From the dish she’ll order until she dies to a divine lunch with chef Antonio Carluccio, these are some of the ABC presenter’s favourite places, flavours and moments.
Virginia Trioli has made her name as a Walkley Award-winning journalist, a radio presenter in both Melbourne and Sydney, and more recently through exploring the essence of creativity with leading Australian artists in the ABC TV series Creative Types.
But as she reveals in her newly released memoir, A Bit on the Side, Trioli is as passionate about food as she is about current affairs and the arts.
The North Melbourne local regularly shops at nearby Queen Victoria Market. But since giving up the daily grind of breakfast television and morning radio, Trioli thinks nothing of heading across town to South Melbourne Market to buy hard-to-find seafood such as turbot and scampi, or to pause and sample a newly arrived sea urchin.
“That’s when I’ll eat it raw with a toothpick straight from the shell,” she says. “That’s the closest it gets to being back at Tsukiji market in Tokyo for me.”
Favourite stallholder? “No favourite. I buy from all of them depending on the produce.”
Trioli has firm opinions about what constitutes the perfect vinaigrette, divulging the exact proportions in her new book (three parts olive oil, one part red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, ¼ teaspoon sugar, a pinch of salt).
She also shares a tip she gleaned from chef Brigitte Hafner at Mornington Peninsula restaurant Tedesca Osteria – to always leave a trickle of water on her salad leaves for optimal emulsion.
Trioli has interviewed a plethora of celebrities over the years but the late Italian chef Antonio Carluccio still stands as a career highlight.
“I remember interviewing him on air and we just connected. Maybe it was the Italian thing,” says Trioli.
“He said the next time you’re in London, you must visit my restaurant. Russell [Skelton, her husband] and I went to Italy via London and I made the call. I had his number and he answered. He told me to go to the restaurant and we’d have lunch together, that he wasn’t far away,” she says.
“True to his word, he turned up and sat with us. We talked and ate together – it was divine. A rare, important and brief connection I will long remember.”
SIGNATURE DISH AT HOME
I love cooking veal ossobuco. I use an old recipe by an Italian cookbook author, Giuliano Bugialli, from the ’80s. It has bright-tasting sauce: not heavy and vegetable-forward, and is well coloured from the milled sauce. It’s a dish I love serving.
GUILTY PLEASURE
If I am sitting at home late at night, it’s fancy cheese on toast. It’s like a Welsh rarebit, which I would like to bring back as a nice entree to serve guests. I make it with a slice of good bread toasted on one side, and on the other I smear Dijon mustard then shave all the fancy cheeses, like comte, on top and grill until it’s bubbling brown. Add Worcestershire on top and pile on some rocket leaves.
KITCHEN WISDOM
Taste, taste, taste. People are focused on following the recipe and they forget to taste. You must taste the whole time you cook.
EATING OUT
MELBOURNE
France-Soir: I first went there as a post-university student in my first job, and I have adored it since. The steak bearnaise will always be the centre of my dining experiences until the day I die.
Another favourite place is Gimlet. I don’t go too often, but if they’re doing steak tartare at the table, that is the way to go.
Kenzan: I have been going there forever and they’ve recently done a renovation. Order the spicy tuna rolls. The kingfish neck is fantastic, too.
Tian 38: this Singaporean restaurant in Melbourne’s Flinders Lane makes the best Hainanese chicken rice in the city. It’s so simple and refined – you have nowhere to hide with this dish. They also make a delicious braised eggplant dish.
SYDNEY
Bistro Moncur should get an award for extraordinary consistency. I have eaten there for more than 20 years. I order their minute steak, and broccoli with almonds is the perfect side dish.
Sean’s Bondi is one of the best in the country. It’s all beautiful, rare produce treated lightly and respectfully. It’s not tricksy overdone foams and gel food. I have been to those fancy restaurants, and they’re wonderful, but they don’t stay in my mind. It’s dishes here that matter to me.
And Bar Copains in Surry Hills – I wish they were in Melbourne.
FAVOURITE COFFEE SPOTS
Laneway cafe Small Batch is close to me in North Melbourne and they make fab coffee and source coffee by individual growers. Charlie Duffy makes great pastries there, too. I also like Code Black in North Melbourne, and DOC in Lygon Street is another favourite spot. Dame in Collins Place is good when I am doing business things.
I am very strict about coffee. The first of the day is the most important – that’s the one I make myself with a Bialetti – it’s a mild light coffee. I have it with half skim milk and half oat milk. Don’t judge me!
FAVOURITE MELBOURNE BAR
1806 in Exhibition Street. It’s a bit dinky, the bar is overwrought in terms of design, but the bartenders really know what they’re doing. If I can talk to the bartender and say “make me a Gimlet without the cordial”, they will do it with vodka, lime juice and a half measure of Cointreau, and that will do me. Or it’ll be a very cold martini – either with an olive or a twist.
FAVOURITE AUSTRALIAN DINING DESTINATION
Brigitte Hafner and I go a long way back. She was starting her career as a chef when I was starting out on radio. I used to dine at her great bar and restaurant, Gertrude Street Enoteca, before she opened Red Hill’s Tedesca Osteria.
[At Tedesca], the hospitality, the room, that incredible kitchen with its roaring fire, and seeing her make and plate dishes herself is one of the most extraordinary achievements in cooking. I had a birthday celebration there a year ago – it was divine. I can still taste every single dish. The veal ravioli with a simple reduction sauce was exceptional. For dessert, she made a delicious Paris-Brest.
FAVOURITE FOOD CITY
It has to be San Francisco. I love Zuni Cafe and Nancy Oakes’ Boulevard Cafe – they are a must for anybody who visits. It’s farm-to-table cooking – beautiful produce cooked in a way that produces explosive flavours.
At Boulevard Cafe, I learned incredible respect and love for vegetables such as beets and artichokes – particularly on the West Coast of America. They would come to the table and be a revelation.
Zuni Cafe is famous for its roast chicken salad. We flew across the Pacific just to eat that dish and it was worth it. The hatted Michelin star restaurant Quince is also amazing. It’s one of the more refined farm-to-table experiences.
The French Laundry and Chez Panisse were bucket-list experiences for Russell and me and they did not disappoint. I don’t think I’ll ever taste vegetables treated so simply and with such love as I did in those places: that combination of simplicity with extraordinary sophistication is singular.
WHERE TO STAY
We stayed at 1 Hotel San Francisco around 10 years ago. I vividly recall the bed linen. I tracked down the brand (San Francisco Linens) and bought myself a set, which I still use.
Jane Rocca is a regular contributor to Sunday Life Magazine, Executive Style, The Age EG, columnist and features writer at Domain Review, Domain Living’s Personal Space page. She is a published author of four books.