Tower and Town, March 2017

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Dan's

I would really love to say that the Bond dinner table was a gourmet experience every night, but the truth of the matter is my mum was what I call a soap opera cook - everything went on to boil or roast at ten to six in time for the first soap, stirred at 6.30 during the break between shows and served at 7: meat, potato and two veg, the standard fare of the evening family meal. Now don’t get me wrong - the basis of all my cooking and love of food comes from that very kitchen. I always think back with fondness of my mum’s apricot chicken with crispy bits of onion and the slight sweet and sour of the apricots. When it came to baking or making chutneys and jams, out came mum’s little hand written recipe book and soon you would have cakes and scones and jars full of goodness.

When Mum was off to church on Sundays the kitchen would become Dad’s domain with toasties full of cheese, tomato, pineapple and ham, or grilled chops with his secret sauces (still a secret by the way!), and when not in the mood to cook he’d pop to the market and bring back big bags of fresh prawns or thick slices of ham. When I think back to those days it was always those dishes that combined the sweet, salt and savoury that have stayed with me through the years.

After school I went on to study commercial cookery at college, where it soon became apparent that I had a bit of a knack for the cooking game and finished top of the class. I then landed an apprenticeship working in a kitchen with 15 other chefs all with little bits of knowledge and wisdom to share. I was extremely lucky to fall under the care of my German Sous-Chef, Detlev, who taught me everything, and the skill and passion he put into his cooking was incredible and infectious. He has spent the last 20 years teaching future chefs at the college and he was my personal mentor for 3 years.

That was the start of my food journey, and from Australia to England there is much, much more to tell, but that’s another story. The recipe I have chosen reflects my love of the sweet, sour and savoury.

Dice scallop meat 1cm. Add the zest from lemon and limes. Juice the lemon, limes and orange and add sugar and sea salt. Slice spring onions and finally dice red peppers, chilli and coriander. Mix all together and leave scallop marinating for ten minutes. Serve the scallop on crushed avocado using a little bit of the marinade.

Dan Bond