She makes food about fun – whether it’s her iconic Bondi Bikkies (our favourite, Jaffer Crush - double choc orange with smashed Jaffas!)– or her outdoor adventure cooking that feels like the idyllic family holidays of your childhood.
Here, in an interview conducted earlier this year, Robin Powell introduces us to the best cook you’ve never heard of, Sarah Glover
An interview with Robin Powell, first Published in the Garden Clinic Summer issue 44.
Meet Sarah Glover. The latest export from the Apple Isle. Photo - Luisa Brimble
Is Bondi Bikkies still your bread and butter, or should that be cookies and coffee?
I’ve scaled it down a bit, so we’re only supplying 20 cafes at the moment, just while I’m writing my first cookbook. It’s called Wild, and will be out
next April. It’s all about outdoor, adventure-based eating, inspiring people to get out into the wilderness and create memories with friends and family
using produce they find along the way.
Sunday roast Glover style. Photo - Luisa Brimble
One of the recipes in the book is a warrigal greens sauce. How did that come about?
I first discovered warrigal greens about three years ago through a surfer friend of mine who lives in Coolangatta. We cooked up a warrigal pasta dish using
some tuna he’d caught and I kind of fell in love with it and started experimenting. I love it as a sauce with fish or braised eggs, so many different
ways.
Wow Sarah, that looks grate!(ha ha ha) Photo - Luisa Brimble
Whether it’s wild or farmed, knowing where food comes from is important to you. Did your parents grow food?
My fondest childhood memories are from when I was about six and we lived in Lauderdale in Tasmania on quite a big plot with apricots, peaches, nectarines
and a mulberry tree. There was a little veggie garden, with carrots and beans, and a strawberry patch. I spent most of my childhood running around
the garden eating whatever I could. Apparently I used to hang over the fence warning people away from the apricots!
A splendid vegetarian feast of roast pumpkin, walnuts and sage. Photo - Luisa Brimble
What did you make for dinner last night?
It was quite boring actually, rustled up in between packing for a trip to Europe. I had some beautiful bacon I’d made, so I cooked that up in a skillet,
added some kale and broad bean leaves and charred them, then threw in some eggs. Such a Sunday night meal!
What would an ideal day of summer eating taste like for you?
My favourite thing to do in the summer is to get a watermelon or pawpaw, scoop some of it into balls and then fill it with homemade coconut yoghurt and
other fruit, topped with granola. I’m a bit obsessed with my Webber bbq at the moment, it goes everywhere with me, so later I’d set up my bbq at North
Bondi rocks and make some salt water fish tacos, using sea water for the tacos, and some nice snapper, with a salsa of pineapple and radish, and anchovy
aioli and fresh mint on top. That sounds good!
Like what you see? You can join us in helping Sarah and Luisa self-publish their book with their crowd-funding campaign. All you need to do is to
pre-purchase the book at the link below. Getting involved can earn you lots of rewards too! Check it out at www.kickstarter.com/projects/wildbysarahglover/wild-adventure-cookbook
Garden Clinic editor Linda Ross discovered Sarah’s warrigal greens sauce when Sarah and her photographer, Garden Clinic friend Luisa Brimble, shot the
recipe in Linda’s kitchen. Linda scored the leftover sauce and she and the kids became instant fans. Find out why in the Garden Clinic article: Warrigal Greens