Mastering the Kitchen Garden: Creating a Seasonal Summer Menu with CHISWICK

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Sitting in Matt Moran's CHISWICK in Woollahra, you could be mistaken for thinking you were on some glorious estate in the Southern Highlands — not some 5km from the Sydney CBD. Wherever you are, floor-to-ceiling windows open onto lush greenery; on one side, there's a mini, landscaped park, on the other a thriving kitchen garden. It's the latter that drives the heart of the restaurant's menu, which is famous for its fresh, seasonal produce.

"Matt [Moran] grew up on a farm," says CHISWICK's head chef Richie Dolan. "He's a country boy, so his philosophy has always been paddock to plate — about using the best seasonal produce available."

Every morning, the chefs pick piles of herbs, leaves and veggies — and, by midday, they're on your plate. Sounds simple, but it takes a lot of time, a lot of planning and one hell of a vision to do things this way. We spoke to Richie Dolan about how CHISWICK's seasonal menu comes to life each and every service.

START FROM SCRATCH

Before CHISWICK opened in March 2012, the site was a derelict dumping ground, littered with chairs and rubbish. "But we saw there was a future for it," says Dolan, who's worked with Moran since 2005, having spent years working his way up the ranks at ARIA. "There was room for a 150-square-metre garden and, back then, Sydney didn't have anything like it. A lot of people had herb pots, but this was one-of-a-kind…We thought the garden would echo into the restaurant, where people would eat knowing the produce had been picked fresh that morning."

To achieve this vision Moran appointed Peter Hatfield as head gardener, who works across all of Moran's gardens and restaurants, including Opera Bar and CHISWICK at the Gallery. In Woollahra though, he had to start from scratch — so, with the exception of some lilli pilly and one citrus tree, every plant you see began as a seed or seedling. "Peter's been gardening for years," says Dolan. "He has the talent and patience, and knows exactly when everything's going to be ready."

WRITE SEASONAL MENUS

With the garden visible from CHISWICK's kitchen, Dolan and Moran design their menus according to whatever's growing. "I have a chat with Peter about six weeks before the next menu's due to start," says Dolan. "He tells me what's going to be around and I tell him what I'd like to have planted...and I then write dishes for the season."

But it's not all that simple. "You do have to be adaptable," he says. "In Australia, the seasons aren't as clean cut as they are in Europe. The asparagus season, for example, comes in and out really quickly, so we change the dishes as the best of the best produce comes and goes."

Right now, summery plates are garnished with green basil, radishes, all kinds of leaves and serrano: a tiny, green chilli pepper with a big kick. Among the share dishes, you'll find kingfish sashimi with a sprightly combination of Australian shiitakes and daikon, and cabbage salad with soft organic egg and sunflower seeds, and a spanner crab linguini with sugar snaps, chilli and garlic on the mains list.

Dolan adds to these seasonal staples with weekly specials, showing off produce that's sprouted unexpectedly due to sudden changes in the weather. With Sydney's propensity for heatwaves, storms and deluges, crops can be wiped out — or appear early — without much warning. Earlier this summer, for example, the garden was delivering kilo after kilo of cherry tomatoes — until a hailstorm wiped them all out. Dolan reflects on this with pragmatism: "We just had to take it on the chin and come up with something else."

DON'T BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT

The garden is also a place to experiment and share ideas. "One day Marty Boetz, from Cooks Co-Op, came in and gave us some red vein sorrel," Dolan recounts. "We started with just a few seedlings, and now they're thriving. We put it in our salads and I use it to garnish the Moreton Bay bug, because it has a quite a citrusy flavour to it and a bit of pepper."

Meanwhile, he's waiting to find out what will happen to some newly-planted wasabi rocket, which was brought in by a diner. "She was an avid gardener from Bowral and said she had some wasabi rocket seeds she'd like to give us. So, they were planted a week ago and we're waiting for them to pop up."

USE THE GARDEN AS GUIDE

While CHISWICK's 150 square metres are extraordinarily productive, they can't provide absolutely everything. So Dolan and Moran also use the garden as a guide when they're getting in touch with local producers. "It's an indicator of what's around and what's available," Dolan says. "It's been a massive learning curve for me, seeing how long it takes for produce to grow and what it involves."

At the moment, excellent figs are growing on Mangrove Mountain, a locality on the Central Coast. Matched with apple cucumbers and balsamic, they're one of Dolan's favourite summer dishes. At the same time, CHISWICK's pastry chef, Ashleigh Smith, is transforming locally-sourced cherries into a signature cherry ripe, while fresh mangos are being turned into pavlova, served with sorbet and chocolate.

And when you know that the produce on your plate has come straight from the garden you're looking at from the window, you can appreciate it all the more. Long, summery lunches don't get much dreamier (or more delicious) than at CHISWICK.

For your chance to experience CHISWICK and Richie's produce first-hand, Concrete Playground in partnership with James Squire are putting on an epic one-off CHISWICK summer banquet on Thursday, February 25 — and we've giving 17 CP readers (and their +1 of choice) the chance to attend. You'll sit down to a five-course meal custom-made by Richie, with each course paired with a James Squire beverage.

To go in the draw, enter here. But be quick, entries close Friday, February 19.