Hello everyone. Merry Christmas! Today is the first day of Christmas, so time to break out that Partridge in a Pear tree. It also means there is less than two weeks to get that last minute Christmas gift. If you’re like me, you’ve been hiding gifts in the bowels of the bedroom wardrobe since August. But every year there seems to be one family member or friend that keeps you braving the shopping malls right til Christmas Eve. Regular readers will know how much I love this time of year – good food is abundant and most people are in a good mood. Our fridge at home is full of eggnog, the stockings have been hung and the tree trimmed. There is even the occasional Carol to be heard.

Last year I posted a list of great cookbooks I believe would make excellent gifts for the home chef and I stand by those suggestions if you didn’t get them then. The past year seems to have focussed on food, with yet more foodie television shows, stores opening up in suburban shopping malls dedicated to kitchen wares and the preparation of food and gourmet ingredient stores in every major city. Australia jumped on the Thermomix band wagon and it seems the whole world got a sweet tooth with cake decorating and cupcakes taking centre stage. But for me the ultimate gift, for any occasion really, is a book. Not an eBook, a real tangible book that you can feel connected to as you physically turn the page to find what comes next. What better gift for a foodie or want to be chef then a recipe book. I’m reminded of the ‘give him a fish and he has a meal for a day, teach him to fish and he has meals for a lifetime’ proverb. As I said last year I am a total cookbook junkie and can’t resist buying any that are slightly interesting as they come out and this year has seen hundreds of cookbooks hit the shelves. Everyone has one. I only took film studies as a minor at University so I’m not sure what part of an actor’s training involves them mastering the culinary arts but if you’d love to see what kind of meals Eva Longoria or Olivia Newton-John or even Ian Thorpe might like to cook then there is a book for you. There is also a trend of restaurant chefs releasing home cooking cookbooks and the travel journal recipe book fusion is popular. If you have found yourself in the position of still needing a gift for that serious foodie in your life who perhaps doesn’t have the perceived talent of the last winner of Master Chef then checkout these suggestions from some of my purchases this year:-

Heston Blumenthal At Home by Heston Blumenthal. – Heston Blumenthal is known for his scientific or avant garde approach to cooking and usually leaves home cooks in open mouthed amazement, as well as many professional chefs. But in this book he presents a simple layout, concise dishes and an explanation of the science behind many of his ‘tricks’. This is the second book by Blumenthal to contain home food; the first much more humbly presented simply titled Family Food which should still be available as well.

Marque: A Culinary Adventure by Mark Best – Award winning chef Mark Best of Sydney’s Marque has put together one of the most beautiful cookbooks of the year from the higher end of the market. This is the kind of book you read again and again with the recipes presented in detail and photographed well. This is for the adventurous cook.

Rockpool Bar & Grill by Neil Perry – This is the second time Neil Perry has appeared on my top five lists and with good reason. Of all Perry’s books this could be the best. There is a large part of the book dedicated to the background of his restaurants and tips for everything from running a good bar to service and cocktail recipes. There is a lot of passion in this book and the food recipes are outstanding.

The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adria – This is one of those to the minute trendy books where the world’s best chefs dumb it down and the offering from the chef who lead the culinary world for almost ten years from his restaurant in Spain, ElBulli is very good. He presents the recipes in groups of three for harmonious dinner menus and has done a fantastic job of making the them accessible.

My Abuela’s Table by Daniella Germain – The story goes that Daniella, a Melbourne based graphic artist used a bunch of Mexican recipes of her Grandmother’s to create an end-of-year project and it was spotted by a publisher resulting in this book. It contains ‘real’ Mexican food, not the westernised version many of us are used to and is a beautiful collection visually.

Well, hope that helps you out, happy shopping. From all the staff at Lexie’s on the Beach have a wonderful holiday season and a happy, safe New Year! See you in a few weeks – Merry Christmas.

Til then, Peace and Good Eating.

Hello everyone. Wow! Well such a lot has happened since my last blog, for both Lexie’s and myself. I hope you’ve been grooving away while preparing dinner after bringing a little music into the kitchen. I’ve been doing a bit more cooking at home as well and think I’ve worked through most of the music we discussed in the last blog.

 In September we welcomed a new chef, Michael Duff to the team, who has settled in well and taken the reigns for me while I’ve been on annual leave over the past three weeks. Lexie’s on the Beach now has a sister cafe in the heart of the CBD – Lexie’s on King. The official opening was 14^th November and business has steadily increased since. With the same simple mission as our cafe on the beach; simple food, relaxed style and customer satisfaction -  Lexie’s on King has an accessibility to local businesses that should make this urban chic cafe, with its warm autumn-toned decor a winner. There’s a young, passionate chef in the kitchen, supported by a great front of house team. Now you can get Lexie’s great coffee blend and good food in two locations. Lexie’s on the Beach will continue, as it has for three years now, to bring Australian Native Ingredients to the attention of diners, incorporating them into everyday cooking that, results in tremendous food.

Also in September, our fellow chef and friend in Brisbane, Matt Clark wrote a blog entry titled ‘Waiter, what is the level of Na (sodium) in the risotto?’ which addressed a topic I believe is becoming more of a concern and I agree with Matt. The blog refers to the customer that comes into a restaurant with such a sense of ‘eating healthy’ that many menu items are simply not suitable. You all know what I’m talking about, you’ve had a dinner party at home with the fussy eater, the one guest who is not eating whatever it may be this week, who goes from diet to diet, reads articles that say salt can be harmful in large quantities and then proceeds to cut out salt altogether from their diet. It used to stop there, but more and more often now restaurants are expected to be personal chefs. [By the way, there is a term for an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating and it is Orthorexia Nervosa.]  Everyone is different. Everyone needs a certain amount of salt, oil, sugar and even fat that we all seem preoccupied with eradicating from our diets.  For a while now MacDonald’s has added a calorie count on their menus, brought on mostly by the worldwide community backlash of Supersize Me, with a push for other fast food chains to follow suit. The idea is now starting to trickle into restaurants with concerned ‘specialists’ wanting menu item ingredients listed and a healthier choice alternative to appear. To this I say, and I’m sure many chefs will agree with me, that a couple of important factors are being overlooked. A single dish may have five or six components with each component having up to a dozen or more ingredients. The menu would be to size of a phone book, by the time you finish reading it service would be over. And two, restaurants and cafes are NOT health food stores, sure, we do our best to have healthy options, gluten free, diary free, chemical free, pesticide free and insert ingredient here free alternatives but there’s only so much one cool room can hold. Finally, and this is probably the determining factor – no one is making you choose a specific dish, the responsibility is yours. In the past few weeks every major newspaper has run an article of some description on healthy eating. It is great (and I’m the first one to say so) that the general public are becoming more food aware, it not only makes our job more of a challenge but more satisfying and the more likely that chef’s are able to serve fresh, local produce and have it appreciated. My sign off tagline for the blog – Peace and Good Eating, does not just refer to healthy food, but the whole eating experience, the pleasure of food, and sometimes that means a big piece of chocolate mud cake that…oh yes, has flour in it. Restaurants and cafes are about taste, trying new things, indulging a little. I’m not suggesting you don’t eat healthily. It’s about being responsible, people. Matt Clark writes in his blog “If you have such serious concerns for your food consumption, there are many competitive weight-loss companies that would be more than keen to supply you with fat and salt free, tasteless food.” I am often amazed at how a customer can come to a cafe or restaurant, sit next to a beautiful beach setting, have twenty or so dishes to choose from and still be in a bad mood and have issue with everything before the wait-staff have taken an order. And that, right there, is the crux of the problem. Too often now, we as a society eat out, eating out used to be a special event or at least a once a week event. You’d dress well, order a 300g steak or a rich piece of venison or fish covered in a creamy sauce, you’d throw your diet aside and order from the dessert menu with perhaps a glass or two of wine AND you’d enjoy yourself. That’s what it’s all about.

At the end of October the owners of Lexie’s, Doug and Trish celebrated three years of operation. You may notice the current menu has dishes you’ve seen before – the reason is to thank all of our loyal customers, who keep coming back time and again. We’ve picked to dishes that you told us you like the most and put them all onto one menu. Thank you for your support and patronage over the past three years. The menu will be formatted a little differently for here on, becoming more static. But don’t worry this only means we’ll be bringing you more terrific specials to try out.

I’ll be back at the Beach tomorrow so I look forward to seeing you all again soon. Next time in the blog – my annual Christmas wrap-up of this year’s best foodie buys.

Til next time, Peace and Good Eating.

Hello everyone. A friend of mine gave me a copy of Us and Them: The Symphonic Music of Pink Floyd recently and I was blown away; A at how good it was and B at the fact I had not come across it before. I always get excited when I hear something new or at least new to me and I love symphonic versions of pop or mainstream albums. One of my favourites is the collaboration of Metallica and The London Symphony Orchestra. In recent years though, much of the music I hear is at work as restaurant background ambience which symphonic tracks don’t really lend themselves to all that well. Neither does Pink Floyd for that matter and another of my favourite types of music – film score, is ruled out for the same reason, too much variance in dynamic level – no one wants to be shocked out of their chair by a sudden cymbal crash or the sound of an 80 piece orchestra hitting fortissimo.

We all know the kind of music that gets played in restaurants but what about at home, not just as background music to a dinner party or BBQ. What do you play while cooking? A quick search on iTunes for cooking music will bring up 100 or so titles, with each type of cuisine covered. Celebrity chefs have cds of their favourite music for sale and foodie magazines such as delicious have done jazz compilations to cook to. You’ve probably seen titles like Breakfast with Beethoven and Morning Tea with Mozart from the classics range. I could be cliché and say I like Pavarotti when cooking Italian and the singular tonal twang of a sitar or breathy melody of a lone wooden flute whilst preparing Asian food but the truth is I often prefer to play soundtrack(not score) cds. Usually these albums have a good collection of tracks, not all upbeat, not all mellow and can definitely enhance a cooking experience. There are exceptions of course, I like to play a band called Chingon when preparing Mexican food, for some reason it just seems to taste better, although it could be the Corona with lime and Tabasco that I only drink when eating Mexican that has something to do with it too. If you were to search the internet you would see that many bloggers have their own opinion on what you should play while cooking.

Universities throughout the world have studied the effect of music on the brain and its influence on other experiences such as eating. Until the last decade or so, specific music was played in shopping malls because it was thought to entice people to spend more. Until around the same time, colour was used in fast food organisations to ensure a higher turnover of customers – yellow to be precise; is said to speed up the dining experience. Yellowtail wine company set up a Vinyl Bar some years back that matched their range of wines to seventies and eighties pop hits. Chefs all over the world are experimenting with food and different senses. Colour in dishes, monochromatic degustations, and the scent of something non food related to invoke an emotional response to the meal, the sound of waves and the ocean being played at the presentation of seafood courses. I once had a meal that ended by being presented with an mp3 player to accompany a dark chocolate, orange scented dessert. The track being played was African drums, the deep bass resonance was supposed to enhance the dark, bitter notes of the chocolate – whether it did or not, I can’t say for sure as I didn’t try the dessert without the player.

I’ve given you my thoughts on food in various media before in past blogs, both in film and on television and while there is a myriad of songs devoted to food, many of them performed by Jimmy Buffet, I prefer to marry food and cooking or dining rather than entertain a hybrid of the two subject matters. Here are just a few of my choice selections for chilling out in the kitchen or for turning up the heat. From the soundtrack genre try these:-

Cruel Intentions (1999): A good eclectic mix of pop tunes featuring Placebo and Counting Crows as well as Aimee Mann and Marcy Playground. Best Bit-A tossup between track 1 and track 5. I’m leaning towards track 5 – Colorblind by Counting Crows.

Jack & Sarah (1995): Some great chill out tracks with artists like Annie Lennox, Massive Attack and Simply Red. Best Bit- Track 1. Stars by Simply Red.

Simply Irresistible (1999): Not too many artists on this album are well known (which I don’t mind) and there are a couple of good cover tracks. Our bridal waltz was even taken from this album. Best Bit-Excluding track 8 which was our bridal waltz, I’m going with track 7. Beautiful Girls by Chris Lloyd.

Three to Tango (1999): For the jazz lover, some of the top jazz artists of the time contribute such as Dr. John, The Brian Setzer Orchestra and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Best Bit- Track 2. Swing Sweet Pussycat by The Atomic Fireballs.

What Women Want (2000): One of my favourites with a heap of tracks from the Crooners as well as a few pop princesses like Christina Aguilera, Leah Haywood and Meredith Brooks. Best Bit –Track 4. I Won’t Dance by Frank Sinatra.

If you prefer a perhaps, less engaging instrumental album try these:

Determination (1991): Arguably the best album by the guitar guru from down under, Tommy Emmanuel. Best Bit- Track 5. Initiation.

White Blues (1996): A compilation of the smooth jazz sounds of Chet Baker, his best and signature laidback tracks with the highlights being ‘round Midnight and Dolphin Dance. Best Bit- Track 5. Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

I also love One Small Step: Live and Solo by John Butler. Track 4. Oceans is amazing. I can also recommend Lucky Man by Dave Koz and New York City by The Peter Malick Group featuring Norah Jones (I know, I know… but this is not like her solo albums).

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There are two very powerful mood modifiers in this world that don’t come from over the counter with a prescription and they are; Music and Food.

Til next time, Peace and Good Eating. 

Hello everyone. Well I hope I’ve given you enough time between blogs to see some of the films we discussed in the last blog? Did you enjoy? Hope so. This week I wanted to talk about something completely different. I have been thinking recently about what I might hand on to my girls. In the age of instant information via the internet, e-books, food blogs, cookbooks of ‘grandma’s recipes’, I wonder how many families are passing on recipes from generations past? I have next to none. I just picked up a copy of New Zealander Frances Hansen’s Keepsakes which reads and presents like a scrapbook of typed, hand-written and pasted in recipes and memories from her life.

I love to (when I have the time) read autobiographies. Celebrities, athletes, politicians and of course chefs. I like to see what has shaped a person into what they have become. Michael J Fox, JFK and David Attenborough are particularly interesting. As for chefs, I would recommend to anyone, that they read Grant Achatz’ story. There is a certain time in most people’s lives when the past or history of their own family becomes important to them. It usually comes after having children of their own or following the death of a parent or grandparent. When there is still family of the earlier generations around to tell them how it was. When reading ‘celebrity’ chef biographies, many of them have come from a large family where eating and cooking is a big part of each day and they sat on the kitchen bench from a young age peeling beans. In the case of Gordon Ramsay it was a necessary job at first in order to pay bills.

None of this was the case with me – My Mum (god bless her) always had dinner on the table every night and it’s not until you are trying to do this yourself that you realise what an achievement that really is to answer the most annoying of questions – ‘What’s for dinner?’. However, she will still cook a Lamb Roast for about three hours at 200-250°C and then say “that mustn’t have been very good lamb, its shrunk and its tough”. She can’t stand the thought of cooking it medium and letting it rest. My Dad’s specialty was cupcakes for school lunches. Have you ever had Neopolitan ice-cream with sprinkles and let it melt just enough to be able to mix it all though and you end up with a green-blue grey mess, well that’s what Dad’s cupcakes looked like that I had to take to school. I never even really cooked at home, my earliest memory is probably from first year high school when we were studying Home Economics and wanting to cook meals at home then. I think spaghetti bolognaise was the first think I cooked on my own, from an old Woman’s Weekly recipe card.

It wasn’t until much later in life that I became interested in the idea of cooking professionally and unfortunately my father never got to see me as a chef. I will admit I was seduced by that romanticised view of cooking portrayed in the movies. The alchemy or magic of food seemed sexy and exciting and in the early days of my career I did use it to entice women and set the mood, well one woman actually and it must have worked because she is sitting across from me now as I type. I realise the value of food, as I’ve said in past blogs, in every aspect of life but where did that come from? Recently I’ve been speaking to my mother about her parents and it seems my grandfather was quite the chef, so much so that if my grandmother was to buy pastry instead of making it from scratch he would not be pleased. I have very few memories of my grandfather, but I do know he is the one that began my love of tea- when I was very young he would give me the saucer from his tea that had collected any spills, to drink from. Having lived though the Great Depression and being on strike from work, as many were following the Second World War, my grandparents were frugal. If they didn’t grow it, catch or kill it, it didn’t end up on the dinner table. To this day my mum still has problems eating rabbit and lobsters because she ate so many of them as a child. My grandmother would make fabulous pies and casseroles and my grandfather loved cooking pickles and chutneys.

So, in today’s blog I am going to do something very personal and share my grandfather’s recipe for mustard pickles – just as he has written it and believe me although simple they are great!

Jack Vayne’s Pickles

½ as many onions as tomatoes
½ as many beans as onions
cauliflower or choko optional
Boil with a handful of salt until soft.
Strain.
¾ cover with vinegar
add 2 cups of sugar whilst boiling.
 
make a paste with a small amount of vinegar and
1 cup plain flour
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon curry powder
½ tablespoon turmeric
add to pot.

You need to cook the pickles for a further five minutes after adding the paste. These are great on home-made chicken rissole sandwiches …yummo!

Til next time, Peace and Good Eating

Hello everyone. With the weather turning a bit nasty lately – strong winds, heavy rain and with two very young girls at home I haven’t ventured out on my days off too much in the last couple of weeks. It is perfect for snuggling up on the couch and watching a movie or two though. I recently watched Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café where a wife beating husband gets barbequed and served to a law enforcement officer looking for him and it was one of these cold and rainy days that I came to watch Julie & Julia. Now clearly this is not the kind of film that cleans up at the Oscars but it does have some great food scenes in it. It got me thinking of food in the movies and its portrayal. Food is a part of every human beings life, so it only stands to reason that food would feature in human art of every medium and since its earliest days film has done just that. From black and white Charlie Chaplin films to the latest cinema releases in every genre there is, food has repulsed, entranced and titillated our big screen experiences. Many first dates are a dinner and a movie, later in life Thursday nights became pizza and DVD night and how can anyone actually go to the cinema without the inclusion of freshly popped popcorn and creamy choc-tops or a box of malteasers? There are numerous blogs that have posted entries on the best food movies so I thought this week we might do the same, for a bit of fun, after a quick survey of some of the staff at Lexie’s this is what we came up with. How many of these films have you seen?

No Reservations –“I love this film.” Chef Michelle

Julie & Julia – “I love the first time Julie makes bruschetta, it looks so yummy.” Waitress Caitlin

Ratatouille – “I just love the passion of the little rat, its great.” Waitress Kim and “The scene where the rat is inside the boy’s hat like a puppetmaster recreating the soup.” Kitchen-hand Bodie

It’s Complicated – “There’s a heap of good food scenes in this film.” Barista Madeline

Coupé Deville – “The Dinner scene is awesome.” Barista Erin

Like Water for Chocolate – “I searched everywhere for this film, I absolutely adored the book.” Supervisor Stephanie

Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone – “The scene where Dumbledore goes whoosh and all the food appears, love that.” Kitchen-hand James

Hook – “The pretend food fight, I used to love that as a kid.” Kitchen-hand Tyler

Not to be out done Doug, our owner and chief Barista offered up his top five films featuring food and they are:-

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) starring Helen Mirren and Richard Borst “I could watch this film again and again”

Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978) starring George Segal and Jacqueline Bisset  “The baked Alaska in this film is great”

Ratatouille (2007) the masterpiece created by Brad Bird and his Pixar team.

Tampopo (1985) starring Ken Watanabe

Chocolat (2000) starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp – Trish, our other owner and head Waitress also voted for this film, although I suspect much of that stems from her love of Johnny Depp. (My wife pipped up while I was typing this and said “What woman wouldn’t want Johnny Depp dipped in chocolate?”

As for me, well I like any film with food in it, I love the detail in Ratatouille it was a real love letter to the food industry, the fact the producers hired American Chef Thomas Keller as food consultant shows how much they wanted to get it right. The details are amazing – from the burns on the arms of the chefs to the textures of the raw ingredients. You would be hard pressed to find a better food film and its one of my favourites too. I love the scene in Meet Joe Black where Brad Pitt tries peanut butter for the first time. Waitress, Return To Me, Groundhog Day, Fools Rush In and Simply Irresistible all have great food scenes and the scene in Once Upon A Time In Mexico where Johnny Depp shoots the cook for making too good a Puerco Pibil dish I always find amusing. However my ultimate favourite has to be the scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where Gene Wilder sings Pure Imagination while the kids eat candy flowers, mushrooms, grass, trees …just about everything.

Most of the above films are still available on DVD to buy or can be hired, so the next time its cold and raining, snuggle up and feed your mind’s appetite with a foodie film.

Til next week, Peace and Good Eating. 

Hello everyone. Well its less than a month now until we find out if we have won either Best breakfast or Best Café in the Regional Restaurant  & Catering Awards and while we wait business carries on as usual at Lexie’s. Our new winter menu is up and running with the colder weather making our seafood chowder a big hit. Make sure to come down and try the Duck supreme with yellow curry and pineapple sauce or the locally grown oysters with Tabasco and Tequila sauce. The new menu continues to show our unique style of cuisine – Modern classic or iconic dishes with native Australian ingredients with a focus on regional produce. Also coming soon will be a new look website and you’ll be able to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, I’ll keep you posted.

Til next week, Peace and Good Eating.

Hello everyone. I’m happy to announce this week that we have become finalists in the Restaurant and Catering Awards once again. We entered a new category this year as well as our Best Breakfast category, we are in the running for the Best Cafe Award – fantastic!

I hope no one got sore eyes reading my blog last week, it was a long one. I promise it wouldn’t be as long this week. Even though the mornings have been very chilly, the days have been beautiful and this week, once again diners on the deck were treated to a pod of dolphins playing in the water.

One of Britain’s legendary old school chef’s Marco Pierre White, who mentored some of today’s big name ‘celebrity chefs’ like Curtis Stone, Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay, is in Australia to appear on Master Chef Australia and promote his range of stock pots. We really are moving forward on the world culinary scene with more high profile chefs wanting to visit our shores in October for the Crave Sydney International Food Festival such as cacao producer and chef Willie Harcourt-Cooze of Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory fame.

We will have a new menu up a running for the start of winter in two weeks. I’m hoping to bring in a few of those comfort dishes we all crave in winter and we will be placing an even higher emphasis on local, seasonal produce than we already do. I’m really looking forward to it.

Til next week, Peace and Good Eating.

Hello everyone. Firstly thank you to all the families who chose to spend Mother’s Day with us, it was a great day and we had a lot of fun. Has it been a year already? June sees the return of Hunter Wine and Food Month with many events happening throughout the month right across the valley. I went to several last year and they were well worth checking out, for more information go to www.hvwineandfood.hvva.com.au  Yesterday we saw a pod of large dolphins playing in the waves out the front of the cafe -it’s great to see them back.

Now to the story of the Macadamia – It’s a long one because they are so fascinating and have been part of European Australians’ history for almost two hundred years. I’ve visited several Macadamia farms including one in Hawaii and the amount of products derived from this one tree is amazing, it is similar to the coconut in many ways because it’s used for beauty products, clothing, food and gardening. In our house alone we have roasted macadamias, macadamia honey, macadamia oil, macadamia skin butter and after sun macadamia lotion.

The Macadamia is a genus of nine species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, with seven of the nine species native to eastern Australia, the other two in New Caledonia (M. neurophylla) and Sulawesi in Indonesia (M. hildebrandii). The fact that the Macadamia nut had its origins in Australia is not widely known. Our ‘Australian Bush Nut’ was first discovered by Allan Cunningham in 1828. In the 1850′s these trees were noticed by a British botanist Ferdinand Von Mueller and Walter Hill, the Director of the Botanical Gardens of Brisbane. The two men were struck with the majestic beauty of the specimens found growing in the rainforests of Queensland. A distinction was made between Macadamia integrifolia (smooth shelled) and Macadamia tetraphylla (rough shelled) which also produces a nut that is edible, although not as good for roasting as Macadamia integrifolia. The genus Macadamia was named after a prominent scientist of that time, Dr John MacAdam. Indigenous Australian names for the nut include gyndl, jindilli, and boombera. There were at least twelve aboriginal tribes in the region where the trees grew and they were used as an item of trade with other tribes. With the arrival of white settlers nuts were bartered, often with native honey, for rum and tobacco. The high oil content of these nuts was a coveted addition to the indigenous diet. However, they were difficult to harvest in great quantities so probably were not a major staple food. The fallen nuts were collected in dilly bags and taken to feasting grounds. Some coastal aboriginal middens contain large quantities of bush nut shells along with sea shells, often 15 – 20kms from the nearest trees. Nuts were eaten raw or roasted in hot coals. Many processing stones have been found in eastern rainforests, consisting of a large stone with a delicate incision for holding the nuts and sometimes a smaller, flat stone sits on top which is then struck by a larger hammer stone.

The nuts are a valuable food crop. Only the two, Macadamia integrifolia and Macadamia tetraphylla, are used commercially, the remainder of the genus possess poisonous and/or inedible nuts, such as M. whelanii and M. ternifolia; the toxicity is due to the presence of gynogenic glycosides. These glycosides can be removed by prolonged leaching, a practice carried out by some Indigenous Australian people in order to use these species as well. The two species of edible macadamia readily hybridize, and M. tetraphylla is threatened in the wild due to this. One of the locations where wild nut trees were originally found was at Mount Bauple near Maryborough in southeast Queensland. Locals in this area still refer to them as ‘Bauple nuts’. The macadamia nut is the only plant food native to Australia that is produced and exported in any significant quantity (so far). The first commercial orchard of macadamia trees was planted in the early 1880s by Charles Staff at Rous Mill, 12 km southeast of Lismore, New South Wales, consisting of M. Tetraphylla. Besides the development of a small boutique industry in Australia during the late 19th and early 20th century, macadamia was extensively planted as a commercial crop in Hawaii from the 1920s. Macadamia seeds were first imported into Hawaii in 1882 by William H. Purvis. He was the young manager of the Pacific Sugar Mill, at Kukuihaele, on the Big Island and planted seed nuts that year at Kapulena. The Hawaiian-produced macadamia established the nut internationally. Many Americans still refer to the nut as the Hawaiian nut. In 2006, macadamia production began to fall in Hawaii, due to lower prices from an over-supply.

Outside of Hawaii and Australia, the macadamia is also commercially produced in South Africa, Brazil, California, Costa Rica, Israel, Kenya, Bolivia, New Zealand, Colombia and Malawi. It wasn’t until the 1960′s that Australians realized the potential of this indigenous tree nut and began serious local cultivation. Trees were planted on the rolling hills of north eastern New South Wales and south eastern Queensland where over one third of the world’s production is now grown. Australia is now the world’s largest commercial producer – at approximately 40,000 tonnes of nut in shell per year, with a total global production of 100,000 tonnes. It is estimated the Australian industry is now worth over $100million annually to the national economy. In New South Wales alone there are some 468 registered macadamia orchards. Australian macadamias have developed a world-wide reputation for the finest quality, flavour and texture. The industry has finally come of age so that today we can all enjoy the best nut in the world.

Compared to other common edible nuts like almonds and cashews, macadamias are high in fat and low in protein. They have the highest amount of beneficial monounsaturated fats of any known nut. They also contain 9% protein, 9% carbohydrate, 2% dietary fibre, as well as calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, selenium, iron, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. They may reduce the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The macadamia tree is usually propagated by grafting, and does not begin to produce commercial quantities of nuts until it is 7–10 years old, but once established, may continue bearing for over 100 years. The macadamia nut has an extremely hard shell, but can be cracked using a blunt instrument, such as a hammer or rock applied with some force to the nut sitting in a concave surface, or a custom made macadamia nutcracker can be used.

Macadamias are toxic to dogs. Ingestion may result in macadamia nut toxicoses, which is marked by weakness with the inability to stand within 12 hours of ingestion. Recovery is usually within 24 hours. Macadamia nuts are also often used by law enforcement to simulate crack cocaine in drug stings. When chopped, the nuts resemble crack cocaine in colour. Macadamia nuts are often fed to Hyacinth Macaws in captivity. These large parrots are one of the few animals, aside from humans, capable of cracking and shelling the nut. The trees are also grown as ornamental plants in subtropical regions for their glossy foliage and attractive flowers.

Put Macadamias in your morning muesli or in ice-cream or biscuit dough. They just love pumpkin soup and are great crushed with breadcrumbs for a coating on fish, lamb or chicken. Throw them through salads or use instead of pine-nuts in pesto as we do in the cafe. They also make a great alternative to peanut butter.

Whew!! I guess you can tell I rrrreally love Macadamias.

Til next week, Peace and Good Eating.

Hello everyone. What an eventful week on the world stage it’s been. You would probably be forgiven for thinking that not too many people were focussed on food, however the coverage of the Royal Wedding was so comprehensive even the canapés didn’t get left out and although I’m not a Monarchist, I was interested in seeing what the chef put together for such a high profile meal – the menu included;
Cornish crab salad on lemon blini
Pressed duck terrine with fruit chutney
Roulade of goats’ cheese with caramelised walnuts
Quails eggs with celery salt
Scottish langoustines with lemon mayonnaise
Pressed confit of pork belly with crayfish and crackling
Bubble and squeak with confit shoulder of lamb
Grain mustard and honey-glazed chipolatas
Rhubarb creme brulee tartlet
Passionfruit praline
White chocolate ganache truffle
Milk chocolate praline with nuts
Dark chocolate ganache truffle

Buckingham Palace added that guests would be served Pol Roger NV Brut Reserve Champagne

It’s also Master Chef Australia season again (this week they tackled crocodile- with disappointing results) which always sparks conversion but in the Lexie’s kitchen it prompted a conversation about the many ‘celebrity chef’ programmes on television. If you find yourself hanging out for the next episode of Master Chef try these foodie shows in between to tide you over, all appear on Foxtel or can be downloaded on You Tube:-

Ace of Cakes – Revolves around the daily workings of Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, Chef Duff Goldman and his team of ‘friends’ create amazing cakes for special events.

Cake Boss – Similar to Ace of Cakes, run by Buddy Valastro, he and his team make amazing cakes as well from their shop in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Top Chef Masters – is a spin off the original Top Chef series in which ‘cheftestants’ compete in elimination challenges for a $100000 prize, in this series it pits some of America’s culinary royalty such as Rick Bayless, Susur Lee and Wylie Dufresne against one another to win money for their chosen charities.

Top  Chef :Just Desserts – Closer to the original series only this series focuses on pastry chefs.

The F Word – the series in which Gordon Ramsay doesn’t lose his cool, instead opting for a recipe driven and far more instructional show with segments on unusual ingredients and other culinary topics resulting in a more enjoyable experience for the viewer.

Let me know what you think of these mostly US shows and we’ll discuss foodie shows made on Australian shores in a future blog.

I’ve had a few people ask about the story behind Macadamias that I mentioned a few weeks back, so next week I’ll post a focus profile on Macadamias.

Hope all Mums have a great day on Sunday, Happy Mother’s Day from all the staff at Lexie’s.

Til next week, Peace and Good Eating.

Hello everyone. Our leaders – Doug and Trish are spending some much needed vacation time in Thailand at the moment. While they’re gone though, business carries on as usual at Lexie’s. I hope everyone got the chance to try out my ANZAC cookie recipe. We had a great day of trade on ANZAC Day and it was nice to see so many people out early who had attended the dawn services.

Mother Nature has been pounding the beach near Lexie’s this week with some of the biggest surf I’ve seen in the area since starting work there over two years ago.

Mother’s Day is of course coming up next week and we are fully booked. It should be a great day, unfortunately I haven’t seen any Watermelon in recent weeks good enough to make my acclaimed Vanilla-bean and Watermelon Jam that I’ve made the last two Mother’s Days for afternoon scones but we will have a good selection of tasty sweets for Mums to indulge in.

My wife is the director of a preschool and each year she attempts to get Fathers involved in a craft night to make something with their kids for Mother’s Day – well, I’m going to attempt to do the same. If you’re staying home this Mother’s Day and breakfast seems a bit early and stressful to organise, why not try this recipe with the kids for an afternoon treat Mum can enjoy. One of our wait staff raves about how good these scones are and makes them at home herself.

Lemonade Scones with Wild Rosella and Raspberry Jam

This is a quick and easy recipe and it produces really light scones that are best served hot, straight out of the oven.
325g (2 cups and 2 Tbsp) self-raising flour
170ml (2/3 cup) cold lemonade (make sure to use carbonated lemonade)
170ml (2/3 cup) thickened cream

I love these with a Wild Rosella and Raspberry jam that I make but you can buy a Rosella jam from Cole’s supermarkets that is good or use your favourite flavour jam.
Preheat oven to 225°C or 205°C if using a fan-forced oven. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Sift the flour into a large bowl. Combine lemonade and cream in a medium bowl. Add the lemonade and cream mixture to flour and gently fold ingredients together until just combined (don’t over mix the dough or you will get tough scones). The dough should be fairly soft and sticky.
Place the dough on a lightly floured bench, form it into a round and press out to about 3.5cm thickness. Cut scones using a floured 5cm diameter cutter dipping it in to flour each cut so it doesn’t stick. Form the off-cuts into another round and cut more scones until dough is all gone.
Place scones close together on the baking tray, so they are just touching. You can brush the tops with milk or eggwash if you like. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until pale golden and cooked through.
If you like your scones to have a soft crust cover them with a clean tea towel for one minute after removing from the oven. Serve with jam and double-thick cream.  Enjoy.
Makes about 12-14 scones.

I’ve now been writing this (mostly) weekly blog for a year and have had a great response from people throughout the industry and customers alike. I’d just like to say thank you for taking the time and keep the feedback coming. I think we’ve done what we set out to do – inform, excite and engage readers, so thanks.

Til next week, Peace and Good Eating.