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Culinary Adventure
episode • The Cook Up with Adam Liaw • cooking • 25m
G
episode • The Cook Up with Adam Liaw • cooking • 25m
G
When I asked chef Claire Van Vuuren what's the best thing she's ever eaten, she had to take a moment.
"I have so many favourite things! I think it depends on your mood and who you're with, but I did think about it a lot, and I discovered in the process of thinking about this question that I love tortellini the most," she says.
The head chef-owner of Newtown restaurant and founding board member of recalls two meals featuring some form of tortellini that have left their mark on her.
The first was eaten in the Italian city of Bologna. is a dish of tortellini filled with meat (traditionally pork, mortadella and prosciutto) and cooked and served in a broth (usually made with chicken, capon or beef), with grated Parmesan.
"It's the staple dish there, a dish that you must order. I think I ate it every day that we were in Bologna. I like how simple it is, the richness of the broth and then the flavour of the tortellini and the Parmesan," she says.
"I've recreated it at home many times and I've jazzed it up by adding garlic into the stock, and some fresh parsley, but I think just the classic recipe is really good.
It's a simple thing that blows your mind.
"It's a simple thing that blows your mind. Peasant food, but absolutely memorable," she adds.
The other dish that has stayed with her is , a Middle Eastern meat dumpling cooked in a yoghurt sauce. "It's similar to the tortellini, but it's a little bit richer and I really like the sourness of the yoghurt," says Van Vuuren.
She remembers first eating the dish as a child, made by her Lebanese grandma. "It was a very big production to make the little dumplings, and it would be a long process. When she passed away, my family stopped making it because it would never work out quite correctly. Lebanese grandmothers die with their secrets," she says.
Lebanese grandmothers die with their secrets.
But during a visit to Beirut, she found a restaurant that made shish barak just like her grandma. "They made their own yoghurt that was infused with dried mint, with the perfect amount of garlic, and it was really lemony. The tortellini were al dente enough that there was texture inside. It was comfort food," she says.
"My family was migrants to Australia, and no one has travelled to Lebanon except for me so I've always wanted to go there.
"It was a really special moment."
Claire's Van Vuuren kitchen essentials
"Most chefs, including me, use really simple things that are really good," explains Van Vuuren.
One of those things is a good spoon, and she loves her collection.
Claire Van Vuuren treasures her spoon collection. Credit: Supplied
"I normally find my spoons on King Street where there are lots of second-hand shops," she says.
"Most chefs will just put their spoon in their pocket so that no one has a chance to steal their favourite spoon."
Her other essential items are a Microplane, a spice grinder and a hibachi grill.
