Food Bites: meet Max Crawford, Margan Restaurant's new head chef

His predecessor Joey Ingram, who headed the Margan kitchen for four years, "leaves on good terms and is taking a more admin-focused role with the Spicers Group" says Lisa Margan.

"With a strong background in the UK including Petersham Nurseries Cafe, and more recent experience in Tasmania at Havilah Wines, Max brings fresh ideas and energy to our team," she continues.

"His food style is very much in sync with mine and our established agri-dining here at Margan.

"As always, I am across all culinary and restaurant decisions, as well as what is planted on our property. This includes our one-hectare kitchen garden and orchard, olive groves, free-range chickens, estate-reared lambs and beehives.

"We weave as much of that produce as possible into our farm-to-table menus, keeping things hyper local and truly seasonal. Additionally, we have 100 hectares of distinguished vineyards mostly grown on the red volcanic soils of the Fordwich Sill, with all wine hand-crafted onsite."

Lisa and her winemaker husband Andrew bought an empty paddock on Milbrodale Road in 1996, built a home and planted some vines. They have since won multiple tourism, viticulture, sustainability, wine and restaurant awards ... way too many, in fact, to list here.

"I am looking forward to working my way through the seasons here, using the extensive range of organic produce grown on the property and sourced locally," Max says.

"I have always liked to start with simple and sometimes humble ingredients and find interesting ways to elevate and complement them while paying respect to the time and effort that went into growing, harvesting, or raising that produce.

"I am looking forward to continuing along that path here at Margan."

Now in its 19^th year, Margan Restaurant is one of the longest-standing - and highly regarded - restaurants in the Hunter Valley. It was awarded its first SMH Good Food Guide Chef's Hat in 2016.

"We are proud to be 100 per cent family owned and operated. We follow a detailed environmental management plan to keep our carbon footprint light and have been fully-certified Sustainably Farmed for the last decade," Lisa says.

"Our eldest son Ollie has returned from a decade in Adelaide gaining his oenology degree but getting caught up in the hospo world, as you do. He co-owns and has established beverage programs across several popular venues including Maybe Mae, Shobosho, Shosho and Bread + Bone.

"Outside of joining his father here growing grapes and making wine, Ollie has been refreshing our restaurant wine and beverage lists, our front-of-house operations, and ensuring our guests connect as much as possible with the provenance of their food and wine."

Josh and Julie Niland will open their new Saint Peter restaurant in The Grand National Hotel at Paddington in July.

Accommodation at the 15-room boutique hotel, operated and owned by the couple, will open later this year.

Since opening in 2016 on Oxford Street, Paddington, Saint Peter restaurant has contributed to a change in the global conversation around whole fish cooking, butchery, storing and processing fish. Josh, who grew up in Maitland, articulated that conversation through his menus and in his best-selling cookbooks.

The new Saint Peter restaurant, bar, and private dining room are all located on the ground floor of the boutique hotel. It's double the size of the original Saint Peter and offers booth and banquette seating as wqell as a custom-made chef's table for six guests with front-row seats at the kitchen pass.

The Grand National Hotel's bar at the front of the venue has been preserved to ensure that locals still have a welcoming place to meet with friends for a drink.

At the heart of Saint Peter remains a commitment to whole fish cooking, where the entirety of the fish is celebrated with Josh's trademark respect and technique. With both a charcoal grill and rotisserie, fish will continue to be viewed and cooked in the same way as meat.

Lunch will be a la carte and change day-to-day.

"I don't want to lose what makes Saint Peter a special place, not only to eat and enjoy as a guest but also for me and our team to work," says Josh.

Adds Julie: "We are excited about the challenge ahead of not just moving into a beautiful home for Saint Peter but also expanding our expression of hospitality to a wonderful bar and boutique hotel. We are working with some incredibly talented people to develop a world-class wine and cocktail offering. The luxury accommodation has been so beautifully designed that you will think you are in Paris - until you see the quintessentially Paddington rooftops and beautiful gum trees out your window."

The Fish Butchery at nearby Waterloo will continue to be the processing kitchen for all fish for Saint Peter.

Reservations for Saint Peter at the Grand National Hotel are now open for August and September. Go to saintpeter.com.au.

Auslan teacher Anne Sheppard has released a collection of visual practical and simple recipes to help teach life skills to deaf and hard of hearing children and adults.

It's called Young Auslan Chef's Favourite Recipes and it will be officially launched at Cardiff RSL this Sunday, May 5, at 3pm.

"I have worked with deaf and hard-of-hearing children for many years and I have always found that they enjoy cooking for their families and friends," Anne says.

"Simple cooking is fun for everyone and, with the parent's permission, I have featured some of my clients to create this book of their recipes. It was a pleasure for me to visit them in their homes and to have the opportunity to photograph them.

"I hope this book will help other deaf and hard of hearing children, adults and other special needs people to enjoy creating recipes together."

Anne contracted meningitis as a baby and became profoundly deaf. She attended School for the Deaf Girls at Waratah where she was taught to lipread and speak.

My class were taught how to cook and I was inspired by what I learnt - simple recipes for us to follow and read by using step by step pictures and words," she says.

"In my time at the school I was taught to lipread and use my voice which makes me very difficult to understand. Auslan was not part of the curriculum. I always looked forward to the cooking classes because it was so much fun and easy for me to learn."

Anne learned to sign Auslan later in life has been teaching it for more than 25 years at universities, schools, Atwea College, TAFE NSW, preschools and as a private tutor.