Mums are showing the professionals how it’s done as hungry diners ask for home-cooked meals
HOME-TRAINED mums are showing the professionals how it’s done, writes Renata Gortan
Sydney Taste
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FINE-DINING might be struggling in Sydney, with several high-profile restaurants closing their doors in recent months, but it seems we can’t get enough of mum-style cooking.
From the CBD to the suburbs, cafes and restaurants that eschew chefs in favour of mamma’s helping hand are pulling in hungry diners.
Helen Ghebar is not a professional chef, but her experience feeding hordes of hungry teenage boys means cooking for a cafe was a cinch.
When her son Jason opened Charlotte’s Cafe in Birchgrove, she hopped into the kitchen to lend a hand. Ten years on and she still makes the pickles, tahini, labneh, hummus, shawarma marinades and sauces. And customers call ahead to order her lentil soup before it sells out.
“When I was living at home, I’d never come back on my own, I always brought friends and they all loved my mum’s cooking,” Jason says. “She’s just a home cook who does it the way her mother taught her and that’s what people want.”
Helen, 59, has no plans to retire.
“Everybody loves the food because the food is made with love. I love to work in the kitchen, ” she says.
When Paddington cafe Apache Salute started serving dinner two nights a week as Apache Cena, they didn’t have to look very far to find a chef.
Co-owner Pino Paonessa’s mum Maria, 73, pumps out southern Italian family recipes including fresh pasta, sauces, meatballs and marinated vegetables.
“We stay clear of her, it’s her kitchen,” Pino says. “It came about because each time any of my friends went over to Mum’s unannounced she’d say, ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were coming, I’ve got nothing,’ and then she would put on a feast. My friends would say ‘This is so good, you should sell this into a restaurant’ and an idea was born.”
Apache Cena has been operating for five weeks and is going strong.
“People are raving about it,” Pino says. “Mum has never been trained, but she comes from a big family with eight siblings and being the eldest, she had to cook for her brothers and sisters.
“So now she just follows her mother’s and grandmother’s recipes.”
Working together has also had additional benefits.
“I’m now reconnecting with her as we spend more time in the kitchen,” Pino says. “She’s telling me a lot more stories, things about the origins of particular dishes. As a young boy, I didn’t care about that kind of stuff and now I enjoy it immensely.”
MUMS IN THE KITCHEN
PORTENO, Surry Hills
Elvis Abrahanowicz’s mum Hilda makes the empanadas.
“They have always been on our menus, since way back at the start of Bodega. We didn’t even think twice about adding them to the Porteno menu and now I think there would be a riot if we were to take them off,” Elvis says.
“Mum has her own kitchen space at the old Porteno on Cleveland St. She makes all the empanadas there.”
And while she may be an employee she’s still Elvis’ mum.
“The dynamic is no different, we have the same arguments at home and at the restaurant,” he says.
OLD CITY KITCHEN & BAR, Newtown
Owner and chef William Hussary’s mother Salwa is often in the kitchen, checking that her Palestinian recipes are being done right.
“Mum is passionate about our food, as many of the recipes are hers,” William says.
“She loves showing the chefs how to make her falafel perfect, she’s the only one who’s mastered the stuffed zucchini and she’ll often make big trays of baklava. This tends to irritate our French pastry chef because mum’s are better than his.”
1821, CBD
1821 head chef David Tsirekas has his mum Jenny helping out during Greek Easter, making traditional red-dyed Easter eggs and koulouria biscuits.
“What makes my mother’s Greek Easter eggs the best is she uses home grown herbs from her garden, mixed with natural colours and dies to create the unique patterns,” David says.
“To me, her koulouria are always a stand out as she has a natural instinct to tell when something is sweet enough.”
BAU TRUONG, Cabramatta, Marrickville and Mounties Mount Pritchard
Bac Cang Nghieu, 73, arrived in Australia in 1990 and started working as a kitchenhand in her local Vietnamese restaurant. In 1995, she took over the original Bau Truong in Cabramatta.
“She is still very much involved in running the kitchen,” son Michael Thai says.
“All our recipes are hers. They are a closely guarded secret and she teaches the chefs to cook it the way that she wants it.”
KOI DESSERT KITCHEN, Ryde
Former MasterChef contestant Reynold Poernomo works with his brother Ronald and mother Ike Malada (KOI stands for Kids of Ike).
“Mum manages the Ryde restaurant fulltime,” Ronald says. “She manages the creation of the individual cakes, such as berry cheesecake with baked lemon cheesecake insert and a watermelon jar with strawberry lychee cream and chia seeds.
“This restaurant was her brain child, she has always wanted to create her dream kitchen, where we can all share our love of food with others.”
BOON CAFE, Haymarket
Amy Chanta, 59, opened Thai restaurant Chat Thai in 1989. It’s now grown to six venues and Boon Cafe, a cafe and Asian grocer, opened in 2015.
She runs the group with her daughter Palisa Anderson and son Kulphat Laoyont.
“It’s challenging at times, but overall it’s extremely rewarding,” Palisa says.
“My brother and I look up to mum, she gets the final say on all matters but she’s a very democratic leader. She takes the opinions of all her staff, not just us, into account.”
DA ORLANDO, Wollongong
Orlando Luciani’s mum Angela may still live in Italy, but she flies out every six months to help out.
Orlando runs the pizza oven, his business partner Rennie Pillay is front of house and Angela, 65, makes the gnocchi, sugo and meatballs.
“My mum is not a chef, she just likes to cook,” Orlando says.
“I came to Australian 11 years ago and opened this place three years ago. When my mum retired, she comes here every six months and she helps us in the kitchen. When she’s not here, we have a book of her secret recipes that we follow.
“When you walk inside an Italian restaurant and you see the old Italian lady come to the table, with a little bit of English, it’s an authentic experience.”
THE ROSE OF AUSTRALIA, Erskineville
Elissa Leach co-owns the hotel with her son Scott. You’ll find them both pouring beers for thirsty patrons downstairs and serving customers at the just-launched Howard’s Cantina and Cocktail Bar upstairs.
“To know your mum not just as a parent, but a business partner is something few get to appreciate,” Scott says.
“It’s a complementary and sometimes conflicting relationship combining passion with perspective, compassion with ambition and different life experiences. Thanks to our common values, we find a balance that leads to a much better outcome than we could each achieve independently. While we have defined responsibilities, we make joint decisions about the strategic direction together over a glass of wine.
“Make no mistake though, mum is the boss. I’m lucky that she encourages innovation which means The Rose of Australia can advance with the generations and create a special experience as our demographics change. Given the trust and faith of my open-hearted and highly intelligent mum, I can move the business forward more nimbly than those who may answer to a board.”
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