By Stephanie Clifford-Smith
Food and wine personality Lyndey Milan is difficult to pigeonhole. Her 25-year career has spanned food writing, cooking, presenting and consulting across many media outlets and industries. She has written seven cookbooks and founded the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW Fine Food Committee, which judges thousands of Australian products. Her popular SBS series Lyndey and Blair's Taste of Greece, made with her son, turned out to be a great legacy when Blair died of leukaemia at 29, shortly before the show screened. Milan continues to run her television production company, Naked Flame, and supports several charities.
I'm cooking
Last dinner at home, I whipped up a mushroom-and-porcini omelet. I've been on the road for most of the past month and I needed something quick and easy. Eggs are so versatile. Secret vice ''God's Black Medicine'', otherwise known as Diet Coke. It's a fantastic reviver after a big night. And I do love a bit of liquorice.
TV presenter and food writer Lyndey Milan loves her tattered Margaret Fulton cookbook and an old red spotty jug.Credit: James Brickwood
Favourite things
Funny, old red jug with white spots, which was mum's, or my favourite colourful jug from Portugal many moons ago. Villeroy& Boch antique demitasse cups from the days of the five-course dinner party, when I used to make consomme as a course. In a fire, I'd grab photos of [son] Blair. Everything else is replaceable.
Treasured cookbook
I have my original 1971 Margaret Fulton cookbook - bought with my pocket money while still at school. Very tattered.
In 1999, when we shared a speaking platform at the Feast of Sydney - Margaret talking about the past, Tony Bilson about the present and me the future - I surprised her by producing it for her to sign. She wrote, ''To Dear Lyndey. You learned well! With love, Margaret Fulton.''
Inspiration
I get it all from eating out. I'm always thrilled by people's ingenuity. The way I cook is very produce driven, so if I see something good in a butcher's shop, for example, that will lead me.
Most memorable meal I went to Michel Guerard's at Eugenie-les-Bains (France) in 1985. It was the first time I'd tasted foie gras and it was set with a pomerol gel around it and sliced. I can still remember exactly what it felt and tasted like. Then we had a whole truffle in puff pastry with truffle sauce. Unbelievable.
I'm drinking
Every morning I have a low-fat cappuccino made in my Faema coffee machine, never with chocolate on it because that's not Italian.
Saturday-night tipple In the lead-up to Christmas, it's always sparkling shiraz. We drink a fair bit of pinot, but I adore champagne. Australia is now making some really good dry rosé´s, which I love. I don't like rosé´s that finish sweet.
Food discovery
Nicholson Fine Foods Euro-style spiced beetroot finishing vinegar. You can use it in salads, drizzled over finished dishes, to deglaze a pan or to zap up a sauce.
The staples
My pantry: Cobram Estate olive oil. I know this is a mixed cultural metaphor, but a really fruity extra-virgin olive oil is fantastic in a curry - plus, it solves the peanut-allergy problem. Lindt chocolate, 70 per cent cocoa fat. Tuna for pasta, patties or on corn thins for a quick lunch. Dried porcini mushrooms and lots of herbs and spices, especially cumin. I love kecap manis, so much gentler than soy, as well as red currant jelly, fabulous for any reduction sauce.
My fridge: Greek yoghurt because you can have it for breakfast, dessert or for a savoury sauce. Always the full-fat one. As soon as they take the fat out, they add sugar, texturisers and emulsifiers.
My tool kit
Digital scales, imperative for recipe testing. Scanpan frying pan. I've abused it for years and it's still perfectly functional and cooks very evenly. My Lyndey Milan Brilliant Cut chef's knife. It's flexible, strong and stays sharp for ages. Copper briki for Greek coffee. My mesh glove, which I use for oysters and jamon.