Ester: Australian Cooking

Ester is a Sydney restaurant which, in the words of this book’s co-author, “occupies that sweet spot between care and irreverence, attention and experimentation… a place where good things happen.”

The locus of that sweet spot is a wood-fired oven which Chef Mat Lindsay uses in a significant number of dishes, from a fermented potato bread with kefir cream, dashi jelly and trout roe, to bone marrow with sesame seed sambal.

The oven is not required for every intriguing dish, however. Lindsay turns a simple braised octopus dish into a version that resembles Cantonese-style char siu pork. His cocktail-sized blood sausages, thickened with jasmine rice and flavored with toasted pine nuts, freeze well, he says. He uses wagyu fat to make caramels, and flavors ice cream with leftover sourdough bread.

Handsomely photographed, though not as packed with images as some showcase books. Still, a rich source of ideas.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.