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Batter up, here's a pitch for waffles

No longer a sweet treat, the griddle cake is a brilliant 'delivery vehicle' for a cornucopia of savoury delights.

Paul Best

Selling like hotcakes: Cumulus Up's duck waffle.
Selling like hotcakes: Cumulus Up's duck waffle.Ken Irwin

Cat Freeman is spreading her sweet potato waffle mix into the new commercial-grade Belgian waffle iron to cook. Two-and-half-minutes on, the chef of Belle's Diner, in Fitzroy's Gertrude Street, turns out a steaming thick, fluffy waffle, with its familiar grid pattern, onto the plate, to which she adds fried chicken, a home-made barbecue sauce and a kohlrabi and apple slaw.

The dish is one of small selection of savoury waffles the American-styled eatery has plans to introduce, initially as a special, to its first-time breakfast menu. "I'm still playing around with the batter," Freeman says.

She's hoping to have another crack at the batter for her cornmeal waffle, which she will serve with pulled pork and, down the track, candied salmon and smoky tequila cream. Also in the offing are vegetarian options – braised mushrooms and feta as well as lentil and chilli.

In the mix: Catriona Freeman of Belle's Diner, Fitzroy, is trying variations on batter and fillings.
In the mix: Catriona Freeman of Belle's Diner, Fitzroy, is trying variations on batter and fillings.Michael Clayton-Jones
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Belle's manager, Miranda Campbell, says if all goes well, the savoury waffle will become a regular fixture on the menu.

If the experience of Cumulus Up is any guide, Belle's won't have any problem. The new wine bar's Belgian-style duck waffle with foie gras and prune puree has been flying out of the kitchen.

"Jean Paul [Andrew McConnell's executive chef] came back from Paris raving about savoury waffles," Cumulus head chef Colin Wood says. "We had to try it."

From the get-go, the waffle – smaller, thinner and a touch crisper than Belle's – was so successful that Wood immediately slapped on the downstairs breakfast menu a rye waffle with house-smoked trout, cucumber and dill.

While we don't have a tradition of eating savoury waffles – most Australians are likely to think of waffles as a sweet – could we be seeing, like the taco, a new snack food trend?

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Certainly there are other places that have either dabbled with savoury waffles or are looking to give them a go. Parlour Diner is one. Rockwell and Sons is another. Owner Casey Wall has had a traditional African-American waffle sandwich – with fried chicken, maple butter and house-fermented hot sauce – on and off the menu and played with a zucchini waffle with queso fresco (Mexican farm cheese) and tomato salad over summer.

Wall says he was thinking of putting on a duck waffle – more of a complete dish with lavender-roasted duck and maple-roasted pumpkin – until Cumulus launched its version. But he is working on other ideas.

"[The waffle] is a great delivery vehicle," he says. "It's something different but also familiar in flavour." At the same time, the North Carolinian is conscious of avoiding any trend-following.

Grant MacPherson of the Merrywell – which does a fried chicken and red velvet waffle with orange cream cheese and killer bee honey – predicts we will see the rise of the savoury waffle. "They can be served in so many different ways and transcend all meal types," he says.

Matt Wilkinson is another who puts a waffle – usually fresh potato or corn – on at Pope Joan from time to time. Wilkinson pinched the idea from super-chef Joel Robuchon, whose "most perfect" potato waffle, with house-cured salmon and horseradish creme fraiche, he describes as "one of the most beautiful things I've ever eaten". But it also references the Birdseye potato waffle he had as a child in Britain.

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"You want it to be like the perfect chip," he says, although he concedes they're hard to churn out quickly when you have to cook "60 of the buggers on a Saturday morning".

King Cheung, who owned Duke of Waffles before it closed at the start of the year, was taking the concept even further with both a waffle sandwich and pizza.

"I had marinated chicken, meat lover, tuna and egg, ham tomato and cheese," he says. "When we first started with a savoury waffle, people thought, 'Ugh', so we gave away free samples to try. After they ate it, they said, 'Awesome'."

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