Now that mince pies and Christmas puddings are on supermarket shelves, and there’s (some) snow in our alpine regions, we tapped Cabrini Group Food and Domestic Manager Justin Dowd on the shoulder to ask for menu suggestions for those celebrating Christmas in July.

Luckily for us – and our patients – Justin is a classically-trained chef who worked with renowned chef and cookbook author Stephanie Alexander at her iconic Melbourne restaurants for more than a dozen years.

Earlier this year, though, it was chef Stephanie who tapped Justin on the shoulder, asking him if she could share his Christmas-in-July-worthy Roast Rack of Pork with Pears recipe to feature in Australian food magazine, Gourmet Traveller.

It’s not the first time Stephanie has asked if she could publish his roast pork recipe.

“It was in Stephanie’s striped-covered the cook’s companion all those years ago, and it was updated in the 30^th anniversary edition because ingredients and availability of ingredients evolve over time,” Justin said. “Stephanie asked me if she could use the recipe in the magazine but then texted me to tell me that it was going to be on the cover of the March edition. I was very surprised that it was selected for the cover.”

Not so surprised that one of Justin’s recipes made the cover of Gourmet Traveller are those in Justin’s Food Services team, who have adopted his “simple and perfect” mantra when developing our hospitals’ menus.

“You don’t need thousands of flavours to make something nice,” Justin said. “You can keep it simple and perfect and let the flavours speak for themselves.

“You don’t need a whole mix of lots of different things. If you’re going to make poached chicken with fresh green beans, cook them well, and the ingredients will sing.”

Taking a look at the glossy Gourmet Traveller cover shot of Justin’s dish with its perfect, crunchy crackling, it’s little wonder that Stephanie’s editorial team for the anniversary edition of her cookbook sang out with “cries of delight” when he served up the “spectacular” dish. To date, though, Justin’s pork dish hasn’t yet made it onto our patient’s plates.

“We don’t have this pork dish on our hospital menu, but we do have a huge range of pretty special dishes, and the team that makes our food down here is exceptional at not only creating and putting menus together, but for bringing their international influence to our dishes too.”

So, if there’s no Roast Rack of Pork with Pears on the patient menu to celebrate Christmas in July, what about the Christmas in December menu?

“It wasn’t that long ago that we couldn’t serve seafood in hospitals because it was considered a bit too dangerous, but now, with our menu management system, we can monitor all sorts of allergens and intolerances and expand our range of dishes,” Justin said.

“So, on Christmas Day last year, we had the traditional Christmas lunch dishes, but we also had Moreton Bay bug salad with mangoes. We went a bit overboard, but people loved it.”

Download Justin’s Roast Rack of Pork with Pears recipe