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00:05it 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
00:43yeah then one day I was drinking this bottle of wine and it was from a vineyard
00:47called Le Lou Michaux in the Jura and I was just like that's a beautiful word so I
00:51googled it and I found out that it's a fossilized rock with bivalves and things
00:56isn't it randomly I bought a brass door knocker in this shape of a scallop shell
01:00it's been on the door since day one and it's kind of become a symbol of the eatery
01:05so I've landed on that as the name I've decided to call it Lou Michaux I think
01:11it's great I love it so there you have it my new eatery now has a name welcome to Lou
01:17Michaux
01:20I'm Annalise Gregory and for 20 years my career as a chef took me around the globe oh yeah it's
01:26not bad a
01:27little while ago I started my new life in a small Tasmanian timber cottage I fall in love with romantic
01:35projects and this is definitely one of them and now I'm ready to take on even bigger challenges
01:41blending my chef life with my farm life not for you and opening an eatery to the public right here
01:47in my home I'm hoping to give people an experience something that speaks to them the flavors are
01:54amazing I want to give them something that's beyond food I was gonna love it I want to fill my
02:01brand new
02:01eatery with the best Tasmanian produce inspired by my love of hunting fishing and wild cooking
02:13my new life in a quiet corner of Tasmania turned upside down when I decided to open an eatery to
02:20the public in a part of my old timber home so this is it oh hey it seemed like a
02:26great idea and a way
02:27to sustain my new life the journey of sourcing amazing produce has been hectic feels really
02:35worrying being this close to this many bees and a lot of fun thank you I can't fix this but
02:45now
02:45with 10 guests about to arrive for lunch the reality of my decision is hitting hard it's been such an
02:51incredibly busy time recently that I feel like I haven't had a single moment to myself there's been
02:55so much happening in terms of painting building renovating testing dishes finding ingredients all kinds
03:02of things 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
03:14the 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
03:28was
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 umami thank you thank you pick up sheep milk from a neighbor oh they're still
03:56warm yeah it's wild okay thank you that'll come in handy for a dessert and I find time to buy
04:03essential
04:04items including aprons that was the best they had one so it's like they're fresh they're super right
04:10we can iron them later I workshop my menu with Kobe this is how we do all of our recipe
04:16testing and
04:16menu writing and Keena with the mascot and we end the prep work in the kitchen
04:24it's very odd that you do all of this preparation and then the epiphany or the moment where you're
04:30like oh I think we're nearly there sometimes that takes ages to happen you can't control that moment
04:34when you suddenly feel on top of things it often doesn't happen until the day of the service so we'll
04:42pack
04:42down you go to town and do things I will feed Keena and do the normal stuff and then we
04:48can be
04:48cool today is the big day after months of planning my first 10 guests will be here in four hours
05:02I think when the eatery opens that my life will change dramatically again it might be good for me
05:09I have the ingredients and I've worked out my recipes now it's time to reveal my menu to Nikki
05:15he'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
05:26me changing a dish but I think I finally got it on lockdown so I'm gonna go write the menus
05:31with Nikki
05:31all right menu menu crunch time yeah so first of all outside snack we've got the Gouges then indoor
05:41snacks we've got the tomato water and the small glass um scallops down the center of the table then
05:47there will 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
06:00the things that you have available to you then move into desserts there'll be the sheep's milk ice
06:04cream and the madeleines yeah perfect so here's the menu we're going to start with gougere followed
06:12by a tomato water broth scallops crudités war snapper abalone pizza octopus wallaby petivier and for dessert
06:22a sheep'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 just an idea that had been knocking
06:44around in my head for oh about six years that I just wanted to try it's now a little after
06:5110 that
06:52means the guests will be here in less than three hours because today's the first day and it's taking a
06:57bit longer to get ready than I imagine it will in the future I've called in some extra help so
07:02here
07:03are the hands also helping us is assistant chef Rio kind of do need a fire tool in here don't
07:09we
07:09one of the challenges today is using my wood-fried oven to cook nine dishes for 10 people I want
07:15to
07:16put more wood on I was just holding until after you've done the corner I'm a lot more used to
07:20just
07:20working over an open fire as opposed to you know fire in small compartments like you can spend a
07:27lifetime learning an oven so a lot of equipment challenges note to AG do not dehydrate in the wood-fired
07:33oven came up outside Nikki's preparing to serve welcome drinks to the guests the table's already
07:41set and ready to go so inside the restaurant itself is looking really good it's sort of just the last
07:45outside bit so overall tiny bit of stress but pretty good in the kitchen things are now firing up
07:51that much but with an hour to go before the guests arrive and make a mistake oh yeah I gave
07:58Kobe 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 off you try to say from pepper flour before so we all lost our
08:10taste buds
08:11for about 45 minutes which was not ideal oh wow oh it's so numbing I don't know probably not none
08:18of us can taste anything and um we are tingling and numb yeah it was poorly timed on my part
08:32sometime on the morning of the soft opening I was like okay we're ready enough this is definitely
08:39going to happen it's a little after one o'clock everybody is fashionably late but I can hear
08:47their voices coming up the driveway which is really exciting nervous jitters let's do it let's do it
08:53ready to go after months of hard work my eatery is welcoming its first guests come on over join the
09:00foray everyone's looking so fabulous you have to make a grand entrance right come on over let's get you a
09:05little refreshment at least the gin is from a batch I created with my friends at Taylor and Smith using
09:11flowering Kunzia I foraged and honey from my bees hello folks how you going sorry the bars hidden back
09:17here I really should have put it at the front how's it going yeah very good today is what we
09:22call a soft
09:23opening so I've invited some locals and for a little extra pressure one of Australia's best chefs my old
09:30boss Peter Gilmore and his wife calf was very daunting to have him there the tiny restaurant
09:35here is a very different projects from key or been along or any of the places that Pete has I
09:42would
09:42be ecstatic he loves it and can see why I'm doing it and see the reasons behind it welcome to
09:50Lou
09:50Michelle we really really really appreciate you coming today it's really exciting to have you here
09:55we can't wait to get you in there for lunch thank you very good the first 10 guests are here
10:04they're
10:04on the lawn I'm currently avoiding them inside and I'm hoping that the Gougers just cook a little bit
10:09quicker with the Gougers baked and ready it's time to meet the guests stepping onto the deck and outside my
10:17comfort zone hi thank you for coming to the soft opening of Lou Michelle today which is what we
10:23finally decided to name her yep I've made you some Gougers with cheese from Algar Farm when I came out
10:30with the tray of Gougers and all of the guests were there on the stairs it just felt really overwhelming
10:35I didn't know what to say or do I had the urge to go straight back inside and just close
10:39the door
10:39behind me with the butter knife you know just for a butter knife with the bubbles flowing the first
10:49thing I want to do is say hello to Peter great to be here how are you good yeah getting
10:55there
10:55excellent yeah excellent just been very busy couple of months it's been a long time in the making oh it's
11:01great it's great to see it all come together oh thank you I probably have something in the oven that
11:06I need
11:07to be I'll be back with the Gougers served it's now time to come inside feel free to filter in
11:14whenever you're ready it's free seating so whoever you like the most you know get in there my guests
11:18will all sit around one table sharing the meal together I don't think of it as a restaurant like
11:25I'm calling it an eatery but that's only because I need to call it something I really see it as
11:29people
11:30coming over to my house to eat I see it as a meal and an experience and less as a
11:37restaurant experience
11:43after starting with tomato water broth topped with passion fruit marigold
11:48so fast next it's Tasmanian scallops these are scallops cooked in wakame butter just
11:54cooked in the firebox bassy and we're serving them on antique red paddle wow delicious so we're just
12:08about to put down the third snack so far so good then it's time to put the wallaby pitivier in
12:17the oven
12:18oh yeah one sec I'm just gonna put the um the racks oh if they fit you want to try
12:25okay
12:26oh okay all right no you're right it's it's fine it's gonna have to the cooking of the wallaby pitivier
12:36was pretty difficult especially with an oven that I'm not super familiar with we will top it up now
12:41and then hope that it's burnt down a bit by then oh you know you're trying to monitor like the
12:48puff pastry
12:48cooking but 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
13:17then 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
13:31too
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
13:42to
13:42do something just like a raw Tasmanian fish kind of sashimi style but like sashimi meets the garden
13:49really fresh and herbal and vegetal it was interesting having the table in the eatery full of people
13:57like they really filled the space with conversation and laughter and you know they brought the vibe
14:04with them 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
14:19you always
14:20have to be one step ahead it's kind of like chess so raw fish is nearly ready to go out
14:25and now we're
14:25preparing to do the abalone pizza so the pizza oven needs to be on we need to have the dough
14:30ready
14:30to go all the garnishes ready to go so we can roll seamlessly into it ideally do not forget the
14:36petivias do not forget the petivias this is just some snapper i've given it a light cure and i really
14:43like cold smoke and i made a juice out of everything in the garden so there's a lot of wild
14:48fennel in
14:49there and nasturtiums and spigarello and stuff like that with the snapper going down a treat i sneak
14:58outside to prepare pizzas topped with delicious Tasmanian abalone i'm just testing the first abalone
15:05pizza in the pizza oven i have never done 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 one
15:19sting
15:19could be really bad for me epi pen is in the house if we need it but i soldier on
15:25until
15:35i'm in the middle of lunch cooking for 10 guests for the opening of my eatery when
15:43my worst nightmare bees when there was honey and bees on my hand it was like white hot panic we're
15:51a
15:51good 40 minutes away from the hospital here i could go into anaphylaxis if one of them stings me i
15:58picked up one of your plates and there were bees all over the bottom of it they went all over
16:01my
16:01hands and i just threw it that's okay did you get some no i broke one of your plates no
16:07i feel really bad
16:11for me to be out of action would be really bad in that moment probably the one of the worst
16:19things
16:19that could have happened thankfully the damage was one broken plate and not a bee sting while the
16:27guests enjoy the pizzas i check on the main event the wallaby no they can go longer um should we
16:35go
16:35eight minutes it's nice to see people in the room finally after all this time thinking about all the
16:41different ways that this could go go well or go badly while the petivier were now ready there was one
16:46thing i forgot we're gonna have to rest for like an hour so you're gonna have to reach them
16:53probably not the best idea to make it for the first time for an event like that it is what
16:58it is
16:59we're going faster than we thought we were going to be you know you live and you learn
17:05we're just playing the octopus dish which is something that i've been doing for a while it's
17:08one that i actually know how to do not that i just made up and so this is octopus it's
17:13been
17:13chai grilled in the firebox of the assy and then it's just served with some ajo blanco smoked macadamia
17:19nuts and pickled currants kind of a play on like sweet and sour
17:28it's really good finally it was the moment of truth for my petivier
17:33how old that's so cool okay it's all right the quarters yep and quarters there's definitely a
17:42sense of relief there's a wallaby top side underneath there's some cebolla cabbage and then there's a
17:47like a style of fast or sausage made from wallaby and pork with lots of wild fennel in it
17:52i then add a sauce with a touch of quince jelly garnish with edible flowers from my garden and it's
17:58ready to
17:59serve this looks fantastic it's so beautiful okay this one is a wallaby petivier i'm trying to make
18:07wallaby more accessible to the people you know i championed wallaby a bit but i was like maybe not
18:11enough and that is the last savory course i promise gorgeous
18:24really nice to be quince two hours in and with the guests enjoying the main course that's really
18:30delicious i realize i haven't had enough to eat and i'm running low on energy sorry we're gonna sneak
18:38a bite or something yeah should we just go outside okay so we grab a spare petivier it turns out
18:49i'm
18:49starving i think everyone's really enjoyed it okay good hearing some some fun stories some good comments
19:04happy with that pastry pastry's really good but she's filming the reality which is we will have
19:10a really quick snack while everyone's eating oh no what just staring
19:23fueled up and feeling better i'm now ready to make my dessert using my neighbor's sheep's milk
19:28cool so i'll get this in the churn kobe starts by folding a dash of whiskey into cream
19:33which 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
19:44in
19:45the 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
19:57bit
19:57less so since i became lactose intolerant but i still love it with the ice cream ready i scoop
20:02it into silver goblets on a warm day in the huon valley we need to move quickly because they're
20:09gonna go real fast oh really fast sorry i thought we were ready maybe we weren't quite ready to do
20:15this
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 the acidity of the cream with the whiskey is really
20:50nice it's actually a really good time and then it was over nine dishes all done and dusted and just
21:01as
21:01i start to relax peter gives his verdict let's talk about how wonderful your meal was because it was
21:09sensational so good thank you it was really very very special so personal and and just such a
21:17intimate sort of setting it's like coming over to your place for dinner but a very elaborate dinner
21:24yeah you don't normally go to this much trouble literally no you're right once we served the desserts
21:30i just felt a sense of relief you know um that i could finally talk to the table and not
21:35have to
21:35have my mind working about like what was next what i was meant to be doing cheers cheers guys
21:49everyone seems to have had a really nice time because you've been so caught up in what you're
21:53doing 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 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
22:27it's a nice feeling to have had an idea brought it to fruition
22:35cheers and made it happen
22:43it's been a triumph and a relief months in the planning my eatery is now open to the public
22:51my 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
23:02it's really saying hey this is this is what i love to cook this is what i believe in this
23:07is um
23:08what i have to show you i loved having the raw fish dish with the
23:12uh spike with some of the flavors from the herbs from the garden what gummy thing she did that was
23:19yum yeah the pizza i probably could have eaten uh nine of those it's going to be a destination
23:25restaurant that people come to tasmania to visit this was her dream to you know set up a little
23:31restaurant on her property and and you know have have animals and have have a garden and and buy from
23:38all the local neighbors and farmers yeah it was great so good so good it's gonna be really special
23:46annalise's food is is always so delicious i mean she's she's a great chef see you annalise bye love
23:54i really respect peter as a chef and as a mentor and it was very daunting to have him there
23:59but i'm
23:59so happy he came and that he liked my food especially the wallaby petivier
24:06cheers cheers oh man everyone was really happy do you think that was as hard as it was gonna be
24:12to be honest it was harder oh yeah then i thought it would be but i've never really cooked out
24:19of the
24:19oven before yeah or that kitchen yeah yeah this is the first time i just felt like i didn't have
24:25a
24:25spare minute to my like brain was engaged the entire time with like what's next and i didn't have time
24:31to
24:31engage with the guests which i am a little bit sad about but hopefully that's something that no as
24:36it goes on that'll change yeah i will in the future like that was the first shot like once you've
24:40done
24:40it even twice it's getting better yeah that's true that's so much easier but i couldn't have done it
24:44without you well done no one died nobody died nobody cried
24:55cooking 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
25:16grateful to my community for embracing me yeah well done that'll be the best child i've ever tasted
25:21that's delicious that is really spectacular that's really good it's so good for me to be able to get
25:28this project to where it is now i've had to call in so many people's help you know i've needed
25:34the help of my neighbors i mean primarily out it's not creaking yay gentle gating kobe friends and
25:41family tradies the local community it's taken so many people and their skills to be able to finish it
25:48where it is now it's been a crazy couple of months i'm so glad that the eatery has its first
25:54service
25:54under its belt i would never have imagined i'd be in regional tasmania opening a shed restaurant you never
26:00know what's going to happen i'm looking forward to making the eatery a success and exploring even
26:04more of what tasmania has to offer
26:34you
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