My time at Bennelong is something I’ll be forever grateful for. Working so closely with Peter Gilmore at both Quay and Bennelong helped me to become the chef I am today. Peter’s ideas are so innovative and unique and he taught me to think differently and to push the limits of what I thought was possible.
Rob Cockerill also taught me so much about leadership and how to maintain a consistent two-hat standard doing 180 covers a night. His passion and enthusiasm for cooking is something I hope I bring to my team.
I reached a point in my career where I wanted to branch out and do more of my own thing. The idea of writing my own menu and having creative freedom was daunting, but exciting. The Charles is a dream job for a pastry chef as we have the best of both worlds — an à la carte dessert menu as well as the dessert trolley. There are not many places you can experience a dessert trolley in Australia, so being able to breathe life into that really appealed to me.
I love that The Charles is a European brasserie, which opens up an incredible breadth of new recipes and cuisines to explore. The Charles is somewhere I can see myself growing even further. The team is incredibly supportive, and although I’m biased, the venue is one of the most beautiful I’ve come across.
I’ve had classical training throughout my career, which has hugely impacted my approach to pastry. I love pastry because it’s so precise and technical. I love spending weeks working on a single dish, constantly tweaking a recipe until you’ve created something that’s not only beautiful, but where the amount of work and skill is obvious to the person enjoying it.
I’ve always been taught that flavour and texture are just as important as appearance. The entire eating experience is something I think about a lot — how will the dish be remembered and spoken about from the first presentation to the last bite? I’m pretty old school when it comes to the basics. It’s important basic techniques are taught to all young pastry chefs such as piping by hand, tempering chocolate, dough lamination and so on. I think my approach to dessert ties in perfectly with The Charles’ ethos.
Food at The Charles is elegant, refined and beautiful without unnecessary fuss. I bring that knowledge and style of fine dining to The Charles but pull it back to make it less complicated and more suitable to brasserie-style food.
My inspiration for the trolley came from a few different places: my time in London where I worked as an apprentice and would travel around Europe to explore different pâtisseries and bakeries; my own childhood and cookbooks. I wanted to create a trolley with options for every palate at any time of the day.
We eat with our eyes, and you can see the excitement on a guest’s face as the trolley is pushed around the dining room. The trolley gives a feeling of delight and nostalgia, so I want to make beautiful, interesting and eye-catching things.
I set myself the challenge of everything on the trolley having a technical element — even if it looks simple. It can range from tempering chocolate and achieving the perfect thickness of beeswax coating for the canelé to the piping on the tarts, lining pastry or achieving perfectly even layers of the marjolaine by hand. Some of the items are a three-day process, so we always have to be mindful and prepared.
The Russian honey cake is the obvious must-try considering the hype around it. It’s 28 layers of honeycomb sponge and a dulce de leche cream. It’s surprisingly not very sweet, light and dangerously easy to eat. I love the cannoli, which is freshly cooked each morning and piped to order with whipped ricotta.
I also love the selection of chocolates on the trolley. I take a lot of inspiration from my first chef William Curley who’s an incredible chocolatier. William has a huge influence on my chocolates as they’re more refined, adult versions of the classics we all know and love. They bring a lot of happiness and nostalgia.
A lot of thought had to go into the à la carte options so they are just as appealing as the trolley. Each option needs to have a theatrical element whether it’s with liquid nitrogen, flambé or another element of table service.
The trolley has its limitations as items need to hold at room temperature, so the dessert menu is more à la minute with things like a grand soufflé, fresh elements and ice creams churned to order. There are basically no limitations on what can be created between the trolley and the à la carte menu.