Christine Manfield - Fire
Christine Manfield is one of Sydney's most formidable chefs. Her new book is Fire: A World of Flavour.
Penguin, $99.95
Christine Manfield is one of Sydney's most formidable chefs. She's written a pile of cookbooks and opened more restaurants than we’ve had hot dinners, including her latest success, Universal. Her new book is Fire: A World of Flavour.
What drove you to write this?
I spend so much of my time travelling and for me it's such an inherent, important relationship – how do you separate them? You don't travel without eating and you certainly shouldn't travel without experiencing new types of food. I got into food because of travel. That's when I jumped the fence and started cooking in kitchens – my eyes opened up to the whole world. I'm never satisfied with my own little patch – it's all just a journey and each chapter of the book is bound up in my own anecdotes of what I look for and the experiences I've had. It's trying to get off that predictable eating track and never going below the surface – you’ve really got to dig deep and encourage people to do the same.
A lot of people just buy cookbooks for the pictures.
Yeah, and you can do that. You can be a vicarious traveller. There are travel stories, pictures and suggestions about particular places so it's equally that too. It's about getting people to think about food but also getting them to think about it in a certain context. It's a continual growth of my work and hopefully that's how it's reflected. When you look at all the books you can hopefully see the progression I've made from my first restaurant to the place I currently am.
The recipes in your books have a lot of steps.
Well, I try to break to break it down into things that are no-brainers and dead simple to things that are 'why bother, just come to the restaurant.' It gives people a much greater appreciation behind what looks so deceptively simple on the plate in the restaurant. I guess because I work in all these layers in terms of flavour and texture, the structure dictates the way I set out my recipes.
Could you take one element from a recipe and choose your own adventure?
Yes. Totally. Absolutely. And that's what I tend to do – you take one component and bang, you’ve made an amazing salad for lunch. I think it's really important to encourage people and not be so prescriptive. This is why I break these down into components.
See Chris cook recipes from Fire then try them yourself at the Sydney Seafood School on 6 Dec. Book soon – her classes are like hot cakes. Sydney Fish Market, Pyrmont
Universal Restaurant, Darlinghurst
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