Q&A: Simon Bryant, chef, 52

Two Cooks and a chef’s Simon Bryant talks sharing spoons with Maggie Beer and what his ‘last meal’ would be.

Simon Bryant featured alongside Maggie Beer in The Cook and The Chef. Picture: Keturah de Klerk

Most people know you from ABC TV’s The Cook and the Chef with Maggie Beer. What was that like? I had done fine dining for a few years [as executive chef at Hilton Adelaide] but it’s really not in my DNA. It drives me mental, the uptightness of it. Maggie really grounded me: if that soufflé didn’t come up, no big deal. She and I had real lives and quite often after a day of filming we’d say, “We’re not redoing that, we’ve got to go to work now.” Quite often one of us would put something up and say “that wasn’t quite how I wanted it, but it is what it is”. We were pragmatic about mistakes. Maybe that resonated with people.

You had your critics, though… There was this big hoo-ha about Maggie and I sharing tasting spoons and I was like, “So?” I grew up in a rural area, where a chicken would sit on a bench for five or six hours… Professionally, of course, I have to do things differently. I used to reply, “Happy to have a coffee or a phone call if it offends you that I gave my dog half a duck that I was boning out.”

You’ve talked about growing up with a mum who “grabbed life by the horns” but who struggled with bipolar disorder. How did that affect you? I had a really interesting childhood. I was born in England, then we came to Australia; we bounced back a few times; we lived in Singapore, and ended up in Adelaide. Then my mum took us from our little private school in the eastern suburbs to a hobby farm. We went from that bubble to the real world. I feel really grateful for that – I think it tooled us up for life skills. I became a mechanic because I’m just a petrol-head and a bogan and that’s from being out in the country.

Then you studied economics. So how did you become a chef? I moved to Melbourne to study; I needed a job, I ended up in the kitchen. And it seduced me. It was the first workplace where I thought, “This is like a batshit-crazy pirate ship and I like it”. No romance about grannies baking or whatever. I also used to cook a lot for myself because I didn’t want to eat meat.

Vegetarianism – isn’t that tricky in your industry? I was a hardcore vegan for about 10 years. Now I prefer vegetarian but I’m not rigid about it; if my family comes round I’ll cook meat for them. Dietary choices have become a defining characteristic of people. “I don’t eat carbs” – well, bully for you, but someone’s slaved over a hot stove for six hours to feed you. I believe we’ve lost the ability to be gracious guests.

The eight-day festival Tasting Australia is a big deal in South Australia and this is your third year as creative director. Is that why you often look worried? I always have logistic stuff going on in my head. I’m a constant list creator; it’s probably part of my training. If you see a chef before service they’ve got that focus, and I feel like that 24/7. Plus, whenever I put a menu together I’m never happy. It’s a constant struggle to try and put something on a plate that’s nutritionally sound, economically viable, ethically and environmentally sound. This cooking thing is hard.

What would your last meal be? A coffee. I’ve been around food too much, I’d just take the coffee and run.

Tasting Australia, in and around Adelaide, runs from April 30 to May 7. tastingaustralia.com.au