The West Australian: February 2012

Photo: Supplied

A Bridge to Good Health

I have been given a message for Michelle Bridges from the Perth Crew – “Pretty please can we have a finale party in Perth?”. I have no clue what this means, but Michelle laughs when I relay it.

“Oh my God! Those girls are relentless,” she cackles.

“They’re just hilarious. They’ll get to me any which way they can. It’s coming. Not immediately, but it is coming. It’s been tabled, and it’s definitely on its way.”

Such is Bridges’ phenomenal popularity that she is revered by fitness fanatics around the country: fans who are devoted to her online fitness program ‘Twelve Week Body Transformation’, netting her around one thousand devotees and over 30,000 Twitter followers. The Perth Crew is one such group, who would rather not travel to Sydney to celebrate the end of three months of hard work.

So what’s it like, having this kind of adulation?

“I guess I don’t really think of it like that,” she says.

“I more think of it as having a really, really, really big family. And like family, they’re on your back telling you what they want! But it’s fun too.”

These days, the name Michelle Bridges is synonymous with so many healthy words – diet, fitness, exercise, weight-loss. The personal trainer from Newcastle blasted into public prominence in 2006 on series one of Channel Ten’s ‘The Biggest Loser’, and her star’s been on the ascent ever since. But things weren’t always that way for the amicable fitness guru.

“My Mum was a single mum with two kids and a full-time job, so she had her hands full,” says Michelle.

“But she was very organised in the house. Sometimes she’d get up at 6am and start chopping vegetables to prepare, say, a casserole for us after school. We didn’t have a lot of money, so there’s no way we could afford to be getting take-out. People who talk themselves into the belief that eating take-out is cheaper, well, it just isn’t.

“We all have our ups and downs and there have been plenty along the way for me. Exercise is my rock, and whenever the shit has hit the fan or when there’s been drama, I turn to training as my therapy. I walk into a training session with all sorts of issues going on in my head – I’m upset or angry or anxious - and I come out and, while the problem certainly hasn’t gone away, my perspective on it has definitely changed. My philosophy is never to be dwelling on the history and baggage of it but to move forward. Let it go and move on.

And like mother like daughter, being organised and having a plan seems to have stood Michelle in good stead.

“When I was fifteen years old, I used to lay in bed at night dreaming about running workshops and courses on health and fitness and teaching classes. I went down the local squash court and they paid me to teach classes there. I had no idea what I was doing but it was fun. I freely admit I’m a very ambitious person and I challenge myself all the time. When I first saw ‘The Biggest Loser’ show I thought ‘Oh my God, I want that job. And I reckon I can do it even better’”.

Michelle Bridges fifth book ‘The No Excuses Cookbook’ by Viking is out now, RRP $29.95.

The West Australian: December 2011

Photo: Stuart Scott

Making His Marque

From working on the mines of Western Australia to becoming one of the most feted and sought-after chefs in the country, Marque restaurant’s Mark Best has come a long way, baby.

Best was in Perth recently to promote his new cookbook ‘Marque: A Culinary Adventure’, where he took time out from his schedule for a chat about gold, submarines and grief. The book, his first, is a collaborative effort with Marque’s head chef of seven years, Pasi Petanen.

“I like writing,” says Best.

“I’ve written pieces and submitted articles for Gourmet Traveller and I’ve enjoyed the process of being interviewed over the years. So to actually sit down and put it into a cohesive and interesting package was a real process. You understand that chatting like we are now is very different to putting things into words, and writing 6,000-7,000 words is quite difficult. But once I got into it I actually found it a cathartic process. As I mention in the book, my sister was killed when she was seventeen. Long time ago now, but there were memories such as these that came up which made writing a very, very emotional experience. You have to really analyse things, and I loved that part of it.”

Marque has always been a favourite with the critics, and in recent years it has won a slew of accolades, including Gourmet Traveller’s Restaurant of the Year 2012 and listing 70^th in S Pellegrino’s World’s 100 Best Restaurants, arguably making Marque one of Australia’s most illustrious and important restaurants. And after twelve years in the game, it was high time to put pen to paper.

“I think it was about building up a body of work that you could write about,” says Best.

“In 2010 I was really gagging to write a book, but it took Hardie Grant (the book’s publisher) to have the balls to say ‘just do whatever you want and we’ll provide the resources’. Before that, everyone wanted to change what we wanted to do, to dumb down the recipes or make them home-style recipes, which I didn’t want to do. To say a keen home cook can make the recipes when it takes seven of us days to produce a recipe is silly. So the recipes are quantified as working recipes from Marque restaurant, and you can take what you want out of that. People will be able to glean lots from it, particularly about the process of cooking at Marque.”

Things weren’t always so rosy for the self-confessed late-bloomer. Back in the 80s Best was not a particularly happy camper. After re-locating West with his family from the lush farming fields of Murray Bridge in South Australia to the somewhat harsher climes of Norseman, he began the hard slog as an electrical apprentice on the North-West gold mines.

“Sparkies are considered the intellectual trade,” says Best with a wry laugh.

“Working on the mines was hard graft back then, and it was a very basic apprentice wage. I remember spending most of my wage at the pub every fortnight because that’s what everybody else did.”

With feet itching, Best moved to Sydney to re-fit submarines on Cockatoo Island for the Australian military. But still something was amiss, and it was during a stint working at a friend’s restaurant at the ripe age of twenty-five that Best finally found his calling.

“It really struck a chord with me,” he says.

“I mean, people see me as some sort of life-change guru, but it was reasonably haphazard with a bit of design. I sort of got pushed towards cooking and found I had an aptitude for it. And I loved the whole French thing.”

By this stage Best had already met his future wife Valerie and a whirlwind romance ensued. The pair decided to make a go of hospitality and opened a modern French eatery. But despite the restaurant enjoying early critical success, Best felt frustrated by his lack of culinary knowledge and went to work in France. He worked at the legendary ‘L’Arpége’ in Paris, followed by a stint at ‘Le Manoir Aux Quatre Saisons’ in the UK. On his return he and Valerie opened Marque, and the rest is hospitality folklore.

“We are coming into our thirteenth year at Marque now,” says Best.

“And the difference from when we first opened is like night and day. At first you’re your own boss with immature talent, so you start emulating your heroes and gradually, if you’re lucky, you are able to start to define your own style and create a language with what you do. I think we hit our straps in 2004-05 – that was when things started happening. We started to win accolades and we were able to get more staff and became busier. There was a momentum, and we were able to create something unique.”

‘Marque: A Culinary Adventure’ by Hardie Grant is available bookstores now, RRP$79.95.

Marque Restaurant is at 4/5 355 Crown Street, Surry Hills in Sydney.

Mark Best’s new eatery, Pei Modern, will open in Melbourne in February 2012.

The West Australian: October 2011

Photo: Jennifer Susanto-Lee

Like a Fish to Water in Subiaco

It seems that Olympic swimming hero and all-round nice guy Eamon Sullivan can do no wrong these days.

His new cafe in Subiaco, Louis Baxters, is going gangbusters and he has just released his first book - a cookbook called Eamon's Kitchen.

Oh, and he was crowned 2011 Cleo Bachelor of the Year in April.

The just-turned 26-year-old is flitting between Sydney for training commitments and Perth to cosset his new venture - with swimming taking precedence at the moment.

"The London Olympics are next August and that's what it's all about for now," he says. "The trials are in March, so I've got around six months."

That's not to say swimming will always be his number one priority. Sullivan is passionate about cooking and won Celebrity MasterChef in 2009, wowing judges and fans with his culinary prowess.

Not only was he a popular contestant but he also made a few friends along the way, including his cafe business partner, Laki Baker.

"We met on the set of MasterChef. She was my producer," Sullivan says.

"She was filming on my bench so I got quite accustomed to spending time with her. She's a lovely girl, really easy to get on with.

"We were both born in Perth and she was in Sydney for 16 years before moving back here with her husband. So we kept catching up and then she got a French bulldog and I'd been trying to find a breeder, so that's how I got mine.

"And we'd have doggy playdates and discuss what we were going to do and it went from there."

Oh yes, the bulldogs. In fact, so enamoured are the pair with their canine buddies that they decided to name the cafe after them - Louis-Pierre is Laki's dog and Baxter is Sullivan's.

"We really wanted it to be about us and to give it a funky name with a bit of a story behind it," he says.

His first cooking spark began while watching his mum, who was a baker for New Norcia Bakery, and helping her out in the kitchen.

As swimming took off during his high-school years, a gruelling daily schedule of training and school (starting at 5am and finishing at 7pm) left him a very hungry boy. Home economics saved him from certain starvation and left an indelible impression.

"I was quite a fussy eater and home economics sort of forced me to try different things. I remember the first time I tried beef stroganoff, and as soon as I tried it - well, it just all happened from there really," he says.

As Sullivan's hunger for food grew, so too did his thirst for knowledge.

"I just read and read. Every time I was in a physio room or waiting for a doctor I would read Woman's Day, and when I'd get to the recipe section I'd discreetly rip it out to try it out," he says.

"I read whatever I could and experimented at home. I'm amazed by the Heston Blumenthal thing and molecular gastronomy, that side of cooking. I like the science behind it. I guess I like the theatre of that sort of food.

"Then there were the cooking shows. I was watching Floyd with my parents when I was growing up and the Two Fat Ladies, and Jamie Oliver, and then the whole food and lifestyle thing took off and I'd be glued to the Food Channel on Foxtel. I pretty much preferred watching that to anything else."

As if training for the Olympics and launching a trendy new eatery wasn't enough, Sullivan also decided to write a cookbook with many of the recipes that feature in the cafe.

The book is not so much about healthy low-fat food - more along the lines of simple dishes he enjoys cooking.

"There's no whiz-bang sous vide machines involved or anything like that," he says.

"It's just about bringing together really nice, fresh ingredients that you're able to cook at home.

"I guess when I was growing up as a teenager, boys didn't really cook at all and this is good for the guys who don't know how to cook but want to attempt something a bit different.

"It's a good way to impress girlfriends or if the girlfriends want the boys to cook for them. I've tried to approach the book from every way. For example, if somebody's scared of cooking for a group of people, then I've put some menus in so they don't have to think about preparing.

"It just takes the stress out of it. Even a slight shift in techniques and approaches can make all the difference."

With his ongoing affair with all things food, it comes as no surprise that Sullivan has future plans with a culinary bent that look set on remaining local.

"I honestly love the eatery and that side of things and would love to get more involved," he says.

"I'd like to open another one in a couple of years with a bit of a wine bar and an a la carte menu. Somewhere where you'd spend some time and enjoy a glass of wine. I'm quite into wines, when I'm able.

"It was hard to move to Sydney as Perth was all I'd ever known. Family and friends are here, and that's something I really can't replace after spending 20 years of being in Perth. I love this city."

Louis Baxters is at Shop 2, 50 Subiaco Square, Subiaco (opposite train station). 'Eamon's Kitchen' by Penguin is out now.

Click here for the Fresh article.

The West Australian: September 2011

Photo: Emma Lee

Willie Takes Chocolate Obsession to Sydney

Anybody who has even a passing interest in chocolate will have heard of Willie Harcourt-Cooze, the British eccentric whose obsession with top-notch chocolate has been documented in various television series and books.

He will be one of the top drawcards at the Crave Sydney International Food Festival next month, where he will be sharing his passion for chocolate.

"I can't wait to bring the fine flavours of chocolate and the culinary delights of cacao to the Australian kitchen," says Harcourt-Cooze.

He has visited our shores before. In fact, he came to live and work here in WA as a teenager for six months, following the death of his father in England.

"My most memorable time of being in Australia was when I was 18," he says.

"I worked on a couple of different sheep ranches outside Bridgetown, and in Kojonup. It was some of the hardest and most enjoyable work I've ever done.

"There's nothing I'd love more than to go back and see the people I worked with again, but it's not going to be on this trip unfortunately."

Harcourt-Cooze's future plans include the launch of a new fruit chocolate range that features Cuban Orange, Sierra Leone Ginger and Lime and Peruvian Fruit and Nut.

"The new range will deliver classic flavours paired with fine beans to the heart of all chocolate lovers," he says.

"And, of course, I'll continue to spread the love of chocolate."

His cacao chocolate is available in Australia from Jones the Grocer. His books Willie's Chocolate Factory Cookbook and Willie's Chocolate Bible are available from book stores now.

The Crave Sydney International Food Festival will run throughout October. For more information, head to cravesydney.com.

Click here for the Fresh article.