Food News

Stephanie Alexander anticipates a farewell to winter as the bulbs in her garden begin to flourish.

Oh, shucks
Oysterman Steve Feletti says France has much to teach us on the oyster front. Get slurping.

GT chats with the chef’s chef, Thomas Keller, on why France is and always will be a culinary touchstone for him – even when he roasts a chicken.

The onset of winter has slowed growth in Stephanie Alexander’s garden, but the lemon tree is laden, the garlic has started growing and the kale is plentiful.

He likes game shooting. He makes Scotch eggs. He is one of the most respected chefs in London, and the only Australian currently to hold three Michelin stars. He is Brett Graham, chef-patron of Notting Hill two-star The Ledbury and The Harwood Arms in Fulham. We drop by his pub for a pint.

They became known as the Brit-pack, a group of young, confident, classically trained British chefs who bought complex technique, fun and black pudding to Melbourne’s dining rooms in the ’90s. We reunite them.

Screen giant
Leo Schofield meets the bon viveur who brought the cravat into every lounge room in the country, MasterChef judge Matt Preston.

Sausage today can mean chorizo, sai grog, cevapcici or merguez, but not so long ago it meant only one thing: the British banger. Nichola Fletcher reports.

Stephanie Alexander admires the rows of chicory, avenues of olive groves and trees heavy with pomegranates at Rose Creek Estate in suburban Melbourne.

We go behind the scenes (and into the garden) of Chiswick, Matt Moran's latest restaurant in Sydney.

Fergus Henderson says food fads such as foraged ingredients and 63-degree eggs leave him cold.

Stephanie Alexander’s espaliered Jonathan apple tree produced only two apples this season, but her capsicum and eggplant bushes fruited magnificently.

Stephanie Alexander uncovers a rogue jumbo zucchini, and autumn brings a second crop of some of her favourites, including bush beans and Chantenay carrots.

It’s virtually impossible to think of Italian food without the tomato – no Neapolitan sauce? – but it’s a relatively recent addition to the cuisine, writes Nicholas Doumanis.

Political journalist Annabel Crabb takes pollies out of the House and into the dining room in Kitchen Cabinet.

There’s a bounty of garlic and tomatoes, but it’s the peach and nectarine trees that are yielding the most beautiful rewards in Stephanie Alexander’s garden.

Malt whisky, lobster, mackerel and baps on the beach are the ingredients for a dream holiday when Fergus Henderson heads to the Hebrides.

The snails are a pest but still the garden’s looking good with bumper crops of quince and tiny heirloom zucchini, writes Stephanie Alexander.

The team behind Sydney’s Icebergs and North Bondi Italian Food bring their magic to a bold new venture with a grill-focused Mediterranean menu. Here’s a taste of what’s cooking at Neild Avenue, the restaurant for summer.

Peter Doyle is making raspberry trifle, Matt Stone’s doing a quinoa and asparagus salad and Paul Wilson is whipping up homemade mustard. We asked 42 chefs what they’d bring to the GT barbie.

South Australia’s Spencer Gulf king prawns are the first Asia-Pacific prawns certified for sustainability by the Marine Stewardship Council, writes David Sly.

The whole hog
Ed Mitchell is a pitmaster in the Southern tradition, a connoisseur of meat, wood, smoke and fire.

Sydney’s new breed of boutique butchers may look flashy but they’re delivering old-fashioned service and quality products in spades (and sometimes, a porchetta panino for lunch).

Profiles of new-wave butcheries around the country.

In Stephanie Alexander’s summer garden the squash are prolific, the almonds are wearing their green coats and the peach trees are laden with fruit.

Gourmet Traveller's regional editors check in with their favourite bites of 2011.

Looking for the perfect present for the food-lover in your life? From binchotan charcoal to caviar, here’s what our top chefs and food identities are hoping to find under the tree.

Present a chef’s knife to your nearest and dearest and be at the cutting edge of gift-giving, writes Pat Nourse.

Seasons’ eatings
A hot lunch may be illogical for Christmas but going cold turkey poses its own risks, writes Jane Kennedy.

The kids are hyped up, Dad is into the spirit, and Roger Moore is on the telly. It’s Christmas at Fergus Henderson’s house.

Give the gift of a cookbook this Christmas – not just any cookbook, but one of our favourites from 2011. To Santa from the GT editorial team: please note.

Her tomatoes, basil and eggplant are in and she’s waiting on the garlic, but some of the best produce Stephanie Alexander finds this month is in school gardens, from Mount Gambier to Currumbin.

We caught up with chef and author Gabrielle Hamilton while she was in town to take part in the Sydney International Food Festival. Watch the clip to find out what she had to say about the future of food and much more.

The party has officially started with David Chang opening Momofuku Seiobo at The Star in Sydney – his first restaurant outside New York. Enjoy.

Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, the rock-star chefs of Animal and Son of a Gun in Los Angeles, have the red-carpet crowd lining up for marrow bones and pigs’ ears.

Technologies once limited to the professional kitchen are now filtering down to the domestic cook. Max Veenhuyzen investigates the latest developments.

Five of the country’s most popular chefs invite Ardyn Bernoth into their home kitchens to share their insights into the must-haves (and the mistakes) of this most fundamental domain.

In his new book, Mark Best gives a clear picture of what life is like at a restaurant on the cutting edge, writes Pat Nourse.

Kitchen mate
Some call them a gimmick, others give them nicknames. Thermomix convert Dani Valent tells how she fell for the chefs’ favourite gadget.

Urban planting
Even inner city folk can have a vegie patch to fuel their kitchen, writes Michael Harden. Sorrel omelette, anyone?

Gadgets a-go-go
Which 10 utensils will change the way you cook? Kerryn Burgess digs around in GT’s second drawer.

Batterie power
Bright copper kettles might well be among your favourite things, but which pots and pans do you really need? GT food director Emma Knowles examines the essentials.

The capsicum plants are in the ground and the tomato seedlings are doing well but it’s the celery – and a new trick with newspaper – that Stephanie Alexander is most excited about this month.

At home again after trips to England and Jamaica, Stephanie Alexander plants fruit trees and roses in anticipation of the warmer weather.

Australia’s restaurant stars took a well-deserved night off to toast their peers and applaud the winners of GT’s 2012 Restaurant Awards, held this year at Sydney’s Opera House.

Introducing the GT Restaurant Guide for the iPhone.

The first leg of the 2011 Great Barrier Feast series saw Quay’s Peter Gilmore take his award-winning show on the road. The results were mixing-bowl-lickin’ good, says Frances Hibbard.

Restaurants need room for magic: in a sense of place, in chaos, even in a napkin, writes Fergus Henderson.

Name-dropping? Forgery? The key to securing a table at Australia’s top restaurants is patience. Join the queue.

Stephanie Alexander loses her carrots to an unexpected pest, and tells of her visit to a spectacular cookery-school garden in Ireland.

Stephanie Alexander returns from the UK, where she admired all manner of gardens including a vertical planting of tomatoes, calendula and nasturtiums.

Anthony Bourdain, the straight-shooting American chef-at-large and writer, tells Pat Nourse how French food got its groove back and why David Chang is still “the guy”.

Britain’s original bad boy of restaurants has always loved the cooking traditions of France. Leo Schofield talks to Marco Pierre White.

Many hands make light work: Stephanie Alexander gets olive-preserving tips from Pietro Demaio and rose-pruning assistance from Maggie and Colin Beer.

One Ultimate Dinner, six superstar chefs. We caught up with them over lunch to talk kitchen technology, the universe and everything.

Stephanie Alexander travels to the UK, but not before mulching the strawberries, planting the broccoli and deciding which rose bushes to buy on her return.

Our favourite critic-at-large, AA Gill, launches a new book at the Sydney Writers’ Festival this month. He talks with Pat Nourse about travel, writing, and his urge to get to Timbuktu.

Stephanie Alexander prepares for the “straggly months” in her late-autumn garden, and there’s still plenty of work to be done in the hothouse.

Stephanie Alexander takes comfort in homemade pickled cucumbers and pesto while mourning the loss of her dear Manchurian pear tree.

Stephanie Alexander finds putting up with possums and eradicating black spot from the roses less difficult than predicting nature’s twists and turns.

Almost 10 years since its close, the reverberations from this Melbourne restaurant are still felt in kitchens across the country. With chef Donovan Cooke opening The Atlantic, we renuite the alumni of Est Est Est to tell the story of when rock ’n’ roll met fine dining.

Someone’s got to do it: a taste-test of the nation’s top ice-cream brands. The masters of all things sweet, Adriano Zumbo and Peter Gilmore, dish up their (sometimes chilly) verdict.

When nature asserts itself, Stephanie Alexander finds comfort in a handful of blueberries and some marvellous black Krim tomatoes.

Here at GT, our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the flooding in Queensland. Here are the fundraising efforts we've rounded up so far.

We asked 65 of Australia’s leading chefs what they were throwing on the barbie this summer. Forget corn cobs and charred sausages – here’s what they had to say.

Right royal feast: What’s on the menu at the wedding of the century? Pat Nourse pops the question to chefs of the realm.

Two protégés of chef Thomas Keller, two very different solo ventures. Shane Mitchell reports from the USA.

Having staked the tomatoes, hand-pollinated the zucchini and mulched the whole garden, Stephanie Alexander is ready for a beach holiday.

Gourmet Traveller's state editors give you the lowdown on their favourite dishes of 2010.

Native ingredients are a mainstay of René Redzepi’s food. Here in Australia, he foraged for our indigenous produce.

On the cusp of summer, Stephanie Alexander is searching out new homes for her pimientos de Padrón plant, pumpkin vine and lettuces.

Leo Schofield reports from the set of TV’s Iron Chef as three of Australia’s culinary superstars go to battle.

Perhaps the most basic food known to humans, milk is now among the most processed, writes Will Studd.

What better reason to leap out of bed this weekend than some more of the nation’s best breakfasts? Just add coffee.

What better reason to leap out of bed this weekend than 43 (in no particular order) of the nation’s best breakfasts? Just add coffee.

It’s time to prune the grapevine and find space for tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers in Stephanie Alexander’s garden.

The people behind Australia’s favourite restaurants gathered at Flower Drum in Melbourne to toast the winners in Gourmet Traveller’s 2011 Restaurant Awards.

Multicoloured tomatoes, stripy eggplant, vibrant broad beans and heavenly celery have sprung to life in Stephanie Alexander’s garden.

In April the number-one spot in the World's 50 Best Restaurants poll was taken from El Bulli by Noma, a restaurant in Copenhagen. In October, Noma, a cookbook by chef René Redzepi, hits the shelves and Redzepi will visit Australia to promote it in conjunction with the Sydney International Food Festival and Phaidon. On the eve of his return to Australia trip, Redzepi spoke to Gourmet Traveller chief restaurant critic Pat Nourse.

This list has been compiled using our star ratings, moderated by our state and national editors. Every restaurant listed in the Guide should offer a winning dining experience; any that achieve a placement in the Top 100 represent another order of excellence again.

There’s a riot of colour in Stephanie Alexander’s garden, from exotic South American tubers to purple-podded peas.

Call it the snow-egg effect. Peter Gilmore’s Sydney restaurant has been booked out for months. Now the chef with a passion for produce presents a sumptuous cookbook – and that recipe.

Winter salad greens, sugarsnap peas, young beetroot and narcissus flourish this month in Stephanie Alexander’s garden.

Spain's ethical foie gras, now available in Australia, is controversial in a new way, writes Richard Cornish.

From the food and the venue to the outstanding winners, the focus was on the country’s finest at this year’s Gourmet Traveller Travel Awards.

After seven years Down Under, chef Bruno Loubet has returned to London to head a new restaurant – but he’s taken his laid-back Brisbane attitude with him, writes Guy Dimond.

Pierre Hermé, Paris’s master of the macaron, talks pastry with local sweet star Adriano Zumbo.

Tender shoots of garlic, heads of young broccoli and feathery clusters of flat-leaf parsley are emerging in Stephanie Alexander’s winter garden.

Infatuated with Australia, Momofuku’s David Chang recalls his trip and shares recipes, including his famous pork buns.

Out of the pool, food is my love, writes Olympic champ and Celebrity MasterChef winner Eamon Sullivan.

The mornings have turned crisp, and Stephanie Alexander’s garden is looking a little bare, but Tuscan kale, artichokes and broad beans battle on.

Stephanie Alexander joins Gourmet Traveller with a new monthly column on growing your own kitchen garden. This month, we’re planting leeks, peas and spinach.

Whether it’s a rustic dish that reminds them of their mammas’ cooking, or a fresh take on a classic, Australia’s best Italian chefs nominate their favourite Italian dishes.

The humble grissino, pride of Turin, has saved a prince from death, captivated Napoleon and inspired the Futurists, writes John Irving. And you thought it was just a breadstick.

Evolution, not revolution, is the way for modern Italian food, says its champion, chef Massimo Bottura.

It’s a Melbourne phenomenon: the rise and rise of modern Middle Eastern cuisine. Michael Harden rides the second wave of the city’s sumac-spiced love affair.

Josh Emett returns to Melbourne this year to head the kitchens of Gordon Ramsay's Maze and Maze Grill.

New York’s Momofuku is a modern-day restaurant phenomenon, but what’s it all about? With chef David Chang visiting Australia in March, Pat Nourse offers this primer.

It’s time to take our annual foodism test. Your obsession could win you one of four fabulous KitchenAid stand mixers, designed for those who really love to cook.

Gourmet Traveller's state editors give you the lowdown on their favourite dishes of 2009.