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Colin first joined the kitchen at The Boathouse as Senior Sous Chef under the guidance of then Head Chef Perry Hill in 2007.
Early in his career Colin worked with Liam Tomlin at Banc before winning the NSW Lexus Young Chef of the Year Award in 2005. He then worked alongside Warren Turnbull of Assiette before embarking on a 12-month stint in the UK where he spent most of his time as Senior Chef de Partie under the guidance of Brett Grahame at The Ledbury, a one-Michelin Star restaurant in London's Notting Hill.
A keen fisherman, Colin has a passion for seafood and particularly enjoys seeking out the more unusual species of fish and preparing them in unique combinations with the freshest seasonal ingredients.
The Providores List:
Seafood with Wayne Hume
There were a couple of interesting fish that caught Wayne's eye this week, firstly the Chatham Island Blue Cod from New Zealand. It's a fish that is starting to create a lot of interest amongst Sydney chefs, it's a small fish - 800gms to 1.2 kg - the fillet is like a flathead. It's huge in NZ where it's used for fish and chips or for steaming and Wayne is loving it.
Deep sea bass grouper is plentiful at the moment and the price has plummeted this week and the other fish that Wayne is loving is the West Australian Patagonian Tooth fish. Don't confuse this with the pirated toothfish of a few years back - the WA set up fishes in the Antarctic at Glacier 51 and is such a tightly quota'd fishery that it is possible being considered for accreditation by the Marine Stewardship Council. It's a very rich fish, and chefs are also loving it.
In oysters the pacifics are fading fast and so the rocks have really kicked in - the NSW north coast is the prime area with great landings from Port Stephens and the Hastings River.
Fruit and Veg with Hugh Wennerbom
Hugh loves this time of year and its fruit, fruit, fruit.
Pineapples, red papaya, peaches, passionfruit, raspberries have dropped in price, blueberries, mangoes and even apricots have full flavour. Lychees, mangosteens, cherries, rockmelon, honeydew melons, champagne melons and seedless watermelons are fantastic.
In veg Hugh is loving the asparagus, English spinach, roman beans, butter beans, French radishes, zucchini, capsicum, eggplants, corn, chillies, bull peppers and cucumbers.
Tomatoes have finally kicked in with good Bella Rossa, heirloom and romas around, plus beetroots, cabbages, cauliflower and that footpath weed purslane is everywhere!
Hugh was loving the fresh leaf greens at the moment especially things like red dandelion and red sorrel - in fact Hugh says enjoy the next 2 weeks for the abundance, price and quality of fruit and veg.
Meat with Grant Hilliard
Last time we spoke to Grant he was off to visit some turkey growers, one in Byron Bay doing the more common white turkey and one on the darling Downs that grows the rarer Bronzewing Turkey which is more like the traditional wild turkey.
Both turkeys are paddock raised and scratch around as a flock on pastures that are rotated frequently. It's the first time Grant has come across the Bronzewing so he's interested to see how differently it tastes being a leaner, more flavoursome bird.
Grant was concerned about the state of the land after this trip. While the south round Monaro is still lush and green, north of Canberra hasn't experienced any decent rain since June and so farmers are bracing themselves for a return to the dark, dry times of the past 10 years.
One side of this dry weather is that farmers who stocked back up expecting good rains are now off loading excess spring stock so expect to see a lot of milk fed spring lamb hitting the market.
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