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Lunch review: Walk the Talk Kitchen

May 01, 2015
Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

What happens to the chefs who cut their teeth at notable restaurants and then appear to disappear?

Some retreat to the country, where the pace of life is a little slower, to start a café with more respectable hours. Some start a catering business because it offers more flexibility around family life. And others share their culinary skills at the growing number of cooking schools around the state.

Chef Ali Seedsman (ex Sydney’s Bayswater Brasserie, Bathers Pavilion and MG Garage, and Adelaide’s Magill Estate and Universal Wine Bar) has taken all three options.

Now a mother of young children, she teamed up with Libby Matson (formerly front-of-house at The Lane) just over two years ago to open Walk the Talk café at Verdun. Seedsman also teaches at Sticky Rice Cooking School and is the sole caterer for Shaw & Smith winery and other private events.

Ali Seedsman Walkthetalk-9214

Chef Ali Seedsman. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Verdun is a hamlet that lies the between Hahndorf and Balhannah in the Adelaide Hills, and is also home to Maximilians restaurant at Sidewood Estate and the Stanley Bridge Tavern. Verdun is on the way to the northern part of the Adelaide Hills, as well as the Barossa Valley, the Riverland and Adelaide, depending on which direction you are travelling; it’s a good location for a chef, as it’s right at the heart of an abundant food and wine region.

Walk the Talk does eat-in and heat-and-eat meals to take home. Despite previously being open only during school hours, it’s become so busy that it has now expanded into the adjoining space next door (previously occupied by Studio D) for Saturday takeaways “until sold out”. The property was originally a general store and post office with a couple of petrol pumps out the front – the kind of  business that was operated by a live-in family and has all but disappeared in the Hills.

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Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

InDaily popped in on a cool but sunny autumn day. The fire was crackling, and there were pears and apples ripening on the mantelpiece and windowsills. While Seedsman defines the flavours with her classic French and authentic Asian training, Matson crafts the interior with a flair for simple country style.

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Walk the Talk exterior. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

It all makes sense, but it’s the name that’s confusing …

“Libby and I had worked together on a couple of events and we appreciated each other’s professionalism, direction and style,” says Seedsman.

“Walk the Talk means do what you say – it’s about an honest approach.”

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Libby Matson. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Favourite dish: Little clipboards hold simple menus in typewriter font. There are soups and specials, baguettes and plates for sharing. The baguette with pork belly, carrot, cucumber, sprouts and hoisin ($12) was tempting. So were the duck rillettes and the pork, veal and ham terrine with potato salad, cornichons and toast ($16). But we chose the mezze plate with eggplant dip, olives, harissa chicken, flat bread, goat cheese and beetroot relish ($17), and the special of stir-fried brown rice, prawns, egg and chilli jam ($15). The mezze plate was the standout, with excellent house-made smoky eggplant dip and beetroot relish spiced with fennel seed.

Other dishes: Soups must be popular in the Hills. Seedsman says the chicken and prawn laksa ($12/$14) never comes off the menu – “we sell it by the bucketful” – but there are so many others to choose from: chicken and wonton broth with star anise and vegies ($12/$14), pea and ham soup with fresh herbs ($9), creamy chicken and vegetable soup with egg noodles ($9), spiced lentil soup with spinach and yoghurt ($8), Thai-style pumpkin soup ($8) and, for an extra $2, you can get a locally baked Brezel roll and butter.

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Mezze plate. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Something sweet/to drink: There are a number of freshly made cakes behind the glass counter. InDaily chose a slice of Italian ricotta cake and two coffees (Veneziano) to take away, but there is also all kinds of tea, Besa juices and 100 Mile Water.

“Proper Drinks” include Hills Cider (apple and pear), Pike’s Oakbank Lager, and wines (by the glass or bottle) from Pike and Joyce, Fox Gordon, Lobethal Road, Shaw and Smith, SC Pannell and Yangarra Estate.

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Italian ricotta cake. Photo: Nat Rogers/InDaily

Walk the Talk Kitchen
Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 3.30pm; Saturdays (takeaway only), 8.30am until sold out.
25 Onkaparinga Valley Road, Verdun, 8388 7344

 

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