Dan Hunter in the kitchen of his restaurant Brae restaurant in Birregurra. Photo: Eddie Jim
The pantry staples: "I'm always hungry when I get home at night but I don't feel like eating much [so] I'll often eat a bowl of (Kellogg's) cornflakes before I go to bed. We always have two or three Otway Fields organic jams on the go; and there's a peanut butter going around here called Darryl's Peanut Butter, which is phenomenal." Photo: Eddie Jim
Last night's dinner: "We had a Milawa roast chook. I just cut whatever soft herbs are in season, push all that into the cavity with a cut lemon and sometimes garlic. I season the skin at room temperature and cover it with Brae olive oil, sometimes with butter. Then I crank the oven to 220 degrees. A size 16 chook is ready in 45 minutes. This week we had it with shiitake that were too big for the restaurant, rice, sesame oil and some broccoli." Photo: Eddie Jim
Last night's dinner: "We had a Milawa roast chook. I just cut whatever soft herbs are in season, push all that into the cavity with a cut lemon and sometimes garlic. I season the skin at room temperature and cover it with Brae olive oil, sometimes with butter. Then I crank the oven to 220 degrees. A size 16 chook is ready in 45 minutes. This week we had it with shiitake that were too big for the restaurant, rice, sesame oil and some broccoli." Photo: Eddie Jim
Secret vice: "Gin. I have a few bottles on the go and depending how I feel I mix them up a bit. Four Pillars is pretty good, as is the Melbourne Gin Company. For a straight-up, sharp gin and tonic I tend to go Four Pillars. But only on the weekends." Photo: Eddie Jim
Discovery: "I've just discovered this Korean wholesale supplier in Melbourne called Table 181 and I've been getting their organic native green Korean rice and extra virgin Korean black sesame oil, which is also organic. I've never tasted anything like it. I'm drowning everything with that at the moment." Photo: Eddie Jim
Discovery: :I've just discovered this Korean wholesale supplier in Melbourne called Table 181 and I've been getting their organic native green Korean rice and extra virgin Korean black sesame oil, which is also organic. I've never tasted anything like it. I'm drowning everything with that at the moment." Photo: Eddie Jim
I'm drinking: "I drink black coffee. We use St Ali in the restaurant and I always take a packet of their single origin home. I drink more white wine than red and we prefer things with a more natural bent, perhaps grown bio-dynamically. I've been drinking a lot of Italian-origin oxidative wines at the moment but I do love chardonnays, chablis, that sort of white burgundy variety. And any classic aperitif: Campari, negroni, Americano ? I love all of those. I'm a bit of a sucker for American rye whiskies as well." Photo: Eddie Jim
My inspiration: "Eating. It's about trying to get something done quickly that's tasty and goes well with wine, basically. If I do cook Thai, David Thompson's Thai Food is great. It's probably one of the best cookbooks of the last 20 years, I reckon." Photo: Eddie Jim
Favourite: "Jules bought this blue plastic omelette flip from the Salvos in Brunswick in about 1993. It's indispensible to both our cooking. Bought second-hand and still going strong." Photo: Eddie Jim
My toolkit: "I've got one of those classic drawers that chefs tend to have of every knife you've been given and don't use any more. A couple I use religiously and a couple I'll use because I haven't in a while. I always use a Microplane for zests and for cheese, an old bread knife and a big French chasseur for braising meats and making pasta sauce." Photo: Eddie Jim
Dan Hunter, owner of Brae. Photo: Eddie Jim