I guess you couldn’t pick a better place to host a Media dinner then at a place called the Pressclub!

There were 2 reasons for me being back in Australia last month, the first one was an invitation to come and cook with my old friend George Calombaris and second was of course to be the Celebrity Chef on MasterChef Australia.

George invited me to come and do a dinner with him where we would showcase our 2 very different styles in the one menu for Media and invited industry VIP’s. I immediately said yes as I love to see the result of the merging of 2 styles.

We ended up with 20 guests of which half were media and the other half were some of Australia’s best Chefs and people whom I respect very much.

So both George and myself went about drafting our own parts of the menu so they would flow 1 after the other for 22 courses, this was all done from our opposite sides of the world (Madrid & Melbourne). So after a month or so of preparing the menu on paper so we didn’t have any repetition of ingredients or techniques we were finally ready to come together to prepare this dinner!

Once in Australia I prepared the menu for 4 days before the dinner with the very professional team both front and back of house in the Pressclub.

On the night we served the whole dinner at a Spanish pace, this means there was not more than 3-5 minutes in between each course. The most important thing about serving menus of this size is Rhythm, if you delay for too long between courses the guest becomes tired as the food is already starting to digest. It is also a technique used to keep up the energy during the meal as you are constantly being stimulated by something new and exciting

You can see the menu below, The Courses in Red are those of George Calombaris and the ones in Black are from me.

Welcome Drink –  Rambutan and Finger lime Martini sorbet

Salty soccer nuts (in a test tube and you shot them)

“Mushrooms on toast” (dehydrated feta)

“Seafood sand castle” (octopus, white anchovy on a stick, edible sand over top using tapioca etc)

Salmon & Salmon (Salmon skins and Taramasalata mousse)

Lobster-pop (Lobster pop with rice vinegar gel & Nori)

Choco-gras aero (Bitter chocolate and foie gras fat)

Bubble tea Greek salad

Szcecuan tendon (Braised tendon & Spicy broth)

“Lemon taramosalata” (tarama ball depend in lemon gel, snow pea shoots, potato salad, potato glass)

“Tuna” sashimi (Tinned Tuna, dashi and wasabi flavors)

Carrot salad, olive oil cous cous, Kalamata olive caramel, black olive sponge

Rice Yoghurt risotto (Yogurt, Cummin and lemon)

“Inspirations from Sea Satin” (cured king fish, Attiki dressing)

Miso Salmon with horseradish sorbet (Miso, Salmon & Horseradish)

Lamb neck, smoked yoghurt, seeds, pulses and grains

Teriyaki tongue (Teriaki sauce, Celeriac puree)

“Avgo rhubarb”  (baked egg white, rhubarb centre, candied fennel seeds, tomato and champagne consommé)

Caprese (Heinz Ketchup, Mozzarella, Vanilla)

“Aphrodite”  (served with soil scent at table) we need smaller mould for this dish

Apple crumble “Cru (Apple, crème Anglaise, sable)

Zen Garden (Fruit salad and Yogurt)

Since yesterdays MasterChef Celebrity Chef challenged aired yesterday I have been very surprised by the impact!

For the most part I have been very humbled by the reaction, its not everyday that you get 900 messages in 1 day, plus my website came very close to crashing due to unprecedented amount of traffic in such a short space of time!

1 thing I would like to say which has surprised me a little is, if you spend your life looking backwards then you will miss the beauty of evolution and everything which is amazing in the future. There have been some people who have reacted badly to the dish I chose to present and have been making negative and baseless comments. The dish is not one which I am preparing today but actually an adaptation of one which I was doing 5 – 6 years ago. I chose this dish as it was going to be a good learning experience for both the contestant and also the viewing public, I was hoping to expose you to some new techniques and to give you an insight into what is happening at the moment outside of Australia. Please keep in mind that the dish was never supposed to be one which you could prepare at home, let’s leave those kinds of dishes to Jamie Oliver and let me show you what I as a fellow Australian do.

I love spirited conversation when food is concerned as I also study the Psychological and design side of food as well. But since when did people start thinking if it’s not to their taste then it is bad?

As I mentioned before, I have had an amazing amount of support from viewers and I hate to focus on the negative but I feel it’s my duty to explain the situation.

What I demonstrated was how 1 flavor (the pea soup) could be prepared in different textures and temperatures in a non confrontational setting by using 2 very humble products, Eggs and peas. If I was to come with a dish which was full of new techniques and also a radical flavor combination then this would alienate the consumer as they have nothing to reference this experience to. This is a rule I always follow without exception. It also demonstrates the importance of the base as if the soup wasn’t right then the whole dish would be wrong.

There were many comments on the combination of egg and peas………………… Was that really the hardest part of the dish to understand? How many people have actually tried Eggs, Peas and Fresh truffle? Normally I would smoke the egg for 24 hours using grape vines but I didn’t have this kind of time during the filming, how would you of reacted to a smoked egg? I can tell you first hand, this is a delicious combination and one which makes a lot of sense the moment it hits your palette.

My second is to address the people who thought Green was unappealing and artificial looking. I am not sure how to tell you this, there are a large majority of vegetables which are green and if cooked correctly they will also be bright green. So as we prepared the peas correctly they were a florescent green, if it was brown then this would be overcooked. I think thats enough said on that point.

In regards to the use of Chemicals, I didn’t use any chemical in what I prepared. All the food additives which were used are all extracted from natural products such as Sodium Alginate which comes from seaweed and Gellan which comes from another type of seaweed. Gelatin is widely used in the food industry and it is taken from the hoofs and cartilage of animals, which one sounds more natural the one which comes from animals or the one which comes from seaweed? How many of you have eaten Burger king onion rings? Did you know these are actually onion puree which gets formed back into perfect rings via the use of the same Alginate and calcium reaction which you saw on the show? Would this stop you eating them? Of course not!

I like to think as Chefs we have the responsibility to help our guests understand what we dedicate our lives to and make them more knowledgeable about what they are consuming and how it got to the state it is in, the consumer needs to have an open mind or else the most beautiful part of the dining experience will be missed.

Thank you for all the amazing feedback you have given through all types of social media and emails, I hope this post didn’t come across as negative, my aim was to take this as an opportunity to give you a little insight into why I did the dish I did and the thought process which goes into all creations

How boring would it be if we all spent our lives watching things on TV which we already knew how to do? Hollywood blockbusters would be a thing of the past as people would want to watch a movie which is full of characters just like themselves living ordinary lives. Food can be another form of escapism yet more emotional due to the sensory reaction which you have with every bite, thats if you are open enough to enjoy the journey.

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Today the episode of MasterChef Australia aired where I was the Celebrity MasterChef, So now I can finally talk about it!

I would like to first start by saying how much of a pleasure it was to work with such a professional and friendly crew! I have done Tv all over the world yet I have never felt so at ease from the very first moment like with the cast and crew of MasterChef!

The lady I cooked against (Claire) did an amazing job at being able to follow the recipe I gave her to prepare and I take a little bit of pride from the fact she was able to complete the dish in the set time. This took some amazing focus from Claire and had she not been such an articulate person the job would of been much harder.

When I was first approached by MasterChef to do this Celebrity challenge I was unsure how I could find one of my dishes which was able to be prepared in less than 90 minutes from start to finish. So I started looking back over my previous years of work and I found one I was preparing 5-6 years ago which would fit the task (with a few minor modifications). What I create these days can take up to 7 days in preparation, or there are other that can be prepared in just moments, I believe the Green Peas and Egg dish was the most educational and controversial which is why I chose it, to incite conversation.

So as you may of seen today, the dish we prepared was a “Simple” dish of Peas and eggs.

Eggs and Peas to me is an obvious combination and not one which requires much debate, but after today I will never use the word obvious again as there seem to be an amazing amount of people commenting on this combination all over the internet.

I chose to try and show the viewers of MasterChef as well as my competitor that the same base can be made into many different variations. It is also a great lesson about texture and the use of balancing temperatures and accuracy.

I am very happy at the outcome of the episode, there really seems to be an outpouring of support and more importantly intrigue towards my style of Cuisine.

Remember, all great things start from Curiosity. If you are too afraid to venture out of your comfort zone then you will miss all of the best experiences in life!

If you are wondering what this title is all about I will not be able to fill in the blanks for another 2 months

Over the last 12 months I have been creating a concept for my own TV show in which I aim to educate people about a new way to look at food. I am pleased to say that after my recent trip to New York I now have an amazing developer on board who has a proven track record in the American Television industry and has been nominated for an Emmy Award as an Executive producer. We are now going to work together to bring this dream to reality.

Both the name of the series and the exact concept of the show will be announced once negotiations have come to a conclusion and a network has been confirmed.

What I can tell you is that it will be pretty much be a “Fly on the wall” account of what happens in my New York Lab everyday.

Stay tuned for more details……………………………………………….

I have spent the last 3 months travelling around the world doing dinners, Conferences and getting some projects off the ground.

In these travels I have discovered some amazing things and discussed some monumental projects. I am now home in Spain for the next 3 weeks before my next trip to Sicily, so during this time I will be updating you on all the things which have been going on in the last 3 months.

Stay Tuned!

I have just updated the page “Ikea Project” with all the latest developments. Just click on the above tab to see where the project is currently at.

Stay tuned for possible global developments which are currently being discussed.

For those of you who are in Australia, Tomorrow (Tuesday) nights episode of MasterChef will be the episode where I am the Celebrity MasterChef.

Once it has aired tomorrow I will give a full breakdown of the whole experience, which hopefully you had the chance to see. If not I know you can buy it on iTunes

I will post all the details of this fantastic experience tomorrow,

Watch this space……………………….

Adam Melonas Consulting