Experimenting in the kitchen

By Corporal Simone Liebelt

LACs Joseph Zorzetto and Ron Schultz team up to cook a meal at the Tindal Airmen’s Mess.

Photo by CPL Simone Liebelt

TWO cooks from RAAF Base Tindal had a “quail” of a time recently, when they went up against their professional counterparts in the regional final of the Nestlé Golden Chef’s Hat competition.

Leading Aircraftmen Ron Schultz and Joseph Zorzetto may not have won, but they still made a big impression on the judges, who easily picked that they were the ADF team.

“We got very positive feedback for a Defence cook as opposed to a restaurant chef,” Leading Aircraftman Schultz said.

“The judges told us that our food was just as good as anyone else’s.

“They said they didn’t know who the Defence Force team was, but they could pick us out because of how clean we were.”

“We were packed up and finished before the other guys had even washed their dishes,” added Leading Aircraftman Zorzetto.

The Tindal cooks – both with only three years cooking experience – were selected for the Northern Territory heat of the national junior culinary contest after submitting a written application and their own original recipes.

Up against six other teams from NT restaurants, they were given an unknown list of groceries and Nestlé products, which they had to incorporate into a three-course meal.

They were given four hours, during which they were judged on their menu, organisation and method of cooking, hygiene and cleanliness, and taste and presentation of food.

They said the only way they could prepare themselves beforehand was to play around with ingredients and try and guess what they were going to be given on the day.

They never guessed they would be given the one ingredient never cooked in an Air Force Mess – quail.

“The hardest part for us was coming up with the idea for the main course, as we were given quail and that just stumped us,” Leading Aircraftman Zorzetto said.

“We’ve only cooked quail basically once at TAFE,” added Leading Aircraftman Schultz. “A lot of the other chefs were used to cooking stuff like that, because they use it all the time in restaurants, but we didn’t have much of an idea.”

They came up with roasted seasoned quail in a red wine jus, with Gnocchi Buitoni as entrée and cappuccino mousse as dessert.

Leading Aircraftman Schultz said it was an easy challenge that provided a nice break from the Tindal kitchen.
“We didn’t know what we were going into, but we handled it alright and had great fun doing it,” he said.

 

The chef recommends

Coconut Barramundi with a tropical mango salsa
Ingredients

• Barramundi fillet
  
• 1/2 cup flour
  
• Pinch salt
  
• Pinch pepper
  
• 1/2 cup coconut milk powder
  
• 375ml evaporated milk
  
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
  
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
  
• Chives
  
• 1 bunch coriander
  
• 4 egg yolks
  
• 50g sugar
  
• Coconut cream
  
• 1 tin mango
  
• 1 kiwi fruit
  
• 1 avocado
  
• 1 Spanish onion
  
• 1 red capsicum
  
• 1 washed potato
  

Method

• Cut barramundi fillet, then dust with seasoned flour; dip into evaporated milk and coat with breadcrumbs. Add desiccated coconut and chives.
  
• To make sauce, whisk egg yolks and sugar in a double boiler until ribbon stage, then add coconut milk and mango syrup. Once combined, add diced mango and coriander.
  
• Dice mango, kiwi fruit, avocado, Spanish onion and red capsicum in a mixing bowl and add coriander and season to taste. Now press the mix into dariole moulds and chill in the fridge.
  
• In fry pan, heat butter and oil and fry the barramundi, then drain on paper towel.
  
• To serve, turn out salsa onto plate, place barramundi on the salsa and top with lattice potato chips and drizzle generously with mango sauce.

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