“Chicken is a food for everybody; it doesn’t matter what culture you’re in. Most people can celebrate around chicken, but it can also be everyday food,” says Yardbird Hong Kong’s Matt Abergel.
The Hong Kong-based chef has been invited to show off his skills at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival by another chef who knows his chicken, Morgan McGlone. The owner of Belles Hot Chicken, McGlone also travels the world cooking at special events in places like Tokyo, Copenhagen and the US.
When your fried chicken sandwich gets a standing ovation by world-renowned chefs at an event run by Noma’s René Redzepi, it’s no surprise that you get tasked to oversee an event celebrating the humble bird.
McGlone has invited five culinary friends to create chicken dishes for All The Chickens, a dinner/party kicking off at the festival on 8 March.
But don’t expect the expected. “I didn't want to do fried chicken because I always do fried chicken,” says McGlone. “I’m actually doing a Polynesian-style chicken from Hawaii called huli huli. It’s like a charcoal chicken, but they actually butterfly the chicken and cook them against each other, almost like a kebab roll. They usually cook that on the back of trailers, but we’ll have a rotisserie there.” It will come with pineapple slaw and flatbread.
Canadian-born Matt Abergel will be travelling from Hong Kong where he co-owns two of the hottest restaurants in town, Yardbird Hong Kong and Ronin. “At Yardbird Hong Kong, we focus on yakitori, which is chicken on skewers cooked on charcoal,” he tells SBS Food. “We work with whole birds freshly killed every day and we cut them up in about 20 different parts: breast, fillet, thigh, wing, skin, neck, rib, liver, gizzard, heart, thyroid, tail, Achilles, etc. It’s very simply seasoned and grilled over good charcoal.” His personal favourite is chicken heart.
For the event, he’s bringing his own yakitori grills to cook tsukune, a chicken meatball seasoned with tare, a slightly sticky Japanese sauce made from soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar. “For the meatballs that we’re doing, we’re using the drumstick of the wing and some soft breastbone as well,” he says.
Chicken is a food for everybody; it doesn’t matter what culture you’re in. Most people can celebrate around chicken, but it can also be everyday food.
The tsukune is dipped into the sauce and turned over and over on the grill, so it’s cooked perfectly. It’s then served with a tare and egg yolk dipping sauce.
We tried to get Abergel to reveal what makes good yakitori, but all he would say was “good chicken and good charcoal”. He’ll be giving a masterclass at the festival’s headquarters on 9 March, so that might be the occasion to get in on his secrets.
From Melbourne, Thi Le (Anchovy) and Trisha Greentree (10 William St) will do a play on white cut chicken and rice. From Sydney, Palisa Anderson (Boon Cafe, Chat Thai) will be making a stuffed chicken wing with a green papaya salad, and Paul Carmichael (Momofuku Seiōbo) is planning on doing a habanero fried chicken. The menu is not set in stone yet, so there might be a few surprises.
McGlone promises a fun time: “There'll be seating available, but it will be like a party; we want people to eat with one hand and have a drink in the other. We wanted to make it less formal."
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McGlone says he’s especially excited to see the Joe Beef team, straight from Montreal, as well as the Chinese feast orchestrated by Dan Hong, Victor Liong and Jowett Yu at Flower Drum.
Some of the biggest stars in food will be at the festival’s headquarters showing how to create their signature dishes and talking about the key topics in food. Think people like Rosio Sánchez, Adam James, Kirsten Tibballs and Adam Liaw.
The Mexican-American chef (ex-Noma and WD-50) has introduced Copenhagen to a diverse Mexican cuisine at her two restaurants, Hija de Sanchez and Sanchez. She’s taking over the kitchen of Mamasita for one night only. Other kitchen takeovers we’re excited for: Junghyun Park at Restaurant Shik, Jake Kellie at Sunda and Nicolai Nørregaard at Lesa.
Chefs Jordy Navarra and Nicole Ponseca, as well as food writer Yasmin Newman, will tell the story of their heritage through Filipino food.
The festival is not only a Melbourne affair; there are events all over regional Victoria. One not to miss is The Village Feast in Gippsland. Food, produce and drink pop-up stalls will line the streets of Jindivick, complemented by family-friendly entertainment.
Melbourne Food and Wine Festival has just announced this week that it will culminate with an afternoon street party on Crossley Street on Sunday 24 March to celebrate the life and legacy of Melbourne hospitality icon, Sisto Malaspina, co-owner of Pellegrini's , who was fatally stabbed in October last year. Pellegrini's and neighbouring businesses, including Becco, Ombra Salumi, Bottega, The European and Gingerboy, will put on an Italian spread to honour Sisto.
