Peter Gilmore, chef, 48: the third in our Performance With Purpose series

He’s the top chef who runs Sydney’s Quay and Bennelong restaurants. How does Peter Gilmore sustain the excellence?

He’s the top chef who runs Sydney’s Quay and Bennelong restaurants. So how does Peter Gilmore sustain the excellence?

Alan Kohler: At what age did you decide you wanted to be a chef?

Peter Gilmore: By the time I was about 13 the seed was planted. My mum is a great cook and she was always in the kitchen, entertaining and cooking. I really enjoyed helping her and I could see the satisfaction it gave her and the people she cooked for. That sense of sharing, of giving some love. It struck me that this was a nice thing to do.

AK: Was becoming head chef at Quay a turning point in your career?

PG: Definitely. I’ve been cooking since I was 16, had worked overseas and in a few other kitchens. My wife Kath and I had run a guesthouse in the Blue Mountains. But De Beers at Whale Beach was where I had my first real head chef’s job, when I was 30. Within a year I had one chef’s hat award under my belt and in the second year we were awarded two chef’s hats. Then the owner decided to sell and I was out of a job. There were two places in Sydney not owned by chefs that I potentially could run. One was Quay and so I wrote to the owner, Leon Fink.

AK: You applied for the job?

PG: Yes. Quay had had a very good chef, Guillaume Brahimi, but he’d left and I knew they’d be looking for a young chef at some stage. There were still a few weeks to go at De Beers and Leon sent five or six people up to eat at the restaurant and send a full report back. I had no idea. The reports were apparently glowing because he contacted me, and then I had five interviews.

AK: Obviously at some point you took that step up to concentrate on creativity. What does it take to sustain that kind of excellence?

PG: I’ve always been driven to do the best I can and I have never lost that passion for wanting to do better. For me, it’s about not resting on my laurels and always being innovative and passionate. As soon as you lose the passion, I think you stop trying.

AK: What does innovation in food entail?

PG: A lot of research and experimentation. I work really closely with producers and farmers. I’m a passionate gardener and I grow a lot of unique and unusual vegetables. I’ve got a little garden at home, my test garden. If I find something I really love, I’ll work out a dish. And I’m working about three seasons ahead most of the time, because to get something on the plate at Quay you’re working seasonally. You might have to import the seeds from overseas, or research to find the seeds and then grow them. It’s only through that sort of experimentation, research and dedication that I can come up with ingredients that are different. You’ve still got to take that ingredient and turn it into something interesting on a plate.

AK: When most people think of innovation in food, they probably think of Heston Blumenthal and what you might call chemistry. But you experiment and innovate with actual growing, with nature.

PG: There have been two really strong movements over the past 10 years in food. People like Ferran Adrià and Heston have focused on the chemistry and the science. And then there’s the more natural approach. René Redzepi from Noma has the highest profile, but Luis Aduriz, Michel Bras and Alain Passard were also pioneers. I was one of the first Australians to become really passionate about that side of cuisine, about the same time as those guys, so I’ve been at the cutting edge for quite a while.

AK: Was taking over Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House last year a big step for you?

PG: Yes. We wanted to achieve something a little more casual than Quay but with high excellence. I’m proud that since we’ve been open, Bennelong has won five Best New Restaurant awards.

AK: Does running two restaurants mean you’re much more involved in leadership as opposed to being hands-on?

PG: Yes. My job at Quay always involved a reasonable amount of research and development. But now with two different menus to write, a lot more attention has to be spent on the development side as well as keeping an eye on the quality of both restaurants. It wouldn’t be achievable unless I had incredible staff such as Rob Cockerill, head chef at Bennelong, and Rob Kabboord, who has taken the head chef’s role at Quay. Without those two guys, their sous chefs and the teams that work with them, no matter how creative and how incredible the dishes are, it’s not going to work.

AK: What is the key to leadership when you’re designing menus, then teaching a team how to cook them? How do you pass on the vision?

PG: Having the right people, who understand what you do, “get” your passion and your philosophy, and want to achieve that themselves. When I come up with a new idea or a new dish, the enthusiasm is fantastic, really palpable. I just love that. I guess you inspire people through the excellence that you set within the structure of the dish.