Chef Stephanie Alexander is visiting our shores to promote an extension of her Aussie programme to help teach children about growing, harvesting and sharing food.
Growing your own vegetables can be incredibly rewarding and fascinating - especially if you're 10 years old. Capturing the attention of our children and encouraging them to understand the benefits of gardening is what motivates respected Australian chef Stephanie Alexander. The Melburnian (who opened her first restaurant back in 1964 before founding, in 1976, the now iconic Stephanie's Restaurant and The Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder) has played a pivotal role in Australia's Kitchen Garden Foundation - a programme that has seen thousands of children learn about growing, harvesting and sharing food.
Next week, Alexander arrives in Auckland to catch up with The Garden to Table Trust - a local programme developed by Dish editor Catherine Bell and modelled on the Australian programme. Since 2008, The Garden to Table Trust has established three pilot schools in Auckland - East Tamaki Primary School in Otara, Meadowbank Primary School and Peninsula Primary School in Te Atatu - and Alexander will visit these schools before taking part in two Auckland fundraisers which hope to help grow The Garden to Table Trust programme here in New Zealand.
The first event is an author's lunch at The Langham Hotel, in which Alexander will share her incredible journey as a chef and author of 11 cookbooks. She will talk in particular about her latest book, The Kitchen Garden Companion which she says "aims to offer encouragement for families at home to start growing at least some of their own food as a family, with specific advice on how to engage the interest of your children". The second fundraiser is a gala dinner at St Matthew-in-the-City with six chefs including Martin Bosley, Kate Fay, Johnny Schwass and Philip Johnson of E'cco in Brisbane each preparing a course for guests.
Here, Alexander talks to Viva about her passion for cooking and vision for the next generation.
What first got you into cooking?
Family interest and enthusiasm for cooking and eating lovely food was very inspirational. I loved watching and helping my mother in the kitchen
Describe your signature cooking style?
I have been most influenced by the cooking of France and Italy, with a smattering of techniques from China and the Middle East. But essentially when I cook I use what is in season and usually cook simply and flavour food with herbs from the garden and good extra virgin olive oil.
When you opened your Melbourne restaurant in 1976 what was the scene like?
Very different to today. There was very little fancy produce and if I wanted tarragon, salad greens other than iceberg, or green beans picked when they were quite small, I had to grow these things myself until a few special suppliers started to do this for the restaurateurs who were interested.
The Chinese market families also had lovely ingredients which enlivened our cooking, such as fresh coriander, ginger and bok choy. The post-war European migrants changed everything if you knew where to look. Suburbs such as Carlton and St Kilda offered delicatessens with pickles, interesting cheeses, olives, oils, rye breads, and so on. Fewer people travelled regularly so the understanding about good food was less. The "meat-and-three-veg" mentality persisted right through the 70s. Food media hardly existed.
Now that people travel a lot more and the food media is so powerful, it is far more difficult for a chef or restaurant to be seen as different or innovative. Trends and dishes become global in days.
The passion for "newness" dominates, and is sometimes responded to more positively than simpler good cooking, in my opinion.
How have you as a chef had to change over the years and how has it impacted your career?
I have always been interested in ingredients. I have always wanted food to taste wonderful, to look of itself (I hate tall food), and mostly it will have been inspired by some well-documented tradition.
I enjoy the idea of the multi-part meal which is not a menu degustation, rather three or four well-planned courses that complement each other, reflect the season, and together shape into a lovely meal. This meant that when I started my restaurant from the very first day, I offered a "fixed-price multi-course meal" with a minimum of choice.
What has been the highlight of your career?
I think the 21 years of Stephanie's Restaurant was a great achievement and set new standards for restaurants in Australia. The writing of The Cook's Companion has been a huge highlight and I am delighted by the positive response from the public to this book.
The lowlight?
The challenges of raising a family and running a huge restaurant was very hard.
Over the years, how has our relationship with food production changed?
Many people have lost any knowledge of or interest in how their food is produced. This has implications for their own health, the health of their families, but also for the way that food is produced. Non-sustainable and unhealthy practices can proliferate if the public unthinkingly accepts second and third-rate. And the future of our food producers is also affected.
Our parents and grandparents all grew their own food, then we moved into convenience, now there is a trend for growing your own again. Why do you think this is?
Our grandparents grew food because they needed to be economical and if they had a bit of land it was seen as the normal thing to do. In the 60s the rise of convenience food was seen as "modern" and progressive. Convenience food essentially removes any connection between having to know or be concerned about how one's food is grown or prepared. The new "trend" and interest in real food is wonderful but it should be recognised as still a minority interest. The overwhelming percentage of the population are still purchasing convenience food and patronising supermarkets rather than organic or specialised outlets.
Tell us about the Kitchen Garden Foundation. How did it come about?
My family had a vegetable garden and an orchard. Some part of every meal would have come from one or the other. I helped pick and even had a small lettuce patch myself. This is the way I was brought up to be involved in all aspects of food from growing it to cooking it, to sharing it around a table every day and look what it did for me! The SAKGF has grown from one school in 2001 to 180 schools in 2010.
What inspired you to go into schools with your message?
The reality is that many children do not receive pleasurable food education at home. All children go to school. So much can be learnt via growing and cooking and enjoying fresh, seasonal food, and the earlier the better. Children learn through positive experiences and thoroughly enjoy this programme.
What is your vision for the future?
I want to expand the number of schools in our programme in Australia. We need a National Evaluation of existing projects (to start in late 2010) to prove that this approach changes the way children eat, the way they approach fruit and vegetables. Once we have proven that this works I would hope that additional funds be made available to permit more schools to receive grants to set up similar programmes.
What in particular are you enjoying cooking at the moment?
I am picking broad beans, leeks and carrots from my garden and tonight will slow-cook just-picked artichokes with olive oil and mint and lemon, and have them with a green salad, also from the garden.
What's the best meal you've had recently?
Antipasti in Catania in Sicily in the middle of the amazing fish market. It included many things - fried tiny octopus the size of my smallest fingernail, fresh anchovies, also fried, marinated shrimp, marvellous eggplant parmigiana, a salad of marinated pumpkin, fresh mozzarella and many more delicious things.
* fundraising events being held on 28 October, go to gardentotable.org.nz
