It’s been quite a week for solo operas. On Saturday, Ruth Strutt premiered Possession at Qtopia, Allan Clayton has just embarked on a tour of Schubert’s A Winter’s Journey for Musica Viva Australia, and now Deborah Humble is taking over kitchens from the Hunter Valley to Melbourne in Bon Appétit!

This performance, staged at a private home in Woollahra, is a real treat, bringing one of Australia’s and the world’s most accomplished mezzo-sopranos up close and personal.

The last time I found myself in such an intimate gathering was at a Lieder recital in Europe, and the amplified sense of expectation is just the same. Likewise, the feeling of exposure you get when an opera singer of Humble’s calibre sings directly to you is undeniable.

Except that it isn’t Humble who descends the staircase, welcoming us with a familiar hoot. It’s Julia Child – the pioneering chef who introduced French cuisine to American households through the medium of television and her cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

As Humble weaves her way through the audience to the kitchen where she will proceed to make Le Gâteau au Chocolat l’Éminence Brune, her resemblance to Child is uncanny; so exact are her...