Straight from the QT Gold Coast chef’s mouth

JUSTIN ZAMMIT, GROUP HEAD CHEF, FOR BAZAAR RESTAURANT SPEAKS ABOUT THE QT GOLD COAST FOOD OFFERING.

Q. How would you describe Bazaar to someone who hasn’t seen it?

Exactly that it’s a Bazaar – a marketplace where goods and services are exchanged or sold. In this case it’s all centred around the food. It’s an open kitchen with all the hustle and bustle of a market. There’s chefs front side engaging with the guests talking about what’s on offer this evening and where it’s from. Most of the produce is sourced from local farms from the Scenic Rim and there’s quite a bit from our roof top garden which is amazing.

It’s really interactive as the guests get to graze through our edible garden. They eat pizza from our wood fired oven and then move to having one of our chefs build a milk bun stuffed with house smoked brisket and slaw. The guests get a real kick out of talking to the chefs. You can feel a real sense of pride from the chefs talking to them about different cooking techniques.  It’s a win win. There’s nothing like it on the Gold Coast.

Q. How important is it that you have chefs standing by to answer questions and involve themselves in the dining process?

A. It’s imperative as that’s what the concept is about and that differentiates us from a buffet.

Time to make a pig of yourself

Q. What’s the most popular dish you put out?

A. I think the star of the show is always the suckling pig which I get from Vaughn Schultz farm in Toowoomba.

Q. How much of the produce comes from the Gold Coast area?

A. About 70-80 percent comes from the local area. We recently held a lunch here for our local producers during eat local week. It was special to see all our producers in one room and them see what we had produced with their produce.

Q. Your breakfast is fantastic, and award-winning, why do you think people love it so much?

They love it because there’s plenty of variety. It’s always changing with specials like breakfast pizza from the wood fired oven or house made pastries and yoghurt pots filled with sago, acai and pitaya. You always see the guests stop in front of the pastries trying to decide on which one to take, spoilt for choice our response to that is take both.

Q. What’s your idea of the perfect breakfast?

A. Eggs from the back yard – store bought eggs are not even close, house smoked bacon, avocado and fruit. I also love to knock up a nasi goreng if there is left over rice in fridge or a chicken congee.