When Sean Connolly looks back at his childhood, he counts his grandmother, Esther (after whom the Auckland restaurant he heads is named), as a key food influence for him. With Mother’s Day on the horizon, Connolly and his team have created a special Mother’s Day menu to help celebrate our heroines - and this traditional treacle pudding gets star billing for dessert.
What does Sunday look like in your kitchen?
Eating crispy bacon and letting the whole house fill with the smoky aromas; three short blacks; two cups of earl gray in a teacup, preferably never a mug; buying flowers for the kitchen; reading a newspaper - I love the tactile nature and the ceremony of flicking through the weekend papers; listening to an old vinyl on my 1969 record player; going for a walk with the lads, talking rubbish and jumping in the ocean; pulling out my 1989 Jag XJS and hand-washing and polishing it; and lastly, Sunday dinner. My kids come to visit - I choose special bottles of wine, tell bad dad jokes and get ridiculed by my children. There’s nothing that makes me happier than watching a conversation explode with the kids’ opinions, I learn so much.
Why have you chosen this recipe?
Mother’s Day is coming, and I wanted to remember my mother’s mother. My parents were very hard-working. I’d finish school before they got home, so I’d go around and hang with my grandparents, Esther and Ted.
