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Restaurateur's guide to creating a dream kitchen

Metricon

Nasi Goreng was the first dish Tasia and Gracia Seger ever cooked together.

“I can still vividly remember it,” Gracia says. “Mum and dad were away in India to check out our new school and we were home by ourselves. We were maybe 11 and 12 and just threw whatever we could find in a pan.” “It actually turned out pretty well,” Tasia adds.

Fast forward to now and the sisters - and stars of reality TV cooking series My Kitchen Rules (2016) – are still as excited to experiment with food as they were when they first stepped into the kitchen some 20 years ago.

Tasia and Gracia are two of five children and spent the first decade of their lives surrounded by the bustling spice bazaars and vibrant aromas of Indonesia before moving to Darwin, in the Northern Territory, and then India.

Through all of the moving and the travel, one of the few constants in their lives was food and they grew up watching their mum effortlessly whip up everything from moreish after-school snacks to mouth-watering family feasts. But, with seven mouths to feed, she was cooking on all burners so their introduction to the culinary arts began as a lesson in helping her with the housework.

“Mum raised five girls so learning how to cook started with her giving out chores,” Gracia says with a laugh. “We didn’t want to do the cleaning so we chose to help out in the kitchen.”

Tasia and Gracia's life-changing moment in the MKR kitchen. Image: Supplied.

This early entrée into the world of cooking helped Tasia and Gracia develop an intimate understanding of flavours and, perhaps most importantly, how they interact together in a dish. It was this enviable ability to balance flavours, coupled with the confidence that comes from years of spicing things up in the kitchen, that would later help them achieve their phenomenal MKR success.

“Most of our recipes are our family recipes or something we have always wanted to try making,” Tasia says. “A lot of the dishes are very personal. That’s why there’s always a story behind what we cook and how we came to creating it.”

This personal approach to cooking was evident in their instant MKR restaurant and, now, in their real one. Tasia, 29, and Gracia, 28, opened the doors to their eagerly anticipated CBD diner, Makan, in July last year, with the menu featuring a line-up of childhood staples, treasured family favourites and much-loved Indonesian classic hits.

Some of the most popular dishes from their thoroughly modern Makan menu. Image: Makan via Facebook.

“Gracia and I always dreamed of opening a restaurant,” Tasia says of the contemporary Indonesian eatery. “It took about a year and a half just to create the menu.”

“We travelled for a while before it opened, to Bali and Asia and also visiting family and trying to get recipes of them,” Gracia adds with a cheeky giggle. "It was really difficult to pick and choose what we wanted to have on there. So much of the menu is food we eat that all the time. It’s basic and it’s very normal. We didn’t realise people would find that special so it’s been really nice for us to share that with our guests."

Despite having cooked for, arguably, some of TV’s hardest judges, Tasia and Gracia say Pete and Manu have nothing on their family.

“Everyone in our family has been to Makan - even our grandma, who lives in Indonesia,” the girls say, beaming from ear to ear as they describes how proud they are to be able to cook for the people who instilled them with their love for food. Adds Gracia: “She is quite a harsh critic because it is her recipes so to get a thumbs up from her was pretty great.”

Tasia and Gracia's tips for designing a dream kitchen

Layout

We were very hands on and involved in designing the kitchen at Makan and, if we were to create our dream kitchen, we would definitely want it to be open plan with a big island bench – with a marble top – so everyone can gather around. The kitchen in the Bordeaux Show Home, where we’ll be cooking on Saturday night, is pretty much everything we could want!

Storage/space

We have lots of spices and ingredients so we would want to make sure there is plenty of storage and room for spice racks, as well as space for our cooking appliances. We also need space to work and prep, hence a big, central island bench.

Appliances

Lots of ovens! We used to do cooking demonstrations at other peoples’ homes and that gave us lots of cool ideas. We’d definitely want a combi-oven as well as a few simple appliances. A basic mixer, for example, is a must have.

We're excited to have Tasia and Gracia in the Bordeaux Show Home kitchen in Rochedale, QLD, to help us celebrate Lunar New Year in 2019. Stay tuned for their favourite Lunar New Year recipes, as well as all the highlights from this stunning night of nights. Want to attend one of our special events? Visit our events page, or subscribe to our newsletters and stay up to date with all the latest things happening at Metricon.