Where Chefs Eat: Sarina Kamini Is “a Pizza Girl” and This Margaret River Spot Is Her Go-To

Sarina Kamini has worn many hats: author, hospo worker, cooking teacher. After having lived in New Delhi, Bangalore, Paris, Southern California and Barcelona across her career, she’s settled down in Margaret River where she teaches masala classes in her home kitchen. Her cookbook What We Call Masala is out later this month.

Broadsheet spoke to Kamini about where (and what) she’s been eating in Margaret River lately.

What’s your favourite dish in your book and why?
Chokhta. It’s unexpected and clever and technical, but with so few ingredients. We hard-fry raw cuts of mutton or lamb in vegetable oil and water, using different heat applications to create tension – high to low, low to high. The seasoned roasted marrow bones add volume and softness. The masala is pure Kashmiri Hindu with asafoetida, chilli, ginger powder, salt and that’s almost it. The taste is the roastiest roast masala lamb you could ever eat. My mouth waters just talking about it.

What’s your go-to for a quick takeaway?
Rucola. I’m a pizza girl. The crew from Pizzica, another local favourite, opened it as a secondary site purely for takeaway. The crusts are chewy, toppings are generous and its tiramisu is rich and soft, just the way I like it.

If it’s a special occasion, where are you headed?
Leeuwin Estate, every single time. I love chef Dan Gedge’s handle on acidity and the clever texture he builds. The restaurant is surrounded by karri trees, so there’s always a sense of still and calm. And it’s family: I worked at Leeuwin for the better part of five years, and my son Cailean is now there as dishy.

Is there a hidden gem that you think is underrated but great?
I’m not sure if it’s underrated, but I’ll say Windows Estate. They have a mineral line through their whites that I love.

Tell us about a local producer you can’t stop thinking about.
Mai Tardi Gelato. Giordano and Giacomo are second-gen gelato artisans, who run the business along with Giacomo’s wife Flavia. They finally opened a gelateria on the Margaret River main street this past summer. We live over the back fence and it’s a battle not to finish up there every night after dinner. Taste of Sorrento is my choice: mascarpone, pistachio and lemon curd.

What’s your bucket list restaurant? Anywhere in the world.
Palaash restaurant at Tipai, in Maharashtra in India. There is so much I haven’t tasted in terms of tribal ingredients in India. There’s a universe beyond gobi and aloo and it’s one that chef Amninder Sandhu works within. And the cooking techniques: sigri, or Indian barbeque and the chulha, a woodfired clay stove. That’s the kind of experience I fizz about.

If you had a chef friend visiting from out of town, where would you tell them to go and why?
There are some great hospo experiences in the region, but Glenarty Road because it’s not just the food, it’s the drive there. The wine: grapes picked from the same land that the lamb on your plate once grazed. Those full-circle food stories provide instant context.

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