Why enslave home cooks to the trappings and deadlines of restaurant dishes? Cooking at home should be liberating and nourishing: the time a slow-cooked dish provides to, say, read a chapter of a book, or stretch out in the garden.' Sean's is a new and distinctive voice: engaging, thought-provoking, amusing, quirky, personal and very refreshing. An exponent of comforting, complete meals, his cooking style is a winning blend of comfort food and Mediterranean influences. From restaurant signature dishes, such as a Portuguese-inspired White Bean Soup with Pipis and Chorizo, to the more prosaic but sustaining Soup with Three Lives', Sean's recipes are about making food for how we live now. Interwoven with the recipes are wonderfully evocative stories that provide glimpses into Sean's other life' at his shack in the Blue Mountains. In contrast to the buzz of his beachside restaurant at Bondi, his mountain hideaway is tranquil and still (think heavily laden orchards and sleeping dogs!). Here the focus shifts to the bush and the simplicity of a life that revolves around the wood-fuelled stove and the rhythms of the seasons.
Throughout is Sean's gentle but strong voice his opinions on organic and GM-free food, and the importance of taking time and nurturing.