Stephen Downes

Brahimi remembers

stephend — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:59:02 +0000

Guillaume Brahimi, the Sydney chef whose new bistro has recently opened at Melbourne’s Crown casino and entertainment complex, came out to talk to guests when I dined there last week for an upcoming Herald Sun review. I’d never met him, and he turned out to be large and gentle, like many Gallic cooks. He told me [...]

Blues with bleu

stephend — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:48:45 +0000

Perhaps south Gippsland is another country. I swung through the region with la Dominique at the weekend, and discovered that its chefs have enormous problems cooking beef ‘bleu’. Lunched on Saturday at the estimable Grand Ridge Brewery in the Main Street of the tiny village of Mirboo North, high up in the Strzelecki Ranges. We began [...]

Paris on a plate (Murdoch Books 2006)

stephend — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:06:53 +0000

A ‘gastronomic’ diary of a dozen days in the French capital, Paris on a plate leans heavily on nostalgia for – and memories of – my early years living in Paris, where I worked, fell in love and got married. But underpinning these memories and observations of the street life of a great city is [...]

To Die For: 100 food experiences to have before you die (Pier 9 2005)

stephend — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:06:25 +0000

The sub-titles says it all. This book was such terrific fun to write. And so easy. I simply dredged my memory for the best things I’ve ever eaten. In a blitz of about three-quarters of an hour, I jotted down the first 70 or so. I break up the experiences into those that you must [...]

Adagio for a simple clarinet (Lothian Books 2005)

stephend — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:05:50 +0000

This is another book I very much enjoyed writing. It allowed me to experiment with a narrative style that comprised biography, autobiography, fiction, musicology, Nazi history, travelogue and time dislocations. At the story’s centre is my rediscovery of my father’s clarinet and my setting myself the goal of learning to play a short piece on [...]