Surprising detail in celeb chef’s pop-up

A celeb chef will be cooking up free meals using only Woolies Own Brand ingredients during a week-long pop-up in two Australian cities.

Ex-MasterChef contestant Hayden Quinn will be cooking up a menu of winter warmers in Sydney and Brisbane to showcase how families can turn affordable Own Brand products into tasty meals.

“It’s going to be unreal,” he said.

“We’re going to be highlighting all the fun exciting, amazing ways you can take the Woolworths Own Brand range and make a delicious, tasty family-friendly meals at home.”

The Woolworths Table pop-up will be serving free dinners to people at La Botanique in Sydney from May 22 to 26, before heading north to the The Joinery in Brisbane from June 5 to 9.

The menu features slow cooked beef cheeks in red wine sauce with mashed potatoes and an earthy freekeh salad.

“The beef is actually a pre-cooked product which I really loved, I was a little bit sceptical but it was pretty awesome,” Quinn said.

“It gives you that slow cooked feeling without having to wait six or eight hours.”

For dessert, Quinn said the star menu item was the berry and rhubarb crumble with vanilla ice cream on top.

“We’re not a Michelin star restaurant. We’re cooking food that people love to eat and can recreate at home,” he said.

“It’s inspirational, it’s achievable, and it’s a food that I love that I can cook at home for my family and my wife, my friends.”

Woolworths Food Company managing director Louis Eggar said a team of chefs and product developers spend years developing and testing recipes for Woolworths’ Own Brand products.

“Woolworths Table is an opportunity to show how far Own Brand products have come in terms of quality and flavour, and how these ingredients can come together to create delicious, restaurant-quality meals that are amazing value for the family at home,” he said.

It will be a zero-waste event with any leftover products from each night donated to Woolworths partner, OzHarvest.

Sales of Own and Exclusive Brand products have increased seen a 6.8 per cent at Woolworths in the first half of this financial year.

This is particularly the case for dairy products, including butter, milk, cream, yoghurt, pantry essentials like pasta, rice, long-life milk, tomato sauce, and frozen vegies.

There are more than 6500 products in the Own Brand range, and they cost 30 per cent less on average compared to similar branded products

All the recipes will be available online so anyone can try their hand at making the tasty yet affordable meals at home.

Bookings are now open at wwtable.com on a first come, first serve basis.

Customers can book dinner for up to four people in Sydney and Brisbane.