Mark Best, Australia's celebrity chef who has won countless awards including Sydney Morning Herald's Chef of the Year, has been competing diligently to trump all the awards his Sydney restaurant Marque has won including Best Restaurant of the year. Mark shares some of his fine cooking philosophies and experiences with us food enthusiasts.
GABRIELLE REILLY: There are several schools of thought on when and how to season dishes with herbs. I believe it was Mario Batali who said he seasons a dish with dry herbs in the beginning and then adds fresh herbs to finish it at the end. What is your herb seasoning strategy?
MARK BEST: Mario Batali is a fine restaurateur however our culinary identity couldn't be further apart. I have no herb seasoning strategy, as such, however the word seasoning does resonate with me. We follow a similar strategy with seasoning with salt. Season the raw ingredient well prior to cooking and continue to season from time to time during the cooking process finally seasoning with a little flaked sea salt prior to serving.
GABRIELLE REILLY: I know you have affection for digital thermometers, and I like the idea, but I have had problems with getting the correct reading, particularly in roast turkey. What is your secret to success with a digital thermometer?
MARK BEST: I have a passion for accuracy and the thermometer is my most useful tool. like any tool it relies on the user. I to soak a Turkey overnight in a salt brine and then cook it for 18 hours at 62 degrees Celsius. We then brown the skin in the Cantonese style pouring ladles of very hot oil over the bird. Thanks-giving will take on a new and exciting dimension.
GABRIELLE REILLY: My favorite dish is a rustic paella I cook on my built-in campfire on my old world back patio (I have a wood-fired oven back there too which I just love but that is a different story). The paella is a great show piece to prepare on the campfire with guests around and I think I look pretty sexy cooking in welders gloves. What is your favorite dish to serve if you have visitors at home you want to spoil?
MARK BEST: A bit like you I like to cook a one-pot show-stopper. There is nothing worse than being stuck in the kitchen while your guests drink all of the wine. I love to cook a 2kg organic chicken with at least 5 heads of garlic and lots of eschallots. I also cant go past new seasons Nicola potatoes. par boiled then browned in the chicken Fat. A couple bottles of Grüner Veltliner and a green salad is enough to impress the most cynical palate.
GABRIELLE REILLY: What is your favorite cuisine?
MARK BEST: Gee you really want to pigeon hole me! I am a white 40 ish male of German/ Cornish descent living in one of the most amazing multi cultural countries in the heart of Sth East Asia and you want me to choose? No way I'm just trying to experience everything
GABRIELLE REILLY: What is your favorite culinary experience? Mine was in a 14th century palace restaurant at the Ritz Carlton in Sintra, Portugal. Besides the gorgeous setting, they had a tapas night with 100 bottles of wine open they had paired with every morsel of food on the buffet (I am not big on buffet but this was an all time exception). Every time I got new a plate of tapas they would pour a few sips of Portuguese wine that complimented the food so well it was almost like the sensation of gravy on a roast. Incredible, I ate SLOWLY for four hours savoring every bite and every sip of wine.
MARK BEST: A 6 week self drive tour of France in 1995 culminating in my 1st 3 star experience at Arpege. Epiphany is not too strong.
GABRIELLE REILLY: Once I had a dessert at a fine dining restaurant in a goblet that had an inlay that could be pulled up to place dry ice underneath the dessert. The fog came out of the vents and the dish look stunning. Do you know what the dish they would have used was called and where you would find it for all us at home chefs?
MARK BEST: I once had sashimi of an entire lobster at a Landmark Sydney Chinese restaurant. It was so fresh the muscles continued to twitch. The dish was presented on an enormous platter with dry ice pumping vapour covering the entire table and even chilling our feet. Not sure where they get their platters from either but man it was good.
GABRIELLE REILLY: How did it feel to be on the list of GQ Men of the Year 2008?
MARK BEST: You know that dream where you are on the operating table and they are about to open you up and you know they've got the wrong guy and you are desperately trying to communicate by making your iris contract in time to the surgeons puerile classical soundtrack and you just want to scream at the colored surgical wear that people who are boring as hell use in place of a personality?? Just like that.
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