Harnessing Local Produce – Making the most out of your backyard with Paul Rifkin. Paul hosts a dinner at the Catholic Club that showcases the best in local produce within a 100km of his own venue. Let Paul guide you through, new ingredients, how to source the best local produce and getting the best out of each season. Paul even grows his own produce in the Clubs backyard! I was approached a few years ago by some producers from the Pyrmont Producers Market to be part of a SMH Good Food Month dinner called “The Producers Go Clubbing”, there was: Pierre Issa from Pepe Sayer Butter, producing the best cultured butter, buttermilk, mascarpone and crème fraiche around, the preferred product of high end establishments John Fairley from Country Valley, producing rich milk from his family farm near Picton, Pierre uses this milk to produce his butter. Merna from Dessertmakers, using Pepe Saya butter, crème fraiche and mascarpone form her amazing desserts Anthony from Vics Meats, sourcing the best meats like David Blackmores Wagyu John Susman from Fishtales sourcing the best cobia, glacier 51 toothfish, John even went to the southern ocean for the 3 month season, now that’s commitment, Yarra valley hand milked s almon roe, Fraser Ilse spanner crab Brasserie bread, producing terrific single origin sour doughs. Matching wines were by David Lowe of Lowes wines bring some terrific local wines to the table
Beers by Young Henry’s locally brewed, all beverages were matched with food. These people were mates who met doing what they loved best, bringing the best local produce to the kitchen table at the markets. I was smitten by the local produce bug and agreed to help out. I constructed a degustation menu to showcase their products, on the sell out night the producers spoke to their produce. For a club to do a $125 menu and sell out was a brilliant experience, the chefs enjoyed the journey too. The following year I varied the theme and decided to really raise the bar and called it the Macarthur Organic Producers Dinner, it sounded good to me. But have you ever tried to find enough local producers who were organic or minimal interference produce, some were so small they were more backyard producers. I spent months going to local markets, visiting farms, trying so much produce, meeting the most interesting and passionate growers. Hapi from Field to Feast was growing 5 acres of leafy vegetables and herbs with no watering or unnatural fertilisers. I travelled up winding farm tracks to find an organic egg producer, followed by a wine maker from Razorback Ridge producing organic wines and highly awarded, a real find. Off to the Oaks to find an organic producer of honey, quiches, lemons, macadamias and an artisan ricotta maker. I convinced my local Vietnamese baker to use organic flours and seeds and produce awesome rolls with flavours and textures even he was surprised by. A local butcher was also a farmer and had a café serving his own meat in his burgers, he had organically grown lambs and speckle creek beef for me.
The journey was amazing to find what was available for me to use. The next year I really went silly and decided to limit myself to all local produce grown within 15 miles, I used an “as the cro w f lies” map to see where I could get to. This was a lot of hard work but I found I could reach the Georges river to get Angasi oysters that had been growing there for thousands of years. I also made it just to the coast and got rock snapper from a local fisherman. Some more meat from the local butcher/farmer also some eggs and chickens. I tried to get some suckling pig but the local producer had sold everything to a local restaurant for their porchetta special, they couldn’t even give me one. A restaurant owner who had vines out the back at La Vigna wines at Camden, was producing terrific wine. Another very interesting adventure with local farmers for apples, cashews, vegetables, a quirky olive grower who made amazing baked ricotta and grew the best lemons, his extra virgin olive oil was so peppery and full of flavour. We brew our own beer, so that was an easy one, 6 brews at present, our cellarman learnt to brew beer after being taught by a master brewer…..he sort of did an apprenticeship. This gave me a higher profile amongst the local farmers and producers and certainly provided me a greater insight into the challenges they had. After this experience I decided to build another kitchen garden, the past 2 fell apart, got neglected or were run over by trucks. So I sought advice from gardeners on how to construct the perfect garden that would be easier to look after, raised beds, pebbles, peat moss for wicking and top soil, auto watering. After 6 months I have had few issues, produce grows, bugs are just not there and weeds are minimal yet easy to weed. No sore backs and knees as it’s all up high and a bonus, it’s easy for the chefs to pick what they want.
Through winter we didn’t need to buy any coriander, chervil, thyme, lemon thyme, sage, violas, rosemary and watercress. All herbs are fresh and keep growing from week to week. I continually go on producers tours to various places and take my chefs with me, Olive growers like alto olives, learning the old way Potato seed farmers developing new potatoes over 5 years to a crop Lamb farming using modern techniques (the aboriginal land care methods) to give better flavour Specialised alpine strawberries and pineapple strawberries, wasabi and other organic produce Free range pork growers of suckling pigs from the Hawkesbury Chef grower who used to own the Longrain restaurants Marty Boetz Be inspired by Costa on sustainability We buy a wagyu cow every 6 weeks from a local farmer and the chefs help the butcher cut and mince to make sausages, a great experience for them. Yelverton trufferie for the chefs to experience what the hype is about, hunting and dining on truffles Dairy farms like country valley a local producer of such rich milk Making butter with fresh cream Learning about whisky
Last weekend I j oined fellow chefs on a producer’s tour of the Eyre Peninsula where the most amazing seafood in Australia grows, the waters are so pure and full of nutrients that things like oysters grow at a faster rate than other areas. The area is famous for the Spencer Gulf prawns, Hiramasa Kingfish, Southern Blue Fin Tuna, Southern Rock Lobster and others like calamari, sardines, abalone, oysters, blue mussel. It is so important for chefs and those involved in this great industry to actually know where the food comes from and how it is produced and what that cost is. So many of us think cheap is best, prawns from Vietnam, apples from China, frozen pork legs from Canada, ham from Canada….you did know that we import 75% of all our pork…that’s the cheap stuff, they add t he bone in Australia….product of Australia….well the bone is, the pork is imported. As managers of large establishments we get so caught up in cheaper cheaper and screwing everyone on prices, we need to be more responsible for our local produce, as large buyers we have the pull to change the market. The local products might be a little more but low food miles and better flavour and supporting real farmers. Not everything, just somethings, your customers will really appreciate the difference.
Fables and flavour with Paul Rifkin Executive Chef at Campbelltown Catholic Club. Going from apprentice to Head chef can be a hard road, having mentors and learning first hand from the right people is crucial to your success. So what makes a good chef? Not only cooking skills, but a mix of creativity and talent is what you need to become a good chef. Nowadays chefs have become increasingly popular, and being a successful chef no longer means just spending several hours in the kitchen, standing at the hot stove and commandeering an army of obedient staff. Hear the stories of Paul Rifkin, an experienced qualified industry chef about his journey to become a chef in the hospitality industry, and a few cooking tips along the way! My story is as Executive Chef of Campbelltown Catholic Club It includes: Campbelltown Golf Club Aquafit fitness and leisure centre Rydges Campbelltown The Cube convention and entertainment centre Campbelltown Catholic Club There are 7 restaurants and 10 function rooms 3,000 seats 13,000 meals a week 150 catering staff $14.5M F&B
My role is: Executive Chef Catering Manager Cost Controller Purchasing Manager Kitchen Designer I have: 4 Head chefs 1 Executive sous chef/Banquet chef 3 Sous Chefs 8 Supervisors So how does one get to this position? Ancient history archaeology and Latin at Sydney university Electronics TV servicing Kitchenhand Ukrainian restaurant in Darlinghurst Fine dining in Townsville Staff cook on Dunk Island Head chef at 22 of a 70 seater in Kirribilli Vegetable chef at The Manor House Balmain Then dessert chef Then Sous Chef Then Executive chef picking up 3 gold plate awards and in the top 10 in Australia for the 4 years as Executive Chef, radio show on 2GB Boutique hotel 4.5 star 60 room 120 room 4 star 2 250 seat modern Australian cuisine restaurants 11 km apart The Olympic village TAFE CCC
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