Wish Magazine: Creative leap as Attica chef Ben Shewry branches out

Since COVID-19 closed the restaurant’s doors, Ben Shewry has turned into an artist, venturing into clothing design, acting and video-making.

Ben Shewry, chef and owner of Attica in Melbourne.

At Attica, the food is arguably a form of art. The nation’s top fine-dining eatery has featured on lists of the world’s best restaurants for a decade and is known for its masterful $310 tasting menu crafted by chef and owner Ben Shewry. But since COVID-19 closed the restaurant’s doors, Shewry has turned into a full-blown artist, venturing into the world of clothing design, acting, video-making and even guitar-playing. And all this extraordinary creativity is just to keep his business going and his staff employed.

“One man, one tasting menu, one song, one unforgettable night,” the Melbourne-based Shewry wrote on Instagram in June when he offered a performance to one lucky customer who ordered his famous tasting menu for home delivery. “Are chefs really rock stars? I’m three weeks into learning guitar,” he wrote. “I only know one song and I’m no longer allowed to play that song at home or work, so for one night only I am hitting the road.”

In another post, he acts in a video for a collaboration with Lune Croissanterie in Fitzroy to create a take-home “pastry pudding you never knew you wanted” called DAVE – a croissant cake with candied native fruits, apples, brown sugar and custard. Shewry hilariously wears a stocking over his head like a cat burglar, breaks into Lune’s headquarters, does some somersaults to avoid being seen, and steals the pastry to make his mouth-watering creation like a mad scientist. “DAVE IS COMING,” he proclaims.

‘Dave’.

Shewry and his team have even made a priceless television infomercial – “But wait, there’s more!!” – to promote the Attica Art Series T-shirts, which feature local artists. The award-winning chef is seen using the T-shirts to polish gear-boxes and golf clubs, and even takes to karate-chopping a tomato with his bare hands.

“I have tried to defuse the madness of this situation [COVID-19] with humour and trying to have a good time,” he says. “Also just taking stock that this period is incredibly hard on so many people and I am trying to live life each day to its fullest; that is my motto anyway.”

Behind the humour is a dedicated and passionate chef trying to save his livelihood. The dining room of Attica has been shut since early March and Shewry doesn’t see it reopening soon. “Restrictions on numbers in dining rooms are a real issue,” he says. “Attica only works financially as a full restaurant five nights a week. And the other long-term thing is that we have people flying in from all over the world just to come to Attica. They are about 15 per cent of our guests and they are not going to come back for some time. An economy in recession is also an issue for high-level restaurants.”

Attica tasting menu.

When social distancing restrictions were announced, Shewry recalls he had one day where he thought he was going to lose everything. It was his 43rd birthday and it was just after the Victorian Government called off the Grand Prix. But by the next day he and his partner, Kylie Staddon, Attica’s operations manager, decided to go into work and try to come up with ways to survive.

“We were terrified, in all honesty, but I was even more terrified of what was going to happen to all my staff,” he tells WISH over the phone from Melbourne. “They had put their faith in us and put their faith in our company; how were they going to survive if Attica failed? We had a lot of visa workers here and there was no safety net, so going broke was not an option. And I also wanted to save my company that I had worked my entire career for. My entire life was dedicated to becoming a chef and being good at this and I couldn’t believe that I was going to lose it. I felt strongly about coming out of this better than we went into it, and maybe being more interesting for more people.”

Attica At Home’s family meal.

Shewry did this by launching Attica At Home. But it was not like anything Attica-goers had ever seen before. It started with a simple family meal of lasagne, bread and salad available for pick up or delivery by staff to suburbs near the Ripponlea eatery. “The first thing on the menu was $30 per person and the Attica menu is normally $310 a person, so it was quite a drastic change,” he says. “But you have to read the room and know what people want [at the time] and it wasn’t the $310 tasting menu.”

The lasagne took off and Shewry and his staff introduced other dinner menus as the weeks went by, and then finally the full Attica tasting experience (at $380 for two people).

There is also DAVE, which “sells out immediately every day” and other sweets such as a celebration cake, ice cream (jellybean flavour with soft raspberry marshmallow) and Shewry’s baked cheesecake. One very dedicated customer even paid for somebody to drive the aforementioned cheesecake all the way up the Hume from Melbourne to Sydney so that his dear interstate friend could experience it. “Isn’t that extraordinary?” says Shewry. “It’s pretty next level.”

The b

The chef is not sure what will happen over the next few months, but he is certain about one thing: Attica will never return to just being an ultimate fine-dining experience. It is so much more than that now.

“The other side of it [COVID19] is being able to flex our creativity in different ways that we couldn’t before because it didn’t fit into our very square box that Attica defined itself by in being a fine-dining restaurant,” Shewry explains. “We have discovered a whole new audience that has always wanted to come to Attica for our food but haven’t been able to afford it, and it’s been amazing engaging with these people. They have been there for us in our time of need and we want to be there for them when this is over and done with, so we still want to keep that part [Attica at Home] of our business.”

attica.com.au/delivery; Instagram: @benshewry

BEN SHEWRY’S FLATHEAD TAILS

Time:

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1 cup of plain flour

Salt and white pepper to taste

2 free-range eggs, whisked

4 rock flathead tails,

boned and skinned

2 tablespoons finely sliced chives

2 tablespoons good quality butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

Fresh lemon to taste

Method:

In a bowl, season the flour with salt and freshly ground white pepper. In a separate bowl, whisk egg, then add sliced chives. Meanwhile, heat a heavy-based fry pan to medium heat. Dip flathead pieces in flour, coating evenly and being sure to shake off the excess flour.

Place the floured fish in egg mixture, coat evenly and well. Add butter and olive oil to the pan (the oil stops the butter from browning too quickly), remove fish from egg mix and briefly drain excess egg. Add fish to pan and cook gently, turning only once. Do not allow the fish to brown too much, it should be a yellow golden colour when cooked. Serve on warm plates with lemon and a little extra sea salt. This is excellent with a great green salad. Mashed potatoes are equally delicious, or a ripe tomato salad.