Mike's kitchen

Last Wednesday 31 October,  Grant and I had the pleasure of attending the Qantas Epicure degustation dinner at Kitchen by Mike. This involved a panel disucssion with the likes of Grant Hilliard from Feather & Bone providores, Pepe Sayer (who makes amazing hand churned butter that comes a very close second to Gympie farm cultured butter) and John Fairley of Country Valley Dairies (who supplies to the cream to Pepe for his butter and whom I have been unsuccessfully trying to convince for the past year to sell me raw milk but that's a whole other story....I'll eventually wear you down John!). Between the menu, the table conversations and the panel discussions I was totally in my element. It sure beat trick or treating for Halloween....

Back to Mike. Mike's a great bloke and a top chef. He uses fresh seasonal produce, pastured meats

(eg from Feather & Bone), traditional cooking methods and no industrialised oils in his cooking - just good old fashioned butter and olive oil. He and his family moved to Sydney in February this year and he opened up Kitchen by Mike in Rosebury in the inner west (only 20mins drive from Bronte). His kitchen is open for brekky (7-11:15am; from 8am on sundays) and lunch (12-3pm) every day and at this stage is only open for dinner for functions.

I was so inspired and impressed with the food (and forever on the scout for new places to eat that align with my food philosophy) that I took the kids there for lunch on the weekend. It's perfect for lazy weekend meals espcially with kids- light airy big open warehouse, canteen style catering and long communal tables. Lunch mostly consists of various salads, a couple of different meat dishes (eg mackerel; chicken) and quiches, pizzas and tarts made with their own woodfired sourdough bread/pastries on the premises. There's plenty of food choices for non-grain eaters like myself. The prices are very reasonable ($80 fed a family of 4 for lunch).

The warehouse is also shared with Koskela interior designs so you could be tempted to do a bit of (Xmas) shopping after your meal- I'm talking uber stylish homewares, furnishings and slick children's toys and decor mostly from Europe. And while we're talking shopping Mike's kitchen just so happens to be around the corner from the Zimmerman outlet store, as luck would have it.  Grant called it the Bermuda Triangle for one's credit card. I prefer to call it a perfect trifecta.

Kitchen By Mike: ph 02 9045 0910, 85 Dunning Street Rosebury 2018, info@kitchenbymike.com.au, www.kitchenbymike.com.au

 Brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favourite things.....from Koskela.....