Well it’s almost been a year now here at Bellbrae Harvest and I couldn’t be happier. Meeting and working with Dave Veal has given me a new spark in cooking. With very similar styles and ideas we rarely disagree with menu ideas.

Here at Bellbrae Harvest we try to use ingredients as local as we can, e.g. tomatoes, eggs, beetroot, berries, olive oil and most important, wines and making our own bread along with just starting our vegetable herb garden is another step to self sufficiency.

Things I love to experiment with in the kitchen are desserts, especially frozen. Having a massive sweet tooth it’s enjoyable to reap in the rewards of experiments. After I became a qualified chef my lovely wife bought me a domestic icecream machine and it started from there. Gathering a lot of ideas and inspiration from chefs like Heston Blumenthal, Pete Gilmore, Brent Savage and American pastry chef, Johnny Izzuni the creations and flavours are endless.

I like to think outside the norm with icecream flavours using herbs and savoury ingredients. Thai Basil is one we’ve had as a special at the restaurant. It gives a lovely aniseed, almost liquorice flavour to the pale green icecream which plays on the conscience.

Nothing is off limits to us having used black truffle, foiegras, caviar and different types of game to bring dishes to another dimension. Hoping the customers enjoy our food as much as we like making it.

Above is our ” Blood oranges macerated in Wolseley Botrytis with Pimms jelly and Thai bail ice cream”

Stay tuned..

Adam

One question I get asked a lot is my opinion of the television show masterchef!!!!!

Well here it is. I LOVE IT. But not for reasons you may think.

In my opinion it is one of the only cooking shows that incorporates what we do in commercial kitchens on a day to day basis, that is continually work with new and interesting ingredients, being creative with methods of cookery, being constantly judged and most importantly working under pressure. I think it has broadened everyone’s knowledge of food and created an understanding of the amount of effort that goes into designing a dish. I have found that the customers that come through the harvest are a lot more adventurous when it comes to what they order. And this I why I love it, we can now write menus that we couldn’t five years ago. One problem being a chef is that it can very much become groundhog day, I have worked in some amazing restaurants but when it came time to change a menu not a lot actually changed,  no new dishes were created just tried and tested ones brought back. My greatest love for being at the harvest is that our passion and creative juices are never restrained.

My personal favourite cooking show is “Iron Chef” it’s fast paced, moves through the preparation really quickly and the dishes need to be something the chefs have never done before.

Finally the other masterchef question I get asked, why I’m not on it? Well I don’t think there is enough room for another bald guy who chews funny!!!!!! However I would love to share a bottle of wine with Gary, his food knowledge is phenomenal he certainly puts a lot of work into what he does.

Dave