I created this recipe in honour of Mike, my ‘back of back of house guy’ who stops the wheels falling off my whole operation. I met him a few years ago when I had the Beatbox truck at a music festival in country Victoria. It was midnight and we were busy. I could see that we were going to run out of sliced cheese for the burgers, so I grabbed a couple of wheels of gouda and set up the deli slicer and got to it. Another caterer at the event came past and saw me furiously slicing cheese. He said, ‘Buddy there must be a better way.’ I looked up and said, ‘Yep, there is a better way. Be more organised.’ He replied, ‘OK, maybe I can help you out sometime.’ That was Mike. Since then I have called on him nearly every other day. He understands my path and does his best to keep me on it.
In Australia, huge hardware stores have sausage sizzles out front, and it’s pretty hard to resist the smell of sausages and onions, so I can guarantee that guys like Mike have one sausage on the way in and one on the way out.
I’m not trying to change the sausage at all. I even like the way the cook at the hardware store will burn a few edges while he or she waits for the next customers. But I do like the idea of making the sausage with better quality ingredients and giving it a little smoke. For me, it’s all about the onions and quality beef.