Favourite cuisine? Room service.
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Wendy Harmer Q and A
Favourite chef?
Stephanie Alexander – I admire the way she’s taken her passion and made it political. Same with Jamie Oliver. Both of them are trying to educate the next generation about good food – where it comes from, how it’s grown.
Favourite place to travel?
Up the Australian coast in our Winnebago with the family onboard headed for a beach or a lake and a campfire.
Favourite dish to cook?
Osso Bucco because it’s my husband’s favourite.
Favourite dessert to eat?
A spoonful of everyone else’s at the table. I usually get bored with a whole dessert – and everyone gets fed up with me nicking bits of theirs!
Sweet or savoury?
Always savoury – something either spicy, hot, mustardy or garlicky. ( Fave chicken – roasted with 40 – that’s forty, cloves of garlic!!)
How do you like your eggs?
Warm from the henhouse in the backyard, thanks.
Favourite ingredient and why?
Probably coriander. Fresh and tangy on top of tagines, curries, in guacamole, in pesto, in crab cakes,Vietnamese rice paper wraps, stir fries...
What dish would be the way to your heart?
My kids have their own signature dish they invented – double cooked eggs. Scrambled then fried and served on underdone toast with incinerated bacon. Yum!
What’s your favourite tune to cook to?
Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”. Theme song to “Titanic” – I sing it (when no-one’s home) and try to get those top notes.
What’s the first meal you remember cooking and was it a success or a disaster?
Back in the 1970s – prawn cocktail, beef stroganoff with Spanish rice-a-riso and fruit salad with grand marnier, then after dinner mints – accompanied by Neil Diamond’s "Hot August Night" with me in a gorgeous kaftan. A triumph!!
Who do you cook for the most?
Friends and family – a floating population, anywhere between four and 20 people. I never really know how many people will be here on the night – or what they will bring to add to the meal. Ending up with 10 dips, duck from the Chinese take-away, fresh prawns, a whole fish or two, a curry and three cheesecakes is always a possibility.
What three ingredients would you take with you to a desert island and what would you cook with them?
Lemons, rice and chilli. I’d catch a fish, season with lemon, wrap it in banana leaves and grill over my fire. Then I’d cook the rice in a coconut husk, season with chilli. Fresh bananas for dessert! (I’d probably also need all the supplies from the S.S. Minnow on ‘Gilligan’s Island’ – including the nifty record player they made out of bamboo).
If you were having any three people, alive or dead, over for dinner, who would they be and what would you cook for them?
Andy Warhol, Audrey Hepburn and John Lennon. Wouldn’t have to cook much - I don’t think Andy or Audrey ever ate! Maybe a lemon, asparagus and parmesan risotto, roast chicken. Then for dessert – a fabulous cheese board to linger over.
