I love nothing more than to be invited back to Freestyle Escape, for yet another one of their fabulous cooking classes, this time under the witty tutelage of Matt Wilkinson, one of the owners of Pope Joan a pretty chic cafe in East Brunswick, Melbourne.
Days don’t come much more fun; Matt is quite the quipster and managed to take any austere seriousness and morph it into fun times indeed – as work of creating dining masterpieces should be.
Matt is passionate about fresh regionally produced, seasonal produce, so he automatically had my favour, and he spent the proceeding days, scouring the coast for supplies for his class – that’s dedication. It is one thing to be a ‘locally produced’ advocate in your hometown, but quite another to make the effort away from home.
The morning always starts with muffins and a forage in the ‘escape’s’ rambling kitchen garden. The foraging basket returned a collection of lovely fresh, ripe tomatoes, nasturtiums and herbs. My timing is immaculate it would seem as I arrived just as the sparkling was being poured and the final touches were being put on the dishes by a dedicated and attentive little team of foodies.
The menu for the day was:
Fresh Tomato Stew
Piquillo Pepper, Chorizo and Mango Salad with Rare Seared Tuna
Fresh Corn Salad, Prawns, Jalapeño Pepper, Red Onion and Crème Fraiche
Creamed Rice Pudding with Freestyle’s Raspberry Sorbet
Matt’s version of Panzanella – Tomatoes, Fromage Blanc, Basil and Migras Bread
Baked and Stuffed Peppers with Almonds, Pumpkin Seeds, Cous Cous and Currants
Soft Parmesan Polenta with Spanner Crab
As always the lunch came together seamlessly.
The stand out dish was the soft parmesan polenta with spanner crab, which was nothing short of sensational, and while everything was delicious, I particularly liked the prawns as well which were cooked ‘confit’ style in oil… ahhh, sweet memories.
Rosés courtesy of Bree Boskov from De Bortoli were an exception match on this beautiful spring day.
So yet another enjoyable day was had by all, looking forward to some of the upcoming classes – they are going to be amazing. Some of the special guest chefs at Freestyle Escape to look out for are:
Peter Wolfe – Cedar Creek Farm
Jamie Milverton – Jamie’s Gourmet
Tania Hubbard – Husk & Honey – author Gluten Free Grain Free – Food we Love
Martin Boetz – Longrain
Matt Golinski – The Rolling Dolmade
Dominique Rizzo – author Italian Feast
Jacques Reymond – Cuisine du Temps
Richard Cotton – Brewbakers
…as well as some amazing others yet to be confirmed. For more information about Freestyle escape and their cooking classes, visit http://www.freestyleescape.com.au/
This post was written by Petra Frieser – Local Harvest
Author: Local Harvest
About the Author: Local Harvest
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