Turn Up The Heat
The oldest form of cooking is also one of the hottest food trends around.
Chefs around the world are fired up about the ancient method of wood-fired cooking which produces complex flavours not easily replicated by any other cooking style.
Our chef Beau Holt (pictured) enjoys experimenting and creating dishes using Pasadena’s handcrafted wood-fired oven which you’d be hard pressed to find in any other supermarket.
Our Four Grand-Mere wood (the name roughly translates to ‘grandma’s oven’) was handcrafted by a company in France which specialises in ancient-style hearths made from insulated fire bricks, known as refractory chamotte.
“We use the oven at an average of between 240-280 degress Celsius for our bread and the other dishes but technically it be cranked up to temperatures in excess of 400 degrees,” Beau says.
A commonly-asked question for Beau is which wood does he use to fire up the oven and the answer is red gum which he sources locally.
“It’s a hardwood which is clean to burn, has low smoke, cooks longer and hotter and allows a consistent and even heat, that’s why it’s my favourite,” he says.
Beau says he’s stoked about sharing some secrets of wood oven cooking at the hotly-anticipated Wood-Fired Oven dining experience planned for Tuesday, May 2. It’s one of four events we’ve created especially for the Tasting Australia food festival.
He will turn up the heat on wood-fired foods by sourcing premium South Australian meat, seafood, vegetables and fruit from within our store and adding his wood oven magic.
“One of the best things for me is that we have absolutely everything here at our fingertips, all the produce and ingredients you could ever need are right here,” he says.
The lunch menu, which will follow a food tour throughout the store, promises some flavour sensations such as wood-fired Smoky Bay oysters with a twist, along with local tiger prawns from Dinko cooked with fetta in a shaksuka-style Middle Eastern tomato-based sauce.
Beau says a highlight promises to be Bultarra saltbush lamb shoulder from SA’s mid north which will be slow cooked in the wood oven and served with a series of wood-fired seasonal vegetable side dishes.
Tasting Australia is a week-long celebration of SA food and wine (April 28-May 7) and Pasadena Foodland is coming to the party by staging its well-received Locale Food Tours and dining experiences created especially for the festival.
Select from four different tours with each culminating in a Chef’s Table dining experience using the finest in-house ingredients focused on one of the following themes: Meat & Butchery (April 29); Wood-Fired Oven (May 2), South Australian Seafood (May 4); or Plant-Based (May 6).
To book an event, click here