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great customer feedback

This great email came through from a customer this morning and I just wanted to share this, it makes every late night early morning and 15hr day worthwhile, thanks Duncan glad you enjoyed it.
Ben

email

Dear Ben & Staff of the Wild Oak,

I have been meaning to write to thankyou all so very much for a wonderful experience recently when my partner & l were staying at the Grace hill B & B down the valley & Betty, the owner there recommended Wild Oak for dinner.

Coming from a farming back ground with fresh produce & also a complete food nut who adores eating/cooking we eat out alot, always on the look out for new places to try so l greatly appreciate quality, service & great staff .

Saying this, l would like to congratulate you all as our experience at Wild Oak was absolutely amasing!!
From the lovely lady who opened the door at lunch time when you weren't actually open to let us have a look at the menu & book a table; the staff friendliness & organisation as soon as we arrived; the layout; atmosphere & setting for the restaurant in general & this before we had even tasted the food was excellent.

The food though is a major part of any dinning experience l suppose & all the dishes we had were an absolute gastronomic pleasure to devour. Perfectly cooked, delicious flavours/ combinations & not to mention remarkably quick.

We will definitely be visiting soon to try a few other meals we couldn't fit in the first trip so thankyou again & have a wonderful weekend.

Kind regards

Duncan

Wild Oak at Parliament House Canberra

We are off to Canberra! Ben and Jilly have been invited to BBQ at Parliament House Australia on Monday the 26th of March. Chef Ben cooked for previous PM John Howard on his visit to the Dandenong Ranges!

Knox Festival Demo recipes

Indonesian style “Riverine Tender” Beef Stirfry.


Ingredients:
• 2 lge cloves Garlic, finely sliced

• 20g fresh young Ginger, finely sliced


• 1 fresh Green chilli, finely sliced

• 200g snowpeas (topped and tailed)


• 200g sugar snap peas (topped and tailed)

• 200g Riverine Tender Cut beef stirfry strips


• ketchup manis (sweet soy)

• lime juice


• ½ bunch coriander leaf finely sliced

• ½ cup roasted peanuts crushed



Directions:
• In a hot wok sear off beef strips in a little oil
• Once cooked remove beef from wok and set aside
• In a little oil stirfry greens, ginger, garlic and chilli
• Glaze with sweet soy, lime juice and most of the chopped coriander
• Add beef back to wok and combine



Seared Riverine Tender Cut Steak with Salsa Verde
(fresh Italian green sauce).


Ingredients:
4 grain fed Riverine Tender Sirloin Steaks
Salt and pepper to taste
Drizzle of olive oil


Salsa verde

Ingredients
1 x bunch corriander
1 x bunch basil
1 x bunch parsley
1 x bunch mint
8 x Capers
2 x Anchovy
Splash Red wine vinegar
1 tbs x Olive oil
1 tbs x Dijon mustard



Directions:
• Heat your grill BBQ or skillet until it is quite hot
• On a separate plate lightly oil and season your steaks
• Do not pour oil into your pan or grill
• Sear steaks off for 5 mins on each side and then rest for at least 3 mins in a warm place
• Whilst steak is cooking chop all ingredients for the salsa verde and combine in a bowl
• Mix and serve atop sliced steaks on a platter

Valentines Menu

Entrée
Freshly shucked tasmanian pacific oysters with cucumber vinagrette

Fresh victorian bay mussels, cookied in champagne with fresh herbs ginger and garlic

Yarra Valley Heirloom tomato tarte Tartin with yarra valley goats cheese and apple balsamic

Half shell scallops roasted with thai sesame dressing

Duck liver pate with homemade relish and toasted sourdough bread

Mains
Butterfly chicken breast fillet, with spanish chorizo sausage artichoke and capsicum, finished with salsa verde

Tasmanian salmon fillet with minted snowpea salad and lime hollandaise sauce

Otways organic pork belly with roasted chat potatoes and glazed apple jus

Your choice of aged Black Angus Steak’s
Grain fed Rump 350g
Pasture fed victorian Eye fillet 200g

Served on either mash potato, roasted potatoes or greens

With your choice of Mushroom sauce, Café de paris butter, Jus or
Bernaise sauce

Our Risotto of exotic mushrooms, finished with hints of truffle, goats cheese and Italian parmesan

Dessert
Locally grown strawberry tartlett with passionfruit custard and shortbread pastry
Semi Freddo (italian style icecream terrine) of local raspberries and rosepetals
Croquembouche for two, with chocolate filled profiteroles and fresh berries
Sorbets, our in house homemade fruit sorbets
Individual cheese plate with homemade lavosh quince paste and figs

The sun is shining and it looks as though New Years Eve weather is going o be fantastic!

Just to keep you up dated we are open on the 31st for lunch as per normal, and for dinner from 6pm with a full selection fixed price a la carte menus (below, spaces are still available so drop us a line or an email for a table.

we are also open for buisness as usual from the 1st of Jan.

Entree
Fresh Tasmanian Oysters with lemon GF

Scallops baked in the half shell with a seasame Thai dressing with a light salad
and pine apple relish GF DF

Individual Antipasto platters of house made goods, relishes and home made sour dough bread
V option available

Wild Oaks Baby Ceaser Salad, crisp cos lettice, free range egg, anchovy & bacon (V without bacon)

Wild Oak’s duck liver pate with home made fig relish and toasted sour dough


Main

South American style flat iron steak with salsa Fresco & oven roasted potatoes GF

Char grilled Chicken breast with a macadamia crumble under skin with a creamy leek and preserved lemon infused cauliflower and broccoli

Wild mushroom and Yarra valley goats cheese risotto, finished with truffle infused oil
and parmesan cheese GF V

Our signiture confit of duck with a carrot and pine nut gratin, pea puree and red current jus GF

Lemon myrtle roasted baby barramundi fillet served with a caponata of local root vegetables and lime aioli GF DF


Dessert

Chocolate budino tart with fresh raspberry couli and thick cream V

Rich sticky date pudding served with a warm butterscotch sauce and double thick cream V

Trio of house made seasonal sorbets V DF GF

Australian award winning cheeses served with homemade quince paste, liqueur figs and house made lavosh V

Lunch at Wild Oak & Winery Tour

Last minuet availability for Sat 6th Nov winery tour.
COMPLIMENTARY BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE if four persons book !
Pick up and drop off in The Dandenong Ranges, lunch at Wild Oak with wine appreciation talk and full tasting. Head off to the Yarra Valley to either two boutique wineries to meet the wine makers & tasting or One boutique winery and Chandon Champagne tour. Just $135 per person all inclusive. (min 2 person, max 7 persons)

The same and other tours are available seven days Call Jilly 0431970522 or Wild Oak 9751 2033

Christmas Functions

There's still time to book your Christmas Function at The wild Oak!
Work, family or a friends get together. From just $50 per head for three courses.
Call today 9751 2033

Best Modern Australian Restaurant! regional Vic

Great news,
Wild Oak took out great honours this week at the Restaurant and Catering Associations awards for excellence; winning the coveted award for best Modern Australian Restaurant, regional. I would like to take the oppourtunity to thank all our hardworking staff, loyal customers, suppliers, friends and family that have supported us and believed in what we do for over 8 great years.
With thanks Ben

coming soon....

Coming soon to Mount Dandenong...'Relish'
Warm comfortable cafe, open for breakfast and light lunch's. Specialising in cream teas, high tea and home made cakes. Located between The Chinese and The Indian, Mount Dandneong shops...watch this space!

Wild Oak wants you!!!

Wild Oak wants you to join our dynamic team! Full time front of house persons needed. This rewarding job includes day and late evening shifts. Applicant must be able to work as a team, and be self motivated to work alone. Service and hospitality experience preferred, but not essential. Expressions of interest to Jillypr@gmail.com or 03 9751 2033

Wolf Blass Ben Higgs Signature Dinner

Beijing:Wolf Blass wines
(China Daily)Updated: 2009-08-08 14:39

It was difficult to say which was better, the food or the wine, at a wine tasting held recently by ASC Fine Wines. The event had Australian chef Ben Higgs, of Wild Oak Restaurant, prepare five courses to match five Wolf Blass gold label wines.
The tasting was held to mark the 75th birthday of Wolf Blass, founder of the Wolf Blass winery. Blass arrived in Australia in 1961 and since 1966 his winery has grown from a humble tin shed in the Barossa Valley to one of the country's most successful and recognized winemakers.
Higgs matched the first wine, a Gold Label Riesling 2008, with a starter of duck liver parfait with brioche. The well-balanced, floral Riesling with a sour citrus flavor helped offset the greasy duck liver, with its pleasantly rich and smooth taste.
The second wine, a Gold Label Chardonnay 2007 from Adelaide Hills, made a much better impression, with a more complex structure, and a fuller, stronger impact on the palate. Higgs matched the wine with a rolled Atlantic salmon on round leaf mint, giving it a smoother taste than usual.
For the third course, Higgs presented a tasty spiced rubbed Australian lamb rack, put through a 48-hour marination process, which almost outdid the wine to match it, the Gold Label Carbernet Sauvignon 2006. Higgs said he gave the lamb a slight char on the surface, to match the wine. One would have expected a stronger wine to match the lamb.
This was followed by the Wolf Blass Gold Shiraz 2006, matched with a panko crumbed veal tenderloin, with its strong blackberry fruit, spice and smoky oak flavors. Lastly, came a Gold Label Botrytis Semillon 2006, which has a pleasant rose aroma. It is a wine balanced in sweetness, and not so rich. Higgs' dessert, a soft, smooth tasting coverture chocolate and wattle seed terrine, was a genuine treat.

Wild About Wine Tour

Saturday 1st August Wild about Boutique Wine
Half Day $85 per person.
This very personal tour takes you behind the scenes to three of the family run boutique wineries set away from the main tourist route. The tour includes wine tasting at all three wineries, lunch with a glass of red of white wine and a shared antipasto platter for afternoon nibbles.
Itinerary 11.30am - 12 noon pick up
Wild Oak Restaurant – lunch at the award winning Wild Oak, renowned for using only the finest local produce and native herbs and spices. Lunch is a main course and glass of red or white wine, from Elmswood Estate. Enjoy the scenic route through Monbulk and Silvan area, an area renowned for its’ cherries and berries’ hydroponics strawberries, soft fruits and apples. Elmswood Estate – this family run boutique winery offers several reds and whites to be enjoyed at your private tasting. Grape varities, methods and growing will all be explained in this very personal experience. Five Oaks – located among the lush, rolling hills on the southern side of the Yarra Valley. The vineyard slopes gently westward, overlooking cherry and stone fruit orchards, with Mt Dandenong in the background. Five Oaks specialises in Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot and Riesling wines. Seville Estate – 4pm enjoy a personal tour of this small family run vineyard. An antipasto and cheese platter to share made with the best fresh regional produce.
Be driven through the forest on the unmade road to R J Hammer Arboretum with its lovely views of the mountain to the Ranges.
Drop off to your pick up point at around 5.30pm.

Coxy's TV Gnocchi Recipe

Hi,
i have posted the recipes from my session on TV with Coxy's big break for anyone who wants to give it a go at home.

Best of luck

Traditional Italian potato gnocchi
Recipe
· 1.5 kg large floury potatoes (coliban or sebago are good)
· 2 eggs
· Flour as needed
· Sea salt flakes and cracked black pepper
· Extra virgin olive oil
· 100g finely shaved parmesan
Method
· Peel and chop potatoes, rinse well and then bring to the boil from cold salted water.
· When cooked (test they slide easily off a small vegetable knife) mash out onto floured bench, for best results use a mouli or a drum sieve
· Add all other ingredients into a well and knead together until combined. Be careful not to overwork or it becomes starchy and tough.
· Roll into a big sausage and cut about 1cm thick
· Blanch in salty water until they float then cool on an oiled tray

Basil Pesto
Recipe
· 1 bunch of basil
· 100g freshly toasted pine nuts
· 2 cloves garlic
· 200g freshly shaved Italian parmesan
· Extra virgin olive oil
· Sea salt flakes
· Cracked black pepper
Method
Combine all ingredients in a food processor or mortar and pestle and then process until smooth
Toss gnocchi through fresh pesto with lots of shaved parmesan, and torn proscuitto

AS SEEN ON TV!

Not to be missed! Ben Higgs TV Appearance

Sunday at 5.30pm Ben shall be featured on Post Cards TV program on Channel 9 Ben will take Shane Crawford and friends through two dishes in the Wild Oak Cooking School

Australian Food Delegate

Ben was chosen to be a delegate for Australia at the current ‘World Gourmet Food Summit’ held in Singapore. Ben has been well received, bringing his unique charm and extensive knowledge of Australian produce to the International market. Ben has enjoyed touring the diverse food industry in Singapore, from the hawker’s street markets to the luxurious six star hotels such as The St Regis Singapore.

Ben shall be experiencing a cooking class at the famous ‘Raffles Hotel’ on Sunday with their dim sum chef and is looking forward to bringing the skills back to Melbourne to our own cooking school http://www.wildoak.com.au/If you are interested in booking the dim sum class, or the taste of Singapore class, please e-mail expressions of interest to Cook@WildOak.com.au

Celebrity Chefs and MPs!

Celebrity Chefs Ben Higgs, Allan Campion and MP James Merlino demonstrated many fabulous dishes at The Knox Festival last weekend. The Food Editor for The Herald Sun, Kate McGhie said "Ben is one of my heroes - a quiet achiever and highly accomplished professional" Kate announced Ben to be one of the finest Chefs in Australia and praised his teaching and demonstrating ability encouraging everyone to experience one of Ben cooking classes at the Wild Oak

Ben makes headlines

Once again Ben makes headlines ! As Ben prepares for another tour of China and Honk Kong showcasing the finest Australian produce from The Dandenong Ranges and Yarra Valley The Mail newspaper has run the story this week see http://www.starnewsgroup.com.au/story/70957

Bush Fire Fundraiser

Hi!

A HUGE THANKYOU to everyone who came along on sun for our fire relief fundraiser, ironically bookings were seriously affected at dinner time due to bushfire threatening the Dandeonongs.
However with your help we were able to raise over $2,000.00 as well as $200.00 in generous cash donations too. Would like to express our great thanks our staff for volunteering to donate their time and also to our kind suppliers who chose to donate product fot the day

Regards the Wild Oak crew.

Wild Oak Bushfire Apeal

Wild Oak is donating our entire day’s revenue this Sunday 15th to the bushfire relief fund!

We thank all our great staff for donating their valuable time.

We thank Elmswood Estate, Olinda Cellars & Sedona Estate for their great support

And we thank our valuable customers for helping us help this cause

Charity Dinner and Auction

The Wild Oak are holding a charity dinner & auction

Monday 3rd November 2008 Melbourne Cup Day eve

All proceeds to go to Oliver Siddles fund raiser

The evening shall begin with a Champagne reception. Followed by a three course dinner including wine & beer. There will also be a door prize (night at Wild Orchid B&B & massage), raffle and auction.

Tickets are limited and can be bought through The Mount Dandenong Vet, or by booking directly with The Wild Oak on 9751 2033.

Tickets are $100 per person all inclusive.

Oliver Siddle's USA Therapy Fund Raising Appeal

Oliver (son of principal vet Mount Dandenong Practice Moss) has an unknown diagnosis but has atypical cerebral palsy symptoms meaning he isn't able to walk independently or talk. In December 2008 he will be flying over to Florida in the USA to have 3 weeks of intensive physio, speech & occupational therapy + hydrotherapy. The therapy is unique & not available in Australia. It involves Oliver wearing a suit made from bungy type material that was similarly worn by Russian astronauts. It is hoped that the therasuit therapy will help him with his spacial awareness & ability to walk before he heads off to school next year

More information about the therapy can be found at www.ptatherapy.com

Don Burke in our Backyard

Don Burke of Burkes backyard television and magazine fame recently celebrated the magazines 10th aniversary.

Here at Wild Oak we were honoured that Don who resides in NSW choose to fly to Melbourne to the Oak to host an intimate lunch with his publishers and his longest running advertisers. Congrats Don.

Day one in honkers

Well after a delayed departure from the white swan I miss my bloody train to honkers... aaarrrgggghhh! anyhow get the next one which arrives late and manage to cruise through customs and quarantine yet again with my cache of dried Aussie herbs and small armoury of cooks knives, my palms are not even sweating anymore. Quick lunch with Ben Cheung from Watsons wine wholesalers, I settle in and Benny Chan an ex Melbourne boy from Watsons group picks me up and we are off for a briefing at the club! After we go over the weeks promos I get changed and do a specific training session on my menus and dishes showing them and tasting every facet of the dishes. I am sooooo happy to see the ingredients and produce is of A1 export quality all Aussie Lamb, Angus beef, Salmon, YV Salmon caviar, crayfish all nearly better quality than is available here!

Gala Wine Dinner at the White Swan

Well its wine dinner time. This is the big one for us! There are special guests, hotel management and VIP’s, members of government, big wig wine importers, other 5 star hotel management, Chinese food press and of course the people who have paid me to come here, nerves in the kitchen are a little high or maybe just mine, I am a little titchy about what is going on and the kitchen guys are doing their best to disregard my instruction under the guise of not understanding English. It is all I can manage to stop the ducks from being roasted at midday for 7pm service, these cooks just love to be well prepped in advance. The butter sauce buerre blanc was made yesterday (a big no no, must be made within a 30min window!) so in the bin it goes. I manage to take control of the risotto, one thing I have found Chinese like to cook the bejesus out of! So time has come and a swarm of staff appear in the kitchen maybe 20 chefs and 25 wait staff. I am thinking this just a little extreme for 50 guests! As I would do the same with 5 of each! Anyhow given the go ahead it all goes wild, we manage to put out 7 courses in 2 hours with 7 matching wines. I am told this is how the Chinese like it fast and hard so just shut up big foot… funny I was under the impression this was MY signature Australian dinner. Following this a sous chef informed me too much sauce, see there I go thinking is this my dinner? Anyhow I ignore the comment and carry on saucing lambs at lightning pace… after dinner I do a little talk on Australian food and wine and also the wonderful part of the world I live, and then meet and greet some great people. In the end everyone loved it Phew. Chef gives me the Day off tomorrow for lunch with the manger of the Westin Hotel and I decide a day by the pool after that is definitely in order!

Mums scones

So I have flown ½ way around the world from possibly Australia’s capital for Devonshire teas! And the exec sous chef says to me it would be nice to do an Aussie scone with jam and cream on my signature buffet here in China. Well two problems here; scones are from Devon which is in England not to be confused with Mount Dandenong, and I have managed to work for more than fifteen years only cooking one batch of scones “ever”. So quick email to mum and we have the old family scone recipe. Ahh melancholy of Sunday afternoons as a kid. So the locals are wrapped at this new discovery and our French exec sous chef mutters something about the English under his breath as he woofs down some doughy goodness covered in jam. And mum is beside herself that her scone recipe is now of international aclaim… thanks mum!