Gerard's Bistro brings cult bekaa chicken wings to Melbourne

• Recipe: Gerard's Bistro bekaa chicken wings

I used to think chicken wings were never worth the effort. Too bony and stringy to warrant sticky fingers and a burnt tongue. Too much picking for too little meat.

Six months ago I ordered executive chef Ben Williamson's bekaa wings at Gerard's Bistro, Brisbane, and that opinion changed. Oh boy, did it change. Not only are they worth a sauce-stained beard, they're worth crossing state borders for.

The dish has been a Gerard's Bistro mainstay at the two-hatted Middle East and Maghreb-inspired restaurant. These are juicy wings of gold. Waist-deep in deliciousness with harissa-based sauce and topped with kishk (cooked bulgur fermented with yoghurt and whey), coriander and dried rose petals made fragrant from the heat.

Williamson, The Brisbane Times 2017 Good Food Guide Citi Chef of the Year, is in Melbourne to cook at Movida Aqui for The Age Good Food Month. Punters can expect a feast of Gerard's greatest hits and the cult bekaa wings (named after a valley in Lebanon where the locals love eating chook) are flying south for the party.

Williamson says the cost of the sauce is greater than the cost of the wings, which is no surprise given the amount of ingredients and time involved in making it.

"We make the harissa first, using serrano or cayenne chillies at their ripest and roasting them in a really hot oven until the skin blackens and insides become soft and sweet," he says. "Then it takes three hours to skin them as we usually roast 40 kilos at a time, before blending with an aged sherry vinegar, lime, cumin, caraway, olive oil, roasted garlic and French shallots."

This base layer is then blended with chicken stock reduced to one litre from 10 litres so it's properly rich and thick. "That provides the gelatin and umami for the sauce," says Williamson. More lime juice and sherry vinegar is mixed in, plus fish sauce, smoked salt, sumac, zaatar and hickory-smoked butter.

Indeed, a bit more preparation than the honey-soy wings found at family functions.

The chicken wings themselves are coated in potato starch and fried from raw for extra crunch and juiciness. The potato starch also acts like velcro for that wonderfully savoury sauce.

"It's literally one of three dishes I can never take off the menu," says Williamson. "We go through 30 kilograms worth of wings a week."

Gerard's Bistro at Movida Aqui, Tuesday, November 8, 500 Bourke Street, Melbourne, click here for tickets. The Age Good Food Month, presented by Citi, runs from November 1 to 30. See goodfoodmonth.com/melbourne