INTERVIEW: Analiese Gregory, a chef in Tasmania, cooks with Gordon Ramsay on ‘Uncharted’ premiere
Photo: Analiese Gregory, a chef based in Tasmania, is featured on the season two premiere of Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted. Photo courtesy of National Geographic / Justin Mandel / Provided by press site with permission.
The season two premiere of Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, set to air Sunday, June 7 at 10 p.m. on Nat Geo, will follow the celebrity chef as he heads to Tasmania to learn about the local cuisine from Analiese Gregory, a chef and restauranteur who lives in the Huon Valey of the island nation.
“I was kind of apprehensive about it, to be honest,” Gregory said in a recent phone interview about joining Uncharted for the special episode. “It wasn’t an immediate yes, but the producers kind of swung me around and also the fact that it was National Geographic, who I love. They did get me there. In the beginning, I think I thought that they might be joking, or it was some kind of internet hoax or something.”
Gregory is hopeful that the hour of television will showcase some of the unique ingredients and culinary traditions of Tasmania. She said many of the products that she cooks with are not widely used around the world, so Uncharted could bring a new appreciation for their possibilities.
“Definitely I cook a lot with abalone here, a lot with sea urchin, lots of things with seaweed,” she said. “I guess we’re an island, so you know all those things and also cold water, which is really good for seafood. There’s a fish called striped trumpeter, which is kind of the Rolls-Royce of the ocean down here. Wallaby. I started also working with possum a little bit as well, and then there’s a lot of nascent spices and leaves like pepperberry, goatbush, things like this.”
For the uninitiated, abalone is a “a large grazing sea snail essentially,” Gregory said. “Probably about the size of your hand. … There’s a really large proportion of meat in it, so early settlers they called it muttonfish because they’re very firm, and they take a lot of tenderizing when they come out of the ocean.”
As far as wallaby, Gregory said the meat tastes like venison. There are no farmed wallabies, so each animal is harvested in the wild, resulting in a low fat content and featuring lean, dark meat.
Settling in Tasmania
Gregory is a world-respected chef who has learned her culinary trade all around the world — in England, France, Morocco and Australia. She grew up cooking many different recipes thanks to her father, who is also a chef. She has been located in Tasmania the last few years, previously working at the Franklin restaurant in Hobart and now gearing up to restore an old farmhouse for a possible new restaurant one day.
When she got her start in the business, life was difficult. It’s a tough trade, and getting a name for oneself is a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.
“It was a difficult time, but I think it’s tempered by the fact that if you start cooking when you’re really young, and you have this intense passion for it, everything is amazing,” Gregory said. “Your first kitchen job is amazing, and the new things you learn and the new ingredients that you work with, you’re just learning so much.”
She added: “I just remember always being one of those kids that would pull out the drawers and climb up onto the kitchen bench and try to make cakes and make things, so I guess I’ve just always been interested. … Then when I was about 15, and I was at school and didn’t know what to do, someone said to me … ‘You should just do something that you love, and then you’ll never work a day in your life,’ which is also not true because it really is work. I was like, oh, I really like cooking, so maybe I’ll do that.”
When Ramsay came to town, the two talked about the uniquenesses of Tasmania as a culinary destination. They traveled together and cooked a traditional meal with some of the ingredients that make the island nation such an interesting place for foodies.
“We spoke about the different produce here and the people,” she said. “I mean, I moved down from Sydney, and it was a slightly slower pace of life for me, which I was ready for, and I really enjoy. Then the ingredients, the crayfish, the abalone, the sea urchin, the wallabies. … I do a lot of diving down here, collecting seaweed, foraging, stuff like that.”
When possible, Gregory tries to use only ingredients from the island. She prefers not to cook with products that have been imported, saying that there are strict biosecurity laws for the country, and that means many vegetables and fruits are fumigated.
“Personally I find I only use fruit or vegetables from the island,” she said. “And I prefer to cook with things that are just from here.”
As far as the future, there is that farmhouse waiting for renovation, and Gregory is also putting the final touches on her first cookbook. She recognizes that Tasmania might be her destination for quite some time, although she always leaves the door open for a new adventure.
“My entire professional life I was very nomadic, so I lived in London, in Paris, in the countryside of France, in Australia,” she said. “I went to Morocco for awhile, and then I don’t know I guess I just wanted to get back to the countryside and country cooking. So I bought a 100-year-old farmhouse in rural Tasmania, and so I guess I’m the most settled I’ve ever been at the moment.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, featuring Analiese Gregory, will air Sunday, June 7 at 10 p.m. on National Geographic. Click here for more information.
