History bites

I’ve heard of that – Chicken Marengo

There are probably a number of culinary dishes that have an association with victories on the battlefield. I would have thought that the fact that you were still alive and unscathed was enough reason to celebrate, but 200 years ago things were very different.

Chicken Marengo was named after Napoleon’s victory over the Austrian forces near the village of Marengo, in Piedmont, Italy in the year 1800. But they say never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

It is generally considered that Napoleon ate whatever the common soldier ate on a day-to-day basis, but considering his ongoing health issues, I find that questionable. It is also thought that following a victory he would ask his

personal chef to prepare something special. That sounds like it could be correct.

The story goes that following the day long battle at Marengo which resulted in the French victory, Napoleon’s chef, a man named Dunant (or Dunan), foraged the countryside looking for ingredients for Napoleon’s dinner. A chicken, crayfish, tomatoes and eggs were some of his haul. Voila, Chicken Marengo. Napoleon thought it delicious and would not allow the recipe to be changed, for fear of bringing him bad luck.

Now let’s forget about the fact that more than 50000 men from both armies had pillaged the local countryside over a period time, leaving scant offerings. Researchers have actually questioned the availability of tomatoes in the year 1800. Tomatoes have been an essential ingredient in Italy for many years but were pretty rare in the year 1800.

More importantly Chef Dunant was not in Napoleons employ at the time. He was actually in Russia and did not join Napoleon until 1801. Dunant first published “Chicken a la Marengo” in 1809.

Over the years various chefs have changed the recipe (sometimes dramatically) and still retained the name, something that I hate. The fried egg has disappeared, and mushrooms replaced crayfish. In Australia there was a natural tendency to use prawns instead of Australian Crayfish, but the Freshwater Yabby would be more authentic.

 

Iconic Australian Hotels – The Carrington Hotel, Katoomba.  

In 1943, my parents honeymooned at the Carrington Hotel, Katoomba. I can’t remember the first time I went there but it was probably sometime in the 1960’s, when I was a teenager. My sister would have baked biscuits, and our family took thermoses of hot milky coffee with us for the day trip. Although I had escorted overseas tourists to Katoomba during 2019/20 and dined at the Carrington on a number of occasions I would have to wait until 2024 before Chris and I actually stayed there for a few nights.

 

 

The Carrington Hotel was originally called The Great Western Hotel and was established in 1882. It was an imposing Victorian building with nearly sixty bedrooms. It was the second of three (now considered iconic) hotels in the Blue Mountains. It is slightly pre-dated by Jenolan Caves House and about twenty years older than The Hydro-Majestic Hotel. Fortunately, all three properties are still in existence, and all are still operating as hotels but only The Carrington has a heritage listing as the only 19^th century Grand Resort Hotel still in use in N.S.W.

 

Situated on an elevated expansive block, close to Katoomba railway station, the newly built Carrington Hotel was surrounded by lawns and the early plantings of gardens and trees.

The original owner died in 1885, and ownership passed to Frederick Goyder who was responsible for renaming the hotel after the then Governor of N.S.W. Lord Carrington. Business must have been good for by the following year Goyder had increased the number of rooms to 119 plus seven suites. Other additions included a dining hall, two drawing rooms and a music room. Outside in the spacious grounds two tennis courts and a vegetable garden were added. By 1888 Goyder had purchased the hotel outright.

 

Between 1898 and 1901 The Carrington had a variety of owners before settling with Arthur Peacock after Frederick Goyder died in 1900. The Hotel continued to flourish with the addition of lavatories, bathrooms and water closets on each floor. Notably a power station was built in 1910 at the rear of the Hotel. It supplied power for not only the hotel but also the rest of Katoomba and surrounding villages. The power stations chimney still stands and remains an unusual landmark visible from the neighbouring village of Leura.

 

Continued success and improvements came when the ownership was acquired in 1911 by the highly successful James Joynton Smith who also had interests in both the Imperial Hotel at Mount Victoria and the previously mentioned Hydro-Majestic hotel at Medlow Bath.

The Carrington enjoyed popularity well into the 1960’s even as visitor numbers in The Blue Mountains declined. Despite attempts to modernise with the addition of a swimming pool and improved landscaping The Carrington eventually succumbed to its age and closed in 1986.Possibly a victim of its own success, the original grounds had been slowly cannibalised as the township grew. The swimming pool had been filled in and the tennis courts disappeared. It remained empty and boarded up until 1991.

 

The delicate task of refurbishment began in 1992 under the guidance of owners dedicated to not only the Hotel’s preservation but also charged with a mission to return it to its former glory. Fortunately, the well-established gardens on east side of the Hotel (the main entrance), with the decades old European and North American trees, remained relatively untouched.

 

Today, The Carrington thrives with the Grand Dining Room, a Brassiere, a deli/wine room/ bottle shop, a brewery and a cabaret room. Most importantly the hotel has retained its beautiful mix of Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco construction and its lush interior furnishings. Of particular interest is the elevator or lift which dates back to 1927 and is close to original condition.

 

The Carrington gained its iconic status based on grandeur, elegance and location. You could add to that mix with the succession of influential owners. However, The Carrington probably never consistently achieved the culinary standards that it should have. But it may have come close in 1927.

 

When the Duke and Duchess of York visited Australia way back in 1927, more than one million people turned out to see them in Sydney. Five days after their arrival, the Royals’ and their entourage

journeyed to the Blue Mountains.    This not insignificant distance was covered by a Royal Train before the party transferred to a fleet of British made Crossley motor vehicles (a favourite vehicle of the future King).

 

 

 

 

One of the problems of being a high-ranking Royal is the huge amount of food on offer during a royal visit. The Royal’s enjoyed breakfast at Government House in Sydney and light lunch at The Carrington Hotel followed by afternoon tea at Hampton and finally a fifteen-course dinner at Jenolan Caves house. One would have assumed they also had refreshments on the train. They certainly would have had to pace themselves. The dinner menu at the Caves included Lobster Newburg, Roast turkey Saint James and Rum Omelette.

 

Little is known of the light lunch menu at the Carrington Hotel, but it is generally considered that it included a selection of sandwiches and fresh fruit. This must have peeved the Carrington Hotel chef, not to mention the Hotel’s owner James Joynton Smith, knowing that they had missed an opportunity to really cater for the Royals’.

 

Visiting dignitaries gave us the opportunity to showcase the best produce on hand, so putting aside what The Royals ate for dinner at the Caves, what might the locals have offered the future King had he dined at The Carrington.

At the time the Royal household had continued a tradition of menus heavily influenced by the French. That influence would have followed the Royals to Australia and indeed any menu served to them would probably have been vetted by the Royal household to some degree.

 

From Refreshment Rooms to the Ghan

In 2023 I journeyed to Melbourne, overnight on the XPT to see our son and his partner. Chris and I repeated the same trip in 2024. The route takes you through a few towns that you would normally miss if you were driving to Melbourne directly.

The XPT appeared close to capacity and would stop at various towns along the way as it travelled to the southern capital. Whenever the train pulled into a station the odd passenger would alight with their luggage only to be quickly swallowed up by the inky blackness. At other times a hug from a loved one was waiting for the ticket holder. Occasionally a passenger boarded as silently as possible only to stumble in the dim interior light as the train left the warm glow of the station. You could pick the regular passengers – they were the ones who slept regardless of interruptions after consuming whatever food they brought with them. Others like myself, nodded intermittently as I tracked the progress of the train. The buffet car was located in my carriage and offered hot and cold beverages, snacks and a menu from which you could order hot food. I chose the Chicken Curry which was surprisingly good.

At many of the stops throughout the night, there was ample evidence of a by-gone era when many stations featured refreshment rooms for travellers. By modern standards the refreshment rooms or tea rooms as they were often referred to, were unglamorous and offered very basic fare, but they were popular and many were located within grand stations of Victorian design which today are heritage listed. While never centres of culinary excellence they were there for a reason.

The age of steam meant that locomotives had to stop regularly to take on water and coal and consequently it was thought that this would also be an opportunity to feed and water the passengers. In Australia from the mid eighteen hundreds, refreshment rooms started appearing at train stations and from then they seemed to sprout like mushrooms throughout Regional Australia and naturally in the Capital cities and larger suburban rail stations. Business was good for the better part of a century, but by the 1950’s things were changing.

As steam gave way to diesel the need for the train to stop for coal and water was eliminated. Personal motor vehicle ownership was also increasing and longer distance trains were offering catering facilities on board the train. The Victorian “Spirit of Progress” train had been offering a restaurant car since the late 1930’s, while the “Southern Aurora” offered unparalleled comforts from 1962. Many of the Railway Refreshment Rooms closed, others were leased out.

Fast-forward to the present day, the “Spirit”, the “Aurora” and others have all gone. The spaces once occupied by the Refreshment Rooms have been re-purposed or replaced by fast food outlets or remain empty. I lamented that fact as I gazed down at my scrapped clean cardboard container that had contained the curry. At the time I recalled a conversation with one of the teachers from my TAFE cooking school days.

When he arrived in Australia in the 1960’s from England one of his first jobs was in a Sydney restaurant as a second chef. His boss (the head chef) explained how he made his sauces. Basically it was one big pot of béchamel sauce – with additions. Cheese sauce naturally had cheese. Gravy had Parisienne essence (brown colouring) and a beef stock cube. The only addition for the curry sauce was curry powder. You get the idea – naturally my teacher was horrified and wondered what type of culinary back water he had migrated to.

Today Train travel in Australia is either viewed as a necessity as in the case of commuters within the suburban networks or as a “bucket list” highlight on a glamour train such as “The Ghan” or the “Indian Pacific”. These trains are regarded as world class visitor/ tourist orientated experiences and passengers have a full service dining car and a lounge car with a bar.  Travelling on either of these trains is still on our own bucket list, but I can say that Chris and I were fortunate in having travelled on “The Spirit”, the “Aurora” and the “Brisbane Limited” back in the day.

The Granny Smith Story

When I was growing up in Epping, N.S.W, naturally I had heard of the Granny Smith apple. Later I learnt part of the story and I found out that Grannies farm had been in the neighbouring suburb of Eastwood. In 1985 a few years after our family moved away from Sydney, The Granny Smith Festival started in Eastwood and we attended the festival a number of times in the 1990’s.

You could say that I was more than surprised when, upon investigation I realised that Granny’s farm was on the street where we had lived, albeit at the Eastwood end of the street.

The leafy suburb of Eastwood was once rich farmland, famous for its orchards. It was here that Maria Ann Smith (Granny) and her husband purchased a small orchard in the mid 1850’s. Over time Maria became a prominent and successful local citizen, nicknamed Granny Smith. In the late 1860’s, on her orchard, a chance seedling of uncertain origin, was discovered and cultivated. That seedling became the apple which is named after Maria.

Maria died only two years later but her apple was already popular with Sydneysiders. Interest surged in the 1890’s and the apple started winning awards, prompting Government interest. After The Great War one of Australia’s biggest fruit exports was the Granny Smith Apple.

The rich soil of Eastwood is still there, mostly covered with houses on generous blocks. Close to where that famous orchard was, you can contemplate Maria and her apple as you sit in the Granny Smith Memorial Park.

 

History Bites  – Carbohydrates in Diet

These days’ for many people, particularly older Australians who enjoy a western diet, the mention of the word carbohydrate will have connotations of some of the many foods that their doctor has advised them to avoid or limit their intake. Yes, bread, pasta, pastries and potatoes are pretty tasty and because they are so available, in so many varieties, there is a natural tendency to over consume. It is now known that carbohydrates, particularly starchy ones were essential to the evolution of modern big-brained humans and were crucial for energy, overall fitness and brain development.

Naturally occurring sources of carbohydrate have existed for tens of thousands of years and have helped shape the cuisines of every continent except Antarctica and Australia. The frozen continent far to the south is an obvious exclusion, but why Australia.

Indigenous Australians were considered Hunter-Gatherers and sourced carbohydrates from a variety of grass seeds, tuberous roots, berries, nuts, fruits and legumes. Depending on where the clan lived Bunya nuts, Millet and Kangaroo grass seeds, Mulga Wattle legumes and fruits and berries from the Kurrajong tree may have been on the menu. Australia is big so the variety matched its size.

However, Australia became a country welcoming many different ethnicities and from the time of European settlement we have relied on the naturally occurring carbohydrates sources of the other five continents. Even now few attempts have been made to commercialise indigenous foods.

Scientific evidence shows us that Oats were eaten in Eastern Europe as long ago as 30000BCE and cultivated from around 9000BCE. Think of Porridge and Welsh Oat Cakes.

Rice was cultivated around 7000BCE in China. By 3300BCE rice was a staple throughout East and South-east Asia. It’s hard to imagine Asia without rice on the menu. Rice failed to migrate into the Pacific Islands, but the Austronesian peoples, the predecessors of the Polynesians slowly populated the Pacific as far as Easter Island. It is generally believed they brought the sweet potato plant back from its native South America, where it had been cultivated for thousands of years

Sago originated in the Indonesian Archipelago and is similar to the Cassava Plant of South America, both yielding starchy “pearls”. Sago is thought to be as old as rice while cassava is a little younger. They both enjoy widespread consumption in the tropical areas of South America, South East Asia and the Pacific Islands.

We owe the Americas gratitude in coming up with Maize and Potatoes. Both can be traced back to being cultivated around 7000BCE. Maize formed the basis Central and South American cuisine, being used for tortillas, tamales, porridge and alcohol. Potatoes had a similar heritage with an estimated 3000 varieties in Chile alone, so it featured in many dishes. The Incas even had a Goddess for Potatoes; her name was  “Axomamma”.

One of the biggest cultivated crops these days is wheat and there is evidence that it was first cultivated in the Middle East around the year 5000BCE. The earliest use of wheat  was the baking of bread.

The Age of Discovery that started in the late 15^th century bridged the geographic divide between the “Old and New Worlds”. The term “Colombian Interchange” is used for the exchange of cultivated plants and animals between the eastern and western hemispheres. For most of this time the “New World” received a very bad deal but it did transform the culinary landscape of the world.  Maize, Sweet Potato and Potato were among the many plants that arrived back in Europe, while the “New World” would never be the same after wheat, rye and rice found its way from the “Old World”.

By the time of European settlement in Australia, rice was the fourth most valuable export out of North America and polenta (corn meal) was entrenched in Italian cooking. The Great Famine of the mid 1800’s resulted in the population of Ireland to nearly halve by the year 1901.

So for thousands of years these very individual plants existed, separated by distance, but in the space of 400 years these same plants were being grown in many locations and enjoyed international appeal.

Pears

Pears in Australia are available in store for much of the year but are at their peak during what we consider the cooler months. Pear orchards, with the exception of Stanthorpe in South East Queensland and Manjimup in Southern Western Australia are all located in the southern states.

The varieties of pear you are likely to find at the market include Beurre Bosc, Bartlett, Corella and the ones I am using today – the Packham Pear.

While the “Packham” story may not be as well known as the Granny Smith apple it does share similar historical credentials. It was first grown in the central the west of New South Wales, in 1896, near the township of Molong. Today this Australian Pear is a top seller around the world.

Iconic Australian Hotels – The Adams Hotel Sydney.

I wish I had a direct connection to The Adams Hotel, but this famous hotel was demolished in 1969, the year before I reached the legal drinking age. I did however work in the hotel that replaced it – The Sydney Hilton. Any conversation about The Adams Hotel could very easily drift into one of the many other interests that George Adams, the hotels namesake, had.

George Adams migrated to Australia in his mid teens, in 1855. He spent a number of years in various occupations including gold mining, jackaroo, stock dealer and butcher. Over time Adams developed a love of horse racing and gambling. By 1875 he was able to purchase the license to a Hotel in Kiama on the N.S.W. south coast.

A likeable man of influence and with many good friends, Adams frequented The Tattersall’s Club in Sydney where the common interest was gambling. The Tattersall’s club had already been re-named The Tattersall’s Hotel when in 1878 three of Adam’s friends purchased the hotel for him. Apparently it was a deal done on a handshake. Did I not mention that they were very good friends.

Still under the name Tattersall’s, George Adam’s expanded the gambling operation to be even more successful and by 1884 he had repaid the 40000 pounds that his friends had paid for the hotel.

The hotel had not undergone any updating since 1860 and realising that he had to stay ahead of his competitors, Adam’s in 1890, embarked on a renovation spree.

The work included expanding the hotel’s footprint to include constructing The Palace Theatre next door which included Sydney’s first electric power station. An arcade running from Pitt Street to George Street, decorated with imported marble and rich timbers was also constructed. By far the most opulent appointment was the fabulous Marble Bar and its collection of Julian Ashton paintings. Designed to Adam’s specifications, very early on The Marble Bar was destined to become a world famous watering hole.

George Adams became very wealthy and still found time to run a coal company in N.S.W. plus a brewery in Tasmania. But the main source of his wealth was his gambling empire –Tattersall’s.

Today, George Adam’s financial legacy is entwined in Tabcorp, Australia’s largest gambling company. However I like to think he might like to be better remembered for his beautiful Marble Bar.