An injury led him to re-evaluate his way of eating sending him off on a dietary orbit for years including fasting, ketosis and a high-protein diet but all it did was show the power and potency of food as a lever for health.
"Over the years I’ve loosened up and changed my focus - I’m not a complete pain in the arse about food any more," the former My Kitchen Rules contestant says.
"Nourishing, easy, familiar and flavourful food. Essentially my mum’s cooking, version 2.0."
He and wife Matilda Brown, daughter of actors Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward who grew up on a farm in the Nambucca Valley in New South Wales, own the Good Farm Shop, a business that started out as a small online butchery supplying regeneratively grown meat to a ready-meal company that delivers across the country.
"It started with an email to family and friends asking if anyone wanted to go in on a cow share. We wanted to eat the meat from our farm, knowing that we were taking care of the land and providing a lovely life for the animals. But logistically, it’s hard to get that cow on your plate."
Gooding, a cook and holistic nutrition and performance coach, has always had an interest in where the food on his plate came from, not from a flavour perspective but an ethical one.
Brown (known as Til), who followed her parents into the film and television industry, struggled with food and exercise from her teenage years, bingeing and purging and counting calories.
When she met Gooding she had been a vegan/vegetarian for seven years but he taught her about nutrition and she started to eat meat again.
"The moment I took a bite of the slow-cooked lamb Scott made me, I never looked back. Scott’s way of eating has had a massive influence on me and turned out to be the antidote to my body’s inability to find its natural, healthy weight without deprivation.
"Sometimes I can’t believe how simple it is, and I’m shocked it took me half a lifetime to work it out."
They and their three children now split their time between their home on Sydney’s northern beaches and Brown’s parents’ farm, now a regenerative cattle farm.
Gooding is the main cook of the family and they make 95% of their meals. The starting point for their meals is the highest-welfare protein they can source and then he builds from there. They buy organic, do not use any processed foods and try to follow a gluten-free diet.
Healthy and delicious is what he aims for although he allows for indulgences every now and again.
"The occasional ice cream at the beach, hot chips on a road trip or a chocolate just because. This includes the grown-ups too; life is too short to miss out on warm sourdough with butter, an apple crumble or one of Til’s margaritas."
The one cow they sourced evolved into them sourcing produce from a handful of regenerative farms across New South Wales and sending it out to customers around Australia. However, the business struggled to make a profit so after nearly a decade they were at a turning point when on a trip to the United Kingdom to visit Gooding’s family they saw the quality of ready-made meals in their supermarkets.
So when they returned home, they shut the butchery side of the business and evolved into a ready-meal producer using the same values and philosophy of the earlier business using produce from regenerative, small, family-owned farms complemented with organic ingredients.
Their recipe book also follows that philosophy and is broken up into chapters on meals for mornings, afternoons, evenings, sweets and treats and staples.
Corn and chilli
How good does this one look? And it’s even better to taste: vibrant and full of freshness, but with a spicy kick.
Think of it as a corn version of shakshuka but just as flavourful and easy to make.
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 ears of corn, outer leaves removed, trimmed
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 small brown onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp chipotle powder
12 long red chillies, destemmed and finely chopped
1 red capsicum (pepper), destemmed, cored and diced
1 green capsicum (pepper), destemmed, cored and diced
4 eggs
½-1 avocado, sliced, to serve
Juice of ½ lime, to serve
¼ bunch coriander (cilantro), leaves left whole or roughly chopped, to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil.
Place the corn cobs in the water and bring back to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer strongly for 35 minutes before removing from the heat. Drain and, once the corn has cooled a little, cut the kernels off and set aside.
Heat the oil in a large ovenproof frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add the oregano, chipotle powder, chilli and capsicum to the frying pan and stir.
Cook for another 5-6 minutes before adding the corn kernels.
Create four depressions in the mixture with the back of a spoon and crack an egg into each one. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the eggs are cooked to your liking.
Remove from the oven, season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve with avocado and a squeeze of lime juice.
Scatter the chopped coriander on top.
Rachel and Til’s Fitzroy chicken
When I was 17, I moved to Melbourne to follow in my parents’ footsteps and study film and TV. It was bittersweet because I loved my new-found independence, but I really missed my mum, Rachel’s, cooking.
Luckily, she visited me a lot and on one occasion, she whipped out this recipe from a magazine and we cooked it in my little share-house, much to my flatmates’ enjoyment. We’ve added a few things to the recipe since then and it’s been a favourite ever since.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
2 onions, peeled and quartered;
5 garlic cloves;
4 rosemary sprigs;
4 chicken Marylands, skin on;
1 chorizo sausage, cut into 5mm slices;
1 cup (250ml) extra-virgin olive oil;
2 cups (500ml) red wine vinegar;
1 cup (160g) green Sicilian olives, pitted
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Place the onion in a roasting tin with the garlic and rosemary sprigs.
Run your fingers between the chicken skin and thigh meat to ease the skin away from the meat (be careful not to tear it). Place the chorizo under the chicken skin.
Place the Marylands in the tray on top of the onion, garlic and rosemary.
Pour the olive oil and vinegar over the top and add the olives.
Season well with salt and pepper and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving. Season to taste.
Serve with a simple garden salad and creamy mashed potatoes.
Richard’s bread ’n’ butter pudding
Scott’s dad, Richard, was a publican for 40 years and always had his head in a dog-eared cookbook looking for inspiration for daily specials or events.
He had a few signature dishes, and his bread ’n’ butter pudding was one of them.
Serves 6
Ingredients
3-4 Tbsp unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
6-8 slices of day-old gluten-free or sourdough bread, crusts removed
2 cups (300g) diced peaches (optional)
3 large eggs;2 cups (500ml) full-cream milk
½ cup (125ml) thick (double) cream, plus extra to serve
¼ cup (45g) coconut sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
A pinch of salt
¼ cup (60ml) Baileys Irish Cream
¼ cup (60ml) Tia Maria
Method
Grease a 23cm×23cm baking dish with a little softened butter.
Butter each slice of bread on one side and cut into triangles. Arrange half of the bread triangles, buttered side up, in a single layer in the bottom of the greased baking dish.
Sprinkle half of the peach (if using) evenly over the bread.
Place the remaining buttered bread triangles on top, creating another layer, then add the rest of the peach.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until well combined. Add the Baileys and Tia Maria and whisk again.
Pour the custard mixture over the bread and fruit, ensuring all the bread is soaked with the custard.
Gently press down on the bread with a spoon to help it absorb the custard.
Sprinkle some extra coconut sugar over the top to create a lovely golden crust when baked.
Preheat the oven to 175°C.
Cover the dish with foil and leave to stand for 20 minutes before baking in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
After 30 minutes, remove the foil and bake for a further 20-25 minutes, or until the top is golden and the custard is set.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool a little.
Serve warm with dollops of cream.
