This week, we grill Toni Pearen from
Australia's Funniest Home Videos on her culinary favourites.
Q. Friends unexpectedly drop by and you ask them to stay for dinner. What do you cook?
A. I'd make a classic Italian pasta dish. If the cupboard was bare it'd be garlic, parsley, chilli, salt and pepper. I've heard this was known as a late-night mafia dish.
Q. What's your favourite recipe from Recipe Finder?
A. The Italian recipes are great. The mushroom risotto, roast pumpkin and sage pasta and osso bucco.
Q. What dishes are in your repertoire?
A. Stephanie Alexanders The Cook's Companion and Beppi's A Life in Three Courses.
Q. What's your favourite Friday night meal?
A. I'd probably have something naughty like the Wagyu beef burger, shoestring fries and a glass of pinot noir at Will and Toby's Taylor Square Supper Club (my fiancé's bar). Friday nights are for having fun.
Q. For a romantic night in or out, what's on the menu?
A. It'd be a slow roasted lag of lamb, lots of vegies, peach crumble and a great bottle of red. If it's summer, it'd be Seize the Day rosé wine — it's a favourite.
Q. What's your secret indulgence food?
A. Coconut ice-cream.
Q. What food couldn't you live without?
A. Garlic.
Q. What's your favourite health food?
A. Muesli.
Q. What's your favourite aisle in the supermarket?
A. Dairy. I'm obsessed with the King Island Creamy Yogurt.
Q. If you could have five foods on a desert island, what would they be?
A. Mangoes, coconuts, papaya, fresh fish and oysters. Would I be in Fiji?
Q. What dish do you wish you could cook really well?
A. Indian curry.
Q. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A. Scampi pasta from Cinque Terra, Italy and chocolate gelato.
Q. What's your favourite restaurant?
A. Beppi's in Sydney and Caffe e Cucina in Melbourne. Classic old-school Italian.
Q. Have you ever eaten with anyone famous?
A. I've had breakfast with Melissa George and we were both in our pyjamas.
Q. Ever put on a dud dinner party?
A. Yes. I once had to cook for Rod Temperton, who's famous for writing the songs 'Thriller' and 'Boogie Nights', and I was a very inexperienced cook. I made chicken schnitzel and mashed potato. Very badly.
Q. Do you think food and wine matching is overrated?
A. As long as it's good, I'm happy.
Q. What's the most memorable meal you've eaten overseas?
A. Pesto in Genoa, northern Italy where it was invented.
What's one ingredient you always have in your pantry?
A. Sea salt.
Q. If you could invite three famous people to a dinner party, who would they be?
A. Kylie, Madonna and Barbra Streisand. It'd definitely end with dancing.
