Love of food and family an idea recipe for Andy Clappis

Andy Clappis’s dad Enzo brought his love of food with him when he immigrated to Australia from Italy as a teenager. Now both father and son are successful restaurateurs.

McLaren Vale chef Andy Clappis and his father Enzo conjure their magic in the kitchen. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Food and family are intertwined for restaurateur Andy Clappis.

The chef and owner of Italian restaurant Our Place @Willunga Hill in McLaren Vale, near Adelaide, has been cooking up traditional pastas, breads and pizzas for more than 15 years.

Despite being “retired”, dad Enzo Clappis, 87, who arrived in Australia from Pula — which was in pre-war Italy and now modern day Croatia — in 1951, is always on hand to help.

The Clappis family’s inspiring journey from teenage migrants to celebrated restaurateurs has found Andy and Enzo a place in the National Australia Day Council’s ad campaign to celebrate Australia Day on Tuesday.

Proud great-grandfather Enzo worked in fruit orchards around Australia before moving to Adelaide to pursue his passion for food with Andy’s Slovenia-born mum Sonia, who passed away at 90-years-old in July. The pair opened several restaurants. “One of the reasons Dad tells me they came to Adelaide was his love of food. In Whyalla (SA) there was no prospect of getting involved in the industry,” he said.

“In Adelaide he started cooking for men in a boarding house and then he got some jobs working in one of the first Italian pizza bars and restaurants before he started his own restaurant in 1966.

“He opened Enzos Restaurant in 1970 and the premier at the time, Don Dunstan, he used to frequent the restaurant which was the first restaurant with outdoor dining, and he struggled to get people to eat outside and (the former premier) used to sit out there under an umbrella in the rain.”

Andy has followed in his father’s footsteps, working in the food industry all over Europe, before coming home to open his own restaurant.

He said his latest venture Our Place @Willunga Hill is more than just a restaurant but a way of sharing his family’s culture and story.

“Where my Dad is from there is a Colosseum in better condition than the one in Rome,” he said.

“It’s a stones throw across the water in Venice. Our dialect is very similar to the Venetians but we also have the Austro-Hungaria influence, a lot of our words and food is similar to theirs. We love horseradish, we ferment our own sauerkraut.”

Andy’s speciality is a sumptuous Italian-style bread with a thick crust that he makes himself from a cross-culture of yeast and a 30-year-old starter.

National Australia Day Council chief executive Karlie Brand said the Story of Australia TV campaign was about celebrating the nation’s diversity and history.

“Andy and his family are such a success story and how they’ve made Australia home,” she said.