Born: Adelaide, SA
Have you always wanted to be a Chef?
Ever since the age of five I dreamed about becoming a chef. I was always helping out my nonna, mum and my grandmother in their kitchens; the most memorable moments are of rolling out tables full of gnocchi with my nonna, and helping her with the minestrone. Then at my other grandmother’s, making apple and rhubarb crumbles to complete the Sunday roast with whole potatoes and onions roasted in lard till they were crispy and delicious. Whenever I smell these dishes now it immediately transports me back in time to their kitchens; I truly had the best of both worlds growing up.
Having grown up in the Barossa a lot of my friends at school were sons of farmers and fantastic producers. I had an early appreciation of great local produce and how it was grown. On our property we had an abundance of fresh fruit trees, almonds and veggies where I had the chance to understand and know what is available at different times of the year. My favourite season would have to be summer, with all the great stonefruit and berries around at that time. All this only fuelled my thirst for knowledge more, once I got my first taste of the adrenalin in the kitchen I was never going to turn back.
How would you define your style?
Simple but with a twist! Quality with local produce being the star of the show. Letting the ingredients to do the talking. Not over complicating dishes with too many flavours or too much happening on the plate. Recreating old classics with a modern twist.
What is your feature flavour these days?
I actually love the range of beef that we have on the menu at the moment from grass fed to grain, 30 day dry aged and wagyu, with different cuts ranging from a 200g tenderloin to a 800g porterhouse aged on the bone.
Obsessive compulsive about? Local produce.
Your greatest culinary inspirations?
James Fien, my first mentor, taught me a lot about produce and how to use it but also great cooking methods and techniques and very importantly, how to get the most from your team. Marco Pierre White was also an important inspiration - I had his books and watched his TV shows and try to replicate some of his dishes.
Roger Peters and Chris Sellors also taught me a lot after they spent a long time with Michel Roux in the Waterside Inn in England, they showed me skills that I couldn’t have found anywhere in Australia at that time. Recently Ivan Suardi (Area Director of Food & Beverage, Hyatt Asia Pacific) taught me the importance of thinking outside the square and reinventing old dishes as well as pushing the boundaries to get the most out of the produce you have available.
What do you love about this business?
I love the fact that people in this business are so passionate about what they do; it is in their blood & it doesn’t stop when you hang up your apron and go home, it continues on when you go to the markets or prepare food at home or go out to eat. Sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night with an idea or a new creation in your head and you have to rush and write it down so you don’t forget it the next day. I love the rush of a busy night’s service in the kitchen. I also love the fact that as a chef you have no limitations on what you can create, the plate is your canvas.
An ingredient you can’t live without?
Tomatoes. I remember picking the ripest tomatoes off the vine as a kid and eating the sweetest tomatoes ever. From that point on I have always incorporated them in the menu somewhere. That or pasta;I could eat and cook pasta almost every day as there are limitless forms of it.
Most “eyebrow raising” menu item?
I once made a scallop ice cream… Did I push the envelope too far? Maybe.