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Wild Weed Pie 'I try to make the flavour and aroma, rather than the look, the thing that people remember about my food.'. Wild Weed Pie is a collection of unforgettable recipes from one of Australia's most innovative and talented chefs. Janni Kyritsis thrilled Sydneysiders at the MG Garage and other iconic restaurants such as Benowra Waters Inn and Bennelong. Now try his unique flavours for yourself. ExtractSpring. Time to go on picnics in the fields. The oregano has come into flower and it has to be picked before it goes to seed and becomes bitter. "Don"t pick those little pink flowers," Mother would say. "They"re wild oregano and are too strong" (she was actually talking about thyme).I must have been about 6 or 7 when, on one of those family picnics, Mother showed me how to pick the most tender dandelion leaves. That night, as I watched the leaves being prepared, I was so pleased to have contributed to the family dinner – Wild Weed Pie. Five women who influenced my careerCooks often regard their mother"s cooking as the main influence in their career, as do I. However, apart from my partner David"s direction and guidance, I regard these five women as my main influence: Margaret Fulton, Stephanie Alexander, Gay Bilson, Josephine Pignolet and Dure Dara.Margaret FultonTwenty–five years ago David thought it was a good idea that I learn English through an interest, and he gave me a Margaret Fulton cookbook. Thank you, Margaret.In 1998 I was asked to make a comment on Margaret Fulton"s then–latest cookbook. I was reminded of how I came to be a cook and gave this quote. I had become interested in cooking through watching David in the kitchen, and once I had Margaret"s book I cooked and cooked from it and it gave me the start for my future career. It"s not for me to tell the story of Margaret Fulton"s contribution to Australian cooking, as everybody knows how great that has been. Years have passed, and today I regard Margaret not only as a teacher from all those years ago, but also as a good friend. I was very touched when, in a recent article, Margaret counted one of my dishes among those she would like to have for her last supper. If you have limited time, forget about my recipes that require 2 days to make, forget the glossy cookbooks with their gastro–porn photography and recipes that can never be realised, and open the pages of one of Margaret"s cookbooks. Stephanie AlexanderIf you are a dedicated cook – and a lot of Australians are – then Stephanie"s Cook"s Companion will already be on your kitchen bench, and if not, it ought to be.After years of cooking, reading, becoming obsessed with everything about food, and walking around with an Elizabeth David paperback in the back pocket of my electrician"s overalls for reading during any spare moments, it was time for me to change career. Stephanie had the foresight to allow a 3o–year–old electrician into her kitchen, and for that I will always be grateful. She became my mentor and has remained so throughout my professional career. From the first day I arrived at Stephanie"s, I knew that this was what I wanted to do with my life, and I felt so lucky being there. Generosity is what I associate with Stephanie"s food and her restaurant. There was always something extra on the plate, unexpected by the guests. Stephanie would go to great lengths to achieve this: minute leaves from the vegetable patch at the back of the restaurant – a scattering of chive flowers over a salad – details that weren"t obvious but that made all the difference in her honest approach to cooking. Hard work and dedication to the Australian food scene have rewarded Stephanie, who is now the Grande Dame of Australian cooking. Her timeless work, The Cook"s Companion, sits very comfortably among the giants of cooking literature. Gay BilsonMy introduction to Gay Bilson was through an article she wrote on making cakes. I was so taken by its clarity and straightforward explanations that I immediately thought I"d like to meet the person who wrote it. I later met Gay at the first Rothbury Estate Dinner in the Hunter Valley. Stephanie and I arrived there early from Melbourne to churn our sorbets, only to return at dinnertime to discover that they had melted because of a power failure. Gay, who was there to serve one of the courses, encouraged us not to give up but to start again – as we did. After a lot of exhausting work churning the sorbets by hand (which nobody does these days), we succeeded in serving them just on time.From that introduction, I was convinced that if we ever moved to Sydney – as we later did – the only natural place for me to work would be with Gay at Berowra Waters Inn. I arrived there after Tony Bilson left, and there I learnt to pare my cooking down to the bare essentials and get to the heart of the ingredients. Gay loves books, art and architecture, and that was reflected in her restaurant and how it was run. She gave me the opportunity to be part of what became an iconic Australian restaurant with a philosophy of simplicity derived from years of experience and an understanding of the culinary arts. Gay and I went our separate ways in 1997 after 14 years of working together. Josephine Pignolet"Australia has lost perhaps its best cook." So wrote Stephanie Alexander in Josephine"s obituary in 1988, and I couldn"t agree more.This wonderful menu, cooked on my birthday in 1983 by Josephine and Damien Pignolet, would be just as relevant today as it was almost 25 years ago.Salad of avocado with broad beans Salmon caviar omelette Boudin blanc on a spinach puree Wild duck with turnips Salade heureuse Coffee and petits fours Such timeless cooking is what I associate with Josephine. I first met her when she came to the old Stephanie"s for a couple of days" work experience. She taught me how to cook brioche properly: how to prepare the knob in a cone shape to make sure it stays in the centre when it cooks. I can laugh now remembering my first attempts, before Josephine"s lessons: I would make a long sausage–shaped roll of dough, cut it into 1 inch pieces and place them on top of the brioche balls – not exactly what a brioche should look like. I used to help Josephine or Damien on Wednesdays at Claude"s, so that one of them could have the night off. It was always a delight for me to be in that kitchen. When Josephine and Damien decided to put tomatoes on toast on the menu, it was a revelation to me. If you can find the perfect ingredients for a dish as simple as this, they should be left alone to speak for themselves. I have always tried to follow this philosophy in my own cooking. I always remember a particularly funny incident with Josephine and Damien. One night, when Stephanie, David and I were having dinner at Claude"s, David ordered the consomme under a puff–pastry lid. It looked spectacular when it arrived, but when David cracked the crust there was no consomme in the bowl! We laughed at the sight of the empty bowl, and so did the customers near us, but poor Josephine and Damien went red with embarrassment. Dure DaraI met Dure when she was managing front–of–house at Stephanie"s. Because of her, I understand the importance of the front–of–house staff. A restaurant is about ambience, service and food. Certainly, if the food is not right, the customers won"t come back, but it"s these three elements together that make a restaurant. I observed Dure constantly, and little and unimportant incidents always taught me something about service.I tried to impart this knowledge to the front–of–house staff at MG Garage and Fuel. Not that I ever needed to worry – with Colin Nelson at the helm I knew the customers were in good hands. I remember one night a drunk old man walked into Stephanie"s and sat at a table. Dure instantly handed her duties over to the rest of the staff and sat at the table with the old man. They talked for a bit, probably about the weather, but when he asked Dure for a drink, she said how sorry she was, but that we were a BYO restaurant. The old man left happy that somebody had talked to him, and all the other customers, who could see that the incident could have turned nasty, remained relaxed. Dure was always a step ahead, as if she could read the customers" minds. I was forever asking her questions about front–of–house, and I always received a sensible answer. "This book would not have been written . . ." This old line has never been truer than in this case. I couldn"t have done it without my friend Roberta. I first met Roberta Muir and Franz Scheurer when they came to MG Garage for a meal. They became our most regular customers and they had a good reason: they associated their romance with visits to our restaurant. Roberta got so enthusiastic about the food that she was constantly telling me I had to put together a book so that she could cook all her favourite dishes at home. I never wanted to write a book. I still don"t! I had contributed so many recipes over the years to other people"s books and to magazines that I had no particular desire to write a book of my own. One day, Julie Gibbs at Penguin asked me to write a book, and from then on, if any other publisher asked me to write one, I"d say I"d already promised Julie. I repeated this line so often that in the end I believed it myself, but it was Roberta"s persuasion that really convinced me. Poor girl, she had no idea how hard it would be to get into my dyslexic mind and extract every thought! But she did, and so this book is now written. And the first person I have to thank one more time is my dear friend Roberta.
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 "Wild Weed Pie")