That television chef and farmer Matthew Evans was first and foremost a writer – no less the chief restaurant critic for the Sydney Morning Herald - is delightfully, undeniably, clear, from the first few paragraphs of this glorious celebration of food – real food.
As one whose twin passions (beyond family, home and hearth) are food and writing, I felt uplifted just from reading the prologue. The writing is concise and compelling; the message it contains coincides directly with my own philosophy of food, family, community and climate change.
No surprises there; for Evans lives in the same small Tasmanian community as I did for more than a decade from my late teens until we came to live in New Zealand in the mid-80s.
Cygnet, once famous for being home of the largest concentration of Catholics in Australia; became something of a hippie enclave in the early 1970s. Around that time, we bought a bush block there, and hewed a little log cabin from the surrounding bush. It’s now a blueberry farm; and that gives a clue to how the hippie haven founded on notions of self-sufficiency and living in harmony with the land, morphed into a gourmet paradise for real food enthusiasts.
Somebody once said that where the hippies go, so too do the real estate prices. And by the time Matthew Evans moved to Cygnet around 2007 to establish his Fat Pig Farm, land prices had rocketed. They continue to increase exponentially, in part because he helped put the sleepy hollow on the map, featuring it in his television series, Gourmet Farmer. Of course, I had long since changed countries and our paths did not cross, although I sometimes tuned in to the series to see familiar faces and places, as Evans established the farm, and cooked local produce, often working alongside established growers, fishers, farmers, bakers and cheesemakers.
At the heart of Evan’s food philosophy is sustainable practice. And he credits milk as being at the heart of his lightbulb moment; the start of his own real food journey. Evans begins the recipe section of the book (by far the greatest portion; even as his writing on any topic is equally delicious) with Dairy. Oh, my! feast your eyes; fill your boots; forget for a moment the conundrum we face in this country with a love of all things bovine and the often-attendant realities of dirty dairy practices. Find yourself a good, reliable organic producer and reward their respect for our shared place with your purchases. Make your own yoghurt, ricotta, creamy custard, cream, raita, buttermilk and clotted cream, directly from these gloriously-illustrated pages.
This is an outstanding book. And as he weaves along through the food categories – grains, pulses, eggs, meats etc, each as bountiful as the dairy section, Evan’s anecdotes, beliefs and philosophies about the growing, sharing and eating of food will fill you up with happiness. Perhaps the book will seed productive thoughts of how you can also change your relationship with the food you eat.
Hopefully it will inspire you to grow, cook and share locally-grown, sustainably-produced food in a way that is as much about a full heart as it is about a full belly.
Reviewer: Peta Stavelli
Allen & Unwin