Emma Jade

At a very young age, having eaten things such as frogs legs, escargot, rollmops, roasted pigs head and crumbed brains with my grandfather, I began my love for food...

I just love to cook! It relaxes me and makes me feel good when people enjoy my food, and more importantly, when I enjoy my food!

I love throwing dinner parties with themes: Italian, Greek, French etc - I'll spend a week preparing and conjuring up the menu and sourcing quality produce!

My favourite flavours are by far truffles, porcini mushrooms, foi grois and la buche d'affinois! I love strong flavours and really enjoy slow cooking to get exceptionally tender results!

My signature dish is definitely my Northern Italian style Lasagne - it takes me 2 days to prepare, 3 hours to cook the meat sauce and is just divine! When I first made this dish I was amazed at how authentic it tasted, and my Italian friends told me that it tasted just like their nona's original recipe!

I also love to cook things like Asian braised pork belly, twice cooked in the oven with a sticky honey sauce (reduced with the braising liquid) - it is so melt-in-the-mouth amazing and full of delicious flavour!

Hmmm what else? I LOVE duck dishes! Nothing is better than duck leg confit paired with a creamy porcini risotto!!

Seafood is also a huge hit with me, I love prawns, marron, lobster, bugs, any kind of fish, calamari etc - as long as it's fresh, quality produce and cooked well it will be delicious! I guess that theory is my fundamental belief for all food and cooking; fresh quality ingredients make the best food, and sometimes even the simplest recipes are best! (Mmmm Insalata Caprese (Italian tomato, buffalo mozarella, basil and olive oil salad) - is an exceptional example!)

I could go on and on - in fact, I used to work for a restaurant guide in WA where I reviewed restaurants as part of my job. Needless to say it was a great job, and I was very lucky during that time to sample some of WA's finest restaurants!