Nomad restaurant, Surry Hills, NSW

This chef is forging a new path for herself.

Nomad in Sydney’s Surry Hills

As we come to the later stages of the train wreck that is 2020, there has been a silver lining for Jacqui Challinor. The executive chef at Nomad has had a particularly difficult 12 months that started before the global pandemic; an electrical fire at her restaurant in Sydney’s Surry Hills forced it to close in September and then a hasty reopening up the road only lasted a few months before being shut in March, thanks to COVID-19. Challinor and owners Rebecca and Al Yazbek made the tough call to shut the eatery as it was not financially viable to run takeaway from one site while renovating the other.

“I was in a pretty dark place personally after everything we went through,” Challinor says. “You work your guts out and you use so much creative energy and emotional energy, and then the fire happened and then COVID happened and I felt like, what am I fighting for? It was just very defeating.”

So with Nomad closing, Challinor was forced to stop. She took a few months off and took a long look at how she worked, how she lived and what she needed to change to become a healthier, happier person. “This industry can be soul destroying,” she says. “The thing in hospitality is that we spend so much time looking after other people that we forget to look after ourselves. You can work a whole day and not eat a meal or not sit down or see the sun. It is physically and emotionally draining.”

The chef also believes the industry has a “macho” culture in which working a 90-hour week is considered a badge of honour and is followed by drinking and partying. “It is almost like it is a sign of weakness as a chef to say ‘I am going to sit down and have a meal or I need to take a break’,” she tells WISH. “But it is not okay and it is not healthy. We also excuse poor behaviour with booze and laugh at it afterwards; it is letting your job dictate your entire lifestyle.”

Jacqui Challinor

Challinor spent her time off eating better, exercising, giving up alcohol and looking after herself. And unlike the rest of us in lockdown, she lost weight – 10 kilos. “I feel better than I ever have,” she says. “I have been saying it’s been a personally brilliant year and a professionally shit year. I almost feel a bit selfish saying it, but I am so grateful to have had the time to reset and work out what I need to do to be a healthier, happier and more productive person.”

This break also renewed her passion for food and cooking at Nomad. “It is exciting to come back to the restaurant with a new lease on life almost, and a new appreciation for my job and the team,” Challinor explains. “And I am incredibly passionate about finding a path moving forward. The industry is notoriously toxic and self-destructive and I would love to be an advocate for a healthier workplace, not just for my team at Nomad but for the industry as a whole.”

Nomad opens this month at its old address on Foster Street after a year of renovation. There is a bigger kitchen and a longer counter so customers can be “closer to the action”. Challinor has spent the past few months devising the menu, which includes new recipes as well as old favourites such as her raw kingfish and zucchini flower dishes. She has been meeting new producers, heading to the food markets and experimenting.

The chef describes her food as being influenced by Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern flavours (she is half Maltese). “I love bread and have been working on doughs at home; I am doing a new smoked eggplant dip with a beautiful flatbread,” she tells WISH in the lead-up to Nomad opening in November. “But the one dish that is closest to my heart and that I will never get rid of is our olive oil ice cream sandwich. It is inspired by baklava, and it is an olive oil parfait sandwiched between filo pastry with halva and pistachio. I cannot wait to see those plates going out again.”

CANNELINI BEAN HOMMUS WITH CUMIN BURNT BUTTER

For the hommus

400g tin cannellini beans,

drained and rinsed

70g brown onion, thinly sliced

15g garlic, thinly sliced

110g extra virgin olive oil

1g cumin seed

100ml water

5g fleur de sel or salt flakes

20g lemon juice

25g tahini

50ml hot water

For the burnt butter

60g unsalted butter

4g cumin seeds

Heat 40g of the oil in a saucepan. Add the garlic and cumin seeds, sauté until aromatic then add onion. Continue to cook over a medium heat until the onions have softened and cooked through but not coloured. Add cannellini beans, 100ml water and salt and cook out until water has reduced by 3/4 . Pour the bean mix into a blender, blitz on low speed until everything is incorporated and a puree starts to form. Increase speed and add the remaining oil, lemon juice and tahini. Add 50ml hot water to adjust consistency. It will thicken up once it chills so you want the puree to be a bit on the looser side; add more water if required. Refrigerate and allow to thicken.

To make the cumin burnt butter, combine the butter and cumin seeds in a small saucepan and cook until the butter becomes frothy and has a nutty aroma. Be sure to stir regularly so as to avoid the milk solids or cumin seeds catching and burning on the bottom. Transfer butter to a bowl as soon as it’s ready as the residual heat in the saucepan will continue cooking it. To serve, spoon the warm butter over the hommus.

Serves 4-6 as a snack