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 food icon Christine Manfield.
FOR decades Christine Manfield’s Sydney restaurants, Paramount and Universal, set the bar for Australian fine dining, and were showcases for the chef’s lifelong love of spices and big flavours. Manfield has been an inspiration for chefs looking to find their purpose, and her nine cookbooks teach home cooks like me to be bold with spice and flavour and to try new techniques and combinations.
After so long as a restaurateur, what’s she doing now?
For starters, after closing Universal in 2013 she left the city for the beach and these days lives in Casuarina, a coastal town in the Tweed region of northern NSW.
"Everything comes to you in the city," she says, "but here, it's more about provenance. What's growing and good in your area, and what to do with it. In terms of my work, living here has made my cooking more expansive and hyper-local."
Manfield is a chef at large, a consultant, a food guide, a pop-up collaborator and, more recently, co-curator of the upcoming Savour The Tweed, a food festival focused on the farmers and makers of the fertile region. There are more than 20 events planned in the region on 30 October-3 November.
"We are punching above our weight in terms of produce, people and unique culinary offerings and Savour the Tweed is a great chance to share all of that and more,” she says. “The Tweed is one of the country's richest and most ancient food bowls. Our soil is incredibly lush, the seafood is incredible, and there are rainforests full of native ingredients all around us."
Christmas and the summer holidays are looming. A subscription to Galah magazine can help you out with both. Spend hours basking in the sun while reading the latest magazine (out early November), or get organised early and give Galah as the Christmas gift that keeps on giving to your loved ones.
Fish and chips wrapped in paper was an occasional treat when I was a youngster, something we had at the beach on family holidays and certainly not an everyday thing. So it was always associated with being at the beach – proper fresh fish locally caught, dipped in a light crunchy batter and handmade chips, not frozen from a packet. During my teenage years hanging with the surfie crowd, it was the chip butty that sustained me: salted hot chips, butter and white bread, and cheap as chips (excuse the pun). To this day, fish and chips are a thing I have at the beach. It takes me right back.
Good food is a celebration of life, and sharing food is what connects us. When I have a bunch of friends over for a lazy lunch, I love making seafood paella. I can chat as I watch the cooking, and it's done outdoors on the deck, which means minimal mess in the kitchen. Here on the coast we’re blessed with an abundance of seafood, and I choose whatever comes in with the catch: prawns, bay lobster, crab, squid, pipis and fish (flame tail snapper and nannygai are favourites). I make the sofrito base (onions, garlic, chilli, peppers and tomato cooked down slowly to make a thick paste) the day before to even out the prep time, and I always season with smoked pimiento (paprika), Aleppo pepper and saffron. Allowing the base layer to form a socarrat (crispy crust) makes a great paella; they're the bits that everyone fights over, and this won't happen if you stir the rice.
Something spicy is always central to my comfort food go-to dishes, preferably a one-pot number to make things easy. Rice dishes and curries scream comfort. One that makes a regular appearance is black pepper chicken curry; it's so nourishing and packed with zingy flavour. It’s a good dish to cook for friends who are fearful of too much spice; pepper will always win them over. Any leftovers make a wonderful addition to your lunchbox the next day; my favourite is to make a wrap with hot roti (Indian flatbread) or paratha.
I live on the beachside at Casuarina on the Tweed coast in northern NSW, in Bundjalung Country. I have an affinity for water. Before we moved here nearly five years ago, we lived in Sydney on the harbour for 32 years. Anywhere I travel in the world, it's always places by the water that attract me.
These coastal waters yield such bounty and I love cooking fish and seafood, sometimes over the firepit. Getting friendly with a good fisherman or fishmonger is always my mission wherever I am in the world.
I'm a huge fan of exploring flavour and texture while supporting ethically minded regenerative farmers and sustainable quality produce. Full-circle production, where we can close the loop in food production, is of paramount importance. I’m currently experimenting with dairy capretto – baby goat weaned from a milk diet – from Meredith Dairy, makers of Australia's premium goat cheese. Male kids are not required to produce milk, so this is the perfect solution for the farm without incurring waste and providing another source of revenue. The meat is juicy, tender and lean and can be substituted in any lamb recipe. I slow-braise the leg on the bone to make a rich Rajasthani-style curry, or take the meat off the bone after cooking and mix it with garlic mushrooms and warrigal greens to make a pie filling. I mince the shoulder meat to make spicy koftas to cook on the barbecue and make a saltbush pepper rub for the rib racks to oven roast. The meat lends itself to such a broad flavour spectrum. If you use meat in your diet, this gives you a viable and affordable alternative and supports small business at the same time. It's a win-win.
A busy restaurant kitchen is a very different mood from being at home. I’m not a fan of music in the kitchen before or during service – it's too distracting. At home, it's a totally different ambience, so I like to tune into soul or indie music playlists by the likes of G Flip, Missy Higgins, or Sia.
Both, but both have to be excellent: locally roasted single-origin coffee and Darjeeling tea.
A pavlova will always win me over, I love that combination of pillow-soft meringue with cream and fruit.
A refreshing gin and tonic.
Egg-white omelette with herbs and chilli.
Serves 4
4 x 180 g chicken marylands (thigh and leg joints)
1 tablespoon ginger and garlic paste (or 1 tsp grated garlic and 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped)
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
100 ml vegetable oil
2 brown onions, peeled and sliced lengthwise
½ cup onion puree (peel and roughly chop one white onion then blitz with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil)
150 ml water
2 tablespoons finely shredded ginger
4 tablespoons coriander leaves, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons fried shallot slices
Cut each maryland into two joints to yield four thigh and four leg pieces.
In a small bowl, mix the ginger and garlic paste, salt, lemon juice, turmeric, coriander, chilli and half the pepper. Rub into the chicken, cover and set aside to marinate in the fridge for two hours.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the remaining black pepper and the onion and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the onions have softened and are starting to colour. Reduce heat slightly, stir in the onion puree and cook for a further 10 minutes or until onion is softened and browned. Increase heat to medium-high, add the chicken with its marinade and cook for 5 minutes, then add the water and simmer (the water is to stop the masala base from burning). Turn the chicken halfway through, for 15-20 minutes or until chicken is just cooked through. Check seasoning and add a little extra salt if necessary. Transfer to serving dish and garnish with shredded ginger, coriander leaves and fried shallots.
From Christine Manfield’s Indian Cooking Class (Simon & Schuster Australia, 2021).
See you all next month for the next installment of Yes, Chef! In the meantime, you can find tickets to Manfield's Savour the Tweed food festival here.
Over and out,
Sophie
