Top Victorian chefs are treating time as a luxury ingredient, spending many hours and sometimes months making their own halloumi, fish sauce, charcuterie and vermouth to give diners truly one-off experiences they won’t find elsewhere.

“That’s what I believe real cooking is,” says Jo Barrett of Little Picket, a restaurant set within a bowls club in Lorne, on Victoria’s Surf Coast.

“I feel a bit uncomfortable buying stuff in because I feel like guests are coming [here] to have something that they can’t do.”

Making her own mortadella, croissants and halloumi also means her dishes are truly unique: they won’t contain the same ingredients that dozens of other restaurants have bought from a wholesaler.

Barrett, and the four other finalists for The Age Good Food Guide 2024 Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year award, demonstrate a growing appreciation among today’s top chefs for traditional skills.

Despite having more gadgets than ever at their fingertips, these chefs are more interested in learning how to make things from scratch.

For fellow finalist Thi Le, chef at Jeow and Ca Com in Richmond, making her own fish sauce has a personal element: her family in Vietnam are fishers.

“Growing up in Australia, it was a way to reconnect with my heritage.

“I thought, how do I embrace my Vietnamese culture and put a Vietnamese lens on Victorian produce?”

At Jeow, ceramic crocks hold batches of fish sauce that Le makes from Lakes Entrance sardines, garfish, whiting, mullet and more. Each batch is left to ferment for up to two years.

It’s a huge investment of time, but the pay-off is in the quality. Le says first-press fish sauce – the prized first extraction of liquid from the salted fish – is rarely seen in Australia. By making it herself, she has it on tap, literally.

Producing things in-house that are normally bought also cuts down on waste, an important benefit for Barrett when she’s making her own cheese and smallgoods. Both would normally come in plastic and paper packaging.

Chef Dave Verheul, of city wine bar Embla, says restaurants that make their own bread are probably striving in other areas as well.

“The most senior person in the kitchen on the day will spend hours making and baking it,” Verheul says.

“If you’re going to put that much effort into something that’s seen as an everyday commodity, that speaks volumes about the effort you put into everything else.”

He has branched out into making vermouth under his own label Saison, using flowers, fruit and herbs picked in Victoria when they’re abundant, then ageing them for several months up to a year.

The chefs’ “DIY everything” mindset appears to stem from a natural curiosity. Each taught themselves these time-honoured skills, whether that was how to make cheese (Barrett), butcher a pig (Le) or make sourdough bread (Verheul).

As leaders, they can now share their knowledge with more junior chefs in their kitchens still honing their craft.

“It’s about job satisfaction,” says Le. “How can we upskill the industry and keep it interesting?”

Verheul agrees: “We like to get people to the stage where they have that natural instinct with cooking and food.”

Barrett says knowing how to do everything yourself as a chef also gives you creative freedom.

“By having good cooking skills, you’re never limited to what you can put on the menu.”

Finalists for Oceania Cruises Chef of the Year 2024

Jo Barrett (Little Picket)

After blazing trails in low-waste cooking at Yarra Valley fine-diner Oakridge, Jo Barrett has continued to champion more sustainable ways to cook and eat. A hunter, fly-fisher, baker, cheesemaker and author, she made the move to Lorne last year to cook out of the town’s lawn bowls club.

Zoe Birch (Greasy Zoes)

Zoe Birch is a lesson in doing things your own way. With husband Lachlan Gardner, she opened the eight-seat Greasy Zoes in Hurstbridge in 2017, deliberately choosing a small restaurant so the couple could run it entirely on their own, working family-friendly hours even as Birch makes her own cheese, croissants, ferments and more.

Thi Le (Jeow, Ca Com)

After running acclaimed Asian Australian restaurant Anchovy for seven years, the dynamic Thi Le emerged from the pandemic with not one, but two new projects: Jeow and Ca Com, both driven by her interest in Laotian food, which she explores with her fine-tuned palate across high-quality sandwiches, drink-friendly snacks and full banquets.

Stephen Nairn (Omnia, Yugen, Yugen Omakase)

The Glasgow-born Stephen Nairn has 20 years of experience cooking in top fine-diners, including Eleven Madison Park in New York. Right now, he oversees three vastly different restaurants in South Yarra spanning classical European dining to rarefied Japanese cuisine. Teaching his team old-school techniques and skills like whole-animal butchery is a priority.

Dave Verheul (Embla)

Dave Verheul’s first Melbourne restaurant, The Town Mouse in Carlton, immediately earned praise when it opened in 2013 for its casual atmosphere but whip-smart cooking. He followed it up in 2015 with Embla, a wood-fired restaurant that got Melbourne hooked on dishes that have become much-imitated: anchovy toast, glossy roast chicken, and vegetable side dishes that rival the mains.

The winners of The Age Good Food Guide 2024 Awards will be announced on October 30, presented by Vittoria Coffee and Oceania Cruises. The Age Good Food Guide 2024 will be on sale from October 31, featuring more than 450 Victorian venues, from three-hatted destinations to regional wine bars, lively noodle specialists and 30-year-old icons. Venues listed in the Guide are visited anonymously by professional restaurant critics, who review independently. Venues are chosen at our discretion.