How to cook with fire + get your hands dirty - with Lennox Hastie
08/16/21 • 36 min
Hello and welcome back to Dish, I’m your host Kate Gibbs. You can find me, my recipes and more of these episodes on my website kategibbs.com
Australia has a difficult relationship with fire - it has ravaged our landscape in recent years, destroying homes and lives, and yet it is a principal means by which we connect with each other food. The humble barbecue is one of our favourite pastimes, and while we’ve mastered the techniques in recent years, no longer blackening steaks into dried inedibles as we once did, it’s rare to find an Australian home without a barbecue in the backyard or balcony.
My guest today is the master of barbecue, and fire. Lennox Hastie starred in an entire episode of the celebrated Netflix documentary Chef’s Table earlier this year and his restaurant Firedoor in Sydney’s Surry Hills has (outside lockdown) a waiting list of up to eight months for a table.
Fire has taken centre stage throughout Lennox’s career - he moved from his English hometown in West Sussex to Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe, pintxos bars in Spain and an apprenticeship of sorts at the fire-powered restaurant, Asador Etxebarri.
But he’s here to talk to us about how we can use fire, and why we should. He tells us his tips for cooking over fire, why the quality of ingredients matter, and even explains how to do a no-frills, DIY outdoor barbecue at home. He talks about the important and practicalities of involving children in cooking, and how he helps his own son connect with the food he eats.
We talk using smoke and wood and flames, and why now is the best time to cook outside, at least in Australia, before the real heat of summer arrives. He gives us some of his favourite recipes for home, and how he does dinner at home. This is a practical but also insightful conversation about how we can eat now, how to reconnect with the food and create a community despite lockdowns and physical separation.
I hope you enjoy this episode with Lennox Hastie. Here he is.
Episode links:
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello and welcome back to Dish, I’m your host Kate Gibbs. You can find me, my recipes and more of these episodes on my website kategibbs.com
Australia has a difficult relationship with fire - it has ravaged our landscape in recent years, destroying homes and lives, and yet it is a principal means by which we connect with each other food. The humble barbecue is one of our favourite pastimes, and while we’ve mastered the techniques in recent years, no longer blackening steaks into dried inedibles as we once did, it’s rare to find an Australian home without a barbecue in the backyard or balcony.
My guest today is the master of barbecue, and fire. Lennox Hastie starred in an entire episode of the celebrated Netflix documentary Chef’s Table earlier this year and his restaurant Firedoor in Sydney’s Surry Hills has (outside lockdown) a waiting list of up to eight months for a table.
Fire has taken centre stage throughout Lennox’s career - he moved from his English hometown in West Sussex to Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe, pintxos bars in Spain and an apprenticeship of sorts at the fire-powered restaurant, Asador Etxebarri.
But he’s here to talk to us about how we can use fire, and why we should. He tells us his tips for cooking over fire, why the quality of ingredients matter, and even explains how to do a no-frills, DIY outdoor barbecue at home. He talks about the important and practicalities of involving children in cooking, and how he helps his own son connect with the food he eats.
We talk using smoke and wood and flames, and why now is the best time to cook outside, at least in Australia, before the real heat of summer arrives. He gives us some of his favourite recipes for home, and how he does dinner at home. This is a practical but also insightful conversation about how we can eat now, how to reconnect with the food and create a community despite lockdowns and physical separation.
I hope you enjoy this episode with Lennox Hastie. Here he is.
Episode links:
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Previous Episode
Benjamin Law on hunger + how to pimp instant ramen
Hello and welcome back to Dish, I’m your host Kate Gibbs. This is episode eleven. This is a kind of prepping-you-for-the-next-season episode as it was recorded as borders were closing in Queensland amid Covid and what is strange listening to it is how very little things have changed - even with vaccinations on the way now. This is Benjamin Law - author, writer, host of Radio National’s Stop Everything - on the show today. He talks about racing through the border to get to his family and trying to have family meals while actually physically separated.
You probably know Benjamin as that really bright commentator on pop culture, race, sexuality, and now I have him talking about food. He espouses instant ramen - especially pimped - tray bakes as well as eating out, and details his tips to failsafe hosting. He covers congee as well as corn flakes, and his “zero fuck meals”.
We talk hunger. Benjamin appeared on the SBS show Filthy Rich and Homeless and he reveals what that was really like and how it has changed the way he eats. This son of a restaurateur talks about physical hunger but also our innate hunger for warmth and security, what it’s like to live precariously, hand to mouth, and the shock and trauma of that.
I hope you enjoy this episode with Benjamin Law. Here he is.
Episode links:
NY Times recipe for spaghetti with breadcrumbs and anchovies
Every week Benjamin is on Radio National hosting the pop culture show Stop Everything.
He writes the back page of Good Weekend every week.
Edited the anthology Growing up Queer (2019)
Website - benjamin-law.com
Instagram - @mrbenjaminlaw
Twitter - @mrbenjaminlaw
Benjamin Law is also the author of The Family Law (2010), Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East (2012), the Quarterly Essay Moral Panic 101 (2017) and editor of Growing Up Queer in Australia (2019). Benjamin created and co-wrote three seasons of the award-winning SBS TV series The Family Law, based on his memoir, and wrote the sold-out mainstage play Torch the Place for Melbourne Theatre Company (2020)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Next Episode
Justine Schofield - how to slow cook like an everyday gourmet
Hello! I cannot wait for you to hear this episode. This is episode thirteen of Dish with Kate Gibbs, a cooking podcast set in increasingly sunny but still in lockdown Sydney. Today Justine Schofield, an original Masterchef contestant and long-running host of the show Everyday Gourmet, joins me on the show.
After you’ve listened to this episode, check in to my instagram account @kategibbs to win one of three copies of Justine’s new book The Slow Cook!
Justine is also a friend, who I’ve not seen for too long thanks to a certain global pandemic. Today we talk about slow cooking, how we do potatoes and pulses and how to turn unlovely cuts of meat into something magical through slow cooking. Justine loves food even as much as I do - you can hear us swooning over certain dishes, planning what to cook next. If you’ve never been excited or tempted by slow cooking before, you will be today. And if you need a boost, or help, check into my Instagram account to go in the draw to win a copy of The Slow Cook!
Justine is one of Australia’s greatest advocates for home cooking - her energy both on and off the screen for cooking real, whole food is invigorating. She’s bright, generous, and one of the best cooks around. Enjoy.
Episode links:
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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