- 2 months ago
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00:00it doesn't seem that long ago that I was workshopping names for my eatery some
00:09common threads I feel like French is performing strong I think we leave them
00:13on the wall and we let it sit with us yeah all right well I couldn't settle on
00:18a name back then it's now decision time all right the name I know I started off
00:24with these eight but it sounds like we've kind of outgrown them I agonized
00:28over the name for the eatery for a really long time I had all of these contenders
00:33and then none of them felt quite right there's been an outlier essentially I
00:38just want a word that sounds really nice to say like sounds good in your mouth yeah
00:43then one day I was drinking this bottle of wine and it was from a vineyard called
00:47Le Lou Michaux in the Jura and I was just like that's beautiful words I googled it
00:52and I found out that it's a fossilized rock with bivalves and things in it
00:56randomly I bought a brass door knocker in this shape of a scallop shell it's been
01:01on the door since day one and it's kind of become a symbol of the eatery so I've
01:06landed on that as the name I've decided to call it Lou Michaux I think it's great I
01:11love it so there you have it my new eatery now has a name welcome to Lou Michaux
01:18I'm Annalise Gregory and for 20 years my career as a chef took me around the globe oh yeah it's not
01:26bad a little while ago I started my new life in a small Tasmanian timber cottage I fall in love
01:34with romantic projects and this is definitely one of them and now I'm ready to take on even bigger
01:40challenges blending my chef life with my farm life not for you and opening an eatery to the public right
01:46here in my home I'm hoping to give people an experience something that speaks to them the
01:54five is amazing I want to give them something that's beyond food I was gonna love it I want
02:00to fill my brand new eatery with the best Tasmanian produce inspired by my love of hunting fishing and wild
02:07cooking my new life in a quiet corner of Tasmania turned upside down when I decided to open an eatery
02:19to the public in a part of my old timber home so this is it oh hey it seemed like a great idea and
02:27a way to sustain my new life the journey of sourcing amazing produce has been hectic feels really worrying
02:36being this close to this many bees and a lot of fun thank you I can't fix this but now with 10 guests
02:46about to arrive for lunch the reality of my decision is hitting hard it's been such an incredibly busy
02:51time recently that I feel like I haven't had a single moment to myself there's been so much
02:56happening in terms of painting building renovating testing dishes finding ingredients all kinds of
03:02things that have all been sort of coming together I suppose to this moment there's still so much to
03:08do to be able to pull off a meal and to get it off the ground that includes tidying up the yard giving
03:16the eatery a touch-up and sourcing fresh wallaby meat to use as the centerpiece of the menu now there's
03:23been a bit of a journey hopefully we can achieve a lot and yeah days who knows for me wallaby was
03:28something entirely new that I'd never cooked with before I moved to Tasmania we've got wallaby topside
03:34fillets some mints yep perfect I just think it's a really delicious protein that's not thought about
03:41or widely used enough the following days are a whirlwind of activity as I visit a farmers market 200
03:49grams of something slightly less in army thank you thank you pick up sheep milk from a neighbor oh
03:55they're still warm yeah it's wild okay thank you that'll come in handy for a dessert and I find time
04:03to buy essential items including aprons that was the best they had one oh so it's like they're fresh
04:09they're super right with nine then later I workshop my menu with Kobe this is how we do all of our recipe
04:16testing and menu rising and Keena with the mascot and we end the prep work in the kitchen it's very
04:24odd that you do all of this preparation and then the epiphany or the moment where you're like oh I
04:30think we're nearly there sometimes that takes ages to happen you can't control that moment when you
04:34suddenly feel on top of things it often doesn't happen until the day of the service so we'll pack down
04:42you go to town and do things I will feed Keena and do the normal stuff and then we can pick
04:48today is the big day after months of planning my first 10 guests will be here in four hours
04:58I think when the eatery opens that my life will change dramatically again it might be good for me
05:07I have the ingredients and I've worked out my recipes now it's time to reveal my menu to Nikki
05:15who'll be greeting and serving the guests I never write my menus until the morning of an event because
05:21there's so many variables that can change you know it could be produce based it could be fish it could
05:26be me changing a dish but I think I finally got it on lockdown so I'm gonna go write the menus with Nikki
05:31all right menu menu crunch time yeah so first of all outside snack we've got the Gouges then indoor
05:42snacks we've got the tomato water in the small glass um scallops down the center of the table then there
05:48will be veg plates I think when you're cooking in Tasmania it's always a situation of kind of forced
05:54creativity you know you're in this box if you're committed to using Tasmanian produce and these are
06:00things that you have available to you then move into desserts there'll be the sheep's milk ice cream
06:04and the madeleines yeah perfect so here's the menu we're going to start with gougere followed by a
06:12tomato water broth scallops crudités war snapper abalone pizza octopus wallaby petivier and for dessert a
06:23sheep's milk ice cream and whiskey madeleines the wallaby was a new thing that I haven't tried before
06:30so I thought of making it into a petivier that means enlisting Kobe as an assistant to help prepare
06:36the petivier it was kind of like a fancy wallaby pie essentially mustard let's do it yeah just an
06:43idea that had been knocking around in my head for oh about six years that I just wanted to try
06:49it's now a little after 10. that means the guests will be here in less than three hours
06:55because today's the first day and it's taking a bit longer to get ready than
06:59I imagine it will in the future I've called in some extra help so here are the hands also helping
07:05us is assistant chef Rio kind of do need a fire tool in here don't we one of the challenges today
07:11is using my wood-fried oven to cook nine dishes for 10 people I want to put more wood on I was just
07:17holding until after you've done the corner I'm a lot more used to just working over an open fire
07:22as opposed to you know fire in small compartments like you can spend a lifetime learning an oven
07:28so a lot of equipment challenges note to HE do not dehydrate in the wood-fired oven came up
07:36outside Nikki's preparing to serve welcome drinks to the guests the table's already set and ready to go
07:42so inside the restaurant itself is looking really good it's sort of just the last outside bit so
07:46overall a tiny bit of stress but pretty good in the kitchen things are now firing up that much
07:52but with an hour to go before the guests arrive I make a mistake oh yeah I gave Kobe and Rio
07:59a piece of sechuan pepper flour which I should not have done because it makes your mouth numb and
08:04tingling you try to say from oh you try to say from pepper flour before so we all lost our taste buds
08:11for about 45 minutes which was not ideal oh wow oh it's so numbing I don't know probably not none of
08:18us can taste anything and um we are tingling and numb yeah it was poorly timed on my part
08:27some time on the morning of the soft opening I was like okay we're ready enough this is definitely
08:38going to happen it's a little after one o'clock everybody is fashionably late but I can hear their
08:47voices coming up the driveway which is really exciting nervous jitters let's do it let's do it ready to go
08:54after months of hard work my eatery is welcoming its first guest come on over join the foray
09:01everyone's looking so fabulous you have to make a grand entrance right come on over let's get you
09:05a little refreshment at least the gin is from a batch I created with my friends at taylor and smith
09:10using flowering kunzia I foraged and honey from my bees hello folks how are you going sorry the bar's
09:16hidden back here I really should have put it at the front how's it going yeah really great yeah very
09:21good today is what we call a soft opening so I've invited some locals and for a little extra pressure
09:27one of Australia's best chefs my old boss peter gilmore and his wife calf was very daunting to
09:33have him there the tiny restaurant here is a very different project from key or been along or any of
09:40the places that pete has I would be ecstatic if he loves it and can see why I'm doing it and see the
09:46reasons behind it welcome to lou michelle we really really really appreciate you coming today it's
09:52really exciting to have you here we can't wait to get you in there for lunch thanks very good yeah
10:03the first 10 guests are here they're on the lawn I'm currently avoiding them inside
10:07and I'm hoping that the gougers just cook a little bit quicker with the gougers baked and ready
10:12it's time to meet the guests stepping onto the deck and outside my comfort zone hi thank you for
10:21coming to the soft opening of lou michelle today which is what we finally decided to name her yep
10:26I've made you some gougers with cheese from algar farm when I came out with the tray of gougers and
10:31all of the guests were there on the stairs it just felt really overwhelming I didn't know what to say
10:36or do um I had the urge to go straight back inside and just close the door behind me with the bubbles
10:48flowing the first thing I want to do is say hello to peter great to be here okay good yeah getting
10:55there excellent yeah excellent just been a very busy couple of months it's been a long time in the making
11:00oh it's great it's great to see it all come together oh thank you I probably have something
11:06in the oven that I need to be here I'll be back with the gougers served it's now time to come inside
11:13feel free to filter in whenever you're ready it's free seating so whoever you like the most you know
11:17get in there my guests will all sit around one table sharing the meal together I don't think of it
11:24as a restaurant like I'm calling it an eatery but that's only because I need to call it something
11:28I really see it as people coming over to my house to eat I see it as a meal and an experience and less
11:36as a restaurant experience after starting with tomato water broth topped with passion fruit marigold
11:49so fast next it's Tasmanian scallops these are scallops cooked in wakame butter just cooked in the
11:55firebox the essie and we're serving them on um antique bread paddle oh wow
12:05yeah delicious so we're just about to put down the third snack so far so good
12:15then it's time to put the wallaby pitivier in the oven
12:18hi one sec i'm just gonna put the um the racks oh if they fit you want to try okay
12:28oh okay all right no you're right it's it's fine
12:32it's gonna have to the cooking of the wallaby pitivier was pretty difficult especially
12:38with an oven that i'm not super familiar with we will top it up now and then hope that it's
12:43burnt down a bit right then oh you know you're trying to monitor like the puff pastry cooking
12:49but also the temperature of the meat inside while i leave the pitivier to bake in the oven
12:54it's time to serve the corn and crayfish
12:59these are baby corns from northern Tasmania with fresh crayfish and brassica flowers from provenance
13:06growers so really simple again just cooked in the firebox everything is wood fired today
13:18then it's a delicate vegetable plate or crudités
13:24followed by the snapper this is a snapper that i've given a light cure and then a little cold smoke too
13:31i thinly sliced the snapper and kobe adds nasturtium leaves and places the fish in a bowl
13:36before adding a garden sauce this dish does not have a name we made it up yesterday so i wanted to do
13:42something just like a raw tasmanian fish kind of sashimi style but like sashimi meets the garden
13:50really fresh and herbal and vegetal it was interesting having the table in the eatery full of
13:56people like they really filled the space with conversation and laughter and you know they
14:03brought the vibe with them looks like you're at someone's house i mean you are
14:12yeah they made it feel warm and convivial by now my juggling act is in full swing the thing is
14:20you always have to be one step ahead it's kind of like chess so raw fish is nearly ready to go out and
14:25now we're preparing to do the abalone pizza so the pizza oven needs to be on we need to have the dough
14:30ready to go all the garnishes ready to go so we can roll seamlessly into it ideally do not forget
14:35the petivias do not forget the petivias do not forget the petivias this is just some snapper i've
14:42given it a light cure and i really like cold smoke and i made a juice out of everything in the garden
14:47so there's a lot of wild fennel in there and nasturtiums and spigarello and stuff like that
14:55with the snapper going down a treat i sneak outside to prepare pizzas topped with delicious
15:01tasmanian abalone i'm just testing the first abalone pizza in the pizza oven i have never
15:07done this before so i'm trying to figure out the system
15:11um there is an abalone pizza over here there's a few bees but also pizza i'm allergic to bees
15:19one sting could be really bad for me epi pen is in the house if we need it but i soldier on until
15:36i'm in the middle of lunch cooking for 10 guests for the opening of my eatery when
15:41my worst nightmare bees when there was honey and bees on my hand it was like white hot panic we're a
15:51good 40 minutes away from the hospital here i could go into anaphylaxis if one of them stings me i picked
15:58up one of your plates and there were bees all over the bottom of them and they went all over my hands and
16:02i just threw it that's okay did you get some no i broke one of your plates no i feel really bad
16:11for me to be out of action would be really bad in that moment probably the one of the worst things
16:19that could have happened thankfully the damage was one broken plate and not a bee sting
16:25fantastic while the guests enjoy the pizzas i check on the main event the wallaby
16:32no they can go longer um should we go eight minutes it was nice to see people in the room
16:38finally after all this time thinking about all the different ways that this could go go well or go
16:43badly while the petivier were now ready there was one thing i forgot we're gonna have to rest for
16:49like an hour i'm sitting gonna serve it's food show probably not the best idea to make it for the
16:56first time for an event like that it is what it is we're going faster than we thought we were going
17:01to be you know you live and you learn we're just playing the octopus dish which is something that i've
17:07been doing for a while it's one that i actually know how to do not that i just made up and so this is
17:12octopus it's been chai grilled in the firebox of the assy and then it's just served with some ajo blanco
17:18smoked macadamia nuts and pickled currants kind of a play on like sweet and sour
17:29it's really good finally it was the moment of truth for my petivier
17:33yeah okay that's all right the quarters yep and quarters there's definitely a sense of relief
17:43there's a wallaby top side underneath there's some sepoy cabbage and then there's a like a style of
17:49fast or sausage made from wallaby and pork with lots of wild fennel in it i then add a sauce with a
17:54touch of quince jelly garnish with edible flowers from my garden and it's ready to serve this looks
18:00fantastic okay this one is a wallaby petivier i'm trying to make wallaby more accessible to the
18:09people you know i championed wallaby a bit but i was like maybe not enough and that is the last
18:13savory course i promise gorgeous
18:19it's really nice with quince two hours in and with the guests enjoying the main course
18:30that's really delicious i realize i haven't had enough to eat and i'm running low on energy
18:37sorry we're gonna stink a bite or something yeah should we just go outside
18:40uh sure okay cool this will you come with me then okay so we grab a spare petivier it turns out i'm
18:49starving can you get a good piece mm-hmm it's delicious i think everyone's really enjoyed it okay good
19:00hearing some some fun stories some good comments happy with that pastry pastry's really good
19:06and she's filming the reality which is we will have a really quick snack while everyone's eating
19:12oh no what
19:18just staring
19:23fueled up and feeling better i'm now ready to make my dessert using my neighbor's sheep's milk
19:29cool so i'll get this in the churn kobe starts by folding a dash of whiskey into cream
19:34which i'll serve with the madeleines i then check the rest of the dessert training the ice cream to
19:40order uh because we can it's only 10 people so there's no point to pre-churn it and have it in
19:44the freezer and let it get icy or anything oh sorry being distracted um just gonna leave that to churn
19:52there will always be an ice cream course ice cream is one of my great loves in life a little bit less
19:57so since i became lactose intolerant but i still love it with the ice cream ready i scoop it into silver
20:03goblets on a warm day in the huon valley we need to move quickly just because they're going to go
20:09real fast oh really fast sorry i thought we were ready maybe we weren't quite ready to do this
20:18we've got a sheep's milk ice cream for you here while nikki presents the ice cream
20:23i've got some blackberries from just down the road a little lemon verbena over the top there
20:28i add the baked madeleines with the cream and some black currants
20:34and these are some whiskey madeleines some alga cream that i cultured and whipped with a little
20:41bit of whiskey some black currants leaf oil
20:43the acidity of the cream with the whiskey is really nice
20:53it's actually a really good time and then it was over nine dishes all done and dusted
21:00and just as i start to relax peter gives his verdict
21:04let's talk about how wonderful your meal was because it was sensational so good thank you
21:11it was really very very special so personal and and just such a intimate sort of setting it's like
21:20coming over to your place for dinner but a very elaborate dinner
21:24yeah you don't normally go to this much trouble there at least no you're right
21:29once we served the desserts i just felt a sense of relief you know um that i could finally talk
21:34to the table and not have to have my mind working about like what was next what i was meant to be
21:39doing cheers cheers guys everyone seems to have had a really nice time because you've been so caught
21:53up on what you're doing it's hard to know what kind of experience people have had but i think it's good
22:00with the service now over it was time for a quick visit from kina before a final thank you
22:07well thank you guys i mean what what an amazing experience we feel very lucky to be the first
22:11thank you so much and yes now i can sleep for a thousand years
22:16it was an exhausting day but before our guests leave i want to capture one final memory
22:22from the first sitting at lou michelle
22:28it's a nice feeling to have had an idea brought it to fruition
22:36and made it happen
22:44it's been a triumph and a relief months in the planning my eatery is now open to the public
22:50my dream is a reality
22:56the menu today was amazing the food was mind-blowing outstanding i just knew it was going to be good
23:03it's really saying hey this is this is what i love to cook this is what i believe in this is um what i
23:08have to show you i loved having the raw fish dish with the uh spike with some of the flavors from the
23:15herbs from the garden what gummy thing she did that was yum yeah the pizza i probably could have eaten
23:22nine of those it's going to be a destination restaurant that people come to tasmania to visit
23:28this was her dream to you know set up a little restaurant on her property and and you know have
23:34have animals and have have a garden and and buy from all the local neighbors and farmers
23:40yeah it was great so good so good it's gonna be really special annalise's food is is always so
23:48delicious i mean she's she's a great chef see you annalise bye love see you i really respect peter
23:55as a chef and as a mentor and it was very daunting to have him there but i'm so happy he came and that
24:01he liked my food especially the wallaby pativier cheers oh man everyone was really happy do you
24:11think that was as hard as it was going to be to be honest it was harder oh yeah then i thought it
24:16would be but i've never really cooked out of the oven before yeah or that kitchen yeah yeah this is
24:22the first time i just felt like i didn't have a spare minute to my like brain was engaged the entire
24:28time with like what's next and i didn't have time to engage with the guests which i am a little bit
24:33sad about but hopefully that's something that no as it goes on that'll change yeah i will in the future
24:38like that was the first shot like once you've done it even twice it's getting better yeah that's true
24:42that's so much easier but i couldn't have done it without you well done no one died nobody died nobody cried
24:51cooking today reminds me of my true passion using the finest and freshest ingredients to create meals
25:02that reflect who i am and what i believe in it's what i love about remote tasmania living sustainably
25:09and cooking seasonally it's been a wild ride and i've loved every step of the way i'm incredibly grateful
25:17to my community for embracing me yeah well done that'll be the best child i've ever tasted that's
25:22delicious that is really spectacular that's really good it's so good for me to be able to get this
25:28project to where it is now i've had to call in so many people's help you know i've needed the help of
25:35my neighbors i mean primarily alb it's not creaking yay gentle gating kobe friends and family tradies the
25:43local community it's taken so many people and their skills to be able to finish it where it is now
25:50it's been a crazy couple of months i'm so glad that the eatery has its first service under its belt
25:55i would never have imagined i'd be in regional tasmania opening a shared restaurant you never
26:00know what's going to happen i'm looking forward to making the eatery a success and exploring even more
26:05of what tasmania has to offer
26:35you
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