MY FAVOURITE DISH

My favourite dish to prepare is a hard on to pin down, but do really enjoy making Confit Duck Legs. It’s a great dish served with a puy lentil cassoulet in the classic French style and garnished with fresh pea shoots. It’s also delicious with cured with oriental spices, noodles and stir fried vegetables. The meat can be stripped off the bone and turned into Rillettes, a wonderful light lunch or starter with lightly toasted sour dough bread and a spiced plum chutney. The process can seem quite time consuming but in reality it’s an easy dish to make. Plus once cooked and covered in duck fat they will keep in a sealed container for months in the fridge – not that they ever last that long.

what i love about my job is

What I love most about my job is…. that it gives me the opportunity to express the creative side of my nature. on a daily basis. The weirdest food I’ve ever eaten is a dish featuring Song Thrush at Uliassi, a three Michelin Star restaurant on the Italian Adriatic. The strangest thing was crunching on a drumstick that was about 1.5cm long.

MY BEST MEMORY

was when I was on MasterChef, I’d had a torrid round working in a professional kitchen and was probably, in the minds of John and Greg, highlighted as the next person to go. My next task, was an invention test and the guest judge was Marcus Wareing. There were six contestants in the round and I was the last one to present my dish. All of the other five contestants had been severely pulled apart. It was quite a nerve racking experience. I’d made an apple and almond treacle tart, with sous vide apple, almond brittle and Chantilly cream. As the judges starting eating there was complete silence. Marcus suddenly looked up at me “Do you know why we’re so quiet Robert” and I just said “No” and he said “Because this just so delicious”. I won the round and went through into the semi-finals.

 

blackpool supper clubs

Robert Austin recently moved to Blackpool and is currently renovating his home, which will be a venue  for his upcoming supper clubs and culinary adventures. You can find him on @austintatiousrob on instagram or by emailing him at misterrobertaustin@gmail.com.