Ben there, done that

The Age

Tuesday January 25, 2011

A noted chef shares family favourites, writes Karen Hardy. BEN O'Donoghue says it's a fallacy that chefs' children are all little gourmands. "It's just not true," he says. "I've got three kids, and Herb, the middle one, wouldn't touch half the stuff in this latest book."The restaurateur can see the humour in it ��� much more so when it's not dinner time, perhaps ��� and is glad that his eldest, Ruby, 7, and youngest, Cash, 3, are more adventurous."There's a cured ocean trout recipe in the book and Ruby devoured a whole plate of it on the photo shoot. Cash is the same."O'Donoghue returned to Australia in 2008 after working at some of Britain's best-known restaurants, including the River Cafe (this book is dedicated to the late Rose Gray). He co-presented four seasons of Surfing the Menu with Curtis Stone, writing two books to accompany the series. He has also worked on two series of The Best in Australia, on Lifestyle Food, and contributes regularly to magazines, including delicious. Now he lives in Brisbane and has a restaurant, the South Bank Surf Club, which is going well. But dinner at home is still a priority.So has having a family changed the way he approaches cooking?"It hasn't really changed the way I look at things," he says. "At home, more often, we tend to cook two different meals. I've got a really dodgy kitchen at the moment. We bought this house two years ago when we moved back to Australia. It's a 1930s house with a 1930s kitchen, which is pretty frustrating."The family has changed his approach to leftovers."I wanted to share recipes that are everyday and family-oriented," he writes in the introduction, "while also practising something we seem to have forgotten, or do little about, these days ��� home economics. Making use of leftovers is something previous generations lived with, especially after the war and into the 1950s and '60s. We need to move away from our disposable culture."He says we need to think more about how we're using our food."For instance, you do a roast chicken, use the carcass to make a stock, you use that for a soup or a risotto. With the meat scraps, turn those into chicken rice-paper rolls."Spend the most you can afford on the base ingredient ��� be it beef, lamb or chicken ��� extend that into three days' worth of menus and you've got value for your money."He often cooks in batches."We'll do a spag bol, take a bit out, put in some extra chilli and some kidney beans and you've got chilli con carne, or we'll use some in a pie," he says.He calls it "rescue food". "You come home from something, the kids are tearing their hair out at the witching hour and you need a quick solution for dinner. Chuck it in the microwave and you've got dinner ready."But this book is much more than "rescue food".O'Donoghue says he and wife Dee still love to entertain at home and the structure of the book reflects it. While the first half focuses on everyday meals, there's a substantial chapter on dinner-party show-stoppers. He has an impressive roast rack of veal; blue swimmer crabs with XO sauce; and an aromatic duck curry he first cooked on Surfing the Menu.A few recipes have come from his love of the barbecue, and there is one that will raise a few eyebrows ��� Vegemite roast chicken. "Don't laugh," O'Donoghue says. "It tastes good ��� I dare you to try it."At Home With Ben: Great Family Food for Every Occasion, by Ben O'Donoghue, Hardie Grant, $49.95.Vegemite roast chickenINGREDIENTS1.6kg chickenFreshly ground black pepper bunch of thyme3 cloves garlic, peeled lemon2 tbsp Vegemite2 onions, halvedMETHOD��Preheat oven to 180C.��Trim excess skin and fat from thecavity and neck of the chicken. Season the cavity with pepper then stuff with the thyme, garlic and lemon.��Smear the Vegemite evenly all over the chicken.��Place the onions cut side down in a roasting tin. Pour in one cup of water and place the chicken over the onions, with the breast facing up.��Place the tin in the oven and roast for 30 minutes.��Turn the chicken, add a little water and roast for 20 minutes more.��To check if the chicken is cooked, insert a long knife into the thigh. If the juice runs clear, the chicken is ready.��Allow to rest for 15 minutes before carving.Serves 4

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