CURTIS STONE IN MY PANTRY

The Aussie chef’s workspace is the stuff of kitchen dreams!

He’s served up an Aussie barbecue on the beach for megastar Oprah Winfrey, but for chef Curtis Stone nothing beats being at home in the family kitchen cooking with his wife Lindsay, 40, and sons Hudson, six, and three-year-old Emerson. The Coles Fresh Advisor, 41, tells how he keeps it simple at home, and shares two recipes from his Coles Christmas collection.

What’s your home kitchen like?

It’s a good size – we’ve kind of remodelled it – it used to be stainless steel so quite industrial. We’ve put in a big marble slab now, the splashback is white tile, the cooktop is up against the wall and then the island has the sink, so that’s the work surface. It opens out onto a vegie garden, with a wood-fired oven outside.

What’s always in your fridge?

I’m a big believer in making life easy for yourself when it comes to actually cooking. So the way to do that is to have a bunch of pickles, things like onion-and-bacon jam, capers… so stuff that if you’re trying to get dinner on the table in 10 minutes you can open some jars, cook some pasta and you’ve got dinner ready.

How about the pantry?

Lots of grains and beans. I think if you’ve got little bits of everything, then you’ve got so many options. Different types of quinoa and pastas, and a good variety of vinegars. Lots of Asian sauces, my wife is half Korean. She likes it pretty spicy, but we cook for our young kids too – the kids don’t really like the heat.

What’s your best-loved gadget?

The kids love the spiraliser. Anything that has a little process s to it, the kids love. I also love the digital-read probe thermometer, I use that a lot. I have one that you can literally probe a piece of beef, pop it in the oven and set it to medium-rare and then it will beep when it’s ready.

What’s your go-to fast dinner?

Depends what’s in the fridge. Fish you can normally turn around in 10 minutes. Or eggs are really quick, so an omelette is a really nice fast dinner and you can whip it together in five minutes flat.

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