Smoked Chicken Sandwich

Smoking poultry over wood has roots in both indigenous Australian cooking traditions and the American BBQ tradition that has become globally influential. Cold-smoked chicken — where the bird is exposed to smoke at low temperatures — takes on a deeper, more complex flavour than simple grilling, with a subtle fragrance from the wood smoke that penetrates the meat as it slowly cures. The result is richer and more complex than grilled chicken alone.

Brie de Meaux, the original French brie, has been produced in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris since at least the 8th century. Charlemagne reportedly declared it the finest cheese he had ever tasted. The bloomy white rind is formed by Penicillium camemberti moulds that ripen the cheese from the outside in, creating a creamy, runny interior beneath a thin, flavourful crust. Its mild, buttery richness pairs particularly well with the smokiness of cold-smoked poultry.

Quince paste — membrillo in Spanish, ayva pekmeziyle in Turkish — is made by cooking quince fruit down with sugar until it forms a dense, sweet-tart jelly. Quince trees were cultivated in the Mediterranean and Middle East long before apples were domesticated; the ancient Greeks considered the quince sacred to Aphrodite. The combination of brie and quince paste has been a classic pairing in modern Australian café and restaurant cooking since the 1990s.