Abstract Gourmet

How good was it ? It was awesome. So many coffee people in one room, sharing tips and tricks and blends and beers. I was massively proud to be amongst so many people from such diverse backgrounds, all getting into the spirit of things.

We had coffees sent from all over the country, including some fantastic beans from Eureka. We had Black Sheep and Blue Horse, and beans from every coffee producing continent on earth (well I think we did anyway).

There were people from cafe’s all over the city, as well as a good turn out from local roasters. Five Senses and Fiori were well represented and had brought out a stack of great single origins to try. Standouts for me were the Mao’s Blue Horse Ethiopian Harrar from Fiori, and a Sumatran from Gayo Mountain by Five Senses.

There was an impromptu cupping which gave the a bit of background to story of the coffees and the processes they’ve gone through before ending up in our cups, and then the latte art smackdown took centre stage.

The competition was fierce… almost as fierce as the sledging from the gallery. There were some great pours, some not so great pours, and some mind boggling 3 dimensional pours… in the end, the man with the skills to pull it off was none other than Jackson of Tiger, Tiger. Who took home a fine swag of booty courtesy of the nice folks at Sunbeam.

The jam was also a swan song of sorts for Jen Murray, our current barista champ here in Perth, who will be heading over to Canada for a while shortly, leaving the Perth coffee scene much less cooler than when she arrived. Much love to Jen on her travels, and well done for putting together such a sweet sweet event all on the whimsical prompting of yours truly :)

Check out the photos and see what you missed out on if you were too cool to show up :)

                                                       

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You’ve seen it here, you’ve seen it on Cafe Grendel. You’ve seen it in cafe’s… It’s spoken about in hushed whispers in coffee shops and espresso bars all throughout the city… all the cool kids are totally coming along (isn’t that right Mooba?) that’s right… it’s the Barista Jam !

This coming Sunday… this very weekend, the first proper barista jam will be going down at the WA Barista Academy in Northbridge. It’s a chance for everyone either in or on the fringes (peering gleefully over the shoulder) of the Perth coffee scene. You are all invited, regardless of your preference for coffee machine, roaster, grinder, tamper, fair trade, direct trade, share trade… you get the picture. Leave the ego at the door (mine fits in a custom designed warehouse), and enjoy some great coffees, food, beers, and have a crack at taking away some prizes in a winner takes all latte art smackdown !

Be there or be L7.

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The post that needed to be written, and the actual reason I went to Melbourne in the first place (because unfortunately noone will pay me to eat for a living yet). The finals of the Australian Barista Championships.

There has been much said about the competition this year, and the overall standard of the competitors. I was fortunate enough to be able to judge the competitors in the Open Heats, which were run before the Australian Barista Competition finals. The Open Heats are basically the last chance for any barista who hadn’t made it through the state heats to get into the final.

The competitors were all very strong, with Con Haralambopolous coming out on top despite running over time and having to redo the shots for his cappucinos. Which was an outstanding performance.

During the finals I basically tried to keep out of everyone elses way, whilst doing a bit of running, table setup, and then taking photos of competitors from as close a vantage point as I could. It was a day of very tough competition. I personally could not pick who was going to win, even after having observed each person from up close. The level of technical competence and slick performance from each barista was quite overwhelming.

Of course my personal favourite and all round local hero was Jen Murray of W.A. Jen Put in perhaps one of the best performances I’ve seen her give (and I’ve seen this routine many times), pulling out some fantastic looking shots, as well as a stellar signature drink, which was good enough for her to take out third place ! She also got my vote for most awesome soundtrack, which was the Somersault soundtrack by Decoder Ring…very cool.

Second place in the finals was the ever consistent Con Haralambopolous from the Open Heats. Con is what I’d call the quiet achiever in the scene. He’s a down to earth guy who just does his thing in a truly honest way. His routine was much smoother than the heats, and he was always going to be a contender with an interesting molecular gastronomy take with a coffee soil in his signature drink.

The winner this year, was David Makin. David’s routine was slick and polished, and although I couldn’t see a lot of difference performance-wise between him and the other competitors, the results in the cup clearly indicated there was a big one, with an over 100 point difference between him and the rest of the field. He also finished in 14 minutes, a full one minute under the allotted competition time, which is normally unheard of. He’ll go on to Copenhagen later this year to compete in the world finals.

The other big event of the finals was Australian Coffee Cupping Championships, which I had another crack at, after a promising result in the Perth heats, getting 6 out of 8 cups and being pipped by one.
The finals were another story altogether though, with some seriously tough triangle tests to deal with.
One competitor in the early rounds scored 0 out of 8, which made me feel a little sick.

I managed to hit 4 out of 8 in my heat though, finishing in a mostly respectable 3 and a half minutes. The winner of the heats though, was the lovely Emily Oak, who hit 6 out of 8 to take them out.

So on to the finals and Perth girl Catherine Ferrari, taking on local fave Toshi from St Ali, and Emily Oak. It was a fierce comp and Catherine was on fire. Taking out 6 out of 8 cups to win the day, and become the Australian Coffee Cupping Champion. A fantastic result for Catherine and her very proud mum who had come over to watch the competition with her.

                                                                                           

And so after some sustained partying and a few too many drinks, the greater coffee loving community of Australia slinked back to their respective cities to rest their weary heads after a weekend where too much coffee was barely enough.

Cheers to all the great people I met over the course of the weekend. Nim, Luca, Emily, Emma, Aaron, Syd (and your awesome photos), Mel, Bruno, and all the other judges and helpers who did such a fine job.

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Perth Baristi - Come on down !

Jen Murray from the WA Barista Academy is organising a Barista Jam ! What’s a Barista Jam you ask ? I don’t really know, but there will be coffee, and beer, and music, and competitions, and prizes. It’s going to be held at WABA (135 Lake st, Northbridge) on Sunday the 8th of June, running from midday til whenever people decide to leave…

Baristas, Roasters, and anyone with a nose for good coffee are invited to come along and bring their grinder and beans, to share the love and see what kind of shots other people are pulling. There’ll also be a few impromptu competitions over the course of the afternoon (with some prizes being donated), such as a latte art smackdown, and a few other things.

The idea is that anyone and everyone with a love of quality coffee is invited (regardless of who you work for or what coffee you use) to come down and meet up with others in the scene and talk coffee (while drinking beer), without having to serve any customers :)

So if that sounds like you then book it into the calendar now ! Jen says that if you want to bring a grinder along (and you should !) then give her a call on 9328 7675 or an email at jennifer@baristaacademy.com.au

It would be really great to get everyone there. We’ve been in touch with Barista Magazine too, and I’ll be taking some shots from the day which will hopefully make it into the next edition.

More details are they come to hand !

** Update with prizes !
Sunbeam have kindly donated the following prizes for the day:

EM6910 Machine
EM0480 Grinder
Bang Bang Knock Box

If you haven’t marked this one in your calendar… do it now. And the more grinders people can bring along the better… Get on it baristas !

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So I’ve finally decompressed and mostly decaffeinated myself from a heavy weekend of espresso based activity at the W.A Barista Championships for 2008. And what a weekend it was. A myriad of competitors (well, 18 of them anyway), all of excellent quality, were vying for the title of W.A Barista Champion, and I’m proud to (secondarily) announce the winner was Jen Murray of the W.A Barista Academy.

Jen’s performance was fantastic and polished. Her style relaxed and natural, her technique rock solid, and most importantly, her coffees tasted fantastic. Jen works as trainer for 5 Senses, and you can tell the time spent correcting other peoples mistakes definitely pays off. Perhaps one of the issues many baristas face when coming into these competitions is that it’s not just standing behind a machine and making coffees. It’s communicating and connecting with the audience and judges to convey that you know what you’re doing and why. Jen’s consummate ease in explaining what she’s doing, at the same time as doing it, set her up for a well deserved win.

Runner up this year was Vanessa Moore of Epic Espresso. Vanessa consistently performs well in these competitions and was always going to be at the top of the field. The consummate ease in the way she goes about her work and her dedication to the job will serve her well when she competes in the Open Heats before the Finals in Melbourne later on in May. She also took out the latte art throwdown (!) (or was it a smackdown) with a seriously symmetrical rosetta.

So then onto the fun end of the day. After the final competitor of the barista competition, and a steady lineup of hopefuls wanting to take out the latte art crown, it was up for the final event of the day. The W.A Cupping Championships. Cupping is of course not what you think it is (if I know my readers), but is the method by which roasters and coffee tasters break down the flavour profile of coffees by grinding them relatively coarsely, adding water, and slurping and smelling the coffee to work it all out.

The idea behind the competition then, is to have 8 sets of 3 cups. Two of the cups have the same kind of coffee in them, the third has a different one. The fastest person to correctly identify the most number of odd cups from each set, wins. Now I’ve cupped coffees before. Not on any great scale or length though. I’ve been to cupping sessions at roasters and cafes, and done a little at home when I was back in my home roasting days. So I figured, what the hell… I’ll give it a shot.

                 

Mc Grendel did an excellent job of building the drama, as he went down the line and announced whether each cup was a “Yes” or a “No”, and despite my attempts to look relaxed, I was getting the shakes (though that might have been to the 20 or so coffees I’d had to judge earlier). So to cut a not very long story even shorter, it came down to a final group of competitors. The score to beat was 4 out of 8 cups correct. I took my time, slurped, swirled, drew in long questioning breaths, and made my choices.

MC Grendel then went down the line and lifted the cups… “No”, “Yes, “Yes”, “Yes”, “Yes”… wait for it… “Yes” !, “No” :(, “Yes” ! 6 out of 8 in total. I was pretty happy with that, mostly because i’d just been judging baristas for the past two days and assessing how their coffees tasted, so if I had no palate of my own to rely on, it’d be only fair to question what the hell I was doing there.

So I thought I had it, but you can never think too soon. Catherine Ferrari of European Foods and Brazilliano was right next to me, and as another barista competition judge, wanted to make sure she did well. Which of course she did. Finishing well before me, and eventually coming through with 7 out of 8 cups correct. It was an excellent performance, and testament to her skills that even after two days of coffee tasting, she could pull up the win.

After all was said and done, and we’d been through the score sheets with the baristas to make sure they each get some good feedback from the event, and hopefully feel encouraged enough to try again next year (which they should ! the standard just keeps on getting better and better), it was off home to relax, rejuvenate, and not drink another coffee for a looong time (well the next morning anyway).

Special thanks for the event must go to Ben Bicknell, whose tireless efforts at pulling the whole thing together almost single handedly do not go unnoticed. Also Rob Forsythe for being a font of knowledge and a great help to all the judges. To Nicki and Azza Kindred for winging their way over from Tassie to help out, and to all the other judges and helpers, and time keepers. It’s people like these that make events like this one happen, and continue to grow the coffee scene in Perth.

Bring on next year :) and go Jen Murray for Australian Barista Champ 2008 !

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The W.A Barista Competition for 2008 is on again. This year being held in the Perth Town Hall in conjunction with the City of Perth good food month. It’s been an excellent event so far, we’ve just completed the first day of competition with 12 competitors putting their skills on display.

This year is a bit different for me however, because I’ve gotten involved in the judging side of things. A bit daunting personally, but definitely an excellent experience so far. I was a little unsure of how I’d go, but after passing through a full sensory evaluation test quite well, and getting a lot of good practice seeing how the marks are given and the competition run, I’m quite happy with how things have turned out.

There is a lot of responsibility on the judges to be fair and reasoned in their assessment of each of the competitors performances, but the score sheets are fortunately (for us) quite specific on how we need to mark for each component.

From a judging point of view, I obviously can’t give anything away just yet, but I can say that the quality of competition has been great so far. We’ve seen some very polished performances, some excellent espresso, deliciously creamy cappuccinos, and beautiful and inventive signature drinks.

The competition continues tomorrow (Sunday 16th March) with a final 6 competitors ready to go before the overall barista champion for W.A is crowned, and sent over to represent us in the National competition in Melbourne later in the year (and hopefully the world championship in Copenhagen, Denmark too).

             

Following the barista competition will be a latte art smackdown (!). Basically a free for all competition where anyone with some latte art skills can pit themselves against all comers for milk based barista street cred.

The final event of the day will be the Australian Coffee Cupping Competition. Basically a fun competition in which a competitor has to pick the odd one out of a 8 sets of 3 coffees. The coffees are prepared in a filter style, and a competitor has to taste them all to determine which one isn’t the same as the others. The winner is whoever finishes first and gets the most right.

I’m going to have a crack at the cupping competition, only because I’m slightly buoyed by my sensory skills test, and although I’d have no chance dealing with the intensity of the barista championship, figure I can at least be coordinated enough to get a spoon full of coffee from the cup to my mouth.

If you’re at all into coffee, and want to check out the great things happening in the Perth coffee scene, I’d definitely encourage you to come down and check out the exciting finale of the competition. Perth Town Hall at the corner of Barrack and Hay St.

Now if I can just stop jittering for a while and get some sleep tonight I might just make it through tomorrow :)

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Pauline Nguyen is a remarkable woman. A refugee, runaway, restaurateur, and now a writer. If you’ve yet to come across her book “Secrets of the Red Lantern”, then stop reading my drivel now and go find a copy. It’s an inspiring and emotional story of Pauline’s family history and the importance and significance of food to help overcome issues of displacement and as a form of healing to sooth the pain of isolation.

Woven throughout the beautiful fabric of the book, are most wonderful recipes for dishes that should inspire even the most stingy of cooks to embrace the freshness and herb loving decadence that is Vietnamese food.

Pauline of course runs Red Lantern restaurant in Surrey Hills (that’s Sydney sorry folks), with her partner Mark Jensen and brother Luke who look after the kitchen, and introduce and explain the recipes for the book.

Sharon and I were lucky enough to meet Pauline during the Perth Writers Festival, and even luckier to share a meal at a local Vietnamese restaurant with her. Carefully observing and absorbing as much as we could to gain as much valuable insight into what makes great Vietnamese food, or more importantly, what makes bad Vietnamese food.

From what I can gather, it’s all about freshness of ingredients, abundance of flavours, and an intermingling of textures. Many dishes are packed full of fresh herbs, with tangy dipping sauces, and a mixture of textures at all stages of the crunch spectrum.

My first few efforts at making things from the book have been interesting… There were some severely dodgy looking rice paper spring rolls, and my nuoc cham is gradually becoming quite decent. I’m yet to get into vegetable pickling, but that can’t be far off either.

My one of instant favourites however has been the simple yet very satisfying Bun Bo Xao (I looked for the special characters and couldn’t find them).

It’s a simple dish made by stir frying thinly sliced beef marinated in fish sauce, with some lemon grass and onion, and serving it over the top of a rice vermicelli salad, with lots of fresh mint and perilla (if you can find it). Then a good splashing of nuoc cham over the top, and you’ve got an excellent all purpose dish for a quick lunch or lazy dinner.

Thanks must go to Pauline for her inspiring book, and for just being a genuinely cool person to hang out with :)

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Perth is a funny little town. One minute you’re sitting in a restaurant enjoying some excellent cheese and wine with some friends, and the next you’re chatting to one of the worlds premier food bloggers.

Such was my experience last Wednesday night.

Our dear friends Alex and Linda had invited us to join them at Must Wine Bar, to once and for all time farewell the wonderful Kervella goats cheese (pictured above on the left), which is no longer being produced. Russell Blaikie, head chef at Must, has been an avid supporter of Gabrielle Kervella and her goats since the early days, and saw it only fit to farewell them in style with a week long expose of special dishes featuring the cheeses.

Now I was aware that Clotilde was coming to Perth. I (along with a hundred or so other people) had given her a few recommendations of places to try and things to do. But I should have known that the beauty of Perth being a big country town would come to the fore once again.

Sitting in the restaurant enjoying a fresh goats cheese souffle and a shallot tart tatin with Kervellas famous ‘rondolet’, musing as to whether or not I liked the glass of Marsanne I’d ordered, I turned around and who should be sitting at the table next to us, but the one and only Clotilde.

So after some umm’ing and ahh’ing reminiscent of a pimply teenager plucking up the courage to ask a date to the school ball, I went over and introduced myself. Of course I needn’t have been nervous, Clotilde was perfectly lovely and accommodating. We chatted a little about the meal and her first taste of sparkling Shiraz (which I think was well received). Then made plans to have dinner later next week.

So then on Friday the first events of the Perth Writers Festival were held. Clotilde spoke of life and food in Paris and pursuing your writing dreams, along side Carmen Michael, a writer from Sydney who jumped ship and lived in Rio de Janeiro for 4 years. A great talk and very inspiring to anyone thinking of packing in their day jobs and living the romantic life of a wandering writer.

After the talk I got the chance to get Clotilde to sign her book for me, and attend another session with Lucy Malouf and Stephen Downes about food writing in general, chaired by the magnanimous Verity James. Then it was lunch time. I took the liberty of offering to show Clotilde a little of the city, and she graciously accepted. So off we went down to Fremantle and the effortless cool that is Little Creatures.

       

Now this place really deserves a post on it’s own. The high ceiling industrial setting of the brewery, mixed with the long bar, funky wait staff, and fantastic beer and food, sets this place apart from the majority of Perth pubs as far as I’m concerned. Clotilde was keen to try some local seafood and of course kangaroo, so we jumped straight into the ordering. Kangaroo skewers with bush tomato chutney, prosciutto wrapped prawns, a spinach, avocado and gruyere salad, and a serve of chilli mussels. Washed down with a pint of Pipsqueak cider. An ambitious amount of food according to our waitress, who asked if we were ‘wagging’ work or something, which I had to explain to Clotilde was Australia’s favourite passtime :)

Little did she know that she was dealing with not one, but two determined food bloggers. One who can quote the entire menu by heart, and the other who has a lot of catching up to do in a new country. So a few short minutes later, and nothing but a sad bowl of chilli sauce with no bread left, it was all over. All seemed to go down well, and then it was off to the next spot.

Ice cream and sorbet at Il Gelato in Fremantle, and then a trek back to the city for a coffee at Tiger, Tiger. Getting back just in time to drop Clotilde at one of the afternoon writers festival sessions, while I snuck back to work for a few hours.

I can’t think of many nicer ways to spend your afternoon. In the company of lovely, down to earth people, who love food, and are happy to explore the finer points of this often overlooked city :)

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A belated happy Chinese New Year to everyone ! We spent a good couple of weeks eating and drinking our way through relatives, and friends places (not necessarily because of CNY mind you… but it seemed appropriate to mention it anyway), and tossing a few lucky noodles. I am also happy to announce my biggest ever haul from generous quasi relatives via the wonderful “ang pow”. If I’d known the benefits I would have become Chinese a long time ago :)

The only mildly official event we went to was the traditional lion dance ceremony, held in Chinatown’s the world over. The photos below were taken at Singapore Chinese Restaurant in Northbridge, where we had our ear drums ruptured by fire crackers and watched a performance by a local kung fu school, whilst partaking in a very decent Shaoxing Drunken Chicken, Salt and Pepper Squid, Red Hot (!) Sichuan Beef, and Red Braised Pork Belly.

       

Bring on the Rat ! (and try the red pork belly)

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Just as a matter of interest for some of my Perth based readers. There is an photographic exhibition starting soon that I will be a part of. So if you’d like to own your own little slice of my photography, feel free to come down and check it out. No pie throwing allowed ! :)

Heartlands Exhibition
Photographers in Perth
Kurb Gallery - 310 William St, Northbridge

December 2nd - 7th
1pm - 6pm Sunday - Friday

Since getting a bit more seriously into photography of late (though not exactly food photography), I’ve been getting a lot out of meeting up with other local photographers who are all part of the Photographers in Perth group on Flickr. It’s through the proactive nature and organisation skills of the members of this group that this and other exhibitions have been created to give the collection of talented (but otherwise unknown) photographers a chance to exhibit their work.

This event is also a part of the wider Byte Me Festival, running for the first week of December.

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