30 GOURMET TRAVELLER
PHOTOGRAPHY MICHELE CARDAMONE (MARBLE DISTILLING CO) & GETTY IMAGES (AMANDA COHEN).French studio Atelier
BL119’s Tub Jug is not
your typical carafe.
Designed for Danish label
Muuto, the ultra-modern
vessel has the smooth,
futuristic look of plastic,
but is made out of classic
stoneware. From $70,
livingedge.com.auAmanda Cohen
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Your New York restaurant, Dirt
Candy, is well known for its creative
plant-based dishes. Has there been a
vegetable that you found really hard
to work with? A swede is basically an
angry sweet potato that’s really bitter
unless you roast it for a ridiculously
long time. But vegetables are like
Pokémon and I wanted to catch them
all, so I wound up roasting it, pickling it,
and also turning it into a fluffy mousse
to make a swede cake. It was delicious.
You’ll be in Australia for the first time
for the Gourmet Escape festival. What
will you cook at the event? Some of
our classic dishes, like the super-silky
portobello mousse that I’ve been
serving since Dirt Candy opened
its doors. And I really want to do
my tomato cake with smoked feta
if I can find the right tomatoes.
You appeared on the American and
Canadian versions of Iron Chef, but
I suspect owning a restaurant is much
tougher than competing on a TV
show, right? Running a restaurant is
harder, because a TV show ends. In a
restaurant, you can have the toughest
service of your career, but the next
morning you still need to put on your
big-girl pants and show up for work.
Strangely, running Dirt Candy for 10
years has given me an unfair advantage
on cooking competitions like Iron Chef.
Tell us about your wine list, which
features female winemakers only. My
sommelier, Lauren Friel, came up with
the idea and I loved it. Women don’t get
the same press coverage that men do in
the food and beverage business, and so
I wanted to do my tiny part. I love Marine
Leys’ organic winery, La Vignereuse,
but I also adore the wine from Domaine
Oudin, run by Nathalie, the daughter
of its founders, and then there’s Cathy
Corison, who rules Napa Valley, and
Vanya Cullen in Margaret River.
Is there a vegetable grower you enjoy
working with? I believe in working with
the vegetables anyone can get at the
grocery store. Farms are fun, but often
farm-to-table gives the impression that
you have to have magical vegetables
grown by fancy elves to make them
taste good. Mine come to me the same
way yours do: in a box, off a truck.
Vegetables don’t have to be rare or
expensive to be good. We just have to
think about cooking them differently.
Amanda Cohen appears at Gourmet
Escape in Margaret River, 8-17
November, gourmetescape.com.au
Make your own serious supply of whiskey
or bourbon in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.
Carbondale, a 40-minute drive from Aspen, is
home to Marble Distilling Co (above). Its six-day
DIY distilling program costs a hefty $17,800, but
the experience can be shared by up to six people.
You’ll select your cask and walk away with about
250 bottles. Closer to Aspen is Woody Creek
Distillers, specialist in high-end potato vodka.
Woody Creek was home to gonzo journalist Hunter
S Thompson – the distillery’s potato field is
downwind from where Thompson’s ashes
were blasted from a 47-metre tower in 2005.
Aspen is buzzing about W Aspen, the first luxe
hotel to open in the ski town for 25 years. Think
modern mountain chalet with an enviable rooftop
bar, sitting at the base of Aspen Mountain.
marbledistilling.com, woodycreekdistillers.com,
marriott.com.au
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