Question time: Would you like some cracked pepper with that? (10 June 2011)

Cracking the pepper mill

As I watched a waiter today at lunch in an Italian restaurant come around to tables to ask if customers wanted cracked pepper on their dishes I wondered to myself when did freshly cracked pepper first become popular in Australia. I vaguely remember perhaps 20 years ago when pepper mills in restaurants was something of a special attraction to my dining out experience. It became all ‘so fancy’ for those who were just used to having a plain old salt and pepper shaker already on the table. Soon everyone wanted their pepper freshly cracked, even demanded it, as if it was going to maybe make their dishes extra special for no extra charge. Over the years pepper mills got bigger and bigger. Some perhaps ridiculously sized as if to shock their customers into giggles or just to keep up with demand without having to refill for longer periods of time. Perhaps it was just so you couldn’t easily steel the prized possession under your coat or in your petit handbag.

I wonder what chefs think about freshly cracked pepper. Is it necessary for certain dishes to have it added to a dish at the table when served or is it just a personal preference we've somehow been made to think it's a requirement? Should dishes already be seasoned correctly once they leave the kitchen? Do you ever see MasterChef or Iron Chef judges being asked if they wanted cracked pepper on that dish to be judged? Is it just as sacrilegious to add pepper to your dish as it is to add salt before you’ve even tasted the dish?

If you know the origins of the rise of pepper mills and freshly cracked pepper in Australia I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks to Caffé Due Mondi for the impromptu pepper mill photo shoot.