Rising cooking star Jake Kellie fans the flames for Adelaide’s dining scene and Tasting Australia

Jake Kellie, the chef behind arkhé, the state’s first open-flame restaurant, is fired up over his involvement in the 2022 Tasting Australia festival

Fast-rising Adelaide chef Jake Kellie at arkhé, his Norwood restaurant which opened its doors in November. Picture: Russell Millard

Jake Kellie is forging his culinary reputation in fire. To be more specific, the fast-rising Adelaide chef is crafting his exceptional flame-fuelled dishes from a custom-made, two-and-a-half ton wood-burning oven at the heart of arkhé, his Norwood restaurant which opened its doors in November.

Made up of dual cavities, four elevation grills and an open hearth, the oven is central to every meal that comes through the kitchen doors. In fact, there is no gas or electricity used in the cooking processes at all in the state’s first open-flame restaurant – just a lot of ironbark.

“I don’t think there’s anything else like it in Adelaide,” the former head chef of world-acclaimed Singapore barbecue eatery Burnt Ends says. “The ironbark is a good high-density timber that produces good coals, allowing heat to be maintained for as long as possible. We’re going through about a ton a week of that at the moment.”

Born and bred on the central coast of New South Wales, the now 31-year-old discovered his fire for the culinary arts as a teenager. He studied commercial cooking at a local TAFE college before travelling overseas to work alongside and learn from some of the world’s best, including Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck, UK), Scott Pickett (Estelle, Melbourne) and Matt Moran (Aria, Sydney); before settling in for several years with David Pynt at Burnt Ends in Singapore. Returning to Australia at the end of 2019 with a dream to open his own restaurant, Kellie headed to Adelaide.

Jake Kellie with partner Ena Vujcic and their son, Henry, then three months, at the opening day of their restaurant in November. Picture: Matt Loxton

What really attracted me to Adelaide is the fact that food and the wine regions around the city – such as the Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley – are all very close, while the quality of the local produce was key as well.”

Lobsters from Ferguson Australia in Port Lincoln and Mayura Station Wagyu are among the locally-sourced goods on the menu at arkhé. “We’re starting to let that produce shine,” Kellie says. “We’re pretty spoilt here, so it’s good to be in my own walls and to be able to showcase that.”

Having now settled in Adelaide with partner Ena Vujcic and their son Henry, Kellie is excited about what the city’s dining scene has to offer. “I think the industry is just about to explode, with so many good restaurants coming on to the scene,” he says. “I think Adelaide is probably now the top dining destination in Australia.”

He’s equally enthusiastic about his involvement in this year’s Tasting Australia festival. “I’m doing two events – one at Coffin Bay and one at arkhé with chef mates Louis Tikaram (Brisbane Cantonese restaurant Stanley) and Matt Stone (Melbourne’s Future Food System project), so that will be a chance to have some fun and let loose.”