Top chef bags his first barra
He is one of Australia's finest chefs with almost three decades of experience but Matt Moran chalked up a first in the Kimberley this week.
The Sydney chef, who has eight leading food businesses in NSW and Queensland, caught his first barramundi while heli-fishing at Kununurra on the Ord River.
"We went about 100km out and every pilot has their own little spot," Moran said.
"It was fascinating when he told us not to back away from the water because of the two or three-metre crocodiles that sit there.
"I caught three little barramundi - I had never caught one before - and if you add them all up it came close to a metre."
Following other celebrity chefs, Moran is in Kununurra for the 15th Ord Valley Muster.
On Wednesday night, he hosted the fifth Kimberley Kitchen under the famed boab tree in Celebrity Tree Park and last night helmed the Durack Homestead Dinner, Australia's most isolated fine dining.
For his menu at the historic homestead, Moran followed his mantra of local produce, such as his favourite Ord River onions he discovered in the late 1980s.
"Wherever I am I try to use local produce and do something with it that the locals aren't used to," he said. "It makes sense to me to showcase whatever I can that is local."
Moran's main course for the 65 guests, who won a ballot to buy tickets, was the Kimberley Rib.
The recipe came about when he was filming his award-winning food series Paddock to Plate while on a station in Derby last year.
"I was up at the station and we had a big cook-off at the end of it and there were about a dozen cowboys there," he said.
