Kitchen Spy: Tobie and Georgia Puttock

Tobie and Georgia Puttock are in their St Kilda apartment kitchen talking food. The pair are excited about their first co-authored book, The Chef Gets Healthy (Penguin Random House Australia, out May 27) – a book of recipes inspired by the couple's revelatory journey away from indulgent restaurant food, which was making them fat, towards everyday food that is good for them. Meanwhile, the couple have just welcomed baby daughter Birdie into the world, so Tobie – chef, author, close friend of Jamie Oliver and founder of "Made", a line of precooked meals – will have to cook for three now.

The staples

My pantry
T: I go to the market about five times a week but I don't do big shops any more. We like flaxseed oil (it's a great source of omega-3) but I tend to combine it with extra virgin olive oil for flavour for finishing salads and over meats. The kind of cooking I'm doing now is heavily reliant on herbs and spices (because we're not deep-frying and using loads of fats) so I use a lot of smoked paprika, cumin, good quality salt and homemade chilli sauces. Georgia loves having a little bit of white truffle oil here and there to bring out the flavour – my preference is fresh white Alba truffle but it's, like, $3000 a kilo, so we don't really have that here.

My fridge
T: Cooking at home, I'll make a massive batch of minestrone, put them into individual takeaway containers and freeze them down. So, on nights when we can't be bothered cooking we can thaw those out and put a lot of love into it – I'll use fresh kale and peas, some truffle oil, parmesan, chilli and things like that. Suddenly, we'll have a really lovely meal that's really good for you, is very filling, and doesn't break the bank.

Secret vice

G: I'm a bit of a sweet tooth. The past two years I've been super-healthy but I really like the Haigh's milk peppermint frogs.

Last night's dinner

G: Kemi's Mexican super bowl salad. It's a raw salad of red capsicum, avocado, corn, coriander, chilli, tomato and a little bit of olive oil. We had it with a piece of baked cod. We both put on a bit of weight since I got pregnant, so now that Birdie's been born we're back on the (healthy) wagon.

I'm drinking

T: I used to love having beers after work but once we started training I realised it wasn't good for my belly. So, instead I started having a nip of whisky. I like drinking wine if someone puts a good one in front of me but I haven't actively gone out and educated myself about it. But whiskey I've really taken to. I've tried a lot of the Suntory whiskies – this one's got a quite smoky flavour to it – and I'll have it with a couple of chilled ceramic cubes. When I'm drinking the expensive whiskies I think it's a bit of a shame to dilute them. If I had to choose a favourite wine it would be Chianti classico – I'm a fan of the big Tuscan reds.

My toolkit

T: Baking paper is a must-have for me. To cook fish I'll line a pan with baking paper and use only a minimum of oil – about 400g of fish with a teaspoon of olive oil – and still get really crunchy skin. I also use my Microplane a lot, my MAC Mighty Chef's knife (it's super-sharp – I went on Iron Chef America last year and nicked my finger within the first five minutes but got away with it), my water immersion circulator for cooking sous vide, I can't live without a KitchenAid​ stand mixer and food processor and I always use Neoflam pans – they're environmentally friendly and have got a really nice weight to them.

My inspiration

T: My time at The River Cafe, in London. It was the first restaurant in my whole cooking career where everything was so ingredient-driven. We used to change the menu every single service depending on what was freshly available at the time and in its prime. It was a real game-changer for me.

Favourite

G: We bought this Gluggle jug from Essential Ingredient. It's so great. It's a reproduction of the 1870s Staffordshire Victorian design that makes a gurgling noise when you pour the water out. They're just so beautiful – whenever we have anyone over for dinner and we use them everyone's always interested in them. It's a great conversation piece.

Most unforgettable meal

G: We were in Oahu, Hawaii, doing a story for Jetstar magazine about three years ago and we went to Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto's restaurant. It was the most incredible meal. We were sitting there saying, "this is in our top five meals", then 'top three", then we said, "nope, this is the best we've ever had." It was simple food but done with this incredible style.

Recipe stalwart

G: Baked fish with kale, anchovies, chilli, garlic and half an avocado each. It's something we have all the time. That and minestrone.

Discovery

T: I got this "grolla" from Ponte di Legno, in Northern Italy where I once lived for eight months. It's hand-carved and the idea is you put coffee, grappa and maybe lemon, sugar or honey in and then take a sip from a spout and then pass it on. It's very much a share thing so after a massive meal that's what the Italians have – it wakes you up and gets you drunk.