Food Stories – Page 3 – Dani Valent

I’ve been writing about food for almost 20 years now and I haven’t been sick of it for five minutes. Food is such a rich topic: it’s history, culture, family, sustenance, health, business, community, environment and even philosophy.

Food stories can be epic tales of migration, cool insights into technology, inspiring stories of persistence and discovery or simple insights into daily life. Food is a way of knitting together family and friends and can be shared via narrative, recipes, photos, video, audio, on the street or around a table. I love communicating about food in all these different ways: it’s rich, deep and endlessly fascinating and I learn something new with every story I write.

Truffle Tales and Ravishing Recipes

It was 2010. I was in the Otways, a couple of hours west of Melbourne, writing a story about chef George Biron and his restaurant Sunnybrae (it’s now Brae, run by chef Dan Hunter). In walked truffle farmer Steve Earl with a gelati tin. We stood around the kitchen bench and he opened the tin. It was full of truffles. We were silent. We inhaled. The aroma was heady, earthy, somehow full of soil and sky at the same time. The knobbly truffles were plump and black, gently glistening, not pretty but somehow promising. I felt a wave wash over me: I was infused with excitement, fogged with the aroma, almost intoxicated. I had to grip the bench to stop from swooning. Truffles! They are incredible.

Burgers + Education = Fun

I recently collaborated with St Kilda Burger Bar to teach St Kilda Primary School’s Year 6 students how to write a restaurant review. I talked to the kids about how I approach reviewing, explaining the importance of accuracy and fairness, and how the writer is responsible to both readers and restaurant. “It’s okay not to like something, but you need to see beyond personal preference and give useful, usable information,” I said. I also stressed the importance of tailoring writing for particular audiences, and to ‘make their words work hard’ – this is something I often think about, especially when writing short. Can one word do two jobs?

Actually – you can entertain! Five tips for throwing a stress-free casual gathering

Life is busy and schedules are jammed. You’re tired and the kids seem genetically unable to tidy up (or is that just mine?). It’s all too easy to decide you can’t possibly have people over for a meal. But think a moment. Happy memories and strong relationships are forged when you gather with friends and loved ones and allow time to enjoy one another’s company. It’s important to carve out time for these occasions.

Vadouvan Mussels – blooper!

I do everything perfectly the first time in my videos…NOT! In the interests of keeping it real, here’s a little blooper that occurred as we shot the Vadouvan Mussels. Why am I always flinging my measuring cap around!?!

Zhoug – blooper!

It might just be me but I honestly laugh every time I see this. What do I think I’m doing? I kind of remember… I wasn’t sure if the second camera was watching me put the snow peas in the Varoma and then I guess I thought if I put them in reeeeaaalllly slowly, like about as fast as it took to grow them, maybe that would somehow fix it. Or not.

How does a Michelin-starred chef think about food?

How does a Michelin-starred chef think about food? I had a long time to ponder this question over lunch at El Coq, the restaurant owned by the talented and dashing Michelin-starred chef Lorenzo Cogo. El Coq is in Vicenza, an hour or so from Venice, where I stayed for a week.

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© Dani Valent 2024