PIERRE Gagnaire French chef in Paris is named as a king of the kitchen. A magician with food, who centres his food artistry around, taste, smell and texture. He felt French cuisine was at a dead end so he went on a search for lost and forgotten ingredients. He recognised early that he had a talent for taste, as he said it was no gastronomic revolution it just gave him the twist to improve flavours in his food preparation. Gagnaire draws from 1700 fruit and vegetables grown at the nearby market garden of Joel Thiebault, an historian of obscure and forgotten varieties. Recently Thiebault has written a book about those vegetables, which is only available in French.

AN interesting interview with ABC’s Alan Saunders and Herve This, physical chemist at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique. Nicholas Kurti and Herve This were the two scientist who coined the phrase. Listen to the full radio interview . Herve This’s latest book is reviewed here.

“KUKUMBAT gudwan daga” “Really cooking good food” a cookbook put together by Aboriginal women living in remote communites was recently launched in the Northern Territory and aims to help improve the health of local people. The recipes use local ingredients and cooked often with the use of a flour tin oven. The book was put together with the assistance of The Fred Hollows Foundation , the development of the recipes was a collaborative effort between women from remote indigenous communities, a chef and Alison Lorraine a nutritionist from the Foundation. Listen to Fran Kelly of ABC National radio, interview Joy McLaughlin, indigenous program manager of The Fred Hollows Foundation

FARMLINE editor Michael Thomson’s comments on why Australian agriculture needs its own River Cottage, extract from his article. “But the bottom line is that Hugh confronts the realities of farming and food production, and is proud to put them on display for the world to see. Too often agriculture’s first reaction to questioning of farming methods is to shy away from discussion of how livestock are kept and killed, or why pesticides are used on farms. Most of society holds farmers with a high degree of respect, but that will diminish if it treats the public like fools and pretend the facts of life don’t exist. Most people are fair minded, and if agricultural methods are explained properly, most people accept the hows and whys of where their food comes from” read more

ONE year on and the Peel Region Farmer’s Market celebrates its anniversary on the 5th December at Pinjarra. A very short drive from Perth, an hour down the freeway, off at Pinjarra Road, past Ravenswood and from 8am to midday every Saturday Peel region producers and farmers such as Lex and Karen Langridge, organic beef, lamb and goat; Hamel Homegrown, organic vegetables; Denning Honey; Choppers Choice, free range eggs; Mark Ucich, organic vegetables; No 66 jams & pickles and much more, can be found. You can select from an abundance of freshly picked seasonal produce while chatting to growers and relaxing over a coffee. With the success of this market a Mandurah Farmers Market will have their inaugural opening on Sunday 13th December at Hall Park (King Carousel) on the western foreshore in Mandurah, cross the old bridge and turn right. This will also be a weekly market, supported by the local council. In the New Year the Peel Farmers Market at Pinjarra is entertaining the idea of rotating the weekly market to other regional towns, such as Waroona, Harvey and Serpentine. They have found that most of the consumers at the markets are coming from outside the Pinjarra region.
To complete the day out why not a drive along the Murray River near the historic Ravenswood Hotel which started out as a wheat farm in 1838.