You may remember in an earlier post, that my partner chef Rachel and I got through to the finals of Clubs NSW Chef’s Table. We had our judging event on the 28th March 2011.

I got back from my holiday to Auckland on Saturday 26th March and next day(still on holidays) I went in to work to start prep for the competition. As some things really needed to be done the day before it was necessary to go in. So first up a few photos of the prep as I went along.

The first thing I needed to get on was our slow cooked feather steak. This is an oyster blade that is slow cooked then lightly compressed before being cut in to steaks. I seared the meat then sauted some vegies and garlic deglazed with a bit (ok 1.5 litres) of shiraz added a bit of stock and then covered it all and cooked it for 3 hours on a low temperature. Nice and easy dish.

I also needed to get the pannacottas set to go with the feather steak. Pannacotta, I hear you say? We needed to have mushrooms somewhere in the menu. So a little play time resulted in mushroom pannacotta with red wine jelly. First step was to make the jelly, set it and then top with the pannacotta mix which also needed to set. As we needed to have exact measurements out came the syringe to measure exactly 10 mls jelly and scales to weigh exactly 50 mls of pannacotta.

Next up was a batch of brioche dough for the bread and butter pudding. I love making this bread it is so easy.

So from the bread to the finished product, Brioche Bread and Butter puddings with Pecans, Maple Syrup and Mascarpone Ice-cream. I love making mascarpone ice cream. Sweet but with a touch of acidity from the mascarpone. Of course we made our own mascarpone, so much cheaper and tastier than bought.

Mushroom beignets to accompany our feather steak.

Some photos of how we set the room up. We had the “A Team” of waiting staff for the night Ernesto and Di. They did such a great job of setting up the restaurant and serving the meals, having them both working the floor made our job a breeze.

And finally some photos of the plated meals.

We had a great night at the awards ceremony too and congratulations to the winners Elanora Country Club – Paul Sanders & Christopher Devine.

Thanks for having a look and yes we are already starting to plan for next year!