Gawain Barker
Kitchen Napalm
To be confronted by a roaring demon of heat and flames in the work place is an unwelcome jolt. Radiant heat and weird shadows fill the...
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Gawain Barker
- Aug 14, 2020
- 5 min
New People of the Pemmican
With rivers frozen over, fruit and grains buried under snow and most edible animals vanished from the landscape - how in hell would you...
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Gawain Barker
- Jul 31, 2020
- 4 min
Welcome to the Machine
Approaching the row of hissing bench-top steamer ovens, I remembered what Lloyd the Sous Chef had said about opening them - be bloody...
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Gawain Barker
- May 31, 2020
- 5 min
Submarine Cook
I've worked in some sweat boxes - kitchens as moist and stinky as a wrestler's jock strap, but for true hard-core cooking action there...
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Gawain Barker
- Feb 1, 2020
- 5 min
Chefs of Tommorrow
Apprentices are generally young, hung-over and over-sexed. I should know. So over the years, working with these budding chefs of...
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Gawain Barker
- Jan 8, 2020
- 1 min
Amuse-bouche
Amuse-bouche are complimentary bite-sized serves of finger food to amuse the mouth before starting on the menu. Here are some tasty...
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Gawain Barker
- Dec 12, 2019
- 3 min
The Q Word
It’s a new café in your manor; you feel like supporting it with your custom and you order something simple - a slice of ham and cheese...
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Gawain Barker
- Nov 14, 2019
- 4 min
Customers
It’s the biggest horse-race of the year and we’re cooking in a track-side marquee. Well-dressed, drunken men barge in and start cutting...
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Gawain Barker
- Oct 17, 2019
- 5 min
Mercenary Story
It didn’t get more mercenary than this. On the horizon - 3 billion dollars worth of marine hardware; behind me - a gargantuan industrial...
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Gawain Barker
- Sep 10, 2019
- 6 min
Bucket of Blood
From beneath my feet, in the public bar below, came a sudden roar and shriek of voices, then floor-shaking bangs and the sound of...
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Gawain Barker
- Aug 21, 2019
- 5 min
Salties
While setting up the BBQ station on the restaurant’s deck, I had the feeling of being watched. Around me the visitors to the Crocodile...
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Gawain Barker
- Jul 27, 2019
- 4 min
Sal & Liz
Sal and his wife owned and ran a trendy inner-city cafe. All shiny surfaces and modern-as-heck furniture, it was the new kid on the...
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Gawain Barker
- Jul 10, 2019
- 5 min
Trickster Gourmet
Grimod de La Reynière was one of life’s true characters. With his artificial hands, culinary curiosity, great wit and ability to write,...
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Gawain Barker
- Jun 23, 2019
- 4 min
I Shall be Late!
Darkness. Freezing cold. Warm bed and thick eiderdown. A minute passes. Another one. Peek at bedside clock. Shock! Horror! I’m going to...
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Gawain Barker
- Jun 3, 2019
- 5 min
Hardcore
“The greatest joy is to vanquish your enemies, chase them before you, rob them of their wealth, see those dear to them bathed in tears...
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Gawain Barker
- Apr 27, 2019
- 4 min
Big No No
This is about what not to do. This is about rules, writ stark and clear; ancient rules handed down through the centuries and known to us...
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Gawain Barker
- Apr 11, 2019
- 4 min
Black Money
When I started out, the restaurant industry drank from a stream of black money. Hospitality was, as the Japanese call it, a water trade...
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Gawain Barker
- Mar 26, 2019
- 4 min
A Perfect Movie Morsel
Tampopo, a perfect movie morsel from 1985, is a uniquely Japanese take on food, cooking and eating. An endlessly inventive comedy, the...
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Gawain Barker
- Mar 11, 2019
- 4 min
Keep Cool
I had a problem. The power was out, unlikely to be fixed for days, and I didn't just have a whole cold room full of food, but three...
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Gawain Barker
- Mar 9, 2019
- 4 min
Tools of Pleasure
Knives all have a handle and a blade, and at one end of the blade is the tip; at the other end is the heel. Unlike their hunting and...
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