The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement

Japan's top chef goes foraging on the Sunshine Coast for one-off dinner

Sofia Levin
Sofia Levin

Zaiyu Hasegawa outside his Michelin-starred restaurant, Den, in Tokyo.
Zaiyu Hasegawa outside his Michelin-starred restaurant, Den, in Tokyo.Supplied

Food festivals are a chance for punters to get up close and personal with their favourite chefs. But often it's the chefs who are the most excited about the chance to cook alongside their heroes.

From August 5 to 18, the inaugural Curated Plate will unfold on the Sunshine Coast. Good Food is presenting the headline event, Wild Forage Dining.

In this one-off dinner Zaiyu Hasegawa from Den in Tokyo – recently awarded number 11 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list – will cook a six-course foraged feast on Mooloolaba Beach alongside Chase Kojima (Sokyo, The Star in Sydney; Kiyomi, The Star, Gold Coast; and newly opened Chuuka, also in Sydney) and Matt Stone (Oakridge, Yarra Valley).

Chef Matt Stone holds a bunch of foraged sorrell.
Chef Matt Stone holds a bunch of foraged sorrell.Steven Siewert
Advertisement

Kojima and Hasegawa have met, but the former remains star-struck. "He absolutely makes the best dashi, and dashi is the key thing to marry everything in Japanese cooking," Kojima says.

Kojima and Hasegawa adopt a similar customer focus in their restaurants. "A lot of chefs I know focus only on food and themselves, but at the end of the day they are guests, and I want them to have the best time. I think that's an approach that Zaiyu takes as well," Kojima says.

Along with bringing "Japanese heart" to The Curated Plate and sharing a taste of Tokyo, Hasegawa looks forward to learning, too.

Chef Matt Stone of Oakridge. 
Chef Matt Stone of Oakridge. Supplied

"There is a lot of Australian produce that is local and special to the land. I am excited to learn not just about Australian cuisine, but the chefs' approach to food, culture and their way of life," he says.

Advertisement

Hasegawa has gained a reputation for his playful food, whether a smiley carved into a slice of daikon or his elevated DFC (Den Fried Chicken), which arrives in a custom box.

"In Japan, 'don't play with your food' means don't waste food. We create a fun environment, but we don't play with our food. Having fun and playing are different," he says.

Kojima closely guards his recipes for sushi rice and sauces and plans to pack them on the plane from Sydney. "We have a lot of secret recipes. It's something that we really worked hard to develop."

For the festival dinner, Stone will serve saltbush kimchi alongside 'roo. When we caught up with him, he was planning to forage for the key ingredient in Point Lonsdale.

Stone makes miso, garums and cooks on a hibachi grill which makes it difficult to pigeonhole the food he and partner Jo Barrett serve at Oakridge as "Yarra Valley cuisine".

Advertisement

"Our cuisine isn't defined by anything – or if anything, it's by ethos," Stone says. That ethos includes working closely with farmers – the focus of the food festival – and asking producers what they need instead of telling them what to provide.

Home cooks can do the same. Stone suggests visiting farmers' markets and asking what's good, about their crop rotation and if there are any "seconds" hidden away because of how they look.

Tickets to Wild Forage Dining are available online at thecuratedplate.com.au. Good Food readers can get 15 per cent off the $290 ticket price by using the discount code LOVEGOODFOOD.

Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox.

Sign up
Sofia LevinSofia Levin is a food writer and presenter.

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement