The first of eight episodes of Good Food's new TV show will air on October 9 on Channel 9. Join us for a peep behind the scenes.
If you thought you didn't need a cooking show to teach you how to scramble an egg, you've never been mesmerised by Danielle Alvarez's remarkable way with heat, eggs and butter. The Sydney chef steps us through her technique in the first episode of Good Food Kitchen, a new chop-and-chat show that takes viewers behind the scenes as Good Food's recipes come to life for the page, and now for the screen as well.
Alvarez co-hosts the show with Good Food regular Adam Liaw; guests include columnists and cooks extraordinaire Jill Dupleix and Katrina Meynink plus leading chefs including Mark Best, Jacqui Challinor and Mark LaBrooy.
Stylist Hannah Meppem and photographer William Meppem, who shoot most of Good Food's recipes, are part of the show too, whisking dishes away for propping and shooting the minute they're finished.
But what about those eggs? "One of the first jobs I had in a kitchen was for Amaryll Schwertner at Boulettes Larder in San Francisco's Ferry Building," Alvarez tells me.
"People raved about her eggs and flocked there for them. She took the time to show me her technique, the art of it, and it was one of the things that made me fall in love with cooking. I would say it was life-changing."
The eggs are well whisked and "a good healthy amount of butter" is gently heated in a pan. Once the butter has coated the bottom of the pan – but is mostly still solid – the eggs are added and pushed slowly, lovingly, into velvety folds. "Just as the butter finishes melting we take it off the heat," says Alvarez.
The technique is simple but not obvious. "It's one thing to read a recipe but there's something great about seeing what a dish should look like," says Alvarez.
"I grew up watching the Food Network in the US and I found it really inspiring to have this library of visual recipes that I could tap into. Cooking is so much about intuition: you need to pay attention to what's happening and be aware of what you are trying to achieve."
In passing on knowledge, Alvarez hopes to inspire home cooks to try a few things they'd normally steer away from, perhaps frying chicken or baking a custard.
"Cooking should be an important part of all of our lives," she says. "The knock-on effects are so much greater than simply food for fuel: it keeps money in local communities and gets people sitting around a table together talking about things that matter and things that don't. A home-cooked meal is one of the greatest things we can do for ourselves."
Author and TV regular Adam Liaw is always on a mission to get more people cooking and often takes a problem-solving angle when developing recipes.
"People have challenges," he says. "What do I do with leftover bolognese? I've got too many lemons. I want something sweet but I can't be bothered making a cake."
In the first episode he shares his birthday traycake. "I have three kids. We often have birthday parties in the park, but I've always found it stressful to transport the cake to the party," he says.
"For years, I was driving slowly to the park with the cake precariously balanced, then we switched to cupcakes and ended up with a 50-cupcake transport situation. After child number three we wanted it simpler so I came up with a tray cake, similar to a trifle with layered whipped cream, bought sponge cake and icing."
Party panic turned to park perfection. "It's super easy to transport and you can just plonk it down and scoop it out to serve," says Liaw.
As well as dessert-related life hacks, Liaw's Good Food Kitchen segments allow him to elaborate on recipes that may be quite brief in written form.
"Why do I make large meatballs?" he poses at one point. "Because it's quicker and easier to make them big than small."
For a roast chicken dish, Liaw surprises by par-cooking sliced mushrooms in the microwave. "It draws out liquid and you get mushroom jus as a bonus," he explains.
With every tip, Liaw hopes to instil more bravery in the kitchen.
"Cooking is very much a matter of confidence," he says. "It's human nature to over-complicate and assume things are harder than they are."
In a sense, he hopes to train cooks to have the confidence to leave his recipes behind.
"Recipe writing is at best an approximation," he says. "Everyone's kitchen is different, everyone's ingredients are different. How hot is your oven, what is the thickness of your pan? What you're really doing is offering ideas and a guide."
He's encouraging about substitutions. "People often ask me things like, 'Would this work if I used basil?' Are they asking if the dish would exist at all, if their kitchen would explode [if they add basil]?
"In most cases you can vary a recipe as much as you like. You might have to adjust it a bit if you use chicken rather than beef but – other than a cake – anything you do to put a spin on something is fine."
For Liaw, the TV show is an obvious adjunct to Good Food's print and online content. "It takes you behind the scenes in the most realistic way possible," he says. "It's a natural extension but brought to life in a new medium. And if we get more people cooking, we've done our job."
Ever wondered what it's like to style and shoot recipes?
"Hannah and William Meppem are the husband-and-wife team who cook, style and photograph most of the recipes you see in print and on the Good Food website, and now in our eight-part Good Food Kitchen program," says Ardyn Bernoth, editor of Good Food.
Here are some tips from the professionals involved in Good Food's recipe shoots.
"It's our job to be fresh and innovative without following every trend that lasts for a minute," says Hannah. "Just like fashion, you're going to have regrets if you're too daring."
HANNAH MEPPEM
"My aim is for the food to look approachable and for people to get the inspiration to cook," says William Meppem. "I can see the skills and craft in high-end restaurant food but for me, I love shooting something that people will want to cook and actually can cook."
WILLIAM MEPPEM
Good Food Kitchen premieres this Saturday at 1pm on Channel 9 and will be available to catch-up on 9Now.