Chef and owner of Becasse restaurant, Justin North

Given that Australia has turned into a nation of gastroporn addicts – how else to explain one in four Australians tuning in to the finale of the inaugural Masterchef reality TV show? – it’s time to take a behind-the-scenes look at one of Sydney’s finest restaurants, Becasse.

Owned and founded by Kiwi-born chef, Justin North and his wife, Georgia, the Clarence Street eatery has won a slew of awards for a number of very good reasons including the fact that he uses only the very best Australian produce as well as some of the nation’s best local wines.

At a lunch last week, North showcased a range of delicious items that star in his menus as well as the people who produce them, including scallop diver Craig McCathie from Port Lincoln in South Australia (who gave me a detailed history of scallops and when to eat and not to eat), Duncan Garvey, Truffle legend from Perigord Truffles in Tasmania and quail grower Charlie Scott.

The great thing about dining at Becasse is experiencing North’s passion for food from the ground up. The day before lunch, he took a team from the French boite on a truffle hunt in the Southern Highlands and personally dug around in the dirt. He collected about a kilogram of truffles, worth in excess of $2500, which he used in five sensational ways at lunch.

Truffle grower Duncan Garvey revealed he was considered “crazy” when he told people he wanted to grown French-style truffles in Australia. But he did just that in Tasmania and, in 1999, debuted his delicacy at Sydney’s acclaimed French restaurant, Claudes.

“The number one thing we try to do is promote our local producers and highlight the importance of the passionate producer. We couldn’t work without their incredible passion,” North said. “We try to connect directly with the producers and growers to teach skills to the young guys in our kitchen.”

For instance, it’s nothing for North and his team of chefs to be in the kitchen at 6am when an entire beef carcass is dropped off instead of pre-cut packets of meat that look like they never drew breath. The chefs then learn the craft and traditions of butchery by breaking down the beast, every last bit of which is used in the scores of dishes plated up at any of North’s four establishments. (Some boast he makes the best burgers in town at his smaller cafe, Plan B).

Justin North doesn't just make a burger - he makes a taste sensation.

Among the local producers at lunch was Hunter Valley winemaker, Ian Scarborough, who I believe makes one of the country’s best, buttery chardonnays and who respected wine writer John Fordham rates highly. Scarborough, whose range of wines carry the family name, began working with the Norths when he opened Becasse in 2001 on its original site in Albion Street, Surry Hills.

“One of the great early memories I have is of Georgia and Ian sitting on milk crates in Albion Street drinking wine out of plastic cups – we didn’t have the restaurant set up yet –  and that image has stayed with me,” said North, who The Sydney Morning Herald named the 2009 chef of the year.

One of the lunch dishes we ate last week was a tender slow cooked breast and confit leg of Redgate Jurassic quail with truffle veloute. For the Philistines among you, the quail is comically called “Jurassic” because of its size which weighs in between 300 and 350 grams, according to producer Charlie Scott. The next closest bird is between 200-240 grams.

Scott’s family were early pioneers in the Hunter Valley and set up their farm in the 1830s. Scott is passionate about the industry and is keen to breed even bigger quails, with a 400-500 gram table bird a real possibility in the not-too-distant future.

And speaking of passion: the quail was cooked at 62.5 degrees Celsius; the seared scallops were what’s known as “hand-dived scallops” in that the diver who harvested them swam along the bottom of the ocean and collected them by hand, rather than the usual way of trawling or dredging; the truffle brioche was sprinkled with black Cyprus sea salt; and the truffles North collected were found in suitably stink earth around hazelnut, and English and French oak trees.

The best thing, though, was that everything North served at the amazing lunch – dubbed the “producers winter forum” – was all produced in Australia. Now that’s supporting the local industry.

(The “seasonal producers lunch” is available every day at Becasse for $35 and includes a glass of wine.)

Masterchef winner Julie Goodwin (r) and fellow finalist Justine Schofield at the opening of Victor Churchill butcher shop in Sydney (picture Sandra Lee)

Masterchef victor Julie Goodwin is racing against a tight deadline to finish her cookbook by September.

The Central Coast mother-of-three told me last night she had almost finished gathering her recipes, all of which had to be tested before making the final cut.

The publishing deal with Random House was on top of her $100,000 Masterchef prize and is currently consuming a huge slice (sorry!) of the television cooking star’s busy schedule.

She is also spending two days a week working on her contract as in-magazine cook for Australian Women’s Weekly, the flagship ACP property that took a massive dive in sales and circulation in the last magazine audit figures.

Here’s how Goodwin comes up with her recipes, which make their debut in the next edition of The Weekly.

The mag’s food team give the 38-year-old a running brief and Julie pulls it together in her kitchen at home, taste testing as she goes. The hardest thing, she confessed, was remembering to write down all the ingredients because she invents the recipe as a work in progress.

“It’s how I cook,” she told me at the opening of Victor Churchill, Sydney’s newest and arguably most flash butcher shop in Woollahra. “The good thing is if I stuff it up, I turf it and start again.”

Victor Churchill's butchers Danny Woodward (left) and Pete Shaw (picture Sandra Lee)

Goodwin, who won the hearts of Australians when taking out the Masterchef title over South Australian Poh Ling Yeow, was at the opening with fellow finalist, Justine Schofield.

The pretty 23-year-old didn’t make the grand final, but so impressed Aria chef, Matt Moran, that he offered her a role in his kitchen.  But, like Goodwin, Masterchef has proved so successful for her that Schofield has only managed to work four Fridays at the award-winning eatery.

As well, she’s been doing promotional work and cooking for private clients at their homes, teaching them her culinary tricks.

Meanwhile, back in the Parisienne-styled butchery Victor Churchill, guests enjoyed food by another award-winning chef, Peter Gilmore from Quay, and knocked back a seriously good chardonnay and big-bodied red by Chandon.

Owner Anthony Puharich made a heartfelt speech thanking his family, in particular his beloved father, Victor, who he called “my father, my best friend and business partner all rolled into one”.

The proud father, who opened Vic’s Premium Quality Meat, on Oxford Street, Paddington more than a decade ago, stood beaming in the audience. Among guests were Vega 95.3 breakfast presenter Tony Squires and his new bride, Kate Pascoe-Squires, Sydney businesswoman socialite Glen-Marie Frost, and hotelier Justin Hemmes.

Last night’s event was the second opening of the butchery which can lay claim to being the longest, continuous butcher shop in Australia. Previously called Churchill’s, it has been closed most of this year undergoing a $1.5 million fit-out.

Victor Churchill owner Anthony Puharich with Masterchef winner Julie Goodwin and fellow finalist Justine Schofield (picture Sandra Lee)

The back wall of the visible meat locker – which has carcasses running along on a motorised overhead pulley track – is made of salt bricks  that help reduce humidity. Other features of the beautiful shop are the three cylindrical chopping blocks, an old Berkel bacon slicer in fire engine red enamel and chrome that was restored in Italy at a cost of $150,000 and which is for looks only, and the laser-cut marble floor.

A third opening will be held tonight and the shop finally opens doors to customers tomorrow.

Yup, I know. But trust me, it’s no ordinary butcher shop. It’s a statement.

Channel Seven supremo David Leckie

Talk about the health of Channel Seven’s David Leckie has been in the news lately, but the television executive looked in fine form dining with Aussie Rules boss Andrew Demetriou at Machiavelli today.

Also at the table were Seven’s director, Bruce McWilliam, and another AFL man. Clearly, given they were dining at Sydney’s power trattoria, they wanted the meeting known. Seven and the Ten Network have the free-to-air broadcast rights for the 2009 Australian Football League season.

Leckie was sinking red wine with his luncheon companions. Perhaps they were chatting about Seven’s delayed broadcast of games, or viewer complaints? Demetriou, a former player with North Melbourne, was the first to leave.

Earlier this month, The Australian newspaper’s Amanda Meade wrote about Leckie returning to work after a three week break amid much discussion about his physical condition and “morbid state of mind”.

“Last month the Seven titan was so unsteady on his feet at a Sunrise party at Sydney’s Star City casino that questions were raised about whether he had fully recovered from an illness last April which left him in an induced coma for 11 days,” Meade wrote. “He severed a finger and the complications from that put him in a coma.”

Well, having seen Leckie today, he was steady on his feet and he looked like the three week break had done some good. As he revealed a little more than a week ago, he started seeing a personal trainer and has been trying to get fit.

Meanwhile, Machiavelli shows no signs of losing its appeal. On the next table to Leckie et al was a sartorially resplendent Barry Humphries, and son Oscar, who is currently editing the Australian edition of Britain’s Spectator magazine.

As for me? I was dining with former NSW Liberal leader Kerry Chikarovski, board member of the kids’ charity, The Humpty Dumpty Foundation, and cricket tragic who recently returned from a holiday in the UK to watch the Test.

Julie Goodwin, now known as MasterChef of Australia

They said she couldn’t do it and  so the wonderful Julie Goodwin went and proved the critics wrong.

Goodwin, 38, is the winner of the inaugural series of the Australian reality TV cooking show MasterChef.

So much for the naysayers, the newspaper pundits (one of whom declared today “the fix is in” if Goodwin won) and professional dish lickers who dismissed her as the accidental home-cook finalist.

The same prejudice was in place when the fabulously talented Susan Boyle walked on stage earlier this year in Britain’s Got Talent. Book judged by cover. How wrong was that?

Who’d have thunk there’d be two Susan Boyles in the space of a few months?

Like Boyle, Goodwin has talent.

Like Boyle, Goodwin has personality.

Like Boyle, Goodwin did not put on any airs and graces.

Like Boyle, Goodwin didn’t change her style or looks or values to cater to the perceived cafe latte wisdom. She was confident enough and strong enough to believe in herself and know when she did well and when she could have done better.

Julie Goodwin is who she is and she’s not ashamed of it. Clever woman – for there is nothing to be ashamed of. She can cook. She spent three months learning and taking notes and watching and listening and her finale was a tour de force.

Sure, her Matt Moran chocolate assiette was not as pretty as artist Poh Ling Yeow’s but it was, according to four very knowledgeable judges, much better. That’s what counts. Food = taste = pleasure.

MasterChef finalists Julie Goodwin (r) and Poh Ling Yeow (pic courtesy Channel 10)

Respected food critic Simon Thomsen told ABC radio on Friday that he thought Goodwin was the “dark horse”. Compare that to The Sunday Telegraph (my alma mater) which today declared “the fix is in” if Goodwin wins.

The paper’s food critic claimed Goodwin (who will publish a cook book with Random House) would win on popularity. How could she get it so wrong? What show was she watching? Yes Julie was popular, but did she really think the judges would put their reputations on the line over popularity? Sheesh. Doesn’t say much for what she thought of the judges, now, does it?

But here’s the thing: the thing that made the show so successful was the one thing that is fundamental to us all (well, most of us) – decency. Everyone was decent – even the judges.

There was no fix.

The food was cooked, the dishes were served and the criticism was noted and it was constructive, not destructive and, most importantly, there was a sense of fun about it. Well, most of it. Apart from the flood of tears towards the end, which we could have done without.

The thing that stood out about MasterChef was the feel-good nature of the show as Miranda Devine pointed out weeks ago in The Sydney Morning Herald – long before other opinion columnists had cottoned on to why MasterChef was a ratings juggernaut.

“Then there is the niceness of the show, which naturally appeals to children more than anyone, as they generally prefer adults to behave well.”

Don’t they ever?

Perhaps The Sunday Telegraph’s scraps scribbler will issue an apology to Cook Goodwin (and the judges, too, who deserve one)? If not, I suggest she does the dishes in her kitchen for a month as penance.