Queensland chef creates spark around the world with his fiery style of mobile dining
Swapping fine dining for ‘fire dining’ in an effort to connect with people has resulted in unexpected opportunities on a global scale for a Queensland-based chef.
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A Queensland chef is making sparks around the world with his fiery style of mobile catering.
Closing his restaurant and swapping fine dining for “fire dining” in an effort to connect more with people has led Charles-Etienne (Charly) Pretet to opportunities around the globe, including working with some of the world’s top chefs in idyllic areas like Bali.
“I was very frustrated as a chef to be locked into my kitchen, working long hours and not getting the experience of connecting with my guests in the dining rooms, so I wanted to close a chapter of my traditional hospitality business,” he said.
Now, the French-born chef and his team cater for events around Australia and the globe, using open fire cooking inspired by the traditional Argentinian method of Asado.
Originally from Paris, Mr Pretet, 38, moved to Sydney in 2015 before moving to Yamba in northern New South Wales and opening The French Pan Tree restaurant in 2017.
By October 2020, the three-time Australian Food Guide Chef Hat award recipient decided it was time for a change and moved to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
He opened Noosaville-based outdoor catering company Terra Firma Dining in May, 2021 where now all cooking revolves around a large fire.
“With Terra Firma, I set up our kitchen in the outdoors to immerse the guests of every event into our cooking process,” he said.
“I wanted to bring people together around my open fire pit and outdoor kitchen. As a chef, I wanted to get back to basics and cook over fire in the most primal way, focusing on fire and selection of quality local produce.
“Having everyone around the fire pit for each and every occasion – for weddings, private events, corporate events, public events – for me it’s very important the outdoor kitchen is a centrepiece of each and every event we cater for.”
The former private chef, who embraces sustainability and the use of local ingredients, said the immersive outdoor catering experience helped busy people reconnect to nature and with each other.
“With more and more technology, people get more and more busy and have less time, so they feel less connected to each other,” he said.
“For me as a chef and as an actor of the hospitality industry, it was very important for me to offer an experience that is unique in its own way and (would) set people back to basics, with a beautiful outdoor fire pit and beautiful outdoor settings.
“We are lucky enough to live in a country where we can pretty much live outdoors all year round and have a diversity of landscapes and season produce as well.
“ … When there is a campfire somewhere, people just want to be around it … I think it’s a beautiful way to share a back to basics moment and a moment of connection.”
A demand for the unique service, described as a ‘dining experience without boundaries’, boomed nationally in the past year, leading to Mr Pretet and his small team of fellow chefs catering events all over the country.
To his surprise, an increasing amount of international interest has also already resulted in trips overseas to cater functions.
“We (now) have a lot of projects in the pipeline across different countries and continents,” Mr Pretet said.
“When I first started, I didn’t expect to be asked to travel overseas to cook over fire in luxury destinations, it has been a really great surprise that I am very honoured to do.
“I really take my work with passion and being able to transmit and showcase our art and food across the globe is really exciting.”
One of Terra Firma Dining’s first public international gigs was on Indonesia’s Lesser Sunda Islands on March 30 this year, where Mr Pretet helped christen a new, custom-made outdoor fire pit venue he helped design at Shelter, a Mediterranean style restaurant in Pererenan, Bali.
Mr Pretet said his menu for the special event started with several types of canapes, including tuna loin smoked and seared in the coals, smoked tuna head, smoked beef and coal-roasted eggplant.
The main meal included barramundi cooked on vertical wooden planks around the fire, along with a full rack of beef and a pig, among other items.
Mr Pretet was invited by Shelter Pererenan’s Group Executive Head Chef Stephen Moore to be a guest chef for one of the restaurant’s new open fire pit special events, dubbed ‘Shelter Sessions’, and the first to cook in the new space alongside Mr Moore and his Assistant Group Chef, Scott Findlay.
Both Mr Moore, 50, originally from Colchester, England, and New Zealand-born Scott Findlay, 43, have also worked around the world, including stints in Australia.
Originally from Napier, Mr Findlay moved to the Gold Coast in 2001 where he worked at a Tedder Ave restaurant called Montego’s for a year, before moving to London where he trained under famed, 17-Michelen star awarded chef Gordon Ramsay.
The Kiwi then spent a decade working as a private chef for celebrities such as ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and singers Madonna, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Rhianna and Elton John before becoming co-owner of Milky Lane on the Gold Coast and the executive chef of vegan-burger chain Flave in Sydney in 2021.
Mr Findlay came on board at Shelter about a year ago following the closure of Flave.
Before opening Shelter Pererenan in May 2021 and starting the Shelter Sessions in late 2022, Mr Moore had also spent decades working at restaurants or as a private chef around the world.
He partially cut his teeth with the Hyatt Hotel chain in three different Australian cities, before working at the famous Rockpool Bar and Grill and Icebergs restaurants in Sydney in the early 2000s.
The Shelter Sessions comprise top chefs from around the world making a guest appearance at Shelter in Pererenan- a small coastal village in the southwest of Bali between the increasingly popular suburb of Canggu and the nearby Tanah Lot temple in Beraban Village – to cook a banquet solely over a giant fire for about 80 diners.
The restaurant has already hosted an array of celebrated chefs through the Shelter Sessions, including Jake Kellie co-owner of Adelaide’s first open-flame restaurant, arkhé, MasterChef Australia: Secrets and Surprises competitor, Ross Magnaye of Serai, Melbourne’s hottest Filipino restaurant and chefs Nathan Sasi and Morgan McGlone from Bar Copains in Sydney.
Some of the other international chefs have included Irish Michelin-starred Chef Andrew Walsh, who now owns restaurants in Singapore as well as Tom Brown.
The British television celebrity chef is the owner of Michelin -award-winning seafood restaurant Cornerstone and now the Pearly Queen in London.
Mr Moore said he soon hoped to invite chefs from August, recently named best restaurant in Indonesia and the first Jakarta-based restaurant to be ranked in the prestigious 50 Best Restaurants list by Sam Pellegrino and Acqua Panna.
Mr Pretet, of Doonan, said he appreciated the opportunity to work with so many talented chefs at Shelter Pererenan.
“Stephen is a great chef, a really very talented chef,” he said.
“After that, I guess the fact the whole space has been built around an open fire pit … it was one of the major motivations for me to go overseas and also just to collaborate and showcase what I do here in Australia.”
The Terra Firma Dining crew headed back to Indonesia this month after being hired by Nihi Hotels to cater for four different occasions at the Nihi Sumba beach resort on Sumba Island.
“We’ll be on site for nine days and doing four events, one is going to be a big event on the beach, one is in the jungle, one in the fine dining restaurant and another one will be in the beach club,” Mr Pretet said.
“I am also going to the Caribbean, to Antigua, to cater a wedding next year and have projects coming up in Thailand and the USA.
“These are the dreamy locations but I do have more on the map, including some events in the outback coming up.”
The French chef said he enjoys cooking different types of meats over the fire, though he found it difficult to pick a favourite.
“I cook a lot of meat, though I do really enjoy cooking fish and seafood, that’s a preference of mine,” he said.
Every item served is cooked using the open flame, from vegetable to dessert.
“Every single product we serve has either been cooked or smoked or grilled or been in contact with the completely open fire, only using hardwood timber, somewhere,” he said.
The caterer said he preferred cooking with wood.
“First of all it’s more sustainable and much more natural, while charcoal is a piece of processed wood,” he said.
“For me it’s very important for me to keep the ethic of being natural and sustainable so I think were very lucky here in Australia as we have a large diversity of hardwood timber.”
There was one main downside to catering meals with a giant fire, Mr Pretet admitted.
“It is very hot. I won’t lie.”
MORE INFO
Stay at Kayu Village Resort, right next door to Shelter Pererenan
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