Captain Jason Chambers (bite-sized)

On Captain Jason Chambers' menu: Apple pie, dumplings, and Spanish Tapas

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Rotto, the first food memory is the apple pie.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Apple pie. Anything with a crumble I can't go past. If I'm at a if I'm at a if I'm at a restaurant and they ask do you want dessert? We always say no, we don't want it, but we really do.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

If they've got um What's the first thing you look at on a menu?

SPEAKER_00 0:24

I the first thing I look on a menu is is if I see octopus, I go for that. But the apple crumble, has that always apple pie's got something for me. And that I mum worked dad worked a few jobs growing up, uh he's a he was a journalist, but also worked at night. Mum's a night shift nurse as well. So we're me and my two oldest uh uh siblings, my sisters, we used we have to have to look after ourselves a little bit. And and when we're a little bit bored, would um I'd I'd actually pull out some of Grandma's cookbooks that she had. And it was our old brown paper, right handwritten, and um she had a apple cinnamon tea cake that she'd always had that I always would whip up at a at a minute's notice. And that I was I was good at that. So that has moved into the apple pie, which is something that I can't go past on a menu.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Your second food memory. Now, this is one that you share with your daughter, but it takes you back to your own childhood, dumplings.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Definitely. Things like Sang Shua Bao, or not Sang Shua Bao, but more the um the Bao Buns and you know the Shao May, Shaumei. Yeah. Um that's very much with Saskia. Saskia and I will always go for for the dumplings. Um but growing up coming to Sydney from the Central Coast was a big trip for us, especially with all the family.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

And if uh would you do it in the car or on the train? We'd do it in the car. It'd be always the co there was no freeway then, it was just the highway.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Oh, that was a that was a terrible freeway. There's I've got so many car stories going. There's no mooney moony bridge, it was like going all the way backwards. Definitely. Um but yeah, we'd be going junction with uh an airport pickup or somewhere. Or drop off. We were dropping a grandma off or a cousin off, and and we'd always go to Yam Cha, uh Yum Chao and So trips to Sydney were always dumplings. Always punctuated by dumplings. The Yam Chao going around with the family. That was it was an affordable, good feed, and that was to uh that was our our trip into another another world or another country. That was our overseas trip was going to Chinatown. What are some of your favourite dumplings? Well, Saskia's got these ones that she gets in Bali, they're Nutella, they got Nutella in them. Yeah, she loves them. Yeah, no, I like I I would definitely I love Shao Mai. How do you say it? Shoumai. Shoomai in Philippines, Shao Mai Shao Mai, yeah, but yeah, it's pronounced. I love them. Pork and uh they do a truffle, I do I do a pork and prawn.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Ooh, I've started making these little like little thin egg omelets with egg and a bit of mirin and soy, and I whip it like so they're really fine, and I make a little dumpling on the fry pan. I then put not uh uh like a skin on the fry pan and then I put some dumpling mix in that, I fold it over and then I poach them in ginger, ginger chicken stock.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

I like the ginger, I like the idea. So we build a resort in the Philippines, just a five-bedroom boutique, one on the beach, and during COVID we had to put a lot of staff off, and one of the staff members, she was a cook, so since COVID, I'd actually paid for her to go through and do her um culinary course in the Philippines, so she now she's a chef, but she doesn't work for us, she's got her own little uh bakery stuff going, but I've bought her all the tools and the equipment to make dumplings, like and make them you know mass produced because if the opportunity comes back and I open a little restaurant, it will be a dumplings restaurant in the Philippines, and then she's gonna be my cork. So I've got it all ready.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Now this brings us to your third food memory. Another can't go by memory um is that you can't go by uh a Spanish bar in Spain.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

No tapa's not just in Spain, I mean I was just in New York last month and I had an opportunity to go out with a few people, but I just there was a Spanish bar up the road, and and I just I went there three nights in a row. What is what is it about this food? My daughter was born in Spain. Um goes back to Suskia, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah. I look at the memories there. We we lived up in the mountains, you know, we had rabbits and a few little chickens and stuff, and we we had an opportunity to stay in that life or move to the Philippines and and build our dream that we we set out to do. Uh Spain, I've got some great friends back there, really close friends, and um we had I've got some good memories there. And Yeah, I've had some great times in Spain. What what what is it about tappas food that kind of That's after work, working on boats, we'd be straight to the tappas bar, you know? We're having a nice beer, you know, even for lunch, you know, like their their way of living is just it appeals to me. You know, it's it's it's it's sociable, you know, it's conversational. It's you know, it's that's the whole thing about a tappers. You know, you're walking in there and you're going to be shoulder to shoulder with strangers. So you've got to get to know people, you know. So I would imagine you'd be going for the octopus. Always go for the octopus, but yeah, but croquettes and you know the peppers, uh look at anything, you know, it's like but the tappers themselves as well, you know. Um, you know, the anchovies.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Is it that thing of having lots to choose from and just grazing as opposed to sitting down and committing to one?

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yeah, so I love the pinchos, you know. I love Machego cheese and stuff like that. I I I just love the I I love food being part of it, especially when I go I love going to dinner and w you know and a conversations uh around the food and whilst it's all coming. Yeah. But there's nothing better than small tappers, pinchos coming out. And and I find that I find that I do that at with a menu as well. Like if I open up a menu, I may not go a main. You know, uh as you you know, you a lot of starters are going to be pushed into mains, you know, all mains are gonna be you know pushed back out. So I'll actually probably do eight starters instead of a main.