Loulabelle's FrancoFiles episode 173
Guest: Annie Smithers
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Annie Smithers is a celebrated French chef in Australia who has achieved a wonderful work life balance living in the country French style, growing her own produce from paddock to plate! Starting out in the early 80s in the kitchens of the famed Aussie restauranteur Stephanie Alexander, Annie has an amazing knowledge of French cooking, with its intricate techniques and traditional dishes.
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Her restaurant du Fermier in the small village of Trentham in the Macedon Ranges/Hepburn region of country Victoria, is a tiny establishment. Annie does all the cooking, starting with baking her own baguettes each morning and offers a menu du jour that features vegetables picked that day from her kitchen garden and meats and poultry from the surrounding area. She carefully sources all products to ensure their environmental and animal husbandry credentials.
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Annie lives locally to Loulabelle on a small farm in Lyonville – Babbington Park – only ten minutes from Trentham, where her kitchen garden and orchard are planted and producing a bounty of produce. She holds demonstration masterclasses in the restaurant which I highly recommend! She also hosts tours of her property where attendees can learn loads about vegetable growing and every question is met with enthusiasm!
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Annie has written two cookbooks and writes for The Saturday Paper monthly and Country Style seasonally. She appears regularly on ABC Radio National Blueprint for Living. Her latest book, Recipe for a Kinder Life, released in July 2021 is part meditation, part memoir, offering practical advice and wisdom gleaned from a life dedicated to seasonal food and living lightly on the ground beneath her feet.
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For me, I love Annie’s passion for working with the terroir when making up a menu. I adored chatting with her about the history of food in France as well as nattering on with our observations of the evolution French life and how we connect with it here in Australia. She has a wealth of knowledge, telling me all about particular breeds of chickens, about how the power of food creates memories, about various regional French dishes and cooking techniques including fabulous French sauce-work, about the temptation to buy a château on Instagram, just discussing the evolution of a quieter French life. For Annie’s French way of life, it is all about the French food that brings people together!
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**Note this episode was recorded onsite at Annie’s home at Babbington Park. Patience with the sound will be required momentarily at the start, with the regular high Loulabelle’s sound quality returning after the first few minutes.
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Annie’s links
Info about Crèvecœur chickens
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Recette
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Musique
