Open Kitchens

The Age reports on people opening their kitchens and meeting new people but of course Eat With Me members already know how great it is to meet new people over a meal.

The Data That Proves Breakfast Is The Most Important Meal Of The Day

Did you skip breakfast today? If you did, you are probably already thinking about lunch. You’re probably pretty hungry. And so you’re going to eat a lot. In fact, you’re going to eat 4.9% more food at lunch. The longer you wait, the more you’re going to eat. Do that every day and it starts to add up:

The information comes from Massive Health’s Eatery iPhone app, which allows users to take pictures of their food, rate it based on perceived healthiness, and then rate other people’s photos.  

Check out the full infographic and article on Fast Company.

Emersleigh Estate Tasting Room Now Open

Last year at the Dining with Strangers event, our guests enjoy delicious sparkling wine and Off the Wall wine from Emersleigh winery.

If you were amongst the lucky few that got a seat at the Dining with Strangers event and you want to taste other great wines by Emersleigh, then head to the Emersleigh Estate Tasting Room. 

Emersleigh Estate Tasting Room

Open Sundays 11-5pm

71 Stewart Road, Emerald, Victoria

(400 metres off the Emerald Monbulk Road Melway’s map: 125, G9)

Baking to Perfection

During the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival,  Justine Costigan asks some of Melbourne’s sweets experts on their habits, tips and the touches that ensure their baked goods are perfect everytime. 

Read the full details here but here are for some quick tips:

1. Always use the best ingredients you can. 

2. Preheat your oven.  The oven has to be the right temperature so the pastry or cake will start baking immediately. If it goes into a cold oven, the butter will melt and it will be a disaster. 

3.Don’t walk away from whipped cream or egg whites. Keep your eyes on them at all times.

4. A dense cake, such as a flourless orange and almond cake, a flourless chocolate cake or a good butter cake, rather than airy cake, is the best type of cake for decorating.

5. Pay attention to the small print. If you pay attention to the details in the recipe, you can make beautiful cakes. 

6. Don’t overwork your pastry. “It’s fine to be able to see streaks of butter in it as it helps make it flaky and crunchy. Mix your dough until it just comes together then let it rest. Rest it again after you’ve rolled it out and put it in a pie dish. Resting it is the key to getting a good shape.” Pastry needs to stay cool or the butter will start to melt.

7. Have a set of good kitchen scales with metric and imperial conversions. Weights and measures are quite important in baking. 

Props: Scullerymade, styling: Caroline Velik. Photo: Marina Oliphant

Hallel-joule-ah: Australia Commits to Jamie’s Ministry of Food

It’s ten to seven on a Tuesday night and a buzzing crowd of passionate foodies are merging into the The Regent Theatre on Collins St. Melbourne.  From the well heeled and coiffed, to bright eyed boys and grand dames with a firm grip on their handbag: we are all here to see one man. Jamie Oliver. Taken to the bronzed Aussie bosom like a sausage on shit white bread in summer.

There is something bullish and distinctly childlike about the way Oliver charges ahead (funky sneakered foot in mouth). He’s just getting on with the job of mustering some enthusiasm for the simple joy of cooking. There aren’t many celebrity chefs visiting our shores that can joke about having illegitimate Aussie progeny. Nor cut down a journalist for suggesting he was smuggling a few extra kilos since his last visit. But that blanket brashness, and the desire to get his hands dirty with some unsavoury political health issues, seems to have given Oliver public immunity.  “Say what you like, you barmy Brit, we’ll have another serve of the Jamie Oliver special. With a solution to the obesity epidemic on the side.” 

 

“The Wheeler Centre” is renowned for hosting ‘smart talks from passionate people’. The grand theatricality of The Regent was a fine venue in which to house Oliver’s unabashed enthusiasm for making a difference to the quality of people’s lives. With obesity related mortality rates rising there has never been a better time for a national kick up the clacker about nutrition. The Australian Government has been blessed with a celebrity chef, with big ideas and a passionate plea that has the potential to win the hearts and minds of a junk food generation and their cash strapped parents.

 Ecstatic with the Victorian Government’s monetary support of “The Good Foundation”, Oliver said it was inspiring to finally engage in long term, practical solutions. Electrical bargain kings “The Good Guys” were the first to get behind Oliver’s Aussie version of “The Ministry of Food”. Openly challenging the policy makers to match their financial contribution. With the first centre in Ipswitch recently opening and another planned for Geelong, it seems that big business with a conscience can loosen government purse strings.

 Officially launched in 2010, “The Good Foundation” aims to improve  nutrition through food centres that run ten week cooking programs. Hoping to be as inclusive as possible, regardless of age, race or gender, programs run from $10 a session and culminate in cooking a celebratory roast dinner. There is also talk of mobile kitchens: taking the word of healthy, home cooking to the streets.

After an hour of foodie empowerment, I crashed like a six year old on sugar after overhearing a conversation sprinkled with cynicism. “Well,” a woman muttered to her companion, “he’s preaching to the converted, isn’t he?” Gazing around the theatre, there was definitely a distinct lack of obese, unhealthy looking individuals likely to give their children an “energy” drink for breakfast. Yes, here we are, the shiny people, nutritionally advanced and able to name five exotic veg in five seconds. Yet, in the words of a man who wants to nurture sick nations one home cooked meal at a time,  “The Ministry of Food is kind of a metaphor … for everyone giving a shit.” Now there’s something we could increase to five serves a day.

Words by Lauren Cruickshank, purveyor of tasty textual morsels.

Photo from The Good Foundation

Following on from our helpful cooking tips, we found this beautiful series by  Chasing Delicious . Kitchen 101 series explores the fundamentals of cooking and baking.

The Most Common Cooking Mistakes

I’m sure that pretty much every Eat With Me fan loves food. But how many of us are really great cooks?

If you are like me then you might have underbaked cakes, turned food too often, overcrowded your pan or been too casual about measuring ingredients (sigh..).

Here are 40 tips what you actually should do. If you get all those things right you must be doing pretty good!

dreamhamar:

(vía Picnic Table Pyramids - The ‘Rest’ Air Restaurant in the Netherlands (GALLERY))

Finding a picnic table has a whole new meaning

(via publicdesignfestival)

For coffee lovers

If you love coffee so much that you have to let other people know about it, you can get a poster like this made by Column Five Media, fill in your daily coffee consumption (with coffee!) and frame it on your wall. 

Neat!

We found it on Design Taxi.

Delicious message for the blind!