David Moyle

The Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, with its mixture of established hardwood trees and tree fern undergrowth, resembles in parts Jurassic Park. Subtropical vines flesh out the mid-canopy in our big scrub that once dominated the region. The …

I have lately spent a lot of my time in cafes pushing single viola flowers off poached eggs and choking on dried petals in my smoothies. The trend that started with nasturtium flowers has run deep into anything non-toxic. Flowers in food – or rather, …

When it comes to the snack department it’s fairly common to serve them on crackers or croutons. Think parfait or cheese or the classic kabana and pickled onion. While this is classic for a reason it tends to render the vessel as just that. Or step …

Avocados have a history far beyond being mashed on toast. I was recently schooled in the varieties and applications at an avocado orchard connected to Tintenbar Distillery by the owner Rob Walsh, who is a distiller and farmer. Tasting the difference in …

A good meringue is cooking sorcery. To those who have watched a soufflé go from a fluffy success in the oven to a deflated plate of sadness when served, I offer my sympathy. To achieve perfection in cooking, we sometimes need to cheat. The addition of …

I have made many a pilgrimage along the coast of Australia in my search for my ideal fish and chips. This quest has led me to small town bakeries and iconic beachside chippers with offerings that rarely vary from venue to venue. On the coast of Tasmania, …

I have always had such a preconceived notion as to what constitutes breakfast. In fact, this applies to most of my meals. Salad for dinner was certainly not on my radar, and the concept of a breakfast that didn’t include some toast or milk seemed completely …

In the northern rivers district of New South Wales at this time of year, ash regularly falls from the sky. It’s the result of burning sugarcane – a crop that is fairly prolific in this area but perhaps not as much as it used to be. Burning sugarcane …

I’m not sure if it’s a seasonal thing, but last week I ate five meals of tinned sardines. Ten years ago I would not have viewed this as decadent, but the quality of some of the seafood conservas coming out of Spain and Portugal in particular is staggering. …

Black truffles, or Tuber melanosporum, are kicking. The first frosts have hit our truffle-producing regions, promoting maturity in the subterranean fungi. While prices are intimidating – per kilogram they can cost many thousands of dollars …

The debate over combining fruit with savoury dishes can become almost as passionate as that concerning religion. It’s all in or not at all. Like pineapple on pizza – the idea can be met with disgust or delight in equal measure. But – shock, horror …

Having fled the latest Melbourne lockdown, I am lucky enough to be in a place where seasonality is less of an issue when buying fresh produce. What is readily available only during spring in the southern climes is now ripe for the picking in the subtropical …

Cabbage is hardly the sexiest ingredient. But I am finding real joy in celebrating the staples. The likes of potatoes and cabbages all deserve their time to shine and take centrestage for even a fleeting moment. Like anything, the key is in the ingredient …

Making pasta is commonly associated with machinery and complex home set-ups, but it is possible to make pasta purely by hand. Small rolling pins or specific hand-shaping tools will allow for the myriad shapes and styles to add to your repertoire. With …

Pot-au-feu in France, bollito misto in Italy. This “peasant” hotpot of cheaper cuts is an absolute staple in many European households. It’s a bit of a contradiction of a dish, as at no point in the process does it show any semblance of the absolute …

I’m making a huge assumption but, due to last year’s Covid-19 lockdowns, I figure most people now have access to a sourdough starter/mother. If you don’t have your own, I recommend sweet-talking a friend into lending you some of theirs and building …

One of the best things I ate in a time before Covid-19 was a pepper pickled by a guy named Pete. Pete took some peppers at their peak (although I can’t be sure if Pete picked those particular peppers), passed them through a wood-fired oven and popped …

Texture in salad is key. For me, the point of these kinds of salads is to lift the rest of the dishes served in a set by providing freshness. And the key to freshness is that hydrating crunch. On paper, this list of ingredients sounds at odds, but the …

It may seem ludicrous to serve an entire crayfish tail for a home meal given the history of the premium price. But we are in strange times that have unintended benefits for consumers. Crayfish, along with several other products, have been effectively …

Stone fruit generally arrives at the beginning of summer, whereas in a shaded corner, at altitude, in a southern orchard, those last remnants of ripe fruit can appear as late as the beginning of autumn. Previously, I have written about how fickle truly …

The “three sisters” – corn, beans and squash – are the key crops of a method of companion planting first used by indigenous North Americans. All grow symbiotically and are harvested at a similar time to provide fresh produce or larder goods when …

It can be daunting, no doubt. The thought of working with offal generally means liver parfait is limited to being a deli purchase. But this simple recipe has been my saviour in many situations where I’ve needed a handheld or picnic-style snack. When …

At the moment, many home veggie gardeners are experiencing a glut of zucchinis, squash and other vining vegetables. Even just one or two plants can produce a massive quantity. Fortunately most will be picked as flowers or as young and tender fruit, and …

I know it is significantly easier to use a curry paste from a jar, and no doubt some shop-bought products are excellent. But with food processors and a fairly ready availability of fresh base ingredients, it’s hard to beat a paste made fresh. A good …

Asparagus is a vegetable indelibly linked to gourmet French cuisine. It was the fancy dish in a sauce of I don’t know what. A celebratory vegetable course that communicated the chef’s pedigree. My first picking of asparagus highlighted how little …

Fungi are a fascinating food product. In recent years some incredible varieties have begun flooding the Australian market, but even so we are really only skimming the surface of their potential. We have gone from just using generic button or field mushrooms …

The ubiquitous tiramisu turns up on so many menus. You’ll find it everywhere from dinner parties to street-side Italian(ish) cafes. I’ve seen it with strawberries, or set with gelatine into fancy freestanding shapes, then topped with flourishes to …

Escabeche is a versatile method/dish that can apply to fish, meat, vegetables and even leafy greens. The origins of escabeche cross many borders, with it found in Latin American cuisine and also in African dishes. This version is less an escabeche and …

Pretty much every coastal country town has a fish and chip shop, and more often than not one is indistinguishable from another – they were all built around the same time, are often painted blue or feature blue signage in a familiar script, and have …

This recipe is all about the pistachio spice mix. For as pleasant as it is to enjoy this orange salad, the kicker is that you now have excess spice mix that can be kept in a sealed jar for months. It works equally well on your morning porridge as it does …

I can pinpoint one particular moment when my perspective on food changed. It involved a conversation in the media driven by a prominent food writer regarding the “value” of bone marrow and the concept of charging money for what is seen as a waste …

Where exactly does an omelette sit in meal classification? It is just as appropriate to serve one for breakfast as it is for dinner. It also makes a great brunch, lunch or late supper. Perhaps, then, that makes an omelette the perfect go-to meal – at …

Vegemite occupies a very specific place in the Australian culinary landscape – and has done for quite some time. It is synonymous with the whitest of bread and buttery toast and very little else. But it’s time for Vegemite to step out of the shadows …

We have passed through the winter solstice and with the promise of longer periods of sunlight comes the vision of verdant spring greens and new life. The reality is that we are smack bang in the time of cool soil, where what grows beneath it is what gets …

Beef mince holds a certain nostalgia for me. And I’m sure I’m not alone when I say it fuelled a considerable percentage of family meals growing up. Creative use of mince was the pillar of home economics and sometimes a subtle pathway into other food …

Sadly, most bananas at this time of year are destined for a morning smoothie. Or if they’ve been forgotten for a few days or frozen for a few months, they might turn up as the hero ingredient in one of the most-represented dishes of the Covid-19 lockdown: …

For as long as I can remember, Sunday is the only day of the week that provides me with some semblance of a routine. And one constant is a weekly food shop that almost always involves buying a whole chicken. Taking the time to prepare a whole chicken …

Talking about the preparation of large pelagic fish such as this southern bluefin tuna is intimidating for two reasons. First, because Japanese culture and cuisine goes to reverential lengths to honour the beauty of this fish. Second, because bluefin …

As a younger chef, I’d go to enormous lengths to ensure a dish’s authenticity. I would spend hours researching and drilling for extra information on certain cuisines and their origins, fearful of inadvertently falling into the trap of cultural appropriation. …

Remoulade is a go-to dish regularly pulled from my bag of tricks. It sits somewhere between a dressing and a salad and can hold so many variations. Beetroot remoulade, sorrel remoulade, kohlrabi remoulade, and on it goes. The parameters are effectively …

Summer is over. But we can still enjoy the last of the fruits we associate with the season and, hopefully along with them, a few more warm, sunny days. End-of-season and tree-ripened fruit that have had a longer “hang time”, perhaps in cooler climates, …

The inside of a cow’s stomach looks a lot like a swimming cap. Sometimes it is measured in “caps” in markets – as in, “Two caps of tripe, please.” This continues our odd use of language when referencing meat products. If I put on a dish of …

I’ve always loved cooking with dried beans. Somewhat maligned as boring and bland, they are a staple in my pantry. And while some people consider them just a filler or a vehicle for sauce and other flavours, I like to occasionally give them a turn as …

Whitebait is the immature species of several small schooling fish caught almost exclusively with a cast net. The demand for these little baitfish has never been high in Australia, unlike in New Zealand, where they are a popular menu item. Depending on …

I first learnt of the process prawns go through after harvest from a fishmonger at Bay Seafood Market in Byron Bay. Freckle, as he is affectionately known, is one of the most transparent people in the industry and revealed that, once caught, prawns are …

Summer is in its prime and the juicy foods are abundant. Berries, stone fruit, zucchinis and cucumbers all have a relatively high moisture content and sweetness at this time of year. A great way to showcase this is to use the juice from the fruit or vegetable …

For me, baking is about the pursuit of an approachable loaf. In the food industry, conversations may revolve around which sourdough has the highest hydration, yet 99.5 per cent of the population are consuming a heavily processed product, the origins of …

Cooked and seasoned vegetables left to cool to room temperature are so pleasing to eat. I find the flavour and complexity comes through more than when the vegetables are eaten raw, and it is much easier to tell the differences in how the produce is grown …

Learning to cook with less sugar is something of a contradiction to this recipe. By subbing out refined sugars with greater quantities of the same product in a more raw form, any potential benefits are lost. However, this recipe hinges on licorice. Despite …

Falafel have been a mystery to me for most of my adult life. The fluffy little fried balls of goodness were something I purchased for such a long time without ever querying how they were produced. The most common version of falafel uses dried chickpeas …

Since beginning to write this column I have gone to great lengths to ensure the dishes featured showcase ingredients that are in peak season. Given our environmental forecast of warming conditions, and in the name of adaptability, I give you an early …

During the early stages of colonisation in Australia and the United States, oysters were viewed as more than just an appetiser – they were one of the most readily available sources of protein for those situated near the ocean or saltwater estuaries. …

Sometimes things fit together perfectly. Pipis are my favourite ingredient and collecting them is my favourite pastime. Every time I head back to my family home on the south-west coast of Victoria I make time to “shuffle” for pipis. On an outgoing …

Jerusalem artichokes are certainly not the most glamorous of vegetables. This tuber sits way down the pecking order, along with the turnip, mostly as a result of a particular side effect from its consumption. There is absolutely no denying Jerusalem …

They used to be the vegetable of children’s nightmares, and probably still are. But the once-hated brussels sprout has become elevated of late. It’s from the same family as kale, and I can see it becoming similarly popular. Whereas kale got cool from …

There is an art to the multi-dish meal. In my formative experiences of Australian food culture we hadn’t yet embraced the multiple room-temperature dishes and condiments that can make up a meal on tables around the world. Here, we tend to focus on a …

Despite containing only five ingredients, a good mont blanc has fantastic depth of flavour and is one of my favourite winter desserts. Named for the famous mountain, which straddles the border between Italy and France, the dessert is also claimed by both …

I don’t think I’d be able to count the number of fish I’ve cooked in my life. But no matter how many, I still really enjoy it. And even though cooking fish in a bag is arguably the most simple and commonly practised method, it does deliver the hits. When …

This year the New South Wales government announced it will spend $9 million on a deer control program delivered by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Methods used will include trapping and baiting along with aerial culling. All of which allow very …

It was a slow start to Victoria’s wild mushroom season this year. Very little rainfall early in autumn means we haven’t seen large quantities of the two wild mushroom varieties that are prolific along the fringes of pine plantations. Pine mushroom …

Persimmon is a relatively difficult fruit to use fresh. The Western palate prefers it, with its fairly savoury and vegetal flavour, “blet”. Bletting is the process of letting the fruit overripen and ferment in its own skin, therefore transforming …

Delicate steamed savoury egg custard (chawanmushi) is a common start to a meal in Japan. It is generally served as part of a set with rice, broth, pickles and grilled meats. It’s a huge contrast to my early culinary experiences with custard. As a young …

Traditional Cullen skink is a Gaelic mariners’ dish served more as a soup than a bake, and using haddock as opposed to a smoked river fish. These humble ingredients form a decadent dish. I recently served a version of Cullen skink at a dinner celebrating …

Over the years, I have witnessed some heinous treatment of abalone to try to make it tender. From rocks to meat mincers, it all seems fairly mediaeval. Personally, I find a little bit of “bite” – a more flattering description of tough – pleasing. …

Poor old turkey. The bird has been the packhorse of nondescript protein for generations. But years of genetic selection for maximum return and fast growth has rendered the turkey of the wild into what is more akin to a cephalopod. Debeaked and with breasts …

Flowers are commonly used the world over in cooking and not just for their aesthetic beauty. Lavender, rose, chrysanthemum, dandelion, borage and marigold have been used to give aroma to sweet and savoury dishes and have also played a major role in medicine. Borage …

As a youngster, I always had an aversion to rockmelon, or cantaloupe as we call it in Tasmania and Victoria. To my younger nose, it had a pungent odour, akin to old socks. It wasn’t until I travelled to Japan, where melons are coveted and a single one …

Greater knowledge and understanding of food production has definitely influenced people’s dietary decisions in the past few years. But even so, when it comes to thinking about how certain foods are produced and the effects that has on our bodies and …

What is more fitting for summer lunch on an island continent than fresh seafood? Because my chef brother-in-law is also a keen diver, our family meals are often brimming with whole fish, abalone, clams and crayfish. How lucky are we? The beauty of working …

I recently spent my weekend collecting and cooking shellfish in the pristine waters of southern Tasmania. It’s a pastime I really enjoy. Collecting shellfish provides a strong connection with nature and requires observation and an understanding of …

My yardstick for a refreshing drink is whether you would drink it while playing tennis. Even though tennis is a game I haven’t played since I was 16, the courtside drink that comes to mind always contained some smashed fruit with a high water content. …

In south-west Victoria, where I grew up, there is evidence of this country’s early forms of aquaculture practised on Gunditjmara land in the form of elaborate eel traps and runs believed to have been developed up to 8000 years ago. This sight has since …

In cooking, sometimes convenience is key. I now focus about 25 per cent of my time in the kitchen on building a larder of fermented, dried and smoked goods that add depth of flavour in varying forms of acid and salt. The result yields a benefit not only …

Possibly the best part of a broad bean is the leaf. But most often it is simply discarded, as usually the plant is grown purely for the bean to be picked at the height of ripeness and served fresh. I love cooking with everything the plant throws at me …

Radishes have a great capacity to work across several applications, from accompanying raw fish dishes to being used in salads to being roasted with meat cuts. But the aspect I like best is the mustard element that runs through them all. Japanese radish …

“Even milk has seasonality. Developments in agriculture that have seen variation diminish can be seen in both a positive and negative light. However, the difference in a milk from a spring pasture should be celebrated. Ricotta is a very, very simple thing …”

“I was lucky enough to recently find myself on an immense cattle station in the Gulf of Carpentaria with a group of friends. We camped, fished, hunted and gathered among the broad biodiversity that existed on the property. As it was the end of the wet …”

“The window in which to pick artichokes is very short. They go from being young, tender and a joy to prepare to a stringy and tough time-waster, which makes absolute sense considering they are a thistle. This recipe is based on a French preparation – …”

“I treat sea urchins as you would an oyster. One or two portions at the beginning of a meal is one of the best ways to begin an evening. The warm buttered toast is a lovely complement.”

“Talk of nettles and most folk flinch, recalling run-ins in fields with shorts. The thought of eating or even harvesting them isn’t exactly met with exuberance. Like most things involving gardening, it draws an analogy with life, as I was once taught …”

“When buying quinces, a few imperfections are a good sign that the fruit has experienced fewer chemicals and industrialised processes. Quinces, like apples, because of their varieties, have a fairly long season. By the time you work from the top of Victoria …”

“When done with consideration, cooking can be a great way to show the oyster’s flavour. In winter, especially, oysters tend to have more of a muscle, and rock oysters can be treated almost like clams to show this off. This recipe uses smoked oysters …”

“Cooking mackerel is a commitment. I cook them over coals using a Japanese technique, grilling with the dry heat above charcoal rather than through contact with the flame. You cook only on one side, through a wire rack. When the meat turns opaque two-thirds …”

“Keeping vegetables whole and intact for as long as you can yields similar benefits to meat on the bone, but for me cooking in a self-sealing dome of salt – or clay and hay – is the pinnacle. In this recipe I serve the celeriac with mustard cream and …”

“The pipi is defined by a triangular shell and is found in the shallows of estuaries and beach sand flats. Pipis are very accessible to gather and for the next level of funk, we bring in the periwinkle. This dish is a bit of a celebration of all things …”

“I have never been a fruit guy, but my girlfriend is a fruit bat – we have a fig tree in the backyard and she’s out there every morning. Now I really appreciate eating a fig that is ripened straight from the tree, which has never come in contact with …”

“This eggplant is a pretty classic Middle Eastern dish, similar to a baba ganoush. The eggplant picks up and holds the flavour of the smoke, while the skin protects it. This technique ends up both smoking and steaming the eggplant.”

“This dish came out of trying to think of new things to do with squid. My kitchens have always been intentionally limited by equipment. This technique came out of trying to use the protein as a carb. Slicing the squid like a noodle also opened up how it …”