Simon Bryant — a.k.a The Chef to Maggie Beer’s Cook on ABC’s successful TV series — has just compared me to a punk rocker and I kinda like it.
We’ve been talking about the rise of food blogging and food bloggers in general. Unlike some high-profile chefs, Simon is a big fan.
“I love you guys. You’re out there, writing about food, photographing it. You guys are like the punk rockers of today.”
Come again?
“Well, in the 60s and 70s, musicians that couldn’t get a look-in from the major labels just went ahead and put out their own albums. They didn’t wait for permission. They just went ahead and did it. Same thing happened with publishing. You don’t have to wait around for a (record or book) deal anymore – you can just do your own thing.”
He’s right, although I’ve never thought of it like this before.
I mention that there are certain circles who are a bit snobby about food bloggers and the fact that many lack formal qualifications.
“To say you have to be qualified to be a good cook or writer or photographer is ridiculous,” Simon scoffs. “Maggie Beer isn’t trained yet she could cook most of us under the table. And look at bloggers like What Katie Ate (Katie Quinn Davies’ blog). She does fantastic work.”
I’m glad Simon is so keen on food bloggers because he’s going to be speaking to a whole bunch of them — 80 in total — at the upcoming 3rd Australian Food Bloggers Conference that I am helping to organise. Simon is going to be talking about restaurants that use local and seasonal produce, the implications and what reviewers should consider when writing up their meal.
It’s a subject he knows a lot about as Simon was Executive Chef at the Hilton Adelaide for 10 years. Now, post The Cook and The Chef, he wears any number of hats, acting as patron or ambassador for various good causes (including Animal Welfare League SA, Animals Asia Foundation and the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market’s ‘Kids Club’) and working as a consulting chef, recipe developer and freelance writer. He also contributes a column to SA’s food magazine, Sumptuous).
Simon has been a champion for local and seasonal food and sustainability for the longest time. It’s a passion that has led him to set up his new company, Dirty Inc, which sells kabuli chickpeas, red nugget lentils, red nipper lentils and Tasmanian wakame (seaweed).
So how did it all come about, Simon?
“By accident,” he laughs. “Chefs often get access to unusual products that the public can’t buy. I came across these producers selling amazing, unusual chickpeas and lentils for export and I wanted to use them so I asked them what was the minimum amount that I would have to buy.”
And from such a casual question a new company was born.
If you haven’t already twigged, Simon is incredibly down-to earth and warm-hearted. His food – captured so beautifully in his new cookbook, Vegies — is the same, honest and unpretentious. It looks incredible, yes, but it looks like food you want to eat, not admire. Photographer Alan Benson has done a superb job, as has the design team.
I’ve made Simon’s Pickled Cabbage and Soybean Stir-Fry twice now — see the top of this post — and I love it. It’s such a simple dish but so breathtakingly good. In Adelaide, it’s known as a BBC – Beancurd, soyBeans and Cabbage – and is on the menu of many of our popular Gouger Street restaurants.
So how did the cookbook happen, Simon?
“It was Maggie Beer,” he says. “She’d been telling me for ages that I should write a cookbook but I just hadn’t got started. So one day she comes over, pulls out the laptop and sits me down to write it.”
How lucky Simon is to have such a great friend in his life.
Later, the talk turns to vegetables and I ask Simon — a long-time vegetarian — how to get my two kids to eat more vegies.
“Kids like eating food that they’ve grown,” he says. “Get them growing some vegies and they’ll eat them.”
He’s right. My kids love eating vegies picked from my parent’s garden or fruit picked directly from the tree or plant when we go fruit picking.
Simon Bryant has inspired me yet again. And I – and my kids – will eat better for it.
Vegies (Penguin/Lantern) is currently available at all good book stores.
Win Vegies by Simon Bryant!
Thanks to Simon and Penguin/Lantern, I have one (1) copy of Vegies to give away.
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