Many chefs survived isolation by teaching us how to cook. Here are our favourite recipes and key lessons we observed along the way.
Several weeks into isolation in late March,a strange phenomenon occurred. With darkened kitchens and dining rooms shrouded,chefs around the world,housebound and bored,with no apprentices to teach or people to feed,dusted off their aprons and took to filminghome cooking lessons.
They've been a daily highlight for many people – not just for the food we've learned to cook by watching them (Neil Perry's sandwich feed was a daily celebration of the joys of a simple lunch),but for a glimpse into their interior lives. Watch Sydney chef Dan Hong show his Instagram followers how to make Hong Kong-style noodles as his kids jump in front of the camera and interrupt him constantly. Beautiful chaos aside,it's proof that chefs can't help but nurture,teach and share in any way they can.
As Perry says:"It's been an incredible shock for people who love nurturing and whose nature it is to give every day."Showing people how to cook helped. Here are the dishes we loved most.
Neil Perry's perfect deli sandwich
"Iso might have done everybody a bit of good on the home cooking front,"says Perry,whose regular sandwich tutorials were the inspiration behind this entire story."And[through chefs'Instagram videos] we've seen into people's lives a bit more. I loveDan Hong. He's such a funny bastard. AndGuillaume Brahimi with all his gorgeous French stuff. And I loveThomas Keller doing his apron tying masterclasses. Wonderful classic things that a lot of people wouldn't have the chance to see."
The chef behind Rockpool Group,Rosetta and Spice Temple is a big fan of keeping it simple and fresh with his home cooking. It could be shucking an oyster,making a Chinese-style wonton noodle soup or an epic-looking deli sandwich with all the trimmings. Here are his deli sandwich commandments:
The bread
It's got to be fresh bread – that's one of the most important things – and it's got to be the right type of bread for the sandwich you're making. For an Asian-style sandwich like a banh mi,for instance,you need a crusty French roll. For a chicken finger sandwich,you need the fluffy,store-bought white stuff. But for a deli sandwich,I like Iggy's sourdough or I might use a nice Italian-style roll.
The condiment
I like thick butter. I think you need to have that barrier between the bread and everything else that's going on and the butter lays a really nice foundation. Also,my father got me addicted to it when I was younger.
The meat
I love the layers of flavours. I'll quite often do prosciutto and spicy salami and chorizo and maybe some ham. And then you get that completely over-the-top American deli-style sandwich where all the parts add together to make the sum amazing.
The cheese
I like provolone,or gruyere,or nostrani cheese – something a little bit soft and delicate – and you layer those up and then you get different textures and tastes.
The salad
You have to add crunch. Absolutely lettuce and cucumber. I'm not a mad fan of a tomato on a deli sandwich. Because a really beautiful ripe tomato is sweet enough and quite often overpowers and takes the flavour away from the meat.
The pickle
You need sharpness. It could be pickled cucumbers or a dill pickle,or pickled onions.
The sauce
I love hot sauce on top so it's spicy. Lately I've also been sticking the harissa fromRoom 10 cafe on my deli sandwiches.
Serving suggestion
Smash it in half with a bread knife and go for it.
Dan Hong's (kind of) easy prawn toast
"Teaching is pretty much my bread and butter these days,"says the executive chef behindMs.Gs,Mr. Wong and Establishment."Because I'm not really on the line cooking any more,my job in the kitchen is to develop chefs. I hope to think that the way I explain the dishes on my Instagram videos is very similar to the way I would explain how to cook a dish to one of my chefs or apprentices."
His prawn toast video was most popular,Hong thinks,because he uses garlic bread from the supermarket."I learned this hack from one of my dim sum chefs. People thought it was a game changer."
INGREDIENTS
Fans of Mitch Orr will be well aware of his excellent pasta work over at the recently openedCicciaBella in Bondi. Since being in captivity he's been forced to cook for himself,something he rarely does because he's either cooking for other people or enjoying the work of his chef mates in their restaurants. It was not having that creative outlet that got him conducting his social media pasta tutorials.
"I'm so addicted to Instagram that I was missing that dopamine hit of likes and engagement. Plus,I knew everyone was sitting at home in the same boat,with massive amounts of pasta and tinned tomatoes and mince meat,"says Orr."Everyone now has the time,so why not do it properly?"
Orr says the two most popular recipes were the carbonara and tiramisu,but all the recipes hit different spots for different people,depending on their knowledge and experience. He says he didn't really put any measurements with any of the dishes because he wanted people to use their common sense and taste as they cooked."Because that's how you learn to cook. You don't learn by measuring things out and blindly putting them in a pot – you learn by getting to know your palate. Doing it that way resulted in a lot of people messaging me for exact measurements but it allowed me to talk through the process of why things are done a certain way. If you have that understanding,you can apply that to the next thing you cook."
INGREDIENTS
- 100g pasta of your choice
- 1 egg yolk
- handful of grated pecorino (we can accept parmigiano Reggiano)
- handful of guanciale,chopped into batons (we can accept pancetta)
- slug of olive oil
- black pepper to taste
"As chefs,we have a need to create and feed others and it felt like I was feeding people through Instagram."Danielle Alvarez is the head chef ofFred's,the woodfired two-hat restaurant that's been warming Paddington silvertails since 2016. She was particularly heartened to see her apple cake – the first recipe she posted – being made around the world and it encouraged her to make more videos."I simply felt like comfort baking and I wanted to share what I was up to. The response was incredible and so it encouraged me and made me feel useful."
A regularrecipe writer for Good Food,Alvarez is no stranger to cooking at home and is a strong believer in reading broadly and trying new things."Cooking should be fun and not stressful,so if something doesn't work out perfectly or you burn it,or you drop it on the floor (yes,I've done that too!) it's OK,it happens. Find the people whose recipes you trust which will allow you to cook more confidently."
INGREDIENTS
- 150g plain flour
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1½ tsp sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp neutral oil (rice bran,grapeseed,canola) plus more for cooking
- 220ml water
- 300-350g thinly sliced cabbage with any thick stems removed (approximately ¼ of a medium-large head of cabbage)
- 1 large carrot,peeled and grated on the large holes of a box grater
- 3 spring onions,thinly sliced
- 12 thin slices of pork belly or cured bacon (I partially freeze the pork belly so it is easy to cut into thin strips)
Toppings