Lasting suppers
Sarina Lewis - The Age May 24, 2011
Chill factor: chef Scott Bryce throws a cup of warm water into the air, which instantly vapourises. Photo: Ian Phillips, Australian Antarctic Division
He's a long way from home but this chef's in his element in Antarctica.
AS GREETINGS go, they don't come much more historically appropriate. "Hi," echoes the voice down the phone line, "it's Scott from Antarctica." Not a bad tag line, I venture. He laughs and says, "I think I missed that boat by 100 years, somehow."
Needless to say, it's more than a little ironic that while the great explorer Robert Scott died of starvation returning to his Antarctic base, chef Scott Bryce will spend the next 12 months ensuring his crew of 19 at Camp Mawson don't.
It's 9am in Antarctica when Scott calls and a chilly minus 15 degrees. Having survived the breakfast rush, the 49-year-old from Brisbane is already planning the day's menu. Lunch will run the gamut from freshly baked bread and DIY sandwiches to spaghetti bolognaise, curried sausages, chicken and asparagus soup, and paella.
For dinner, it's eye fillet steak and "beautiful" Tasmanian Atlantic salmon. A creme brulee or chocolate fondant might follow, though the father of three keeps dessert to three times a week. ("I try and be a bit of a 'mum' in that regard," he says with a self-deprecating chuckle, "and make sure they don't eat too much.")
Clearly, theirs is a ration-free zone. "We have an enormous amount of stores come down," Scott says, explaining that it's more necessity than luxury: the boat that dropped the chef and his fellow Mawson residents at their frozen home in late February won't return for a full 12 months. In the meantime they are required to make do with that they have - though he's quick to point out that ''make do'' is a somewhat inaccurate term. Shipped along with the tonne of potatoes and half a tonne of onions were 300 kilograms of lamb, 632 kilograms of chicken, 245 kilograms of pork and 617 kilograms of beef.
"I've got lobsters down here, oysters, prawns … We've got whole pigs and whole goats for special occasions on the rotisserie barbecue," says the chef, who is on his own in the kitchen, save for one of the collection of tradesmen, Bureau of Meteorology experts and communications staff who are rostered on each week to help with kitchen duties. "And I swear the Tim Tam genie must live in my greenstore, as there seems to be a never-ending supply!"
There's an in-house hydroponic set-up churning out fresh lettuce, cucumber, radishes, tomatoes and the gamut of herbs. All of which will supplement the cartons of frozen fruit and vegetables filling his 60-cubic-metre storeroom, not to mention the 100 cubic metres of tinned and dried goods.
Then there are the loaves of bread baked daily and the "enormous" home brew set-up that - in Scott's estimation - churns out "hundreds" of bottles a week.
Roughing it, it clearly is not. Of course, there's a good reason for the inclusion of the long list of life's luxuries. "Everyone is mindful of the fact that we need to have a social life down here," Scott says. With the ice already having formed a near two-metre layer and the real winter yet to come, the physical and psychological effects of constant cold, darkness and isolation is a concern.
It's for this reason the screening process for job applicants is intense. Scott recounts rounds of interviews, medical checks, roleplay and psychological assessments all designed to weed out those deemed unsuitable to survive what can be incredibly harsh conditions.
Intensive training in quad-bike, forklift and medical skills is part of the package, and along with brushing up his baking skills, Scott laughingly confesses he now boasts even basic hairdressing and - as the resident postmaster - postal talents.
But food is his main concern. As well as warding off hunger pangs and keeping morale high, there is the problem of staying fit and well - with the extreme cold forcing bodies to burn more energy, extra fuel is needed to stoke the metabolic fires.
Once cold sets in, Scott says with candour, the body's recovery can become incredibly difficult. "I've just come back from three days out in the field about 800 metres up. It was a beautiful day up there but the wind-chill factor was about minus 40 when we were walking around," he says. "So you need to be very, very mindful to get that first layer of warmth - which is food - in to you before you go anywhere."
It sounds challenging and ever so slightly dangerous. Scott agrees, admitting that is entirely the point.
"From where I was standing, I'd done so much in my life [career-wise] already; here was an opportunity to go somewhere so remote," he says. "The challenge is they put you here and wave goodbye and a boat comes around in 12 months' time and picks you up and hopefully everybody is still intact. There's no other job like this, certainly in what I do, in that you're given a store full of goodies and [have to] make it last, otherwise everyone dies."
The last is said in jest and we both laugh - me with an edge of uncertainty, he with full-throated, macabre enjoyment.
Source: Epicure
