Heritage Chef Gord Kahle’s approach is underpinned by his respect for the ingredient above all else; removing the fanfare and appreciating what you can do with an ingredient before serving up something particularly tasty and memorable.

Learn a little bit more about Gord and try your hand at a recipe he’s shared with us, inspired by a traditional European dish he had often growing up.

Plus, if you love seafood, check out another dish Gord shared with us; his char-grilled Fremantle Octopus.

If you’d prefer to dine out than in, enjoy a taste of homegrown goodness from Gord Kahle’s kitchen at the Heritage Wine Bar in Perth’s CBD and keep supporting local businesses.

What’s Gord’s take on food sustainability and low-waste, locally sourced produce?

As far as my cooking philosophy goes – it’s got to be local, low waste. I like to go further and know about the products that I’m using; in how it is produced and how it ends up on my plate.

Someone has grown it, or made it, or produced it – you need to respect the ingredients and you should stay in the cycle.

Try to get the most out of a carrot, and then compost anything you can’t use. Same with chicken; maybe you only need one piece of the chicken but the bones can make a stock, other pieces can be poached or added to a different dish later.

Are there any foods Gord can get picky about? 

There’re very few foods that I do not like, I think you should never not like a food until you’ve tried it.

I’m fortunate enough to have tried a lot of different food in my life – I can tell you, I don’t enjoy kidneys and even though I come from Vancouver, the land of salmon, I just don’t enjoy salmon. I’m allowed to not like things!

I like everything equally other than those two things. One of them is a pretty premium ingredient, the other one is categorised as offal, but the rest of the offal family I enjoy.

My favourite thing in terms of ingredients is probably mushrooms – the range that you can find is incredible, especially if you’re lucky enough to go to Northern Hemisphere and get wild foraged mushrooms.

Does Gord’s Czech background influence his cooking habits and menu at home?

My parents are from central Europe or Czech Republic – it’s a pretty rich, high fat, kind of cuisine but my dad would often make my favourite version of pork paprikash, essentially a pork stew with cream sauce – he loads it up with mushrooms and then just dumps it over the pork.

My dad by no means is a very good cook, but compared to my mum, my grandma and aunts, this one just seems to be my favourite. And it’s actually one that I will reproduce for the family often.

What’s the value of working with local producers and suppliers?

We try to build relationships with individual farmers and producers as much as possible but being in the middle of the city we have to use some supply chain things. We also work with people that gather up and kind of pinpoint the good growers and the good operators, one of these is Dirty Clean Foods.

Dirty Clean Foods wants to get people doing the right thing so, they only source produce from regenerative farming practices. I think Blackwood Valley Beef was one of the first producers that came aboard with the Dirty Clean brand and I’ve been buying the Blackwood Valley Beef for as long as I’ve been here.

The teams mission at Dirty Clean Foods is to get those good producers into the grocery stores. So keep an eye out for Dirty Clean banded beef, pork, lamb and they’ve got oat milk on offer now too.

Crumbed Linley Valley Pork sirloin, The Mushroom Guys King Oyster mushroom, miso crème fraîche and spring onion oil & parsley.

Preparation time: 20min | Cooking time: 20min | Serves 2

Gas tip! You can do this on your barbecue or on a gas cooktop. If you don’t use gas in your kitchen, you can prepare it on your barbecue. Just make sure you’ve got the Kwik-Gas ready to go.

Ingredients:

• 2 x Linley Valley Pork Sirloins (160-180g per person)
• 3 x eggs, beaten
• Plain flour 100g (1 cup)
• Panko bread crumb (200g / 2 cups)
• King oyster mushrooms from The Mushroom Guys (400g)
• Crème fraîche (200g)
• Miso paste (2 tablespoons)
• Bunch of spring onion
• Canola oil (250ml)
• Bunch of flat leaf parsley
• Salt, pepper, butter and cooking oil
• 100ml milk

Method:

Crumb the pork.

Set out three bowls. Add separately to individual bowls the following:

1. Bowl 1 – Plain flour, seasoned with salt and pepper.
2. Bowl 2 – Beaten eggs and 100ml of milk – whisked together.
3. Bowl 3 – Panko crumbs.
4. Take your pork and place each piece into flour, then egg mixture, then into panko breadcrumbs
5. Place back into egg mixture and panko breadcrumbs to ensure evenly coated. Set aside.

Mushroom, miso crème fraîche mix and spring onion oil.

1. Slice mushrooms evenly.
2. Finely chop flat leaf parsley.
3. Mix 200ml crème fraîche with 2 tablespoons of miso paste. Season with pepper.
4. Chop the greens of the spring onion into 2cm pieces. Place spring onions into blender, add canola oil and let run on high speed for up to 10 minutes until green and warm.
5. Strain through fine cloth or chux and preferably freeze overnight to ensure separation of oil and water.

Tip! The spring onion oil will keep for up to three months in the freezer, using it as you need.

 Fry Pork.

1. Place a fry pan on the stove on medium heat.
2. Add a light coating of the canola oil and when oil is hot, place the pork into the pan to fry.
3. Crumbs will soak up oil initially so add more oil as required.
4. Cook for 4mins, flip, then add a knob of butter to the pan.
5. Cook for a further 4mins, take it out of pan, season with salt and let rest for 3-4mins before slicing into even slices.

Cook Mushrooms.

1. Place a fry pan on the stove on high heat.
2. Add mushrooms cut side down, evenly spaced. Cook till golden – flip and repeat until golden.
3. Once mushrooms are cooked and are golden brown on both sides, turn the gas or heat off and then add parsley, fresh cracked pepper, and a heaped tablespoon of miso crème fraîche, with a teaspoon of the green onion oil, stir together until combined.
4. Plate your well-rested sliced pork.
5. Add sauced mushrooms and another tablespoon of the miso crème fraîche and a drizzle of the green oil.

Enjoy!

The Heritage and Gord Kahle.

Follow Gord Kahle on Instagram and to experience his fine-dining dishes, visit The Heritage Wine Bar.