Welcome to Yes, Chef! A monthly newsletter in which food writer Sophie Hansen shines a light on our regional chefs. This week she talks with cook and gardener Nat Taylor.
Milk HAUS is a special eatery in a special part of the world. In the bright green hinterland of Milton, on the NSW south coast, it's a converted cheese factory surrounded by dairy farms and home to the vegetable garden of my dreams. The food here has always been interesting, tasty, and driven by said garden. And these days—under the care of co-owner, head cook, and head gardener Nat Taylor—Milk HAUS is firing.
My family has been holidaying at Mollymook beach every January for a decade or so, breaking up the hot, dusty summer of the central west with a week of sparkling blue south-coast water. For breakfasts, lunches, cakes and coffees we drive 10 minutes inland from the beach, through the ’burbs and impossibly green farmland, to Milk HAUS, tucked under Pigeon House Mountain. During the drought years, it was hard to believe that so much green still existed and gardens like this were still thriving.
Nat and her partner, Kitty, took on Milk HAUS in 2020, leaving behind lives and careers in Sydney for the coast. Before this sea change, Nat had spent 25 years in print communications and was the patron and ambassador of Women in Print. Oh, and she's also a former Australian wakeboard champion.
Now, Nat’s days are dedicated to growing good food and sharing it in the most interesting, delicious way possible. Most of her produce is sourced within metres of the kitchen, and whatever they don't grow they buy locally. Let's hear what she's cooking, loving and thinking about these days … Yes, Chef!
Sophie xx
Nat Taylor in her Milk HAUS garden in Milton, NSW. Photograph by Ola Moszumanska.
My mum was a fantastic, wholesome cook, and barbecue was a big part of my childhood. We travelled a lot, waterskiing on the Hawkesbury each weekend in summer, so open-fire barbecues and salads were a big part of cooking and gathering with friends and family. We also spent a lot of time here on the south coast. My grandparents lived at Narrawallee Beach, and we would spend every summer here. I loved it and still do. We would go fishing (a lot), and so we'd eat seafood (a lot). Flathead was the catch in the local inlet, and we'd have it barbecued with fresh herbs, charred vegetables, and some local salad leaves. That was home for us. It's still home for me.
Living by the sea, it's fresh seafood all the way. Either direct from the wharf co-op, or maybe one of our friends has caught some cray off one of our amazing beach coves. When this happens (lucky us!) I'll make a salsa verde from our home-kitchen garden, roast up some rosemary garlic potatoes in the oven, harvest some salad leaves, and toss them with our Milk HAUS lemon dressing. I'll cook the crays on my charcoal barbecue with garlic herb butter. Kitty and I will have this with a cold bottle of crisp riesling. Perfection.
Harissa-roasted eggplant with herb lentils—it's so wholesome. The lentil salad is amazing, but the real hero is the eggplant. I just love how versatile this vegetable can be: either on an open flame making smoky baba ghanoush (which we do every summer here with a lamb shoulder) or roasted with some seasoning. It's so comforting and complex. We make our own HAUS harissa, but store-bought is also fine.
Home for me is at our venue, Milk HAUS. The south coast is such a beautiful place, with amazing beaches and mountains, and the food scene around our area is honestly first-class. Milk HAUS is in a converted 1900s cheese factory perched on a hill surrounded by kitchen gardens; think rolling green hills, dairy cows and chickens. It's as dreamy as it sounds. Our food ethos is a seasonal menu, grown on site, cooked from the heart and with hospitality like you're dining in our home. The kitchen garden is the showcase for our diners; we encourage them to walk around it so they see where their meal is coming from each season, and nothing is better than to harvest what you need each day, so the freshness sings through our food. We have a retail store out the back in the barn, and this is also home to Motion Ceramics and soon-to-be FRED Flowers, which is opening in spring.
We also have a cooking school and beautiful farmhouse accommodation for that perfect Milk HAUS experience. I am lucky to be the head gardener and cook, so I’m continually in and out of the garden and kitchen, always on the go and planning ahead, harvesting, and executing the menu. Coming from 25 years in corporate and big city life, it's so amazing to do this every day, and I am so glad we made the leap of faith to get into hospitality and learn a new craft. It’s hard work but so rewarding when you get it right.
Being winter, it's all about the leek. I grow so much of it, and it's such an underrated vegetable. I use leeks as the base for a lot of soups. They're the star of one of my favourite dishes, currently on the menu as a lunch entree. Pulled fresh from the garden and cleaned up, I will char it, then slowly braise in the oven with thyme, lemon, white wine and vegetable stock. Once cooled, it's plated on a bed of stracciatella, drizzled with a mustard base vinaigrette, parsley oil, fresh dill, pangrattato and rye crostini. It just dances on your palate, and the leek is the hero, which is how it should be.
We do have a banger we turn to before opening or closing service when packing down. If you're on Spotify, search for Mums drunk in the kitchen cooking dinner. Another go-to is MILK HAUS #2, a combo of classics and ’50s originals.
Coffee all the way, and I'm a double shot, flat white on soy gal. I'm the first to arrive each morning, so my ritual is coffee straight up. Then, I'll open up the chicken pen, light the fire, and get into the garden for harvesting and prep. Once our barista arrives, it's a second cup straight away before we open for service. Third cup when all guns are blazing mid morning. Not after midday, though—unless it's an espresso martini, of course.
It's our signature lemon rosemary sourdough cake. We use all the leftover sourdough from service, lemons from our trees, and rosemary from the garden. It's made with olive oil so it's really moist and just so delicious. We serve it with spiced yoghurt.
Margarita all the way. I love all things citrus and tequila. I'm also a huge fan of our local Old Salt Distillery gin and I’m partial to a good tonic with lemon peel before we open a bottle of wine. I actually love it all. But who doesn't, right?
I love eggs, and nothing beats freshly laid from our chickens. I will make a ribboned egg with fresh chives or parsley from the garden and fry up some kale or spinach with garlic. We cook a lot of focaccia here, so I usually take some leftovers home on our day off and grill up a piece of that, too.
Harissa adds a perfect warmth to the eggplant as the temperatures drop—we make our own, but it's easy to buy at any good grocer. I hope you love the dish as much as we do.
3 eggplants, halved lengthways and flesh scored
1 tablespoon harissa
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons lemon zest
Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
1 cup (210 g) Puy lentils
2 cups (500 ml) water
1 cup flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 cup coriander, roughly chopped
1 cup mint, roughly chopped
¼ cup currants or pomegranate arils
1 cup (260 g) Greek yoghurt
Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt, for seasoning
¼ cup (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
¼ cup (60 ml) lemon juice
To make the dressing, place the oil, vinegar, pomegranate molasses and lemon juice in a bowl, whisk to combine and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 190°C. Place the eggplant, cut-side up, on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Place the harissa, garlic, pomegranate molasses and lemon rind in a bowl and combine. Spoon over the eggplant, drizzle with the olive oil and roast for 30 min until tender. In the last 5 min of cooking, brush on more harissa to caramelise the eggplant.
Place the lentils and water in a small saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover with a tight-fitting lid and simmer for 20 min or until just tender. Drain and refresh under cold running water.
Place the lentils, parsley, coriander, mint and currants in a large bowl. Toss with the dressing just before serving.
Mix the yoghurt with the lemon juice, olive oil, and salt for the yoghurt. Stir to combine, and taste for seasoning.
Place eggplant halves on a plate and top with a good spoon of the lentil salad. Top with the lemon yoghurt and an extra spoonful of harissa. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and a touch more lemon zest.
