How I got to know my father Cooking with Baz Sean S ean D Dooley ooley Praise for Sean Dooley If you write well, you really can write about anything. Never has this truism been more effectively demonstrated than in this delightfully quirky book … [Dooley] has turned a potentially turgid subject into a sweet wonderland of human eccentricity. Bruce Elder, Sydney Morning Herald A funny man, and surprise, surprise, The Big Twitch is a disarmingly entertaining book. An unexpected charmer. Adelaide Advertiser This is vivid and wickedly funny writing – an unabashed celebration of life, of diversity, and of going all-out to realize a dream. Good Reading Magazine [Dooley is] engaging, funny and self-aware. Stephen Moss, The Guardian (UK) [Dooley] somehow manages to amuse and engage readers who couldn’t care less whether he does catch up with a Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher. Ian Warden, Canberra Times [a] marvelously funny memoir will keep even the non-birding reader in stitches. Prepare to laugh out loud. Nancy Bent, Booklist Sean’s wry observations of everyday life provide an entertaining distraction. www.surfbirds.com Sean has a lively imagination, an antipodean propensity to exaggeration and a sense of the ridiculous clearly forged in the twin fires of his youth where Monty Python vied for his attention as often as Bill Oddie’s Little Black Book. www.fatbirder.com This page intentionally left blank COOKING WITH BAZ sean dooley First published in 2009 Copyright © Sean Dooley 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Allen & Unwin 83 Alexander Street Crows Nest NSW 2065 Australia Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100 Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 Email:
[email protected] Web: www.allenandunwin.com National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Dooley, Sean, 1968– Cooking with Baz: how I got to know my father / Sean Dooley. ISBN: 978 1 74175 273 1 (pbk.) Dooley, Barry. Fathers and sons–Australia–Biography. Authors, Australian–Biography. Family–Australia. Parent and child–Australia. Cookery–Anecdotes. 306.8742 Cover and text design by Sandy Cull, gogoGingko Typesetting by Pauline Haas, Bluerinse Setting Edited by Jo Jarrah Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 For Eleanor and Edie The greatest joy in my life is to have the two of you by my side. The greatest sadness is that you never got to meet Baz and Di. They would have loved you both so much. It’s much better to take a punt, especially an informed one. You take a risk, and have to be prepared to cop more losses than usual, but when you win, the rewards are so much greater. In fact, both the wins and the losses are sweeter. You can spend your life making sure you are right, that you are on a sure thing, but it is ultimately a life of little joy and very little thrill. You don’t necessarily have to go for the rank outsider but, believe me, you feel much more alive backing a 10 to 1 shot than an odds-on favourite every time. Barry Dooley CONTENTS 1 Hi, Doctor Nick 1 2 Cancer ward 18 3 How to cook a steak 34 4 Leeches for watermelon 45 5 Lady Di 63 6 Give me a home among the tea-tree 81 7 Hold me clo