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00:21Hello, I'm Adam Leow and welcome to The Cook Up, the show where four high-profile Australian
00:25stars embark on an epic road trip across the country's most iconic landscapes.
00:29Tonight's landscapes include easy stir-fried satay chicken, chocolate fondant with pistachio
00:33ice cream and macadamia crusted fish. Let's meet our guests. Chef Alan Stewart's resume
00:38is stacked with world-class destinations. Stockholm's restaurant Francienne, London's restaurant
00:43Gordon Ramsay, core by Claire Smith, New York's 11 Madison Park and I could go on but there'd
00:47be no time for him left to cook. Hello Alan. Pleasure to be here. Great to have you. After
00:51a world-beating career in the pool, swimming champion and TV presenter Gian Rooney OAM turned
00:55to the land. She's now a macadamia and beef farmer in northern New South Wales. Welcome
00:59Gian. Hello Adam, thanks for having me. What a career change. You know, champion swimmer
01:04to the world. That's a different one. What led you to the land? I think the best way to
01:10say is we fell into it. I did marry a fifth generation cattle farmer so that was a fairly,
01:15you know, that works. But we didn't know much about trees. So he knew land, he knew soil health,
01:22he knew farming. Macadamias and nuts, different story. But we're five years in now and we absolutely
01:28love it. Amazing. Alan, what was it that made you want to become a chef? I think cooking at
01:35home with mum when I was younger. Growing up with a single mum, obviously mum's always putting
01:39the food on the table so it was always enjoyable. And also doing a school project where we had
01:44to come up with an idea which was making fudge and we sold it at a school fair. So I
01:49was like,
01:50oh, I've made a little bit of money here. This is good. Why not do this? This is a career.
01:53When you were making the fudge, did you make it or did your mum make it? Then you just said,
01:57look what I made. Because I have children and quite often they'll be like to their friends,
02:00look what I did. And I'm like, I did that. You're taking the credit for it, but I did that.
02:03Ah, I miss you might have made one or two trades.
02:07No ifs, ands or buts. Tonight we are going nuts for nuts.
02:15Gian, right up your alley.
02:17I was about to say. Although, can I leave the cooking to you and Alan and I'll just do
02:22the nut part. The one rule of this show is everyone cooks. It's like Fight Club.
02:26Watch out, Alan. With a slightly different rule.
02:29You have quite a lot of macadamia drinks. How many?
02:32Nearly 3,000. Wow.
02:33Which sounds like a lot, but it's probably a small farm, medium-sized farm in that part
02:38of the world. We're in the northern rivers of New South Wales, which is where macadamia nuts
02:42are historically grown and where they're from, and they're a rainforest tree. Yeah.
02:46So they like water, which is good, because we get a lot of it.
02:49Yeah, northern New South Wales, sometimes too much.
02:51Correct.
02:53Alan, nuts in the restaurant world.
02:56I'm always a little bit more hypersensitive when I see that on a docket, but it's a great
03:01way to add a lot of flavour to different dishes, especially oils, add textures as well.
03:05But it's something that you're definitely very aware of when it comes to guest dining.
03:10Hopefully an anaphylaxis-free zone tonight, because I am nuts for easy stir-fried sauté chicken.
03:20Sauté chicken. This is not a chicken sauté. I'm just going to get the words around the
03:24right way. There's no skewers here. I'm just doing a very simple stir-fry. I think we love
03:28the flavour of sauté, but sometimes a lot of the skewering tends to be a bit of a pain.
03:32So I'm going to marinate some chicken first, and this is where I think some people go a little
03:36bit wrong with sautés. I'm just putting in some turmeric, some curry powder, a bit of baking soda
03:42just to tenderise the chicken a little bit. I put some soy sauce in and a touch of sesame oil,
03:49and then I just put a bit of veg oil in there as well, just so I can mix it
03:51around.
03:52The thing with sautés, when I was making proper ones as a kid, with my grandma, I was the one
04:00skewering on there, which I hated because it always sticks the skewer into my finger
04:04or gets splinters from the skewers. I was telling you of some childhood trauma that has led to
04:09the creation of this recipe. You've got to make the chicken flavourful. It's really about making
04:15the chicken more flavourful than it is the sauce. We think of sauté as being about the
04:18peanut sauce. The peanut sauce is kind of by the by. It's more about the chicken. So I'm
04:23just marinating that chicken first. I'll put that aside for a while. And I've got one that's
04:29been sitting for about an hour already. Now for the sauce, I'm going to use some peanut
04:34butter, coconut cream. Oh, I forgot my key ingredient for this marinade. Garlic and ginger paste.
04:44Just very, very easy straight out of the jar, but very, very important for that marinade.
04:49All right. Gian, are you not sure that perhaps going from swimming to farming, you're just
04:58addicted to careers where you've got to get up really early?
05:01I believe you're either a morning person or you're not.
05:04Right. Yes.
05:04I am not.
05:07You have done your whole life wrong.
05:09I have absolutely stuffed it up from the beginning. I never enjoyed when the alarm went
05:13off when I swam at 4.37. Oh, God. Whereas, and I still to this day, if I didn't set
05:19an
05:19alarm, I would not wake up till 9am in the morning. Oh, my God.
05:22So I'm the one who has to be forced out of bed and forced to greet the day. I wish
05:26I
05:26was a morning person. But I think it's more so probably the hardest thing has been with
05:32swimming. It was very much like I felt I could control the narrative a little bit. You know,
05:38I could trial things up in training. I could do something to change the outcome as much
05:42as I possibly could. Whereas in farming, I feel that there's so many things that are
05:47out of your control. So it's been a real learning curve for me to try and see, OK, Mother Nature
05:52has different plans to what you had. All of a sudden, commodity prices are all over the
05:56shop. It's a very different game. And so I think I'm a fairly cruisy person to a certain
06:04extent and go with the flow. But I think with farming, it doesn't sometimes matter how
06:10passionate you are, how innovative you are, how hardworking you are. There is a bit of
06:16luck involved as well.
06:18Yeah. I mean, honestly, you should have been a chef because you guys only get up at like
06:21noon or whatever.
06:24I don't know where you've been, chef.
06:25Definitely not getting up at noon. My morning starts early.
06:30So, Alan, you are, you know, I've seen you without your shirt on, on your Instagram and
06:35stuff. You're a very fit man. Like the modern chef, like yourself, does tend to be much more
06:40physically active, like look after yourself to it. In order to, you know, go through that
06:44pressure of service, you've got to be physically up for it.
06:46I think things have changed a little bit in regards to the kitchen. I definitely noticed
06:50it like just by dropping my weight a little bit. If you're constantly going into the fridges
06:55and up and down, lifting plates and all that sort of stuff, like if you're not fit and
06:58healthy, it's going to, it's not going to pay off in the long run. I think there's a bit
07:02more of a work-life balance that happens a lot more these days as well. Definitely, you
07:09know, you saying getting up at midday, that's not the case. I'm normally getting up at 6,
07:147am in the morning to get a workout in before going into work. You know, back in the day,
07:18it was, it was, if you were doing five doubles, you were just getting up to go to work, coming
07:21home, sleep, get up, go to work again. So it's actually been able to build something into
07:25your life that gives you a bit more structure outside the kitchen as well.
07:28So now I can get on to kind of the process of frying. I'll cut my garnishes first because
07:35this is going to happen very, very quickly. So I'm just going to kind of serve these on
07:41the side. I'm not going to stir fry all this together. I just want to put this on the side
07:45to kind of, just like you'd have with a satay, a little bit of something to freshen up your
07:49palate as you kind of get to the end of it. What's that stuff called? Cucumber.
07:53Cucumber. Honestly. Too early in the morning.
07:56It's too early in the morning. Talking about mornings.
07:58This is also where I go wrong. There's no way I could talk to my children or anything
08:02at the same time as trying to put together a dish.
08:07Get out of the kitchen. I need to concentrate.
08:09Do you have a favourite of the restaurants that you've worked at, Alan? Because I have
08:13to say, I reckon my favourite of that list that I just read out is Francienne in Stockholm.
08:19I ate there when I was filming over there. It was just, it blew my mind. It was my favourite
08:23restaurant of that trip and I was eating at fine dining restaurants in Scandinavia for
08:27about three months.
08:28To be honest, I talked to a lot of people about the different restaurants I've been in
08:31and each one gave me different foundations when it comes to cooking at the end of the
08:34day. I first sort of started out at restaurant Gordon Ramsay where we were doing the big long
08:38days and you were just, you were, I guess the same for you in swimming where you're just
08:42learning your art and you're learning the skills and the techniques and by repetition after repetition
08:46when you're in there for close to 80, 90 hours a week, you get really good at it. So it
08:51really
08:51gave me the base knowledge to be able to just cook at a high standard under a lot of pressure
08:54repeatedly. I think the next place I went to was 11 Madison Park. It's a big kitchen, multiple
09:01teams. That taught me a lot about management, especially in the States, working in America,
09:05like how to manage big teams and also divide tasks out and also be able to have an AM and
09:10a PM team and all that. You're not just doing it the whole day.
09:13I think Franson was a real mix of actually understanding that like it's not front of
09:18house and back of house. It is the house at the end of the day and both teams are just
09:23as important. And you saw it at Franson when you dine there, like the chefs can pour the
09:27wine, the chefs can top up the water, the front of house can dish the food. So it's about
09:33the guest experience overall. And I still do it at Encore at the moment. Like if I see that
09:38the guys need a hand clear on the table, I'll go and clear the table. It doesn't matter
09:42that I'm the chef. I have no problem because at the end of the day, the guests in the restaurant
09:46are the same as guests in your home. If you saw that, a water glass that you're topping
09:49up at home, you top it up. So I do the same thing in the restaurant. I have no problem
09:52topping up someone's water glass. They're guests in my home.
09:55But that's also probably the success of a really good chef as well as realising that it's not
09:59just about the food.
10:00Yeah.
10:00It's the whole experience.
10:01Yes, for sure.
10:02Yeah, I guess, you know, being a chef and cooking and running a restaurant are kind of two sides
10:07of the same job in some ways. And you spend so much time in your formative years learning
10:12the how to cook part. And then you realise that, you know, success in later years is
10:18probably a little bit more about the other part.
10:20Yeah, for sure. I talk with the guys in the kitchen all the time. At the end of the day,
10:24there's so many good restaurants around the world that do so much amazing food. And to be honest,
10:28though, I think, like, it's really the food is like 40 percent of the dining experience.
10:32Actually, 60 percent of it is actually the staff and the way you feel and the way you
10:36the interactions you have with people. Because as much as you remember the food, you remember
10:40people more than you remember food. So the way that you you're made to feel and be seen
10:44as well in a restaurant really has a massive impact on your dining experience at the end
10:49of the day.
10:49Wow. So my son, he comes together very quickly. I was even kind of it was looking quite nice
10:55without the sauce. But I think people want the satay sauce on there. But I just put a
11:00touch of it in there. I'll top it with a bit more just so it looks a little bit more
11:06satay. Yum.
11:08And then I think, how are you guys with chilli?
11:11Oh, little.
11:12Little?
11:13No, I'm not good on chilli.
11:14There you go. OK, good.
11:15I'll leave it out.
11:16My nose will start running and that will really destroy everything.
11:19All right, we're going to go peanuts. Peanuts instead of chilli on top.
11:23You can do a really good satay with macadamia nuts.
11:26You know, honestly, this entire time that I've been doing this, I've been like, why didn't
11:30I do this with macadamia? I've got chian sitting down at the end there. Anyway, very easy stir
11:35fried satay chicken.
11:40I like to put a squeeze of lime at the end. You know, I had some tamarind in the sauce,
11:45so there's a bit of sourness in there, but a little bit more never hurt.
11:47Oh, that is so delicious.
11:48Very nice.
11:50Happy days.
11:51Just nice and easy. No mucking around with skewers.
11:54I might invite you around for dinner sometime.
11:57When we return, Alan and Gian will get cooking.
12:10Welcome back to The Cook Up. Tonight we are nuts for nuts.
12:13Fine dining chef Alan Stewart and former swimming champ slash current farming champ Gian Rooney
12:17are with me.
12:18Alan, what are you making?
12:19All right, so we're doing a dark chocolate fondant, salted caramel and a pistachio ice cream.
12:24Sounds fancy. Gian, what are you doing?
12:25I'm making macadamia crusted fish.
12:28That sounds delicious.
12:37Gian, I love a macadamia crust.
12:39Oh, me too. It's so tasty as well.
12:41Beautiful.
12:42As a farmer of macadamia nuts, do you get sick of the thing that you're farming?
12:47No, I actually love it.
12:48Okay.
12:49It's perfect for me because I love macadamias.
12:52Yeah.
12:52I didn't know too much about macadamias before I actually became a macadamia farmer.
12:56So now I actually really enjoy finding ways to use it in every aspect of life.
13:01Fantastic.
13:01So this is macadamia nuts.
13:03I saw you put a bit of flour in there.
13:04Yes.
13:04You got pepper.
13:05Yes.
13:06Parsley.
13:06Parsley.
13:07And a bit of salt as well.
13:09Lovely.
13:09And then that kind of forms the basis of our crust.
13:13So once that all goes in, a bit of salt.
13:16And do you want this to be quite chunky so that you can see it on the outside of the
13:21fish?
13:21Yes, because I think that's the power of macadamias as well, is that they're this beautiful, creamy flavour,
13:26but they're not overpowering.
13:28They're not offensive.
13:29They're an absolutely gorgeous nut.
13:31We're very spoilt having them native here to Australia.
13:34I completely agree.
13:35And the more you use them, I think the more you want to keep using them.
13:37You find really good uses for them.
13:41I even use it in my skincare.
13:44Not just for cooking.
13:45Yeah, for sure.
13:46Well, they're very oil rich, so they're great.
13:49And I use them quite often in curry pastes and things like that.
13:53And so that almost forms my...
13:55I'm going to take it out for you so it doesn't fall in.
13:58So there's still chunks in there.
13:59You can still see quite chunky.
14:01But that is our little crust in a shallow dish.
14:06In a swimming career like Lior's, what's the pinnacle?
14:11Like, is it world champs?
14:13Is it Olympic gold?
14:14Is it...
14:15I mean, I feel very comfortable talking about this because you've done all those things.
14:20A long time ago.
14:21It's definitely Olympics.
14:23I mean, we have a major international every year.
14:25But really, the Olympics is the pinnacle.
14:27It's the one that everyone wants to win.
14:29And it's because it's every four years.
14:31So it's very much about the fact that you only get one shot every four years.
14:35And how many things have to go right in those four years for that moment to happen?
14:40That's the thing that terrifies me.
14:41You know, how emotionally, I don't know, traumatic it must be to do, to devote your entire life to something
14:50that could be over in a minute.
14:53And that's it.
14:54That's why training is so incredibly important and why we do so much training as swimming athletes is because when
15:00you come to race day, it has to be autopilot.
15:02That's why we train so much.
15:03That's why we put the hours in because you don't want to be figuring it out on race day.
15:08You need to know exactly what you're doing.
15:09Yeah, it's like they say, you know, you don't train until you get it right.
15:12You train until you can't get it wrong.
15:13Oh, I like that.
15:15Motivational speaker.
15:17I've got to say, Alan, I get excited when I see something like this happening.
15:20What are we doing?
15:20All right, so we've got the sugar in the eggs.
15:22We'll just whisk that to a sauvignon.
15:24Milk and cream in the pan.
15:25Warm that up slightly.
15:26What we're going to do now, we're just going to take the milk and the cream and add a little
15:29bit into the eggs just to loosen it up a little bit.
15:32And then we're going to return that to the pan.
15:35Why was it fine dining for you?
15:36Like, when you started off making fudge with your mum in New Zealand and, you know, you could have easily
15:43gone, you know what I'm going to do?
15:45I'm going to cook at the local pub and I'm going to hang out with my mates and do that.
15:48Like, why was it I'm going to travel the world trying to cook in Michelin star restaurants?
15:52I think it sort of comes down to that, what we were talking about early on about, same as a
15:57sports athlete, that competitiveness and that doing something at the highest standard that you possibly can.
16:02I mean, working in three Michelin star kitchens is like the pinnacle of where you can work at the end
16:07of the day.
16:08And I think that's always been something I've always wanted to do.
16:11So, yeah, working all around the world at the highest level possible.
16:14And it's just the mentality of being like that mentality of wanting to be the best day to day, waking
16:19up, going into work and just being around competitive people, people with high standards as well.
16:25Yeah. Is that a lot of pressure for you?
16:27Like, when I talk to Gian about this kind of the pressure of being in a professional athlete, do you
16:32feel that pressure in your kitchen being kind of, you know, that every restaurant is watching you?
16:36Yeah, I think I'm not too worried about, like, what other restaurants are worried about.
16:41I'm more worried about, like, the guests at the end of the day.
16:42You save up so much money.
16:44You travel from around the world to go into these restaurants, as you're saying about France and in Stockholm, like,
16:48people, like, obsess over it.
16:50So you want to make sure, and you often only get one opportunity to get it right.
16:55So when those guests come in, you want to make sure that they have the best dining experience that they
16:58can.
16:59All right, so we're just going to put the onglaze back into the bowl.
17:01It's got up to 82 degrees Celsius.
17:04It's such an important thing to, I think, know those temperatures.
17:07So you've got 82 degrees.
17:08That's the coagulation of generally some of the highest coagulating proteins in the egg.
17:14But it happens, it's kind of the speed at which it gets to that depends on how smooth the onglaze
17:18is.
17:19Yes, you don't want to go too fast.
17:20Otherwise, at the end of the day, the bottom of the pan is going to start to cook.
17:23The eggs at the bottom are going to start to cook.
17:24And you're not going to have onglaze, you're going to have scrambled eggs.
17:26So you don't want to be doing that.
17:28So what's going into our onglaze?
17:30All right, so we've got a little bit of pistachio liqueur that we're going to add in.
17:32Oh, beautiful.
17:33I've never even tried that before.
17:34A little bit of pistachio paste as well.
17:37Don't know if I've tried that one either.
17:40And then we've also got a little bit of salt as well.
17:43Beautiful.
17:45So all that in.
17:46And there's a little bit of cornstarch in there.
17:48A little bit just to help thicken it.
17:50Lovely.
17:50That's going to be a beautiful ice cream.
17:52And then are we going to put the pistachio bits through it later on?
17:54Yeah, exactly.
17:54So we'll let it turn and freeze.
17:55And then what we're going to do, we're going to add in the chopped pistachios at the end.
17:58Beautiful.
18:01Gian.
18:02And frying in macadamia oil.
18:04I was about to say, that is the amount of uses you can use for macadamias.
18:07Even the oil.
18:08But as you said, it's a beautiful oil.
18:10Is it a good frying oil?
18:13It is.
18:13It's a good everything oil.
18:14OK.
18:15I said before, I use it on my face.
18:17It's the ultimate oil.
18:19It's got so many beautiful benefits to it.
18:22But once again, the flavour is not overpowering.
18:25It's not offensive, if you like.
18:27We talked a little bit before about, I guess, the stress or the mental game in swimming.
18:32How do you know when it's time to call time on a professional athletic career?
18:38I think the wonderful thing is for me that it became really apparent that I was in training
18:46one day and I realised for the first time ever, Adam, that I was proud of myself.
18:51I know that sounds really strange, but all of a sudden I took stock of my achievements
18:55because up until then it was very much about, well, hang on, you know, it's always you chasing
19:00the next one.
19:01You're chasing that addictive feeling of success time after time after time.
19:05And all of a sudden I was doing laps and I was like, you know what?
19:08I'm proud of myself.
19:09And I had no regrets.
19:11I had achieved everything that I possibly could in swimming.
19:16I was the best athlete that I could be.
19:17I couldn't have done anything differently to be any better.
19:20And that was a really comfortable feeling.
19:23And then, but I think with that same moment also comes the realisation that maybe if I've
19:28realised that in a sport that's won and lost by a hundredth of a second, have I also
19:31lost that tiny bit of hunger that makes you really ultra competitive.
19:35I love that.
19:36I think that's fantastic.
19:37Look at that.
19:40Alan, there's something about a sabon that just looks so luxurious.
19:47It's perfectly peaked, as you can see.
19:49I mean, the trick to the sabon is what I was taught was either you could write your initials
19:53into it.
19:53Okay.
19:54Or you should be able to see one, two, three, and you should still be able to see
19:57the one at the start.
19:58Oh, okay.
19:59That way, and you're good to go.
20:00Not just the figure eight.
20:01No, not the figure eight.
20:01One, two, three.
20:02One, two, three.
20:02Okay.
20:05So, a normal chocolate coulant or fondant is not made like this, is it?
20:13I mean, this is the way I've always been taught.
20:15Yeah.
20:15But we put a little bit of a cheat code to it in a sense by putting the salted caramel
20:19ball in the middle.
20:20Oh, okay.
20:20So, normally, you just cook the fondant, make sure you've cooked it right so it's a little
20:25bit of liquid centre.
20:26Yep.
20:27But, you know, if you're having a few glasses of wine at home or on a date night, you might
20:31get a bit distracted.
20:32Oh, that's so smart.
20:33So, the little trick is to put the salted caramel in the middle.
20:37So, if you do overcook it, it's always going to be liquid centre.
20:39That's actually so smart.
20:41And it kind of gives you like an extra flavour as well.
20:43So, you're getting, firstly, you're kind of idiot-proofing it with the molten caramel
20:48centre, but you're also making it a little bit more delicious.
20:50Yes, exactly.
20:52So, just added the chocolate in just then into the sabillon.
20:55Going to lightly fold it through.
20:56Then, we're going to mix in the cocoa powder and also the flour.
20:59Lovely.
20:59And the cocoa powder will give it great flavour and also great colour as well.
21:02Yeah, exactly.
21:03Lovely.
21:04I'm nuts for tasting time after the break, and I'll help you sort the nuts from the
21:08knots.
21:19Welcome back to The Cook Up.
21:20You can call us the Nutty Professors because Alan Stewart, Gian Rooney and I have gone nuts
21:24for nuts tonight.
21:25Alan, are you nearly done?
21:26Almost ready.
21:27Lovely.
21:28Gian, these look spectacular.
21:29Ooh, they're looking beautiful, aren't they?
21:31I know.
21:32Plate up my fish.
21:34I think the texture of that sort of slightly waxiness of the macadamia will be perfect with
21:42the fish.
21:42It's really tasty, and this is just a lemon and butter sauce as well to kind of drizzle
21:47over the top.
21:48You have my attention.
21:48Oh.
21:50Oh, hello.
21:51That looks...
21:52What?
21:52Oh!
21:53Amazing.
21:54It looks like I know what I'm doing, doesn't it?
21:56You certainly do.
21:58These look spectacular, Alan.
22:01Absolutely spectacular.
22:03I don't think there's nothing wrong with them, right?
22:05Well, you know, and the part that's genuinely exciting to me is that salted caramel ball that's
22:10kind of, I know, is lurking within that you can't even see.
22:13It's a nice little, look, sweet touch to something that's already sweet.
22:17Yeah.
22:17So we're just topping them off with a little bit of icing sugar.
22:20Going to add in pistachio crumble on top.
22:24And then we're going to top it off with the pistachio ice cream.
22:29Gosh.
22:31Decadent and...
22:31But surprisingly, I think, doable.
22:34Yes.
22:35Very easy.
22:36I guess it's the basic steps, the sabayon and anglaise, those kind of things.
22:39Yep, and you can pretty much preset them into the fridge before dinner anyway.
22:43Amazing.
22:43Put them into the ramekins, they're ready to go, and then when it comes to dinner time,
22:46you just stick them in the oven, and you're ready to rock.
22:49Whoa.
22:52Half the genuine scoop of pistachio ice cream.
22:56And there we are.
22:56Yum.
22:57I want to eat it.
22:58Chocolate fondant with pistachio ice cream and macadamia crusted fish.
23:09I reckon a bit of fish in a green salad is one of the most simple,
23:14but yet also perfect meals.
23:15It's pretty good, though.
23:16Macadamia's made a great crunch.
23:18The texture of the macadamias and the butter sauce is just lovely, too.
23:23Yeah, that's spectacular.
23:24I'll pat myself on the back.
23:26You can come and join me in the kitchen at some point.
23:30All right, Alan.
23:31Okay.
23:33Soft centre.
23:34Oh, my goodness.
23:36How's the crunch at the top and then the gooey?
23:39Oh, my goodness.
23:40That is so delicious.
23:41That is sensational.
23:43Appreciate it.
23:44When you were making it, I was kind of like, could people make this at home?
23:49You know, is it too difficult?
23:50I was thinking that.
23:51So I was like, you know, it is just basic kind of things that you put together really well.
23:56But now I'm like, you have to make this at home.
23:58You need to go to get the recipe from the website and make this.
24:00It's so delicious.
24:02We've been quite nuts for nuts in this episode.
24:05But I thought I would take you through some nuts.
24:10Or are they?
24:12Dun, dun, dun.
24:13We have chestnuts.
24:15We have hazelnuts.
24:17These, you'll be unsurprised to know, are actual nuts.
24:21Peanuts.
24:22Are they nuts?
24:23I'm going to say no.
24:24Only because the way I asked that question.
24:27Hang on.
24:27You let us into that very nicely.
24:29Well, you are very much correct, Gian.
24:31They are legumes.
24:34So a peanut is a legume in the same way.
24:36You can see it.
24:36Like, it's all dried up and things now.
24:38But that's the same as a pea or a, you know, a snow pea or something.
24:44You can see that it is, I guess, the shape, the style of a legume.
24:48We have here things like cashews, almonds, pistachios.
24:52These are not nuts.
24:54They are what's called a droop, essentially a stone fruit in the same family as a mango or a plum
24:59or a peach.
25:00And this is very much a, if you're a botanist, you can care about this.
25:04If you're not, it's put it in the same category as, oh, tomatoes are fruit kind of thing, you know.
25:09But it's just nice to know that these are nuts, these actually not.
25:14Alan, Gian, thank you so much for joining me.
25:15This has been fantastic.
25:16Loved it.
25:17It's been great.
25:19In a nutshell, nuts are great.
25:21Out of a nutshell is the recommended way to cook them.
25:24If you want more of the Cook Up and more delicious food ideas, follow SBS Food on socials.
25:28I'm Adam Liao.
25:28Thank you for watching The Cook Up.
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