September 26, 2024 • 16 mins
He grew up in Murrurundi, and spruiks the real value of growing and utilising local produce. Paul West fondly recalls how his upbringing has shaped many of his menus in his journey as a TV chef.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
iHeart Upper Hunter.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hello, I'm Darren KATRUPI ah TV celebrities chefs. They can
make you feel one of two things, with a marvel
of their ability to whip up a masterpiece without even
having to reference a single recipe, or they can make
you feel completely inadequate and you desired pouring some pre
made microwave gravy on top of protein and three veg
(00:25):
It's about as gormet as you're ever going to get.
You instantly recognize all the big players in the TV
chef genre, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Manou, but the Upper Hunter
can lay claim to a homegrown chef who spooks the
real value of growing and utilizing local produce across his menus.
Paul West has hosted four series of River Cottage Australia.
(00:48):
It's a PATV spinoff of the popular British show created
by Hugh Fernly winning store. Paul spent his formative years
in Marhrundi and he has no doubt the region has
shaped him on many fools.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'd say it started out pretty ideally, Darren. It's a
beautiful part of the valley, as many of your listeners
would know.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I'd say one of the most beautiful.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Parts of the Hunter Valley in its entirety, And I
mean it's a little bit of a different place these
days to what it was when I was growing up,
but I think, you know, the changes is a good thing,
and I certainly enjoy going back and visiting. My family
are all in Scone these days, so I don't get
around as much as I would like.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
But I mean for a kid growing up, pretty good spot.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Only nine hundred people, great little community, good footy club
and you know, all the room in the world to
run a mark as a young kid, Yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
What forced your parents to downgrade to Scorne?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
We're going to ruffle some Scone feathers out well.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I think over the years they were just ready to
move to a slightly larger center with a little bit
more going on. But I think, you know, as much
as I love Scoring, I went to school there and
my heart will all lie with Marundi.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
What's one of your most cherished memories of growing up
in Marundi.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I think I've got a lot, but I think there's
playing the really amazing Touch footy camp on warm summer
Thursday afternoons down there at Wilson Memorial.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Oval with the with the Boys of the Blue Gilletts.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
We were all we were sponsored by one of our
mates Dads who was a carpenter and John Atkins and
my mate was Cameron Atkins Atkinson and then they we
had a team called the Blue Gilletts and we're all
under eighteen and we played in the men's camp and
it's just a lot of great memories of you know, Inland,
New South Wales Barmy summer nights playing touch footy and
(02:40):
live in the dream.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Did you win?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Oh, yeah, we were good.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Well, touch footy is good, you know for sixteen year
old boys.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
It's a sport.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
It's almost built for them because it's so fast and
it prioritizes agility instead of you know, full contact rugby
league which has agility, but also you know, you need
to have the body to take deliver the.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Impact component as well.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
So I mean, I'm forty now, I'd hate to play
touch footy against the sixteen year old kid.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Did you graduate to actually play in contact rugby league?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, I played for Thoroughbreds up to under eighteens. I
played for the Mavericks as a junior. As a little
kid and then I had a couple of years off
in early high school and I played under eighteen's for
the Thoroughbreds and that was it.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That was the end of my rugby league career.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
They're still winning everything to by the way, the Thoroughbreds.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, no, I know. Yeah, my family.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
My nephew plays for the under sixers and my brother
in law is the coach, and so you know, I'm
very well abreast of.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
What the Thoroughbreds are ups here. They had a good
win over Greater in the Group twenty one Grand Final.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
As Paul approached the end of his schooling, the bright
lights of Newcastle came calling.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Well. I left when I was about seventeen and a half,
when I finished high school for my eighteenth birthday, and
I don't know, I think, like a lot of kids
that grow up in the upper Hunter Valley gravity, you know,
you follow the path of the pages of the Hunter
River down the valley and you end up in Newcastle,
and I was just.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Ready to see the broader world.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I mean, Marroande is a beautiful place and I feel
very lucky to grow up there, but you know, nine
hundred people sheltered little valley pocket there it's hardly a
snapshot of the world at large, as magical as it is.
So I moved down to Newcastle, and yeah, I started
sharehousing with some other kids from the Upper Hunter Valley
and we all kind of stuck together and lived there
(04:30):
for the next ten years, and among some other adventures
in between. But yeah, it was just wanting to go
out and kind of see what else the world has
to offer, as many young people do.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
How did you get into cooking.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I'd traveled around Australia a little bit for about a year.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
And when I was twenty one and I'd come back
to Newcastle and I was working all kinds of odd jobs.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
And I was working as.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
A kitchen hand in a restaurant and I had a
mate that was the head chef.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And I was like, wow, I.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Didn't have a trade or anything, didn't have a degree
or a trade, and as a result, I was only
you know, I could only get odd jobs.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And so I was working in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I enjoyed the pace, and I enjoyed the you know,
the kind of ribal nature of kitchens, you know, the
kind of banter and the camaraderie. And so I suggested
to my mail I was like, well, I'm a kitchen here,
wanted would you put me on as an apprentice, And
he did.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
He put me on as a first.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Year apprentice, which was a good deal for him because
all of a sudden, I had to work three times
as many hours for the same pay and still washed dishes.
So that was a good deal for him and a
good deal for me, and that got my foot in
the door in the you know, in the culinary world.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And you know, I kind of.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Worked for a couple of places in Newcastle in that
first year of my apprenticeship and then eventually, when I
got to the end of my first year, I moved
down to Melbourne and finished the rest of my trade
at a restaurant called Voodemont, which at the time was
the best restaurant in Australia.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
So yeah, that's what got me into cooking.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And now, luckily I've kind of left that world of
fine dining behind because it's a it's a very very
niche job and it's very demanding, you know, ninety hour
weeks and on your feet sixteen hours a day and
really high stress, high intensity. But you know, now I
get to use those skills that I garnered during that time.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
To do the good stuff like cook from a family
and friends.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
When it comes to early memories of food, Paul sites
his mum's cooking and Chinese dinners at the local bolo
in mar Arundi. When you started with River Cottage Australia,
it was that that almost lent itself to I suppose
more casual cooking because you're basically, I mean not that
(06:44):
fine dining doesn't necessarily grow veggies outside there their front door.
But certainly for my recollection of Rivercottage Australia, the series,
you weren't you know, it was good homely you know,
I suppose country.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, well, I think that's really what all of us
really want to eat.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
It's definitely what I want to cook.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
And I think if you know, most people were being honest,
they'd say that that's the kind of food that they
want to eat.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I mean, fine dining.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Has its place as a special trip or you know,
maybe a big occasion and it's a little bit a
bit of a novelty bit of theater. But really the
food that really sticks with us is that that hearty,
good country fair, you know, that uses fresh ingredients from
the local area.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So it was good to be able.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
To to kind of dial back the you know, the
complication of the food and just keep it nice and simple.
Even though I worked in fine dining, I worked in
you know, then the French stream of cookery, and even
the top echelons of French cookery have its roots in
farmhouse cookeries, where they're cuisine, where most cuisines originated.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Really, so I was able to take the.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Foundations that I learned in fine dining and interpret them
more into a farmhouse cook and haven't really looked back
since it's the it's the best.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Way to eat.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
And I'm very glad that I learned those skills, albeit
hard at the time, because now cooking is not a drama.
And you know, when you're when you're cooking for one
hundred and sixty people a night at a fine dining
restaurant with an ala carte menu, you know, with twenty
different cuts of meat, each one cooked to order. Then
you know, if you have a dinner party for twelve people,
you don't really have bat highlids. So it's so it's
(08:24):
easy to feed family and friends. You know, it's not
something that I stress out about having, you know, done,
the done the hard yards as a fine dining chef.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Here's your chance to either praise or maybe shame family members.
Who is the good cook in the family. Growing up
in Marando, that was definitely my mom was.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
She was the powerhouse of our kitchen.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
She was she was full time or six six days
a week in our family business at Marandai, the Marundi
Trading Post. Or then we moved on to going outdoor
products as I got a little bit older, and she would,
you know, despite working full time, should always have dinner
on the table for us every night, you know. And
when you grow up somewhere like Murra and I, you know,
(09:05):
it's not a lot of not exactly a lot of
dining out options, so you know, there was never any
you know, the od night on a Friday would go
down to the Chinese restaurant at the bowling Club. But
really it was just really good meet three vegs every
night of the week, and you know, I never never
went without and the food was always good. And so
I'm always eternally grateful for my mum for doing that.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I must admit I only ate it the Chinese at
the Bowlo a couple of months ago, and I must
say it was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Actually, ah, yeah, well, I've certainly got fond memories of it.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I remember it being a great feed there at the
bowling club and Ma, I'm really glad to hear that
it's still going strong.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Dar still to come. How did Paul actually end up
in a TV series? What he's up to now and
his role in hosting a long lunch in November for
local small landholders.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
iHeart Upper Hunter, iHeart Upper Hunter.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Welcome back. I'm Darren KATRUPI talking with chef, TV host
and homegrown enthusiast Ma run Guys Paul West ahead of
his return to the area to host a special event
for Hunter Local land Services. So how does a young
kid from the Upper Hunter end up as a co
star on a national TV show River Cottage Australia. How
(10:25):
did you actually get into, you know, going from being
a chef into being a co star on a on
a TV series.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
I like the way that he us coastar there, Darren.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
And I'm sure that you're not referring to Hugh Firleigh
winning Stool as my co star, but my famous.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Dog Digger as the truth of River Cottage.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, dig Hu, he's the best.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
So I was living in Tasmania with my now wife.
We're just boyfriend and girlfriend at the time, and her,
her cousin was a member of the Age Good Food
team and so you know, restaurant reviewing, food writer, blah
blah blah blah, and she got she sent us a
message going, oh, you know River Cottage and like, I
(11:13):
new River Coage was, you know the UK series, A
big fan of it. And she said that they're, you know,
they're making an Australian version of it and they're looking
for a host. I think you should apply, Like, I
think you'd be really good at it, so just so
you know they're looking for one, you should throw your
hat in the ring. And it was really started off
as something as simple as an online application. I kind
(11:33):
of took her advice and after a little bit of
arming and a ring, went there and applied and then
you know, one thing led to another and next thing.
I've been flowing to Sydney to do what's called screen
tests because I was on the short list. And then
I'm back in Tazzy In four weeks after the application
process began, out of thirteen hundred applicants, I've got the
(11:56):
phone call say Hey, Paul, congratulations a you're going to
be the host of River Croach Australia. We need you
to get you up back to New South Wales within
the week so we can start shooting one of those
life experiences where it turns on a dime, where one
second you go on one way and then next thing
you're pointed in a totally different direction and trajectory.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
And here I am.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
That was in twenty thirteen, you know, more than ten
years later, and you know, River Cottages, even though we're
not producing it anymore, it's still beloved by people, not
just in Australia but around the world.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
After the bright lights of a TV career, Paul and
his family and now comfortably settled on the New South
Wales far South coast.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You know, my wife and I were living in Birmaguey
where we back where we are now, and you know,
she was heavily pregnant with my second kid, and we
weren't really sure if that's you know, we were there
because that's truly where we wanted to be, or we
were there because a job had taken us there, because
you know, we didn't It wasn't home for either of
us really at that stage it had been for a
couple of years, but not really you know, somewhere where
(12:57):
we were sure that we wanted to put down routes.
So we moved up to back to Newcastle where I
spent all my twenties and to be closer to my family.
But then we also went down to Melbourne for two years,
where my wife's from. And after being away from the
South Coast for for two and a half years, we
fortunately kept our house in Burmaguey that we purchased, and
(13:18):
you know, while we made up our mind of where
we wanted to be, and eventually we just said, what
are we doing. It's paradise there on the South coast.
Let's get back to our place. And in twenty nineteen
we moved back to Burmaguwey and I can't honestly see
myself living anywhere else.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
A question my dog, Dixter has asked me to ask, how's.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Dig diggo is really good?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
He's twelve years old, he's fat, he's shiny, and he
has positioned himself as the unofficial canine mayor of Burmaguey.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So as far as our life for an older dog.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Goes, he's got a pretty pretty good one and he
you know, he hasn't really slowed down. I mean he
was never really that quick to begin with, honestly, but
he's he just kind of pokes around and makes.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Himself comfortable and lives the best life a dog could.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Live despite being far away. Now, Paul will come home
in November for a special event of the scone race Course.
He's been engaged by Hunter Local Land Services to inspire
the region's small holders many recent tree changes to grow
their own food.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
There's a lot of people or increasingly more people moving
on two smaller hobby farms, maybe with no background and
farming in the first place where they might have moved
under the tree change from the city, and so the
Local Land Services is trying to engage these people because
you know, as landholders they've got responsibilities around land management
and weed management, pest management, livestock management. So we're having
(14:39):
a long lunch out at scone a Racecourse on Saturday,
the twenty third of November. You can get your tickets
through the Upper Hunter Local Land Services. Yeah, we're going
to have a long lunch and I'm going to chat
about my experiences as a small holder with River Cottage
because it was a little twenty acre farm, and I
think it's an experience that a lot of these farmers
(15:00):
can relate to. Maybe even some of them could probably
blame me for ending up on a hobby farm. Usually
that's the case when I go to these kind of lunches.
People go, ah, you know, it's.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Your fault that we're here on this twenty acre farm.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
And now I've got pigs and chucks and geese and
turkeys and the whole shebang.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So yeah, there should be a lovely, lovely day.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I think we've got room for about one hundred and
fifty people, so there should be tickets available. Still, I reckon,
but yeah, if you want to come and say gooday,
get in touch with Laurie McKern at the local Land
Services Hunter offers and yeah, come come along.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Did you ever think growing up in mar Arundi that
one day you'd be called in inspiration?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
No? No, of course not.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
No. I mean I wasn't hard on myself or anything
as a kid growing up, but yeah, you just never knew.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
You never know where life's going to lead you, Darren.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
And I'm very very happy that in this instance it's
led me back to a place that's very near and
dear to me, the Upper Hunter Valley, South Wales.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I hear tickets to the Long Lunch have been going
like hockcakes, so it's bound to sell out, and no
surprise giving it to much loved local who's headlining the event.
That's a wrap on another episode, proudly supported by the
new South Wales government. I'm Darren KATRUPI off to cook
and eat something homely now, Thanks Paul, see you next time.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
iHeart Alba Hunter
iHeart Upper Hunter.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hello, I'm Darren KATRUPI ah TV celebrities chefs. They can
make you feel one of two things, with a marvel
of their ability to whip up a masterpiece without even
having to reference a single recipe, or they can make
you feel completely inadequate and you desired pouring some pre
made microwave gravy on top of protein and three veg
(00:25):
It's about as gormet as you're ever going to get.
You instantly recognize all the big players in the TV
chef genre, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Manou, but the Upper Hunter
can lay claim to a homegrown chef who spooks the
real value of growing and utilizing local produce across his menus.
Paul West has hosted four series of River Cottage Australia.
(00:48):
It's a PATV spinoff of the popular British show created
by Hugh Fernly winning store. Paul spent his formative years
in Marhrundi and he has no doubt the region has
shaped him on many fools.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I'd say it started out pretty ideally, Darren. It's a
beautiful part of the valley, as many of your listeners
would know.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I'd say one of the most beautiful.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Parts of the Hunter Valley in its entirety, And I
mean it's a little bit of a different place these
days to what it was when I was growing up,
but I think, you know, the changes is a good thing,
and I certainly enjoy going back and visiting. My family
are all in Scone these days, so I don't get
around as much as I would like.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
But I mean for a kid growing up, pretty good spot.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Only nine hundred people, great little community, good footy club
and you know, all the room in the world to
run a mark as a young kid, Yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
What forced your parents to downgrade to Scorne?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
We're going to ruffle some Scone feathers out well.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I think over the years they were just ready to
move to a slightly larger center with a little bit
more going on. But I think, you know, as much
as I love Scoring, I went to school there and
my heart will all lie with Marundi.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
What's one of your most cherished memories of growing up
in Marundi.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I think I've got a lot, but I think there's
playing the really amazing Touch footy camp on warm summer
Thursday afternoons down there at Wilson Memorial.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Oval with the with the Boys of the Blue Gilletts.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
We were all we were sponsored by one of our
mates Dads who was a carpenter and John Atkins and
my mate was Cameron Atkins Atkinson and then they we
had a team called the Blue Gilletts and we're all
under eighteen and we played in the men's camp and
it's just a lot of great memories of you know, Inland,
New South Wales Barmy summer nights playing touch footy and
(02:40):
live in the dream.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Did you win?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Oh, yeah, we were good.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Well, touch footy is good, you know for sixteen year
old boys.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
It's a sport.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
It's almost built for them because it's so fast and
it prioritizes agility instead of you know, full contact rugby
league which has agility, but also you know, you need
to have the body to take deliver the.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Impact component as well.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
So I mean, I'm forty now, I'd hate to play
touch footy against the sixteen year old kid.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Did you graduate to actually play in contact rugby league?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, I played for Thoroughbreds up to under eighteens. I
played for the Mavericks as a junior. As a little
kid and then I had a couple of years off
in early high school and I played under eighteen's for
the Thoroughbreds and that was it.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That was the end of my rugby league career.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
They're still winning everything to by the way, the Thoroughbreds.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, no, I know. Yeah, my family.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
My nephew plays for the under sixers and my brother
in law is the coach, and so you know, I'm
very well abreast of.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
What the Thoroughbreds are ups here. They had a good
win over Greater in the Group twenty one Grand Final.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
As Paul approached the end of his schooling, the bright
lights of Newcastle came calling.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Well. I left when I was about seventeen and a half,
when I finished high school for my eighteenth birthday, and
I don't know, I think, like a lot of kids
that grow up in the upper Hunter Valley gravity, you know,
you follow the path of the pages of the Hunter
River down the valley and you end up in Newcastle,
and I was just.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Ready to see the broader world.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I mean, Marroande is a beautiful place and I feel
very lucky to grow up there, but you know, nine
hundred people sheltered little valley pocket there it's hardly a
snapshot of the world at large, as magical as it is.
So I moved down to Newcastle, and yeah, I started
sharehousing with some other kids from the Upper Hunter Valley
and we all kind of stuck together and lived there
(04:30):
for the next ten years, and among some other adventures
in between. But yeah, it was just wanting to go
out and kind of see what else the world has
to offer, as many young people do.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
How did you get into cooking.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
I'd traveled around Australia a little bit for about a year.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
And when I was twenty one and I'd come back
to Newcastle and I was working all kinds of odd jobs.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
And I was working as.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
A kitchen hand in a restaurant and I had a
mate that was the head chef.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And I was like, wow, I.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Didn't have a trade or anything, didn't have a degree
or a trade, and as a result, I was only
you know, I could only get odd jobs.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And so I was working in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I enjoyed the pace, and I enjoyed the you know,
the kind of ribal nature of kitchens, you know, the
kind of banter and the camaraderie. And so I suggested
to my mail I was like, well, I'm a kitchen here,
wanted would you put me on as an apprentice, And
he did.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
He put me on as a first.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Year apprentice, which was a good deal for him because
all of a sudden, I had to work three times
as many hours for the same pay and still washed dishes.
So that was a good deal for him and a
good deal for me, and that got my foot in
the door in the you know, in the culinary world.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
And you know, I kind of.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Worked for a couple of places in Newcastle in that
first year of my apprenticeship and then eventually, when I
got to the end of my first year, I moved
down to Melbourne and finished the rest of my trade
at a restaurant called Voodemont, which at the time was
the best restaurant in Australia.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
So yeah, that's what got me into cooking.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
And now, luckily I've kind of left that world of
fine dining behind because it's a it's a very very
niche job and it's very demanding, you know, ninety hour
weeks and on your feet sixteen hours a day and
really high stress, high intensity. But you know, now I
get to use those skills that I garnered during that time.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
To do the good stuff like cook from a family
and friends.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
When it comes to early memories of food, Paul sites
his mum's cooking and Chinese dinners at the local bolo
in mar Arundi. When you started with River Cottage Australia,
it was that that almost lent itself to I suppose
more casual cooking because you're basically, I mean not that
(06:44):
fine dining doesn't necessarily grow veggies outside there their front door.
But certainly for my recollection of Rivercottage Australia, the series,
you weren't you know, it was good homely you know,
I suppose country.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, well, I think that's really what all of us
really want to eat.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
It's definitely what I want to cook.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
And I think if you know, most people were being honest,
they'd say that that's the kind of food that they
want to eat.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I mean, fine dining.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Has its place as a special trip or you know,
maybe a big occasion and it's a little bit a
bit of a novelty bit of theater. But really the
food that really sticks with us is that that hearty,
good country fair, you know, that uses fresh ingredients from
the local area.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
So it was good to be able.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
To to kind of dial back the you know, the
complication of the food and just keep it nice and simple.
Even though I worked in fine dining, I worked in
you know, then the French stream of cookery, and even
the top echelons of French cookery have its roots in
farmhouse cookeries, where they're cuisine, where most cuisines originated.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Really, so I was able to take the.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Foundations that I learned in fine dining and interpret them
more into a farmhouse cook and haven't really looked back
since it's the it's the best.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Way to eat.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
And I'm very glad that I learned those skills, albeit
hard at the time, because now cooking is not a drama.
And you know, when you're when you're cooking for one
hundred and sixty people a night at a fine dining
restaurant with an ala carte menu, you know, with twenty
different cuts of meat, each one cooked to order. Then
you know, if you have a dinner party for twelve people,
you don't really have bat highlids. So it's so it's
(08:24):
easy to feed family and friends. You know, it's not
something that I stress out about having, you know, done,
the done the hard yards as a fine dining chef.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Here's your chance to either praise or maybe shame family members.
Who is the good cook in the family. Growing up
in Marando, that was definitely my mom was.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
She was the powerhouse of our kitchen.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
She was she was full time or six six days
a week in our family business at Marandai, the Marundi
Trading Post. Or then we moved on to going outdoor
products as I got a little bit older, and she would,
you know, despite working full time, should always have dinner
on the table for us every night, you know. And
when you grow up somewhere like Murra and I, you know,
(09:05):
it's not a lot of not exactly a lot of
dining out options, so you know, there was never any
you know, the od night on a Friday would go
down to the Chinese restaurant at the bowling Club. But
really it was just really good meet three vegs every
night of the week, and you know, I never never
went without and the food was always good. And so
I'm always eternally grateful for my mum for doing that.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I must admit I only ate it the Chinese at
the Bowlo a couple of months ago, and I must
say it was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Actually, ah, yeah, well, I've certainly got fond memories of it.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I remember it being a great feed there at the
bowling club and Ma, I'm really glad to hear that
it's still going strong.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Dar still to come. How did Paul actually end up
in a TV series? What he's up to now and
his role in hosting a long lunch in November for
local small landholders.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
iHeart Upper Hunter, iHeart Upper Hunter.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Welcome back. I'm Darren KATRUPI talking with chef, TV host
and homegrown enthusiast Ma run Guys Paul West ahead of
his return to the area to host a special event
for Hunter Local land Services. So how does a young
kid from the Upper Hunter end up as a co
star on a national TV show River Cottage Australia. How
(10:25):
did you actually get into, you know, going from being
a chef into being a co star on a on
a TV series.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
I like the way that he us coastar there, Darren.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
And I'm sure that you're not referring to Hugh Firleigh
winning Stool as my co star, but my famous.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Dog Digger as the truth of River Cottage.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, dig Hu, he's the best.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
So I was living in Tasmania with my now wife.
We're just boyfriend and girlfriend at the time, and her,
her cousin was a member of the Age Good Food
team and so you know, restaurant reviewing, food writer, blah
blah blah blah, and she got she sent us a
message going, oh, you know River Cottage and like, I
(11:13):
new River Coage was, you know the UK series, A
big fan of it. And she said that they're, you know,
they're making an Australian version of it and they're looking
for a host. I think you should apply, Like, I
think you'd be really good at it, so just so
you know they're looking for one, you should throw your
hat in the ring. And it was really started off
as something as simple as an online application. I kind
(11:33):
of took her advice and after a little bit of
arming and a ring, went there and applied and then
you know, one thing led to another and next thing.
I've been flowing to Sydney to do what's called screen
tests because I was on the short list. And then
I'm back in Tazzy In four weeks after the application
process began, out of thirteen hundred applicants, I've got the
(11:56):
phone call say Hey, Paul, congratulations a you're going to
be the host of River Croach Australia. We need you
to get you up back to New South Wales within
the week so we can start shooting one of those
life experiences where it turns on a dime, where one
second you go on one way and then next thing
you're pointed in a totally different direction and trajectory.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
And here I am.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
That was in twenty thirteen, you know, more than ten
years later, and you know, River Cottages, even though we're
not producing it anymore, it's still beloved by people, not
just in Australia but around the world.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
After the bright lights of a TV career, Paul and
his family and now comfortably settled on the New South
Wales far South coast.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You know, my wife and I were living in Birmaguey
where we back where we are now, and you know,
she was heavily pregnant with my second kid, and we
weren't really sure if that's you know, we were there
because that's truly where we wanted to be, or we
were there because a job had taken us there, because
you know, we didn't It wasn't home for either of
us really at that stage it had been for a
couple of years, but not really you know, somewhere where
(12:57):
we were sure that we wanted to put down routes.
So we moved up to back to Newcastle where I
spent all my twenties and to be closer to my family.
But then we also went down to Melbourne for two years,
where my wife's from. And after being away from the
South Coast for for two and a half years, we
fortunately kept our house in Burmaguey that we purchased, and
(13:18):
you know, while we made up our mind of where
we wanted to be, and eventually we just said, what
are we doing. It's paradise there on the South coast.
Let's get back to our place. And in twenty nineteen
we moved back to Burmaguwey and I can't honestly see
myself living anywhere else.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
A question my dog, Dixter has asked me to ask, how's.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Dig diggo is really good?
Speaker 3 (13:35):
He's twelve years old, he's fat, he's shiny, and he
has positioned himself as the unofficial canine mayor of Burmaguey.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
So as far as our life for an older dog.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Goes, he's got a pretty pretty good one and he
you know, he hasn't really slowed down. I mean he
was never really that quick to begin with, honestly, but
he's he just kind of pokes around and makes.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Himself comfortable and lives the best life a dog could.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Live despite being far away. Now, Paul will come home
in November for a special event of the scone race Course.
He's been engaged by Hunter Local Land Services to inspire
the region's small holders many recent tree changes to grow
their own food.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
There's a lot of people or increasingly more people moving
on two smaller hobby farms, maybe with no background and
farming in the first place where they might have moved
under the tree change from the city, and so the
Local Land Services is trying to engage these people because
you know, as landholders they've got responsibilities around land management
and weed management, pest management, livestock management. So we're having
(14:39):
a long lunch out at scone a Racecourse on Saturday,
the twenty third of November. You can get your tickets
through the Upper Hunter Local Land Services. Yeah, we're going
to have a long lunch and I'm going to chat
about my experiences as a small holder with River Cottage
because it was a little twenty acre farm, and I
think it's an experience that a lot of these farmers
(15:00):
can relate to. Maybe even some of them could probably
blame me for ending up on a hobby farm. Usually
that's the case when I go to these kind of lunches.
People go, ah, you know, it's.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Your fault that we're here on this twenty acre farm.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
And now I've got pigs and chucks and geese and
turkeys and the whole shebang.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So yeah, there should be a lovely, lovely day.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I think we've got room for about one hundred and
fifty people, so there should be tickets available. Still, I reckon,
but yeah, if you want to come and say gooday,
get in touch with Laurie McKern at the local Land
Services Hunter offers and yeah, come come along.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Did you ever think growing up in mar Arundi that
one day you'd be called in inspiration?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
No? No, of course not.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
No. I mean I wasn't hard on myself or anything
as a kid growing up, but yeah, you just never knew.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
You never know where life's going to lead you, Darren.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
And I'm very very happy that in this instance it's
led me back to a place that's very near and
dear to me, the Upper Hunter Valley, South Wales.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I hear tickets to the Long Lunch have been going
like hockcakes, so it's bound to sell out, and no
surprise giving it to much loved local who's headlining the event.
That's a wrap on another episode, proudly supported by the
new South Wales government. I'm Darren KATRUPI off to cook
and eat something homely now, Thanks Paul, see you next time.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
iHeart Alba Hunter
Popular Podcasts
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.