From Farm to Fork

Our new sous chef Billy at work in the MCEC kitchen

We are lucky to have some incredibly skilled chefs in our kitchen team and we thought we’d start introducing you to a few of them on From Farm to Fork, starting with our new sous chef Billy Palmer who has a colourful culinary background; from the Caribbean, to travelling and cooking in Africa, to his recent stint at the 7 star Burj Al Arab in Dubai.

Tell us about your experience before landing the sous chef gig at MCEC?
Before making the move to Melbourne I was working in Dubai as chef de partie in the Al Mahara seafood restaurant at the Burj Al Arab, which is the world’s only 7 star hotel. And prior to that I spent some time in Bermuda working as sous chef at the Fairmont Southhampton, a Spanish tapas style restaurant. While in Bermuda I also worked as sous chef in the Jasmine Lounge restaurant, running the kitchen there with a team of 16 chefs under me, and I spent some time as as demi chef de partie in the Entre Nous international buffet at the Novotel World Trade Centre in Dubai.

What do you love about the culinary scene in Melbourne?
I’m from Queensland originally and I saw moving to Melbourne as an opportunity to work in the food capital of Australia. The culinary landscape is continually changing and there is so much variety.

How does the MCEC kitchen differ to other kitchens you’ve worked in around the world?
Everything you need is here in our kitchen; all the equipment, tools, fresh produce, and being able to work with what’s in season. It’s the most well equipped and one of the largest kitchens I’ve ever worked in.

Do you have a favourite restaurant in Melbourne? Any recommendations?
I really like The Millswyn in South Yarra, a modern brassiere across from the Royal Botanic Gardens. The executive chef there has a huge amount of passion for what they do and the approach they take to handpicking ingredients. I recommend the scallop entree and suckling pig for the main, both terrific.

What do you enjoy eating when you’re not cooking?
I enjoy African food like ugali, which is a wheat and mash stew, and roast meat dishes like nyama choma. I had the opportunity to travel around Africa and occasionally squeeze in some cooking for a few days with the Fairmont Hotel group (where I worked in Bermuda). One month of travelling, a couple days cooking with the Nairobi Hotel Kenya, it was a great experience.

Who do you most like to cook for?
My family and friends.

Whose cooking style and what chefs do you admire most?
Not necessarily famous or celebrity chefs, but it is the peers I work with every day in the kitchen and throughout my travels who continue to inspire me.

Any particular events being held at MCEC that you are looking forward to cooking for?
We have a plated dinner for 1200 people in the coming months so in our Sauce section we’ll be cooking our Gippsland braised lamb neck, with dauphinoise potatoes, green peas, baby vegetables and citrus gremolata, plus roasted barramundi with Asian greens and shitake mushroom spring roll, with a soy ginger dressing.

Most memorable cooking or career moment?
While working in the Caribbean I was awarded ‘Best Chef of Bermuda 2009’ out of 1200 chefs. This was definitely a memorable moment in my career and one I’m very proud of.

Billy Palmer at the Al Mahara Restaurant, Dubai

MCEC's homemade hot cross buns

There are many variations these days on the Easter spiced bun but here our pastry chef Mike Belcher shares our traditional recipe filled with spices, currants and lemon rind.  

If you’re around South Wharf this week make sure you hop into MCEC’s cafe (exhibition centre, Clarendon Street entrance) where we’ll be selling our hot cross buns (pack of 6 for $9) and house made chocololate bunnies. 

MCEC hot cross buns (makes about 12)

Mike’s hot cross buns tip: Develop the dough through kneading and treat it as a living organism which is sensitive to heat extremes and sudden knocks.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup warm water
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup white sugar
Pinch salt
1 egg
1 egg white
3 cups bakers flour (not sifted)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
3/4 cup dried currants
2 lemons zested
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons milk

Directions:
1. Put warm water, butter,  1/4 cup sugar, salt, egg, egg white, flour, and yeast in a kitchen aid mixer or similar.
2. When 5 minutes of kneading are left, add currants and cinnamon and lemon. Leave in machine untill double the size.
3. Punch down on floured surface, cover, and let rest for 10 minutes.
4. Shape into 12 balls and place in a greased 9 x 12 inch pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place untill double, so about 35-40 minutes.
5. Mix egg yolk and 2 tablespoons water. Brush on the dough balls.
6. Bake at 190 degrees celsius for 20 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and cool on a wire rack.
7. To make crosses, mix together confectioners’ sugar and milk. Brush an X on each cooled bun. 
*We like to make a pate choux recipe and pipe crosses on before baking, then we brush with a sugar syrup.

Speed rolling.

Warm dough, rising.

Alessandro pipes crosses on the buns

Sugar syrup glazing.

 

Our house baked sourdough with labna (made from MCEC yoghurt) and pepper cured salmon

It’s not often MCEC are given the chance to showcase our house-made menu items outside events, so Melbourne Food  & Wine Festival’s (MFWF) Cellar Door & Farm Gate was a perfect opportunity to illustrate our from farm to fork philosophy. MCEC’s stand was nestled in amongst more than 50 Victorian producers, winemakers and brewers and we felt right at home with our range of goods prepared in-house by our team of chefs, using local and seasonal ingredients.

Our stand was non-stop all weekend, and the team enjoyed chatting to visitors and serving tastes of our sourdough bread topped with labna (made from MCEC’s yoghurt) and pepper cured salmon (from Yarra Valley Salmon), danishes, vanilla yoghurt and medal-winning ice cream flavours – a welcome retreat on Sunday when the sun was blazing. The “triple decker” (as our pastry chef Mike put it) was a popular choice – a cup of our three flavours including Sunny Ridge strawberry yoghurt ice cream, mandarin and passionfruit sorbet and Campbells Rutherglen Muscat Sabayon with figs.

MFWF punters were hungry and over the two days we served and sold (for tastings and purchase):

800 danish pastries
400 tubs of vanilla yoghurt
90 litres of ice cream
500 loaves of sourdough
300 tubs of labna
300 portions of pepper cured salmon

We wanted to say a big welcome to all our new blog subscribers who visited our stand, tried, and in many cases bought some of our eats. We hope you enjoy our from farm to fork stories – the Vic farmers and producers we meet, tales from our kitchen and the occasional sneak peek at some of our dishes.

Were you at Cellar Door & Farm Gate? You might see yourself in our MFWF facebook album.

Did you try any of our goods? We’d love your feedback in the comment box below.

Our Acting Executive Chef Tony Panetta chats to people at our stand

Our medal-winning ice cream and sorbet flavours

Cellar Door & Farm Gate with MCEC in the backdrop

Some of MCEC's chefs and kitchen team

MCEC house-baked sourdough bread

Today we kick off AIME (Asia-Pacific Incentives & Meetings Expo), a huge two-day show at MCEC showcasing the best Australian and international destinations, products and services in the industry. MCEC is a major sponsor and each year our chefs work with the organisers to create menus and prepare dishes for the show’s visitors. In its 20th year, AIME is sure to be a big one and our kitchen team have a few surprises up their chef jacket sleeves.

The hosted buyer’s welcome luncheon today will feature a Victorian inspired menu showcasing local produce (Gippsland beef, Yarra Valley Salmon, Yarra Valley Gourmet Greenhouse heirloom tomatoes and Mildura figs) – matched with a selection of wines from the Central Victoria region – giving AIME’s international and national visitors a true taste of Victoria. Guests will also be treated to a surprise guest performance!

Our pastry chefs have prepared something a little special to mark AIME’s 20th anniversary and this will be unveiled at the opening ceremony tomorrow morning so make sure you’re on the exhibition centre concourse at 9.45am.

Our AIME Sunny Ridge strawberry ice cream was a huge hit at last year’s show and this year visitors can taste some of our Royal Melbourne Fine Food Award medal-winning ice cream. Look out for the From Farm to Fork ice cream cart  at MCEC’s stand where we’ll be serving three of our delish flavours: yoghurt ice cream, Campbells Rutherglen Muscat Sabayon ice cream and our gold winning mandarin and passionfruit sorbet.

Visit MCEC's stand to taste our award-winning ice cream and sorbet flavours, house-made by our chefs

The Globe Restaurant and SingaporeXpress are open tomorrow and Wednesday from 11.30am – 3pm. MCEC chefs have created a South African inspired menu for the Globe Restaurant where people can dine on two or three course meals with two tastings of white and red wine. Or drop into the SingaporeXpress restaurant where you can see our chefs cook hawker-like cuisine including dishes like Char Kway Teow, Laksa Satay and Gado Gado.

We hope you enjoy AIME, Melbourne, Victoria and everything edible in between!

Our chefs will be cooking and serving up dishes at the Globe Restaurant and SingaporeXpress

            A bit of fun in the MCEC kitchen. Alessandro and Mike make a giant sundae using some of the award winning ice cream and sorbet flavours

There was much excitement in the MCEC kitchen recently, when we found out that we had won a gold medal for our mandarin and passionfruit sorbet at the Royal Melbourne Fine Food Awards.

We were up against some pretty tough competition and brands from across Australia, including Bulla Dairy Foods, Serendipity Ice Cream and King Island Dairy.

We are equally proud of the other awards we took home as well, including:

Silver – natural labna in Salute Olive Oil and our Campbells Rutherglen Muscat Sabayon ice cream

Bronze –vanilla yoghurt, natural yoghurt, quince and spiced vanilla ice cream, rum and raisin with caramelised almond ice cream and our yoghurt strawberry ripple sorbet.

Thanks must go to our Victorian suppliers Jonesy’s Dairy Fresh Milk, Green Eggs and Sunny Ridge Strawberries, who give us the basic building blocks so we can create our wonderful house made goods.

Our Executive Pastry chef Michael Belcher and Chef De Partie Alessandro Bartesaghi celebrated our win with a bit of fun in the kitchen, constructing a giant ice cream sundae with a couple of our winning entries.

Our silver medal winning labna