Restaurants & Bars

vegetarian kitchen

A luscious baked dish

Diana Lampe Piments doux a la piemontaise or sweet peppers with risotto is a luscious dish of roasted peppers, arborio rice, tomatoes and cheese arranged in layers in a gratin dish and baked in the oven.

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kitchen garden

But how to use them?

Susan Parsons Before truffle hunters stomp all over surrounding slopes, we meet another group of foragers who have a seasonal passion. They are the feijoa eaters.

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in the orchard

Fruits of winter

Owen Pidgeon Time to plant onions, peas and beans

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recipe feature

A cook's life on the land

Claire Low Kate Shelton learned lessons in her remote upbringing still valuable in her new life in Queanbeyan, Claire Low writes

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feature

Activist determined to spread the good word

Larissa Nicholson There's no doubt processed food dominates our food culture, but the determination of the next generation to wrest back control of their diets give reason for hope, Larissa Nicholson reports.

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vegetarian kitchen

Tunisian black-eyed beans

Diana Lampe Black-eyed beans and silverbeet are a great combination when cooked together with onion, garlic and tomato to make a ragout or stew. This wholesome dish is popular all around the Mediterranean and in North Africa. Today's recipe is for a lightly spiced version from Tunisia. I have also given Greek and Lebanese or Syrian variations after the recipe.

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classics

Cool nights, warm dish

Debbie Skelton Again, winter hits with the subtlety of a sledgehammer and you crave something a little more substantial - this roast eggplant dish is perfect.

wine

Ruling in its own right

Chris Shanahan The King Valley has emerged as a region of exceptional variety, Chris Shanahan writes

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Quick and the well-fed

Janne Apelgren A food reviewer braves reservation rigmarole to eat at Momofuku.

in the orchard

The buzz on rare bees

Owen Pidgeon Kangaroo Island is truly a pristine and isolated environment, and as such is disease-free - important for one of the most valuable elements of any orchard, bees.

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kitchen garden

At the table with Patrick White

Susan Parsons A friend who took me to the National Library's exhibition The Life of Patrick White said, as we looked at the photo of the author when he lived at Lulworth in Sydney, ''I was born there''. We were both babies of St Luke's Hospital, which is in the same grounds.

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vegetarian kitchen

That classic family dish

Diana Lampe Macaroni cheese is a favourite dish for everyone in my family. It always makes me think of my childhood growing up on our property in Coonamble, NSW. My mother, May, made a pretty good macaroni cheese with sliced tomatoes on the top, which we loved.

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restaurant review

A Turkish delight

Catriona Jackson You will never leave this place hungry, with freshness, the welcome and big flavours all served up in generous helpings.

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beer

Search for perfect lager

Chris Shanahan The Griffith-based Casella family - makers of Yellow Tail, the biggest selling wine brand in the United States - plans to enter the Australian beer market.

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paddock to plate

So cute I could eat you up

Bryan Martin This will be of no use to you right now, but put it in your diary for next year. From May 12 to 20, it was national alpaca week, not to be confused with international day of the llama or single-hump camel month.

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recipe feature

Luxury of chestnuts

Janet Jeffs With chestnut season here, Ginger Catering chef Janet Jeffs shares recipes for this most delicious and fleeting of autumn treats

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Wine wisdom

Hard Stuff

Jane Faulkner What should I do with the last two glasses left in the bottle (besides drink them)?

King Henry's march on Paris

An Australian chef is staking his claim in the birthplace of gastronomy, writes Carli Ratcliff.

So French, so chic

A leading chef sets out to discover the essence of French cuisine — one of the treasures of the world.

A confit of confusion, with a garnish of mind games

Natalie Craig Modern menus are stuffed with crafty marketing tricks and some with their own glossaries.

Paddock to plate

In the weeds for a plan

Bryan Martin This is exactly the time, year in and year out, when food inspiration is at a low ebb for me. Summer and spring are essentially over, winter is just starting to bite and everything seems like it needs to be either made into jam or chutney or preserved in some other way. It's an industrious time post-vintage. The next crop to pick is olives, and the huge job of making salume for winter curing is in hand, but I have dealt with these topics many times, and I really should stay clear of pork and duck.

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restaurant review

Spice from the suburbs

Kirsten Lawson How did it happen, this suburbanisation of Indian food in Australia? Not only Indian, of course. The local Chinese is written into the Australian psyche as indelibly as macaroni cheese or spaghetti bolognese.

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Eat, link, be merry

Helene Hofman Connected by 'colunching', strangers meet to break bread - and the ice.

Tattoos in the kitchen

The kitchen ink: chefs reveal their bodies of work

Steve Dow Long perceived to be the mark of rock stars, bikies and other rebels, chefs now proudly sport tattoos.

Chefs' ink

Sarina Lewis Forget toques and chef's whites, the men and women manning commercial stovetops are choosing an altogether more permanent form of tribal recognition - the tattoo.

Espresso

Fitzroy favourites create global fizz

Hilary McNevin Two stars of Melbourne's bar scene, the Everleigh and Black Pearl, are among the top 50 bars on Earth. At least that's the recent verdict of the British newspaper The Sunday Times.

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Brits now proud to forage at home

Sue Bennett Renowned British chef Mark Hix opens a new restaurant in London next month with a two-dish menu: steak or chicken.

Crackle and pop

What to drink with roast pork

Riesling and roast pork is a match made in heaven, but the drinking options don't end there, says Jane Faulkner.

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In my mother's kitchen

It is a place of ritual and nourishment, where an unspoken language of love and connection is recited daily. From our mothers' kitchens come offerings both sweet and savoury, the healthy and hearty followed by sugary indulgences. On the eve of Mother's Day, five Australians conjure memories of familial bonds seared in the simplest and most profound acts of devotion.

Good Food Guide: Top 10 steaks

Natascha Mirosch A steak isn't what it used to be: From dry-aged to spice-rubbed and charcoal-grilled, here is the brisbanetimes.com.au Queensland Good Food Guide's picks of the top ten steaks in Queensland.

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restaurant review

Acrobatics from the experts

Bryan Martin A brilliant schmickly operated exotic restaurant.

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kitchen garden

Lanyon Mother's Day

Susan Parsons Planting an apple tree for Mother's Day, as a gift or a memory, is a fine idea. The orchard at the 1859 Lanyon Homestead, near a recently redeveloped herb garden,was planted with fruit trees from the 1930s to the 1970s. There are various apple trees, greengage plums, goldmine nectarines and Alberta peach trees.

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classics

For your powder puffs girl

Debbie Skelton Not only does Mother's Day provide the opportunity to lavish attention on Mum, it's also an excuse to showcase your cake-baking skills.

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country classics

The garden as your muse

Robbie Howard New cookbooks come out every week, written by celebrity chefs, or the result of a popular television show, and if I am inspired by a new recipe it always takes yet another trip to town for some ingredient.

feature

Just one Australian in top 50

Kirsten Lawson The World's 50 Best list, the most eagerly awaited announcement on the restaurant calendar, easily out-trumpeting the slower-moving Michelin Guide, this year confirmed Quay as Australia's best restaurant, while delivering a mixed message for cheffing giant Tetsuya Wakuda.

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New Grange release

Chris Shanahan Chris Shanahan checks out the latest release of super-premium wines from Penfolds

feature

Party fit for a princess

Larissa Nicholson At 88, Margaret Fulton has a new book, and her granddaughter is following in her tracks with kids' party advice, Larissa Nicholson writes.

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in the orchard

Pickle your own olives

Owen Pidgeon Pickle your own olives - it isn't difficult, but it takes patience

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paddock to plate

Ugh! It's French for on your bike

Bryan Martin I'm wondering what age you need to be to turn up at day-to-day activities and it's cool to be wearing ugg boots. Meetings, a lunch date, operating a forklift, sitting at an airport awaiting another delayed flight, or heading into a meeting room with impatient people in suits, bent over their electronic gadgets, iphones, ipads, blackberrys, with Bluetooth earpieces.

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Alfresco fiasco brews

Laneway fury as developer eyes dining strip

MIKI PERKINS Utter the words "hidden laneway" in Melbourne's CBD and you run the risk of being flattened by a herd of caffeine-imbibing hipsters wanting to set up the next pop-up shop or cafe haunt in the city's urbane heart.

Fresh and fertile earth

Bruce Palling There's a new Australian chef at Petersham Nurseries.