New cookbook Eat Brisbane is serving up a delicious snapshot of the city’s culinary rise
A brand-new self-funded cookbook is showcasing signature recipes from 40 of Brisbane’s best restaurants and bars. Eat Brisbane is a compendium that is celebrating the city’s vibrant food scene, shining a light on some of Brisbane’s most iconic nosh spots and hidden local gems. From Restaurant Dan Arnold’s coral trout with zucchini to 1889 Enoteca’s spaghetti alla carbonara and Savile Row’s mirepoix martini, Eat Brisbane is offering home cooks a great way to taste the city’s finest.
With a new high-end restaurant, boutique bakery and or adventurous bar opening nearly every week, the growth of Brisbane’s dining scene is becoming nearly impossible to keep on top of. The city isn’t just evolving in terms of quantity – the quality of Brisbane’s dining offering is starting to rival that of our southern siblings, with heavyweight interstate hospitality groups making moves to get in on the action.
Eat Brisbane is a new cookbook that captures Brisbane’s food and drink offering at an exciting point in time. The tome – collated, designed, photographed and published by marketing and design professional (and unabashed foodie) Shika Finnemore – has brought together 40 of the city’s best eateries and bars, sharing stories of the chefs, bakers, brewers and makers behind Brisbane’s multicultural culinary melting pot.
“It’s been such an honour to be trusted with the recipes and stories of some of the incredible venues that make Brisbane so special,” Shika tells us. “The passion, grit and generosity I’ve witnessed behind the scenes has deepened my respect for this industry in ways I can’t quite put into words. This book just scratches the surface and I hope it’s the first of many stories I get to share.”
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Flip through the pages of Eat Brisbane and you’ll notice it isn’t just the critically acclaimed icons that feature – high-profile restaurants like C’est Bon, Clarence, Restaurant Dan Arnold, Rothwell’s Bar & Grill and Donna Chang rub shoulders with suburban gems like Ya Hoo Dining, Houbi Ichigo, Dum n Rum and Rex’s Cuisine.
Eat Brisbane features a broad array of recipes that can elevate your next dinner party, with dishes divided between four major categories – From The Sea, Meat & Poultry, Veggie Heroes and Sips & Treats. Those looking to impress can try their hand at Bottellon’s seafood paella, Warisan’s Jimbaran-style grilled snapper, Sasso Italiano’s beef-cheek ragu, ēmmē’s charred broccoli and Aji Spice House’s Nepalese fried rice.
Want to experiment with some baking? Have a crack at whipping up Ach Wine Bar’s challah, Tita’s Canteen’s ube tres leches cake, Cerin Pasticceria’s rum baba and Christian Jacques’ famous mille-feuille. Even the bars are getting some shine, with Eat Brisbane featuring recipes for Before + After’s amaro sour and Savile Row’s mirepoix martini.
As a way of giving back and acknowledging their time and contribution, a number of participating venues will be selling copies of Eat Brisbane. The book is also available to pre-order online now from Monday July 28, with $1 from every book sold donated to Dig In – a Brisbane-based charity that provides nourishing meals to those in need. Updates on the project can also be found on Instagram.