Melbourne chefs reveal their fave foods and restaurant meals
From what they would order for their Last Supper, to the dishes they take to parties and their most memorable meals, our top chefs have revealed their food secrets.
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Food, glorious food.
To celebrate our city’s calendar eating and drinking event, the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, we put our favourite chefs around the dinner table — asking them to confront their gluttonous habits and share their all-time best dishes.
SCOTT PICKETT
The Continental Hotel Sorrento, Matilda executive chef
What would be your last meal?
A buffet, a king’s table with roast chicken, duck fat potatoes and lots of gravy, as well as the best French baguette to soak up all of those beautiful roast chicken cooking juices. I’d also have loads of fresh seafood and a roast beef rib with mustards and cold ale. For dessert, a classic mango and passionfruit pavlova. It’d be a feast to share with my family and friends — my favourite food with my favourite people — one last time.
What is your earliest food memory?
Roast lamb and roast potatoes. That was my grandmother’s cooking and my first, lasting
recollection of food.
What role did food play in your upbringing?
Food has always played a big part in my life, especially the produce that was raised and grown on the farm. I always loved when we entertained friends and family, and had nice gatherings based around great food and wine.
Who taught you to cook?
My grandmother, she’s had a big impact on my cooking.
Who inspired your food journey?
One of my biggest inspirations and mentors is Phillipe Mouchel. Working with Philippe
sparked my great love affair with classic French cuisine and was eye-opening during my formative years. Everything about him — his knowledge, techniques, calm manner and the way he ran his kitchen was and is, amazing and inspiring.
What meal instantly reminds you of home?
Tuna mornay, my mother’s classic signature dish. It is real comfort food and takes me back to
my childhood whenever I taste it.
What dish would you take to a dinner party?
Freshly shucked oysters, king prawns with kombu butter, hand-dived scallops, salmon caviar with blinis, lobster tails, kingfish sashimi, Queensland spanner crab, pickled mussels, and Morten Bay bugs, each paired with classic dressings and native touches.
What meal do you cook to impress?
Roast duck, turnips, blood orange.
To date, what is the best meal you’ve ever eaten.
It was at the chef’s table in the kitchen of Paul Bocuse. Think 12 courses of amazing
classic French dishes, all served and cleared by the man himself. It was truly the
biggest culinary honour of my life and I cried at the end knowing I had experienced one of the greatest meals I would ever eat, cooked by one of the greatest chefs of all-time.
What meal should everyone try at least once in their life?
Haggis or any offal dish, just something to take you outside of your normal food boundaries. It’s beautiful, you need to know how to prepare for the dish and ingredients to embrace how delicious it really is.
KIRSTY CHIAPLIAS
Babajan owner, executive chef
What would be your last meal?
Tuna pasta, without question. I love tuna and pasta. So it’s a no-brainer. Simple and delicious.
What is your earliest food memory?
Cooking Asian dishes with a friend of mine for a grade 6 project. She was Vietnamese and I remember going to her house to cook some of her family’s traditional dishes. Then she came to my house to make fried rice, or maybe it was lemon chicken. I think I used my mum’s Women’s Weekly cookbooks. Little did I know that was only the beginning.
What role did food play in your upbringing?
My mum is Australian and my dad Greek, so dinners were always interesting, and often contrasting. Mum’s go to was corned beef with white sauce and undercooked potatoes, although she made the best scones and cakes. Still does.
Dad focused more on charcoal, BBQ, lamb chops and mezze plates. I’ve been influenced by both of them.
Who taught you to cook?
My parents definitely played a role at home but I really learnt how to cook through other great chefs, such as John Psanis and Jarrod Hudson.
Who inspired your food journey?
Stephanie Alexander and Yotam Ottolenghi. I’m drawn to abundant, bright, comforting food and they both do all of that really well.
What meal instantly reminds you of home?
Dad’s braised beans with lamb and potatoes, with a big chunk if feta on the side. It was so village and unbelievably good. Just thinking about the feta reminds me of home.
What dish you take to a dinner party?
I’m usually in charge of salads. I take one of our Babajan-style salads — something simple but delicious, and usually on mass. Otherwise I’ll do something fun with seafood like slow cooked trout with walnuts tarator.
What meal do you cook to impress?
I always do a Thai feast if I have people over. Exactly how I did it back when I was cooking at Easy Tiger.
To date, what is the best meal you’ve ever eaten?
I have so many fond food memories. Epocha impressed me a couple of weeks ago and I also love Lee Ho Fook and everything Victor Liong does. Eating at Greg Brown’s Le Bouchon was unbeatable. It was probably 20 years ago (maybe more) and it wasn’t even the food so much as it was the experience. We were drinking Tattinger and talking to Brown, watching him cook in front of us - everything about that experience has stuck with me.
What meal should everyone try at least once in their life?
A whole lamb on a spit with people you love. It’s these kinds of dishes that create the most incredible experience.
SHANE DELIA
Maha executive chef, owner, Providoor founder
What would be your last meal?
Pho, because it’s epic
What is your earliest food memory?
I really don’t know. All I know is that it must have been good!
What role did food play in your upbringing?
Food was at the centre of everything. It has always brought our family together and it’s still that way today. Mum cooks a meal every Monday night and we have at least 25 people there every week.
Who taught you to cook?
I don’t think I can credit one person with that, and to be honest, I’m still learning every day.
Who inspired your food journey?
So many people have inspired me though my journey but none more than my father. His selflessness and humility inspires me every day.
What meal instantly reminds you of home?
Mum will kill me for this — and it’s probably really mean to say - but overcooked boiled beans and carrots. She did so many things right in the kitchen but those beans and carrots have scarred me for life.
What meal do you cook to impress?
I think when you’re cooking to impress, you are already behind. Cook food you like to eat; that way, if nobody else is happy, then at least you will be.
To date, what is the best meal you’ve ever eaten?
I have eaten so many amazing meals in my life that I cannot possibly narrow it down to one. My most memorable meal was sitting under stars in the middle of Sahara Desert in Morocco eating grilled meats and cous cous. In that moment you realise how little you need and how insignificant you are.
What meal should everyone try at least once in their life?
My dad’s fenek stuffat. It’s a Maltese classic and my family’s version is hands down the best. It’s life changing.
ADRIAN RICHARDSON
La Luna Bistro executive chef, owner
What would be your last meal?
A huge feast, starting with my nonna’s ravioli, whole suckling pigs, crayfish, oysters, scallops and lots of cakes at the end; if you gotta go, you gotta go big.
What is your earliest food memory?
My dad was in the air force and we lived in Malaysia. My nanny, Ama, was Indian and she taught me to eat traditional Indian cuisine and I loved it. I ate hot chilli from a young age and it took my mother several months to get me to use cutlery. To this day, I still use my hands when I eat Indian.
What role did food play in your upbringing?
My father’s side of the family were all chefs, vegetarians and fantastic cooks. Every meal was a big family event. My mother’s side of the family is Italian and my grandmother was born in Cairo, so we had incredible Italian, Middle Eastern and North African feasts. I grew up in Malaysia and so I was exposed to a lot of Asian food (Chinese, Indian, Malay).
Who taught you to cook?
My uncles, aunties, mum, dad. I love cooking and I took a great interest in it as a young man. I also love food, so it was a natural progression. I was very lucky to be able to work with my uncles and my grandfather in their commercial kitchens, so I was given an insight into the commercial side of cooking as a teenager, I also got to spend a lot of time with my grandmother in her kitchen making pasta and lots of different Italian and Middle Eastern foods (my favourite time). My family taught me to cook.
Who inspired your food journey?
My family and my surroundings inspired my love of food.
What meal instantly reminds you of home?
Freshly made pasta with a simple sauce. A minestrone soup, there is nothing better than making stocks from scratch. I love meat, too, so when I fire up the backyard barbecue I’ll slow-cook some pork belly or steak.
What dish would you take to a dinner party?
My mates request I bring some good dry-age La Luna Bistro steaks; so I’ll take five or six rib eye steaks. I always make a beautiful cake, whether it’s a poached pear and chocolate tart or maybe a cheesecake with prunes and Armagnac.
What meal do you cook to impress?
Roast pork over charcoal or steak, or pasta marinara or crispy fried chicken.
To date, what is the best meal you’ve ever eaten?
I’ve eaten some really great meals and there are a lot of meals that make me feel special. My Nona’s ravioli for Christmas was always a very special occasion, and I continue this tradition for my boys.
I’ve had been lucky enough to have many great meals, to me it’s the people that are no longer here that I think about the most, if I had my choice there are so many people that I would sit down with and bring back to life to enjoy a lovely meal with.
What meal should everyone try at least once in their life?
Offal. I know it makes people queasy but if we are killing an animal, none of it should be wasted. Or an oyster freshly opened in front of you. To me it’s the taste of the ocean and these are one of the most enjoyable things on the planet.
LISA VALMORBIDA
Pidapipo founder
What would be your last meal?
Sea urchin spaghetti or sea urchin sushi. I absolutely love sea urchin and eat it at any opportunity I can. I’d finish off with bacio gelato in a cone with whipped cream, as I’ll never get sick of that combo.
What is your earliest food memory?
Sunday brunches at my grandparents’ house. Every Sunday we would go to church and my grandparents’ house for brunch after. Mum’s side is Lebanese, so the meal would have a few Lebanese dishes mixed in among the usual breakfast options. My grandmother would make fresh flat bread with labne, kibbeh, livers with onion and lemon and scrambled eggs among other things.
What role did food play in your upbringing?
Mum comes from a Lebanese upbringing and dad from an Italian family, so food was equally as important to both sides and that’s continued in our family. As kids, we never ate separate meals to the adults, so we had quite an expansive palate at a young age. Dad always cooked pasta and mum cooked anything. Eating at my grandparents’ house on both sides was always very exciting as you’d get homemade gnocchi every time you went to my Italian side and at my mum’s parents, cabbage rolls were my favourite.
Who taught you how to cook?
I was studying interior design after finishing school and I would spend all my time watching cooking shows rather than studying. I learnt mostly from these shows but also my mum and dad taught me a lot too; as well as my extended family.
Who inspired your food journey?
I watched a lot of cooking shows, so Neil Perry, Rick Stein and Kylie Kwong inspired me.
What meal instantly reminds you of home?
Tomato pasta. Simple.
What dish would you take to a dinner party?
Gelato. Always.
What meal do you cook to impress?
Sea urchin pasta or lasagne.
To date, what is the best meal you’ve ever eaten?
I went to a wagyu restaurant in Tokyo with my brother and cousin five years ago. We tried different cuts of grilled meat and it was the most incredible experience ever. The quality of the ingredients and the skill of the chefs was like no other. I’ll never forget that meal.
SHANNON MARTINEZ
Smith and Daughters founder, Lona Misa co-creative culinary partner
What would be your last meal?
Anything at St. John restaurant in London. I could eat everything on the menu over and over; it’s impossible to choose just one dish.
What is your earliest food memory?
Being with my grandmother in the kitchen. The one meal that springs to mind is my grandmother’s famous chicken noodle soup. My grandma also did what a lot of grannies did back in the day and would keep a tin of fat under the sink that she would collect and keep adding to it whenever she cooked. She would use this supply to fry chips in, and these are still to this day the best chips I’ve ever had in my life.
What role did food play in your upbringing?
Food played a huge role in my childhood. My parents separated when I was young, but my fondest memories always reside around the dinner table. On my mum’s side, the menu was always classic Australian meals, such as schnitzels, chips, and salads; simple, but delicious food. On my dad’s side, food allowed me to connect with my Spanish heritage. There was always too much food and the table would always be full. Think lots of chicken wings, soups, stews, paellas, and more.
Who taught you to cook?
No one specifically taught me to cook, but my greatest influence was my grandmother. When I was a child, I would go over to her house every Tuesday to help her cook dinner. I loved sitting in the kitchen and watching and learning from her.
Who inspired your food journey?
My grandma.
What meal instantly reminds you of home?
Whenever I travel, the first thing I always eat as soon as I come home is noodles, specifically pickled chilli broth noodle broth at Tina’s Noodle Kitchen in Preston.
What dish you take to a dinner party?
Ma-Po tofu, it is always a hit.
To date, what is the best meal you’ve ever eaten. Where were you and when was this?
When I was last in London, I ate at St John’s in Barbican three days in a row, I still dream about the meals and can’t wait to go back. Speak to any chef and it is one of their favourite restaurants. They have nailed the art of nose to tail cooking. The way they treat and cook vegetables is absolute perfection. They understand how to dress them, it is always perfectly balanced, and they know how to let vegetables shine. Their ginger pudding is also life changing.
What meal should everyone try at least once in their life?
Any meal you are afraid to try. Everyone should try something at least once.
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