Top Club chef demonstrates pioneering techniques in Australia

11 March 2008

Such was the interest in the two-day Master Classes conducted by Donovan Cooke at the recent Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in Australia that it was a case of standing room only in the 200-seat capacity hotel ballroom. He was the only chef from Hong Kong invited to this world-known festival.

Cooke, who is Chef de Cuisine of Derby Restaurant at the Happy Valley Clubhouse of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, was demonstrating his low temperature cooking techniques, a field in which he is considered to be one of the pioneers. His presentation drew much admiration from the audience, who included many industry professionals.

The two recipes demonstrated, Olive Oil Confit of Salmon, with a ragout of fresh soya beans, tomato scallions, radish and ginger salad, with a blood orange reduction and coriander oil; and Bresse Pigeon 'en Vessie' with celery hearts and ravioli of foie gras and Perigord black truffle sauce,were beautiful examples of Cooke's modern French approach to his culinary art.

World-renowned chef Michel Roux, Cooke's mentor from his early days in Britain, was among the audience and added his own praise. "I am very proud of Donovan, of who he is and what he has done," he said. "The pigeon was melting, my compliments".

Cooke explained that this "standard fare" at the Club was the result of a great deal of work from his 15-strong cookery team. "As Mr Roux has said, without your team you are nobody. The food I do now is better than the food I did in Melbourne. I am very spoilt in Hong Kong, as I can get everything I want from wherever I want"

Food and Wine Festival Creative Director and The Age newspaper food critic, Matt Preston, remembers Cooke from his days in Melbourne. "For the time Donovan was here, he was probably the most influential chef, if not in Australia, certainly in Melbourne, with restaurants est, est, est and Luxe as well.

"It's hard to imagine Donovan in another city, but when you go to Hong Kong and you see a chef that is so highly regarded and so highly covered in the media, from a restaurant that only the Jockey Club members can go to, it speaks volumes about his skill," Preston added. "He does like to use expensive ingredients and the Jockey Club is the perfect home for him. He is a perfectionist, and for him it is about producing the best possible meal he can."