Fiona Poole Ben O’Donoghue
What a fab night! A group of friends and I were lucky enough to spend the evening at a Ben O’Donoghue cooking demonstration. Not only did we get to see him at work, we also got fed! The evening was held at Kitchen & Cutlery in Adamstown, Newcastle. It was a relaxed demo with Ben giving us handy hints and information along the way. One interesting bit of info that he shared with us was in regards to chillis. Apparently if you pick a chilli in hot weather, the chilli will be hotter/spicier than if you pick it in cooler weather. Something to try sometime.
We started the evening by watching a demo on Panzanella. A beautiful tomato, bread, and rocket salad. The flavours were amazing and all plates were clean very quickly! Next was Ben’s Classic BBQ Sticky Ribs served with Baked Sweet Potatoes with green chilli and lemon oil, and Shaved Fennel and Celery salad. All this was topped off with a simple but very impressive Mixed-berry Meringue Swiss Roll.
All the recipes are from Ben’s book Ben’s Barbecue. Ben himself was such a fabulous personality, it was like watching a friend cook and chat at a BBQ rather than a cooking demo. He told us bits about his career, personal life, and threw in his great sense of humor.
The food was so tasty that all members of our group have made the recipes for our families already which were devoured with enthusiasm!
Ben is opening a new restaurant in the near future up in Brisbane. The name is still undecided but it will be at South Bank overlooking the “beach”. I look forward to visiting on my next trip up there.
Mixed-berry Meringue Swiss Roll
Fiona Poole 
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