Queensland’s best chefs on the recipes they cherish most

Pavlova, fried potatoes and a dish that celebrates Australia — some of Queensland’s top chefs share their most cherished recipes.

Food has the power to take us right back to a moment, remind us of someone, or something and make us feel things like nothing else can.

These Queensland chefs share the dishes they hold close to their hearts.

Alistair McLeod with his Burnt Mango Pav. Picture: supplied

ALASTAIR MCLEOD

Burnt mango meringue, custard

Food is so sentimental. To me, it’s comforting, nostalgic and evokes a sense of family.

I have personal and powerful memories of my Australian mum’s coarsely mashed comber potatoes with milk, bacon, scallions and pamphrey, and my dad’s chicken soup with a slick of salty rendered fat.

Nothing aspirational inspires me, it never has.

To cook well, you simply have to want to cook well. My kitchen – both professional and personal – is one of generosity and familiarity.

For me, food that fosters cheer, closeness and conversation will always surpass extraneous frippery on a plate.

My mum’s pavlova was a lusty affair with meringue chewy and crisp, loaded with cream and stone fruit from a tin. It was no less memorable for this.

My rendition skips slaking the meringue with cornflour and vinegar, scorches the meringue for a bitter/sweet volley, adds yoghurt to the vanilla cream for lactic liveliness and gilds the lily with a classic custard. Don’t feel wistful, get in the kitchen!

Serves 6

Alistair McLeod's Burnt Mango Pav

Ingredients

■ 3 egg whites

■ 175g caster sugar + 1 tbs

■ 150ml pure cream

■ 125g Greek yoghurt

■ 1 large Bowen mango, skinned, stoned and thinly sliced

■ Handful cherries, pitted

Custard:

■ 600ml thickened cream

■ 1 tsp vanilla paste

■ 110g caster sugar

■ 3 egg yolks

■ 1½ tbs cornflour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 110C. Whisk egg whites in a stand mixer at medium speed until soft peaks form. Add the sugar little by little, then increase speed to high and whisk for 8-10 minutes. The meringue should be glossy and stiff.

2. Place the mixture into a disposable piping bag and pipe out six large meringues on to a tray lined with baking paper.

3. Use a spoon to gently shape each meringue into a “nest”. Bake for 1-1¼ hours by which time they should be crisp on the top and bottom.

4. Turn the oven off, leave the door ajar and allow to cool completely. When ready to serve, whip cream to soft peaks with the remaining 1 tbs of sugar.

5. Add the yoghurt and continue to whisk until firm. Wave a lit blowtorch across the meringues to dramatically burn them. Be careful as they can catch alight!

6. There’s a fine line between caramelised and burnt! Spoon in yoghurt cream, adorn with fruit and accompany with cooled custard.

To make the custard:

1. Place cream and vanilla in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat.

2. Meanwhile, whisk sugar, egg yolks and cornflour in a bowl, then gradually whisk in hot cream.

3. Return to saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until thickened.

Chef Nicole Stevenson with Oma's Dutch fried potatoes. Picture: Tara Croser

NICOLE STEVENSON

Oma’s Dutch fried potatoes

This is a dish I hold very dear in my heart. My mum and my Oma have made these for as long as I can remember. Oma would make these potatoes every time we would come to visit and the scent of the potatoes bubbling away in brown butter is so distinct in my memory.

It upsets me to think that I didn’t take an interest in cooking until after my Oma had passed away. But when I’m cooking I feel we are still deeply connected through our love of food and the love we have for our family. She was an incredibly passionate woman and I’m so grateful to be instilled with that same passion.

My version of these potatoes is a tad jazzed up with garlic and chilli but they are perfectly delicious with just salt and pepper. I mean it’s potato cooked in butter, need I say more.

The simplest things in life are truly the greatest.

Serves 4 as a side dish

Chef Nicole Stevenson's sentimental dish "Oma's Dutch fried potatoes". Picture: Tara Croser.

Ingredients:

■ 500g baby washed potatoes (skins left on)

■ 4 fresh garlic cloves minced

■ 1-2 tsp chilli paste (Less or more depending on taste)

■ A good handful of chopped parsley

■ 1 tbl olive oil

■ 2 tbl butter

■ Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Depending how big your potatoes are, either cut them in half for small/medium size or quarters if they are quite large.

2. Boil the potatoes in a large saucepan with salted water until they have just started to soften – this will be around 10 minutes.

You don’t want to over-boil them but they should be firm but soft enough to squish with a fork.

3. Heat a large non-stick or well-seasoned cast iron fry pan to medium heat. Once the potatoes have boiled, strain them and add them to the fry pan.

4. Squish the potatoes lightly with a fork. This will create lots of crunchy bits! If you don’t want to go through the process of smashing them you can simply cut them into smaller cubes prior to boiling.

5. Give the potatoes a generous swig of olive oil and half of the butter and leave them undisturbed to allow them to brown.

6. Toss occasionally. To cook them through will take around 15 minutes. You want them to be golden brown.

7. Once they are golden add the chilli, garlic and remaining butter, saute for a further few minutes before adding the parsley.

8. Serve as a side with your favourite protein.

Executive Chef Massimo Speroni. Picture: supplied

MASSIMO SPERONI

Emu

As an Italian chef, I wanted to understand Australian flavours and create something that showed my love for this country. This one was it. I used under rated Australian products such as emu meat, muntries and wattleseeds. During the process of creating it, I learnt so much about this amazing country and its flavours. This dish to me is Australia, the place I call home. You will not find it anywhere else, given its flavour profile; it has a touch of sweetness and acidity, and involves a mix of modern and classic techniques such the match of game meat and dark chocolate for the bitterness. It’s Australia on a plate for me, and that makes me love this place even more. It took at least three months of work to find the perfect cooking, flavours and the right presentation. This is why it’s my legacy dish that I will teach others and my family.

Serves four.

Massimo Speroni with his Emu dish. Picture: supplied

Ingredients

Meat:

■ 600g emu fan fillet

■ 200g raw sugar + 200g table salt for the cured mix

■ 40g ground wattleseeds

Vegetable garnish:

■ 2 bunches chicory

■ 20g fresh red chilly

■ 4 cloves garlic

■ 40g muntries

■ 200ml extra virgin olive oil

Puree:

■ 250g sunflower seeds

■ 500ml milk

■ 8g green cardamom

■ 5g salt

Sauce:

■ 200ml red wine

■ 100ml sherry vinegar

■ 50g dark chocolate

■ 20g butter

■ 2g each of cloves, sechuan pepper

and salt

■ 4g each of black pepper and star anise

■ 3g cinnamon

■ ½ bunch fresh thyme

EGG SHELL

■ 100g flour

■ 50g cornflour

■ 50ml water

■ 7g blue tea

■ 2g spirulina powder

Method:

Emu fan fillet:

1. Clean the meat from veins and any white skin, cure for 30 minutes with raw sugar and salt.

2. Cook sous vide or pan-fry for 5 minutes each side and rest for at least 5 minutes.

Brush with extra virgin olive oil and ground wattleseeds.

Garnish

1. Wash chicory, separate leaf from stem, blanch the stem in boiling water for 5 minutes and the leaf for 1 minute, then chill in ice water.

2. Gently pan-fry chopped cloves and chilli in extra virgin olive oil, drain the chicory and add into the pan; add salt & pepper to taste.

3. At the end add muntries previously soaked in sherry vinegar.

Sunflower seeds puree:

1. Boil the sunflower seeds with milk, water and green cardamom for 40 minutes, place in a blender and mix till smooth.

2. Adjust with salt.

Sauce:

1. Reduce 200ml red wine to 50ml. Add 100ml sherry vinegar, cloves, star anise, black pepper, sechuan pepper and cinnamon, gently simmer till reduce to 50ml.

2. Filter and add dark chocolate and butter.

Emu shell:

Make a dough with flour, water, spirulina powder, salt. Make a thin layer with the dough and place on top a silicon egg shell to mould and bake.

Plating:

Plate up with sunflower puree as a base, place the sauteed chicory, sprinkle with baby sunflower seeds and on that place the sliced emu meat. Glaze with

a small quantity of dark chocolate sauce and cover with the emu shell.