Step up to the plate: Chefs create snacks for cinema-goers at Melbourne Good Food Month
For a self-taught chef who grew up in a remote part of France where there were just three inhabitants per square kilometre, Michael Bras' influence has had a surprisingly far reach.
"Bras was a leader from the late 70s but it's really in the last decade that he has truly been recognised for it," says Nic Poelaert. Formerly of Melbourne's Embrasse and Brooks, Poelaert who moved to Newcastle earlier this year and is involved in creating high end pop-up dining events is one of four chefs discussing their mentors at a screening of the Bras documentary Step Up To The Plate (Entre les Bras) next Sunday.
The cult food film is being shown at the Nova Cinema as part of Good Food Month and details the process of Bras handing over the reins of his restaurant in Laguiole in the Aveyron region of France to son Sebastien in 2009.
Bras is not only renowned for retaining three Michelin stars since opening Le Suquet in 1999 but being a culinary visionary – as a champion of vegetables, especially famed for his 'gargouillou' featuring over 60 individually cooked vegetables, herbs and flowers, and his invention of the technique of the coulant, the chocolate molten-centred pudding ubiquitous in restaurants around the world today.
Poelaert who worked with Bras in 2006/7 is joined by fellow chefs Florent Gerardin (Pei Modern) Cory Campbell (ex-Vue De Monde) and Peter Gunn (IDES, Attica). The four chefs will not only discuss what it's like to work with some of the world's best but are creating movie sized dishes for cinema-goers in homage to their mentors, including Joel Robuchon, Rene Redzepi and Ben Shewry.
Poelaert's dishes include a Bras-inspired potato galette with hazelnut butter cream, cantal cheese and apricot jam as well as a riff on the cinematic favourite, the choc top. "Michel and his brother have a little healthy fast food business throughout France where they have cones made from wheat and barley with savoury fillings like sausage and mashed potato, so I'm doing a cone with licorice ice-cream, pureed cheesecake and rose petals", Poelaert says.
Gunn is creating the IDES box with inspiration from all his chef mentors, including Ben Shewry, Teage Ezard and Dan Hunter. There will be a fresh corn polenta dish topped with fried sweet potato which Gunn says is a variation of a dish served at Attica a couple of years ago and is "one of my all time favourites from Ben [Shewry]'s repertoire." He will also be doing a miso-marinated lamb rib from his own project IDES to show where his training has taken him, and a shot of Japanese plum wine and lime juice broth, which he says is "the most memorable thing I have ever eaten or drunk since moving to Melbourne, cooked by Teage Ezard."
Step up to the Plate, Cinema Nova, 2pm-6pm Sunday, November 22; $85 includes drink on arrival, and a selection of snacks from all four chefs, melbourne.goodfoodmonth.com