Snowy and Morgan
By Vivienne Pearson
Steven Snow, of Fins restaurant, is not your typical chef.
‘He’s not guarded about his signature dishes, like most chefs are,’ says his wife and business partner Morgan Snow. She tells me that he never did formal chef training, instead absorbing everything he learned while working in restaurants and on fishing boats after a big surf trip during his 20s.
This fits with the fact that I’m unable to speak directly with Steven – he’s out of contact on a boat overseas. ‘He’s still a teenage-like obsessed surfer!’ Morgan laughs.
Steven, or Snowy as he is best known, is offering a cooking class at his restaurant next week, with one of the best promotional passages for a cooking class that I’ve ever read. ‘In this class, I will de-mystify seafood, giving away all my secrets in easy-to-follow recipes,’ it reads, before adding: ‘You will leave the course with a repertoire you can reproduce to the sound of thunderous applause at your next dinner party.’
Two-time course attendee Cass Emanuel agrees wholeheartedly. ‘I am not a cook,’ she repeats several times during our chat. ‘Yet I cooked one of the dishes for a dinner party and it turned out fantastic!’
Though the course is demonstration rather than hands-on based, Cass found it was enough to skill her up. ‘I pictured him and, as I cooked, I could hear some of the things he was saying and that helped me through.’
Cass, who lives in Mullumbimby and works as the accounts administrator for Uplift, is keen to do the course again. ‘It has such a lovely vibe,’ she says. ‘Snowy is extremely entertaining and really knowledgeable.’ Cass enjoyed the care with which participants were treated, the chance to ask lots of questions and, of course, the feasting on the final dishes.
Morgan Snow, a sommelier, will add a bonus element of wine-matching and education to the event. ‘I always try to present something that’s out of the ordinary,’ she says.
‘Most people who do the course are not in the hospitality industry,’ Morgan says, reflecting over the multiple times this course has run. ‘They do it for a good excuse to have fun. Snowy’s classes tend to be full of laughter and tricks; he can’t help himself.’
Cass certainly fits into this category. Though she didn’t receive thunderous applause at her dinner party, her friends were impressed and she was extremely pleased with herself for cooking such a complex dish.
I’m sure Snowy will have a good laugh when he hears about her backup plan, in the case that her cooking was not so successful: ‘If it had come out badly, I could have blamed him!’
Cooking with Snowy, Wednesday 31 May 11am–1pm, Fins Restaurant at Salt. A few places remain – bookings via Byron Community College: www.byroncollege.org.au.
Cooking with Snowy class
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