Introduction
Bread and dough
A toast
Eat with your hands
Salads and vegetables
Building blocks
Seafood
Meat and birds
The long Sunday lunch
The great outdoors
Sweet and not so sweet
Breakfast
Acknowledgements
Conversions guide
Index
Mat Lindsay grew up on the central coast of New South Wales and had
never been to a fancy restaurant until he walked into Rockpool, the
fanciest restaurant in Sydney in its day, looking for a job to pay
the bills while he was studying graphic design. Working for Neil
Perry and then Kylie Kwong, two of Australia's most celebrated
chefs, at Wokpool, Rockpool and at Billy Kwong, he learnt about
produce and technique, about how to taste and how to build and
balance flavour, and how to work beyond the idea of Western and
Eastern cuisines. Ester, the restaurant he opened in Sydney's
Chippendale in 2013, has become a standard-bearer for contemporary
Australian dining, and Poly, the wine bar he opened in 2018, and
A.P Bakery, which he opened in 2021, continue that tradition.
A restaurant critic and travel writer with more than two decades'
experience to his name, Pat Nourse is the creative director of
Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. A former editor at Gourmet
Traveller, he has been published internationally in the likes of
Condé Nast Traveller, Travel + Leisure, Saveur, Gourmet, Lucky
Peach, Lonely Planet, Fool, The Robb Report and Afar, as well as in
the books Signature Dishes That Matter and the Oxford Companion to
Spirits and Cocktails. Pat strongly disagrees with Mat's
inflammatory views on avocado and mezcal.
"Never question anything Mat Lindsay does. Ever. He's a true
genius, although the word is used so often it's become meaningless.
But his particular mixture of sensibility, talent and devotional
concentration is rare." - Nigella Lawson
"Wow, what a book! Mat is a thoughtful, talented, humble chef and
Ester is his laser-like thinking on food that just says, 'eat me'."
- Neil Perry, Margaret, Sydney
"Mat is a trailblazer, no question. Ester, with its open kitchen
and grounding, earthy, nurturing wood fire, perfectly reflects his
humility, warmth and originality." - Kylie Kwong, Lucky Kwong,
Sydney
"An insight into the much-loved restaurant Ester - an inspiration
to chefs far and wide. Mat's unique ability to distill and coax
flavour is presented beautifully and simply for anyone who loves to
cook." - Andrew McConnell, Trader House restaurants, Melbourne
"Mat has an uncanny ability to strike directly at the heart of what
makes food so special. A seemingly simple approach that can only be
obtained through the obsession with our craft and decades of
dedication. A master of flavour and fire. Ester has always been the
type of place that you just don't want to leave, and I'm so glad
that I can take a bit of it home with this beautiful book." - René
Redzepi, Noma, Copenhagen
"Mat's a genius - Ester is the dream restaurant I wished I'd
opened. This book is stunning, clever, approachable and smartly
written. He's pulled that rare trick of creating a book based on a
restaurant that's actually accessible to everyone and will inspire
people to cook. He explains what the building blocks of dishes are
and how to build confidence. I've no doubt this book will become as
iconic as Ester is." - James Lowe, Lyle's, London
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