonight. He’s not fussy, but he’s proud — a meat-and-potatoes man. No pastas or risottos for him, and certainly no ancient grain salads. Dad likes it simple: a good roast dinner with crispy spuds and gravy, or a slow-cooked lamb stew. His taste for lamb is no surprise. Raised on…

Basque Pear Tart

My only brush with the great Paul Bocuse was via the short-lived Melbourne outpost of his nouvelle cuisine empire. It was the early 90s in an uber cool space of whites and ivories attached to the now defunct Daimaru department store in Melbourne Central. Though I didn’t get to meet the man himself, I did meet his protege Philippe…

A review from the UK

It’s encouraging to see another review of Eating Heaven all the way from Bristol in the UK. Helen Pears writes as part of Urban Life, a teaching and research institute associated with the Bristol Baptist College and Trinity College Bristol. You can read the review here.

A prayer as we set the table

Setting the table As I lay a fork near a plate, let me remember this is Your table, not mine. As I set the water glasses down and fold the napkins, let me be reminded that every setting at this table is Yours, not mine. Each one who will partake of this meal is a…

A prayer at the kitchen sink

Doing the dishes My life will always have dirty dishes. If this sink can become a place for contemplation, let me learn constancy here. I gaze through the window above the sink. There I see the constancy of dawn, the constancy of dusk, the constancy of the seasons, of the sun and moon, and the…

Slow cooked beef shin, with a Thai-inspired twist

I’ve always loved the idea of slow-cooked meat, the sort that falls off the bone and disintegrates in your mouth. When it’s done well, the flavours are wonderful. And then there’s that glorious aroma that wafts from the kitchen as you sit back on the couch with a book and a glass of iced-tea. It’s the oven that does the work….

A prayer for the kitchen

COOKING Peeling, chopping, cutting, mincing, slicing, measuring, pouring, stirring, poaching, bubbling, frying, turning, simmering, serving. These are the words I cook with. They are all motion, all process. I know as I create this meal there is another cooking going on. It, too, is all motion, all process — an inner transformation. Help me to…

M.F.K. Fisher on bread & betrayal

“There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. It’s like religion. If you have a glass of water and a crust of bread with someone and you really share it, it is much more than just bread and water. I really believe that. Breaking bread is a…

Muto on piecrust & living

“Is it possible that there could be an analogy between spiritual living and making piecrust? At times it comes out flaky and baked to perfection; at other times it is too tough, too loaded with shortening to digest, or simply too overcooked. ‘Don’t try too hard to make it happen,’ Mother reminded me. Learn to…

‘Table of Plenty’ by Susan Muto

Recipes are an interesting form of writing. At their butt end, they’re nothing more than a perfunctory list of ingredients and dot-point rules of construction. I don’t like them. I don’t want to be told what to do in my kitchen. At their best, however, recipes can be rich repositories of cultural history, family lore…

‘Eating Heaven’ in The Melbourne Anglican

It is encouraging to see another review of Eating Heaven in the May issue of The Melbourne Anglican. For those of my non Anglican-speaking friends, here it is. EATING: ‘ONE OF THE MOST MEANING-LADEN ACTIVITIES OF OUR LIVES’ Reviewed by Brian Porter What a delicious book to feast on, whether as a gift to give or…

Gastronomy and Spirituality

I made a small contribution to the latest issue of TARGET, the journal of TEARAustralia. It’s an issue dedicated to food as an expression of faith, culture and hospitality. There are some terrific articles on the links between food, poverty and justice, an interview with Kate Bracks, Australia’s MasterChef of 2011, and some wonderful food stories…

Feast•Pray•Love Art Exhibition

Next week, here in my home city of Melbourne, is the opening of the annual art prize and exhibition Feast•Pray•Love, initiated and hosted by the church I serve as pastor. It’s an exhibition that invites artists to explore the deeper meanings evident in the sharing of food. The exhibition, now in its third year, is one I…

Patricia Yeo on celebrity

“Chefs are not supposed to be celebrities! We smell bad, we’re adrenaline junkies, and we have strange social habits.” Acclaimed chef Patricia Yeo is a native of Eugene, Oregon with a doctorate in biochemistry. She is currently the chef of Om Restaurant & Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Van Gogh’s table

“The Van Gogh family ate where they lived, in the back room of the parsonage. Like everything in Anna’s life, food was subject to conventions. Modest and regular eating was considered crucial to both good health and moral wholeness. But with two cooks in the tiny kitchen, Anna could indulge her middle-class aspirations to larger,…

Poetry from the kitchen #1

Sometimes words are as beautiful as those things they describe. Each night, in a space he’d make between waking and purpose, my grandfather donned his one suit, in our still dark house, and drove through Brooklyn’s deserted streets following trolley tracks to the bakery. There he’d change into white linen work clothes and cap, and…

Link on bread and sacrament

Hans Georg-Link, ‘The Bread of Life: Comments on a Fundamental Biblical Experience,’ in Ecumenical Review 34 (1982), 249-257.

Apricot and olive oil cake

So it’s my last day of leave, my daughter departs for India tomorrow, and apricots are in season. These factors converging, tonight’s dinner was one of lamentation, celebration and some serious apricot consumption. My choice for an apricot dessert was further inspired by two factors. First, a week ago we headed up a friend’s farm in Nagambie and picked the most gorgeously delicious apricots…

Pomegranate, quinoa and feta salad

My beloved has a thing for pomegranates. Truly. So much so, I reckon if it was me or the fruit I might be out in the cold. Granted, a ripe pomegranate, prized open, is a thing of remarkable beauty. The Ancient Egyptians considered it a symbol of prosperity and the Hebrews had a thing for…