Hospitality Magazine February 2012

No.680 February 2012

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foodservice

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accommodation

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beverage

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management

THE MANFREDI MAGIC

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What's driving Stefano Manfredi's success

Hospitality operators put social media to work

Fine Food Queensland 2012 See inside for our special preview of this big industry expo

Get hopping

Wages minefield

Crack open Easter profits

Don't get hit for underpayment

SOCIAL SCENE

PUBLISHER Michelle Graves michelle.graves@reedbusiness.com.au EDITOR

Editor’s Note

Rosemary Ryan Ph: (02) 9422 2880 rosemary.ryan@reedbusiness.com.au JOURNALIST Danielle Bowling Ph: (02) 9422 2667 danielle.bowling@reedbusiness.com.au CONTRIBUTORS Christine Salins Ken Burgin Tony Berry ADVERTISING NATIONAL Rhonnie Merry Ph: (02) 9422 2481 Fax: (02) 9422 2863 rhonnie.merry@reedbusiness.com.au GRAPHIC DESIGNER

say it was a Groundhog Day kind of experience — most were the eternal complaints that punters have about dining out, and the things that really get up their noses, the things that stop them from returning to a restaurant, that ruin their experience and that even might stop them from wanting to spend their hard earned dollars on going out to eat.

There they were. All the long running gripes that niggle at diners — being forced to queue at restaurants that don’t taking bookings, bad

THE headline read “Your say: What’s wrong with Sydney restaurants”. My first reaction to the line on the cover of the highly read weekly foodies section in metro newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald was to get my back up.

“What a beat up,” I mumbled to my colleagues. “A bunch of whingers being given column centimetres to bag our great hardworking, up against it industry.”

But then I started reading the story and the comments from punters and I have to

service, waiters with attitude, not being allowed to drive the pepper grinder, overly noisy spaces, being sat in the worst table right next to the loos, uncomfortable benchstyle seats.

I then thought that perhaps this would make essential reading for restaurants and café operators who really wanted to get an insight into their customers, those essential bums on seats that a business needs plenty of to make a profit in this tight margin game.

Amongst the brickbats there were some bouquets but I think operators would be best to skip the niceties, take a deep breath, and study the criticisms and take them on board as we dive headlong into another year, not as an exercise in self-flagellation

but as a vital insight into your customers’ minds and what really pisses them off. If you see yourself and your restaurant reflected in some of the whinges perhaps it’s time to rectify them, starting with some good tough training for front of house staff.

And perhaps ditch the pepper grinder silliness. *** But on another note...welcome to our first issue of the year. All of us here at Hospitality send our best wishes to you for a successful year ahead. And if any of you happen to heading to Fine Food Queensland next month we’d love you to say hello. We’re on stand A14.

Rosemary Ryan

Ronnie Lawrence Ph: (02) 9422 2741 PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR Laura Panameno Ph: (02) 9422 8772

contents

laura.panameno@reedbusiness.com.au UCTION DIRECTOR PRODU PRODUCTION Troy Stevens

4 News

14 Workplace Hospitality chef 12

What’s ahead for Australia’s pub industry.

The passions that drive chef Stefano Manfredi.

6 Openings 6Latest Openings restaurant arrivals.

19 Imbibe 14 Imbibe Come inside our top

Ph: (02) 9422 8748 SUBSCRIPTIONS Ph: 1300 360 126 ONE YEAR: $132.00 incl GST TWO YEARS: $220.00 incl GST

national wine show.

8 Mystery diner 39 Burgin 16 Hospitality chef to New year’s resolutions

Melbourne's Number 8

8gets Mystery a visit. diner

deliver a successful 2012.

10 Workplace 10 Secret ingredients underpayment.

41 Shelfspace 27 Burgin The latest new products

12 Secret ingredients

on the shelf for the hospitality industry.

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REED BUSINESS INFORMATION PTY LTD SYDNEY HEAD OFFICE Tower 2, 475 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, NSW 2067 Australia Ph: (02) 9422 2999 Fax: (02) 9422 2863

Q&A with Jock Zonfrillo.

media to work.

22 Get hopping Tap into the opportunities Easter can bring.

22 Come fry with me 21 Cool future What’s new in commercial refrigeration?

36 Oils The wonderful world of culinary oils.

ON THE COVER: I

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beverage

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management

THE MANFREDI MAGIC

What's driving Stefano Manfredi's success

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20Cider The social network 19 rules for summer Smart operators put social

No.680 February 2012

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foodservice

MATERIAL The publisher does not accept responsibility for any editorial or advertising material forwarded or held in storage nor will material be automatically returned. Whole or part of this publication cannot be reproduced without prior written approval from Hospitality’s management.

Features

Hospitality operators put social media to work

Fine Food Queensland 2012 See inside for our special preview of this big industry expo

Get hopping

Wages minefield

Crack open Easter profits

Don't get hit for underpayment

SOCIAL SCENE

Gracing the cover of our first issue for the year is a simple but sublime dish of fresh burrata, tomato fillets and artichoke salad) from the menu of a giant of the Australian hospitality industry, Stefano Manfredi.

Currently riding a wave of acclaim for his wonderful new venture Balla Osteria at Sydney’s new look The Star, Manfredi reveals some of the secrets to his long standing success in the Australian foodservice industry.

There’s no question of his passion both for cooking Italian food and also

for preserving Italian culinary traditions in Australia, as well as for the hospitality industry. Anyone who has ever met Manfredi knows of his generosity of spirit and his great sense of what the hospitality industry is all about.

In our profile of Manfredi by Danielle Bowling he talks about his philosophy on food and running restaurants.

Plus he shares one of his signature recipes from the Balla menu — pumpkin and amaretto pudding with anise cream!

hospitality | february 2012

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news

Trends

Cautious road ahead, say pubs In the second of our two part series on the outlook for 2012 for the hospitality industry the Australian Hotel Association’s national head Des Crowe gives his view of the year ahead.

THE Australian pub industry will be taking a cautious approach in 2012 with expectations that flat trading conditions will continue, according to the Australian Hotel Association’s national chief executive Des Crowe.

With looming uncertainty from shaky overseas economies and domestic issues like the carbon tax putting a dampener on business and consumer sentiment here, industry operators will be treading carefully, Crowe told Hospitality.

Crowe said that while the start of the year normally brought optimism the industry was eyeing this year with some trepidation.

“Hoteliers will be taking a more cautious approach with the flat trading conditions of hotels in 2011 likely to continue through 2012,” he said.

“This sentiment is reflected in current sale prices of hotels where market confidence is poor apart from those located in the booming resources regions.

“Consumer confidence has been dampened by ongoing global economic uncertainty and has caused an overall reduction in hotel revenues. This, coupled with the political turmoil of minority government at a federal level, has seen regulatory uncertainty undermine the gaming and beverage sectors while the prospect of additional costs as a result of the carbon tax is also concerning.”

Crowe said the big winners in the hotel industry recently have been those able to capitalise on the mining boom but that only a handful of regions are in a position to benefit from these growth opportunities. “The twospeed economy is never more evident than when comparing the prospects of hotels in mining towns with those in regional tourism-based areas such as North Queensland, where conditions remain depressed and unemployment rates are high,” he said.

Crowe said one of the key focuses for the hotel industry this year would continue to be on food. He predicted the “gastro” pub trend to continue to grow as operators tried to make up for shortfalls in the business by luring more customers with great quality 4

hospitality | february 2012

Left: Pubs like Melbourne’s Terminus Hotel are continuing to raise the bar in hotel food.

Above: The AHA’s Des Crowe.

‘The rise of the ‘gastro pub’ shows the dynamism of the hotel industry in adapting to constantly developing consumer demands.’ food. “The off-premise liquor market is increasingly competitive and the growing market share of the major liquor retailers reduced margins and profitability for other licensees, creating a need to focus on other areas of the business to make up this short-

fall,” Crowe said.

“We continue to see hotels aggressively promoting their food as a pitch to customers, and the rise of the ‘gastro pub’ shows the dynamism of the hotel industry in adapting to constantly developing consumer demands.

“But in addition to the higher end venues, the overall quality of pub meals has been improving for several years and dining continues to be a growth opportunity for many hotels.”

Food regulation is an issue on the Australian Hotel Association’s agenda this year too, said Crowe, with the association having already taken steps to engage with Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) on the development of food allergen guidelines, providing input into the development of the National Food Plan and the review of food safety management, as well as lobbying the ACCC and the government on menu pricing legislation.

Crowe said a big win last year was the about face on the component pricing laws which limited foodservice businesses from being able to slap a percentage surcharge on their menus for public holidays.

“It was very pleasing to see the Federal Government recently agree to exempt menus in cafes, pubs and restaurants from these component pricing guidelines as we had raised this consistently as a concern,” Crowe said.

He said the association would this year continue to work to highlight to government the impact of regulatory measures such as wages, signage and labelling, “inflexible” workplace relations laws, compliance costs, gaming reform, food safety and music licence fees. By Rosemary Ryan hospitalitymagazine.com.au

news

Foodservice

Food trucks rev their engines LA may have made taco trucks famous but now the concept of quality food on wheels is about to roll out to the masses in Sydney.

GOURMET food trucks will soon be hitting the streets of Sydney following the City of Sydney Council’s approval of ten business concepts to take part in its year long trial of the concept.

The council made their selection from 30 applicants who went through a rigorous selection process that included checking that the proposed food truck complied with health and waste management codes as well as a cook-off challenge where food experts critiqued the food and the overall concept.

The ten successful operators range from the Mexican truck Al Carbon which will be taking to the street with soft tacos with beef, pork, lamb and chicken cooked over mesquite and mango-scented charcoal with homemade salsas, to the Veggie Patch which will be offering “paddock to plate” themed dishes including high-end tofu burgers and other vegetarian food as well as fresh juices and custommade ginger beer, to Eat Art Truck that will be offering its customers dishes from former Tetsuya sous chef Stuart McGill. The van will

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Meals on Wheels: The Vegie Truck coming to Sydney streets.

have one side as a canvas for upand-coming street artists.

The City of Sydney council is in the process of locking in sites for the trucks, which could include Belmore Park, Customs House Forecourt and Sydney Park and is hoping sites will be confirmed and trucks ready to roll by early next month. The ten operators will be the only ones with permits to use the confirmed sites, and they will be required to move between locations during the night.

The council is also working on an app where consumers can use a real-time map to find out where the trucks will next be located and

to also view the trucks' menus.

Milenka Osen and Georgie Swift are the brains behind The Veggie Patch truck which will offer breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, and will move across the city visiting parks, the CBD and exhibition openings in Surry Hills, selling vegetarian dishes with a focus on fresh, seasonal produce.

“All our fresh produce is sourced locally, so within NSW and it's vegetarian,” said Osen.

“Everything can be composted, including the packaging, and the van itself is run off vegetable oil…and there will be solar panels on the roof too.”

Labour shortage focus WITH labour shortages continuing to put major pressure on the hospitality industry it’s hoped a new Federal Government labour agreement plan will bring relief.

The hospitality industry has praised the development of the new template Labour Agreement which is hoped will boost employment prospects for the industry with possible changes including the loosening of 457 visa rules.

The proposed template agreement would establish a common set of requirements tailored specifically for tourism and hospitality businesses recruiting skilled overseas workers, and follows industry discussions at last year's Tourism

Employment Roundtable.

The template would cover experienced waiters, chefs, bar attendants, hotel managers and other similar occupations, which Rodger Powell, managing director of Tourism Accommodation Australia, said are seriously struggling to find staff.

“There is a critical shortage of labour,” he said. “The work that’s been done as part of the national long term tourism strategy has identified a current shortage of more than 36,000 jobs “ The Government has released a discussion paper on the agreement asking the industry for its ideas on the plans. It’s open for comment until March 16. Head to tourism.gov.au/labour

in brief Sydney industry exits Two high profile chefs bowed out of the restaurant industry this month with both including tough trading conditions as being part of their reasons for leaving. Industry stalwart Tony Bilson announced he was leaving Number One Wine Bar just months after relaunching with new owners at the helm after his company went into liquidation. Meanwhile, Alex Herbert announced she was closing her acclaimed Surry Hills restaurant Bird Cow Fish after five years to spend more time with her family.

Herbert said there was “no doubt that it was getting tougher to make a living for restaurants in Sydney”. “The economic climate remains uncertain, margins are tight and finding good staff is a challenge,” she said. “These are additional reasons why I've made the difficult decision to retire Bird Cow Fish now, while it's still strong.”

Penalty rates in spotlight With the Fair Work Act and Modern Awards under review penalty rates became a hot issue last month with high profile restaurateur George Calombaris grabbing the spotlight with his views about the effect of penalty rates on the hospitality industry. His comments to a business website sparked some furious debate about the current penalty rate structure that puts major pressure on service industries and particularly the hospitality industry.

Urine-powered restaurant Sustainability guru and restaurateur Joost Bakker will be harnessing peepower at this year's Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, when visitors to his pop-up restaurant will have their urine harvested to help power it for next year. The Greenhouse pop-up restaurant will be powered by mustard seed oil, while diners' urine will be transported to a farm to be injected into the soil as fertiliser to help develop the oil for future Melbourne Food and Wine Festivals.

"We're building a waterless female urinal, and of course waterless male urinals already exist,” Bakker told Hospitality. “The urine will get diverted into a storage tank that will go straight to the farm.”

hospitality | february 2012

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openings

Stokehouse Brisbane The team from the acclaimed Stokehouse in Melbourne’s St Kilda have headed north to open this second operation that trades the beachside for river and city views. The restaurant and bar with its stunning ultra contemporary design and fitout is right on the water at Brisbane’s South Bank precinct on Brisbane River next to the Goodwill Bridge.

Opened: November Head chef: Tony Kelly Owners: Van Haandel Group The food: Stokehouse Brisbane offers an “accessible” Mediterranean menu with simple but elegant dishes with a big focus on the use of premium local Australian produce. Already winning praise has been dishes like the crayfish tortellini, beef carpaccio with horse radish cream, capers and black truffle, organic duck breast with eggplant, cumin, dates and Madeira jus, and The Bombe, a strawberry sorbet, white chocolate parfait and toasted meringue.

Address: Sidon Street, South Bank, Brisbane P: (07) 3031 0333 W: stokehousebrisbane.com.au

Subo

Mama Baba

This first restaurant from the dynamic husband and wife team of former Young Chef of the Year Beau Vincent (ex Tetsuya’s, Bistro Guillaume) and Suzie is wowing the food loving population of Newcastle with its menu focused on fresh local ingredients served with just enough of the creative flair that Vincent has become known for.

The newest offering from George Calombaris’ Made Establishment Mama Baba is a reflection of the high profile chef’s heritage with its menu of Italian Greco food wrapped up in a “funky modern” space “with a whole lot of soul”.

Opened: December Owners: Beau and Suzie Vincent Head chef: Beau Vincent The food: With a menu firmly dictated by the seasons with Vincent’s philosophy of creating food that is always creative, interesting and “most importantly” delicious, quickly emerging favourites on the list are his confit chicken wings with hay veloute and braised beef rib wtih smoked paprika mayonnaise.

Address: 551D Hunter St, Newcastle P: 02 4023 4048 W: subo.com.au 6

hospitality | february 2012

Opened: January Head chef: Dominic Pipicelli.

Owners: Made Establishment Seats: 120 guests with room for an additional 20 to 30 at the bar.

The food: The focus at Mama Baba is on dishes that will make you think fondly of your grandmother, says Calombaris, combined with a contemporary approach when it comes to flavours and techniques. Pasta takes centre stage at Mama Baba with diners getting a view of working artisans crafting pasta on entry. Expected to become fast favourites are dishes like pastitsio or the spaghetti carbonara with a difference.

Address: 21 Daly St, South Yarra, Melbourne P: 03 9677 9677 W: mamababa.com.au hospitalitymagazine.com.au

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review

Number 8 Restaurant & Winebar While many other restaurants in the dining portfolio of Melbourne’s Crown have come and gone, the long time restaurant operation Number 8 has been a consistent performer. Our diner heads to this quiet achiever where he finds the core of its longevity — great food.

mysterydiner IT TAKES real steel to be a stayer in this fickle industry and even more grit to hold a place at Melbourne’s culinary hotspot — Crown. However, Number 8 has been a long time fixture, and with good reason. It serves excellent food, has a wine list that covers all manner of things from reasonable to frightening and a floor team that need a medal for the capacity to deal with the variety of customers on display just on the night the beloved and I graced the room — from the young man with no idea of personal space, moving places to be on the banquette seating in order to get cosy with his date and, subsequently and awkwardly, with the man now on his right; to the family group with two under fives, who thought fine dining was a great idea after 9.30pm with kids, through to the nice table of folk from the US of A. It was a people watchers’ delight and bought a wry smile to our erstwhile attendant, who properly laid the linen napkins on our laps before handing out menus. Some elegance among the lunacy.

The décor at Number 8 has held up well over the years with a design and fit out that has resisted dating by not being too fashionable to start with. My one issue with the interior was that the tables are a bit close, bistro kind of close, but with restaurant food and pricing.

The wine list is beyond comprehensive and arrives on an iPad in a leather bound cover and holds 888 of some of the world’s finest drops from the affordable to the unbelievable Heidsieck & Co Monopole 1907 Gout Americain, raised in 1998 from the hold of a Swedish ship that was sunk by a German submarine in 1916. Perhaps a big win on the tables will see a bottle of that come my way.

You tap on the iPad screen for more info about the wine — interactive, informative and a good use of technology. We wander through this list and order a couple of glasses of white to go with the warm bread with beetroot relish and roast pumpkin puree that have been placed on the table.

Number 8 offers an excellent version of ‘tasting plate’ entrée with four tastes for $38 and each additional one for $9. This enabled us to try a number of entrees in miniature and it was terrific.

We chose the Scallops, Prawns, Tartlet, Pork Belly and Oysters. We are advised that the oysters are spawning at this time of year and, while fine to eat, will be a bit creamier than usual. Excellent information, proffered without prompting and accurate. They were the creamiest oysters I’ve tried.

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hospitality | february 2012

Two bronzed scallops, translucent in the centre, came with a rich white asparagus puree, two fat prawns were enhanced with the fresh zing of lemon and salty pancetta, a couple of cubes of pork belly had a dressing of watercress and hazelnuts and the tartlet had a filling of confit tomato and Persian feta. What a diverse plate of textures and flavours. Scallops and prawns were the standouts, but the others held up well.

We take a more traditional approach to mains with fish ($44) for the bride and steak ($46) for me. The fish was a lovely thick fillet of Red Emperor, paired with a huge, seared Queensland prawn. Layered from the bottom in the centre of the plate was a mango and lime vinaigrette followed by a parsley and shallot salad then fish and prawn. Fish is a focus of the restaurant and have their own page on the menu and this was perfectly cooked and artfully delivered. A dry aged sirloin, cooked rare as desired, came with simple accoutrements of red wine jus and a splodge of onion compote. We added some roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary and some vegie sides, but the steak was the hero, wonderfully tender and not too huge at 280g with great texture and flavour. The serves here are generous without being overwhelming. A couple more glasses from the iPad list kept us lubricated.

A dessert to share was our best option with a Strawberry Panna Cotta ($16.50) presented atop a thickish sable biscuit with a squiggle of berry puree linking this to a crème fraiche sorbet. While the Panna Cotta was fabulous, the sorbet lacked a little flavour. I chose a luscious Pedro Ximenez

sherry to provide a liquid dessert balance to finish what had been a really lovely meal.

The food at Number 8 was great and that is the core reason behind its longevity in a difficult and competitive market with a tricky crowd. To my eye, the floor could have little more cohesion, but that could have been a legacy of a packed restaurant and a slightly difficult crowd. They use quality ingredients and cook them well with reasonable (higher end) prices and have a wine list that Gourmet Traveller and Wine Spectator rave about — with good reason. So head on in to the Crown for a fine night out at Number 8, don’t forget to book — and beware of the maddening crowd.

The details Number 8 Restaurant & Winebar Crown, 8 Whiteman Street, Southbank, Melbourne P: (03) 9292 7899 W: number8atcrown.com.au Head chef: Joe Hlusko Open: For lunch and dinner seven days a week.

The verdict: The great food at Number 8 is at the heart of its ability to become such a stalwart of the Crown line up in a very competitive market.

Quality ingredients, cooked well with reasonable (higher end) prices and a wine list that critics continue to rave about.

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Great food deserves great tableware.

Contact WWRD Customer Service on 1300 852 022 to enquire about our Royal Doulton Commercialware distributors. Pattern featured: Loop.

workplace

Ignorance no defence with wages payment Don’t get caught out and risk getting hit by significant penalties by inadvertently underpaying employees, warns Restaurant and Catering Australia’s workplace relations team.

THE LAW states that it is an employer’s responsibility to ensure the payment of correct wages at all times. As such, employers operating under the Fair Work Act 2009 will need to be confident they are correctly adhering to the current Modern Award wage regime, especially during the complex ‘transitional phasing’ period.

Even where there has been the intention to pay employees correctly, inadvertent underpayments will expose employers to claims of back pay and possibly even large fines as highlighted by the recent Hungry Jacks prosecution.

Hungry Jacks — $104,946 back pay, $46,200 in fines This much publicised case saw a Victorian Hungry Jacks franchisee prosecuted by the Fair Work Ombudsman in the Federal Magistrates Court for the inadvertent underpayment of a large number of employees. Over a four year period 180 employees, mostly juniors, had not been classified correctly under their award. The franchisee was unaware the award regulating employment conditions had been varied and the company continued to pay employees on the existing classification structure. This also resulted in some 39 employees being overpaid during the same period totaling some $71,756.53. Interestingly the franchisee had relied on Hungry Jacks’ head office for this wage information.

In making back pay and penalty orders, Federal Magistrate Harnett acknowledged the blind compliance but indicated that that the information relied upon was not accurate and led to errors on the calculation of wages which were the franchisees’ responsibility. This also included the nonpayment of the laundry allowance as required in the award to some employees.

The franchisee was ordered to back pay 108 employees with 29 employees owed more than $1000, and one over $8000.

The Federal Magistrate also ordered the franchisee to pay a $46,200 penalty for the breaches, however this was 20 per cent of the maximum available of $231,000. The federal magistrate took into account that the company had no prior convictions for similar conduct, had undertaken to voluntarily rectify all underpayments, and taken action to prevent any further breaches and this included the employment of a dedicated payroll employee.

The federal magistrate noted the com10

hospitality | february 2012

Get wage rates right or risk a “whopper” of a fine.

pany is a medium sized employer and employs some 70 employees on a part-time or casual basis, however, she also commented that the company “...was unsophisticated in industrial relations”.

The federal magistrate accepted the Fair Work Ombudsman’s submission that general deterrence was an important factor in setting the penalty, stating; “There is a need to send a message to the community at large, and employers particularly, that the correct entitlements for employees must be paid and that steps must be taken by employers of all sizes to ascertain and comply with minimum entitlements.”

The cost of non-compliance This case demonstrates the large financial impacts that can be caused by incorrect adherence to award wages and conditions.

However, these inadvertent errors may also serve to highlight the existence of confusion surrounding the current legislation

‘Despite inadvertent mistakes, an employer’s failure to ensure the payment of correct wages... may still expose them to prosecution.’

and the modern award system.

The cost of retrospective back pay combined with penalties provides a compelling reason to get it right from the outset. Business owners and managers should regularly review the payroll system to ensure compliance and companies need to ensure they have systems in place to ensure they receive regular updates on changes to awards and other employment conditions such as those provided by industry associations such as Restaurant and Catering Australia.

Despite inadvertent mistakes, an employer’s failure to ensure the payment of correct wages at all times may still expose them to prosecution and substantial fines.

For more information you can contact the Restaurant & Catering Australia workplace relations team on 1300 722 878 or visit restaurantcater.asn.au hospitalitymagazine.com.au

newsextra

secretingredients Chef Jock Zonfrillo is the man behind some exciting new developments at South Australia’s Magill Estate restaurant, last year named Restaurant of the Year at the Adelaide Food Awards. We managed to steal him away from his busy relaunch schedule to grill him about what he’s planning.

Can you give us a brief outline of your career so far?

In brief, “Old Skool” apprenticeship at the Turnberry Hotel in Scotland followed by years of Michelin star restaurants including Simon Radley, David Cavalier, Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White. In Australia I was lucky enough to be mentored by Dietmar Sawyere who is to this day a great friend and inspiration.

You took over at Penfold’s Magill Estate restaurant just over a year ago. What was your aim back then, your vision for the restaurant?

The short term aim of the restaurant was to put it back on the map by focussing on what an Australian Restaurant should be. Penfolds is an iconic Australian product and the restaurant I believe should reflect that. The long term plan for the restaurant is to create an Australian dining experience which will be remembered by our guests. We are working with a number of Aboriginal communities who gather ingredients for our kitchen, we are learning every day, the knowledge that we have gained from them is incredible. There is a huge gap, I believe, between them and us however, through the restaurant, we are closing that gap and my hope is that the collaborations we are creating will spread over time to allow these ingredients to become more widely used and the knowledge of these people respected.

What sort of changes have you made to the restaurant’s menu and what plans have you got for the future?

There were a lot of imported products in the kitchen when I arrived, from French mushrooms and truffles, to oils and vinegars.

They’ve all gone and we instead seek the best from within Australia. Our plan is to define an Australian 12

hospitality | february 2012

cuisine rather than accept that this loose term ‘Modern Australian’ is Australian cuisine.

The restaurant has closed for some major renovations. Can you tell us what you are up to?

I have been working very closely with Pascale Gomes McNabb on the interior design of the new restaurant, which is very exciting. I chose Pascale simply because she got my vision straight away and is open to working together through all aspects of the restaurant. I have also been working with the Jam Factory here in Adelaide so our customers can expect a real Australian experience from the chair you sit on to the plate you eat from.

What inspires you? How do you come up with ideas for your menus?

When I came to Magill I made a decision not to repeat any dishes I had created in the past. While this made life somewhat harder in the beginning it has allowed us to make excellent use of the new ingredients we have been learning about.

Inspiration and ideas come as a direct result of the people I work with.

What’s your favourite dish on your menu?

Coorong Mullet cooked over vine wood with Tasmanian truffle accompanied by a glass of Penfolds Cellar Reserve Pinot Noir.

What’s your favourite ingredient that you’re working with at the moment?

Gubinge. We get this from the Nyul Nyul people in the Kimberley. An incredible product which has the highest content of Vitamin C known to man.

Apart from your own, what’s your favourite restaurant to head to?

Here in Adelaide it’s Vincenzo’s Cucina Vera. Vince and Lara have

Jock Zonfrillo’s Blue Swimmer Crab with Native Pepper and Waterlilly Serves four 4 large blue swimmer crabs, cooked rapidly in boiling sea water for two minutes only.

2 shallots, brunoise 1 bunch native pepper, washed and picked 4 tspn light soy 4 tspn ketchap manis 1 bunch native lemongrass (not Thai lemongrass), sliced finely 1 bunch coriander, chopped 2 stalks of waterlilly washed, sliced and salted 8 small fried onion rings for garnish Firstly pick all of the crab meat and reserve the head part of the shell to serve in. In a pan sweat off with no colour the shallots, lemongrass and pepper, when translucent add the soy, ketchup manis and stock, simmer till reduced by two thirds.

When reduced, add the waterlilly, crab and coriander and simmer for one minute. Serve in the crab shell adding the onion rings and a little extra coriander to garnish.

created an excellent restaurant which respects their roots. That’s important. After all a tree without roots is just a piece of wood.

What’s your pick of the menu there?

Quite literally anything.

What’s been your most memorable food experience?

Noma in 2011 — an amazing experience from start to finish.

What’s the most indispensable piece of equipment in your kitchens?

Shannon Fleming, my right hand man.

What do you think will be the next big foodservice trend?

I’m not sure but I hope it’s not processed.

What do you see as the biggest challenge ahead for restaurants? For chefs?

It’s an age old question which I’ll

answer the same as I have been for two decades — staff. As chefs we must invest in the next generation of cooks.

What do you think is the key to keeping your staff motivated?

Communication. Without it, quite simply, the wheels fall off.

You’ve just been handed $2m. How would you spend it on your business?

A surplus $2m? I’d create some kind of scholarship school attached to the restaurant where we could create an old fashioned apprenticeship, where we could control the training and have the ability to provide accreditation at the end of our training program.

What would be on the menu at your last supper?

Fish cooked over an open fire.

If you weren’t a chef you’d be… …a farmer. hospitalitymagazine.com.au

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A chef and his food: (Clockwise from top left) Stefano Manfredi at Balla with head chef Gabriele Taddeucci,; agnoletti filled with wild greens; tiramisu; fresh burrata, tomato fillets, and artichoke salad.

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hospitality | february 2012

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

hospitalitychef

The Manfredi manifesto Stefano Manfredi is one of the stalwarts of the Australian restaurant industry but is still wowing diners with his innovation and flair and innate sense of hospitality. He spoke to Danielle Bowling.

U

nderstanding and respect for the culture behind the food you’re cooking is an essential ingredient in the development of any young chef, says Stefano Manfredi, one of the forefathers of Italian cuisine in Australia.

Manfredi is passionate about Italy, especially Milan, the city close to where his grandmother once ran a restaurant. Manfredi grew up living and breathing Italian food until he himself started working in restaurants in Australia (with no formal training) at the age of 23, an age when many Australian chefs today have already completed their apprenticeship.

“Young chefs here in Australia decide they want to be a chef at 15, 16, 17 and they don’t have that background in their formative years, so they have to then develop it and they have to develop their philosophy, their approach, otherwise – and you see this around a lot these days – you’ll just get a mish-mash or grab-bag of recipes or dishes from where these young chefs have worked,” he says.

“If you look at a menu in any restaurant you go to, it has to tell a story. Basically it’s the story or the mission statement of the restaurant and it’s telling you where the chef or the restaurant is going to take you.

If you have salt and pepper squid and then spaghetti all ragu, well, what are you saying? There has to be some sort of factor that’s tying all your dishes together.”

All of Manfredi’s time, energy and love goes into his two restaurants: Manfredi at Bells, located at Bells at Killcare Boutique Hotel, Restaurant and Spa, north of Sydney, and Balla, a Milanese restaurant which opened in Sydney’s The Star in September last year. And what’s the all important story at these venues? One word: Italy.

“The overarching cultural imperative is Italian, from the region of Lombardy,” Manfredi says. “That’s where I come from but it doesn’t mean that I don’t do things from other regions of Italy because I will.

It’s Italian. Bells and Balla, it’s Italian food, that’s all I know how to do. I’m not going hospitalitymagazine.com.au

Stefano’s picks

Manfredi in his garden at Killcare.

to do a curry or something that’s outside of my cultural point of view.”

While Balla and Bells are both devoutly Italian, the dining experiences offered at each are quite varied. “Restaurants are site specific, otherwise they’re called chains,” Manfredi says.

At Bells, the tables are donned with tablecloths and the food is more complex and the pace more relaxed, with 100 covers being considered a busy night. At Balla, which formed part of Star City’s transformation last year into The Star and which saw the opening of a number of exciting restaurants, there is a much more casual atmosphere, despite how busy it is, with the venue pumping out more than 300 covers on a Saturday night just nine weeks after opening.

Manfredi has carried his love for Italian food with him throughout his entire career, from being a young Italian boy who loved to eat kidneys, livers and tripe to the eager young man who decided to leave his diploma of education behind and pursue his love for cooking at You and Me in King

FAVOURITE RESTAURANT? Not really a restaurant as such but a wine bar, Giorgio di Maria’s 121BC has really spearheaded the new Italian wine movement in Sydney. It serves casual plates of delicious food around a large communal table to accompany the excellent Italian wines by the glass. On offer are conventional as well as many natural, organic and biodynamic wines, as well as some of the new-wave amphora-fermented and aged styles.

FAVOURITE PLACE TO SHOP FOR FOOD AND INGREDIENTS? Apart from going to visit some of our Italian importers, Pino’s Dolcevita is perhaps my favourite food stop. Primarily Pino and his wife Pia, along with their two sons, make the best salumi I’ve had in Sydney. There is also fantastic meat and sausages. You can browse the shelves for the best imported extra virgin olive oils, pasta, vinegar and flours. Have a seat at the bar and enjoy a panino and a coffee to make the day complete.

FAVOURITE MEAL EXPERIENCE? It’s been a busy year and set meal times have been at best a case of grabbing a bite on the run. But the most pleasurable have been catching up for dinner with my daughter as well as the occasional staff meal at Bells and a few after-service dishes and a glass or two of wine with friends at Balla.

FAVOURITE FOOD-RELATED BOOK? Slow Food Revolution. Carlo Petrini in conversation with Gigi Padovani (Rizzoli 2005).

hospitality | february 2012

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hospitalitychef

‘I’m sure chefs don’t go out and open up restaurants because they think they’re going to make a lot of money, otherwise they’re silly.’

Street Sydney with chef Jenny Ferguson. He then moved on to open his own venue in Ultimo, The Restaurant, in 1983 with his mother, and later Belmondo, which Manfredi operated until 2002.

Over the years, Manfredi has seen the Australian culinary scene grow and change — some changes for the good, and some that make life as a restaurateur more difficult. The GST, labour costs, the introduction of the fringe benefit tax, which Manfredi says saw a lot of corporate dining go in-house, and also something he calls the “democratisation of eating out” — where Sydneysiders have become so spoilt for choice that many have lost their respect for the restaurant industry by not showing up for bookings — all of these things have made one thing very clear, Mandredi says. That you can’t be a successful restaurateur if you’re not in love with what you’re doing.

“It’s love for the job,” he says. “ I’m sure chefs don’t go out and open

up restaurants because they think they’re going to make a lot of money, otherwise they’re silly … If you look at a lot of very successful chefs, they have one or two or three restaurants, but those are just the shopfronts for their other activities.

They’re necessary but they’re not the primary source of income. The primary source of income is other things like appearances, books, cooking classes, products. “We developed our business (Manfredi Enterprises) many, many years ago so we could diversify,” he explains.

“Our company is into coffee, ceramics, books – other revenue streams – and we have a consultancy business as well so we do design, implementation and also the running of restaurants.”

Manfredi’s latest labour of love, Balla, is a combination of traditional Italian cuisine and modern day technologies. The wine list, for example, can be perused on an iPad which gives the diner a more inform-

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hospitality | february 2012

Stefano Manfredi at the wood-fired grill at Balla.

ative, user-friendly way to make their selection. The iPad contains lists of wines categorised by what’s available by the glass, whether it’s red or white and also by the grape variety, giving extra information on where in Italy the wine is from, whether it’s been produced conventionally, organically or biodynamically and a general description of the drop.

Manfredi, who manages four twitter accounts himself, is obviously not afraid of technology and does his best to keep up with the times, but is at the same time committed to sticking to the traditions of his background, labelling the menu at Balla as osteria Milanese.

“If you try and think of traditional Italian dishes you’ll maybe come up with 30 or so and you’ll probably include in that Spaghetti Bolognese which actually isn’t an Italian dish,” says Manfredi. “There’s no such thing in Italy. If we’re going to do something like that, we’ll do it properly. It’ll be tagliatelle with egg, and you’ll do a Ragu a la Bolognese. And when people actually taste it, it’s like they’ve tasted it for the first time.”

Manfredi is making an effort at Balla to teach Sydney diners about Italian cooking traditions, and while they might be traditions, many of them are unheard of, or at least uncommon in many of today’s Italian eateries. Take for example Balla’s grill, where Manfredi burns iron

bark wood to prepare fish, quail, tbones, vegetables and whole calamari.

“We will do a whole grilled fish with the head on and serve it with a piece of lemon and some salsa verde,” says Manfredi. “There aren’t a lot of Italian restaurants who will do that. But people love it. It’s the best way of eating fish.

“There’s a whole lot of research that we do into obscure traditional dishes, like for example we do a sformato di zucca which is a pumpkin mould as a dessert. And it’s one of those dishes that really divides people. Some people really love it and some people really don’t like it. But it’s nothing different to an American pumpkin pie, in terms of using pumpkin for a dessert. We do things like cecina which is a chickpea flan — very, very thin and crispy, creamy in the middle, and we serve it with shaved pecorino. It’s an anti-pasto and people have it to start with and they eat it with their hands like people have always been doing,” he says.

In today’s day in age, where chefs have acquired somewhat of a celebrity status, and with his very hectic schedule, Manfredi says having a well trained, organised and talented team behind him is essential. While he has a very hands on role at both of his venues, he’s not so much cooking as he is running the pass or working on the floor, talking to his diners. hospitalitymagazine.com.au

hospitalitychef

Stefano Manfredi’s pumpkin and amaretto pudding with anise cream For the anise cream: 250g double cream (35 per cent fat) 750ml milk 20g anise seed 1 cup caster sugar 12 free-range egg yolks Place cream, milk, anise seed and one cup of sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, then remove from heat.

Meanwhile beat egg yolks with remaining sugar in a bowl until thick and pale. Pour in hot milk mixture and whisk to combine.

Cook in a double boiler, stirring, until thick. Strain and cool in the fridge. Makes about 1.5 litres and can also be used as custard.

For the pudding: (I’ve used a doughnut-shaped mould but other moulds will do just as well.)

300g Queensland Blue pumpkin, flesh cut into slices 500ml milk 1ml of amaretto liqueur 1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise, seeds scraped 100g sugar 2 eggs, beaten 1 string soft eating liquorice, cut into 1cm long rounds Simmer the pumpkin till soft in the milk with sugar and vanilla bean (and the scraped seeds). Add the amaretto and the eggs and whisk well. Remove vanilla bean and push pumpkin with all its liquid through a fine sieve. Put into moulds and cook in a water bath in a preheated 120C oven for 50 minutes. Cool and unmould onto serving plates. Serve with anise cream and a slice of liquorice as per photo.

Hollandaise Sauce tastes best made with Real Egg Yolk

Makes 12-15 depending on size of mould.

“These days, chefs don’t have to be stuck in a kitchen. It’s all about putting together a team.

You can’t operate without a really good team and a good chef will be able to muster a really good team to be able to cook the chef’s menu. That’s the trick to having multiple operations, having very, very good chefs who can run your kitchen.”

And this philosophy extends to front of house as well, Manfredi says. Good wait staff is more than just a smile and a decent knowledge of the menu. They need an intimate understanding of the philosophy behind the restaurant, the design, the décor and even the whereabouts of the owner or face of the business.

“We actually have a very thick manual for our waiters,” Manfredi says. “Waiting isn’t just taking food to a table. When you get a good waiter it’s as involved as a good sommelier or chef. It’s a career and a craft.

“There are important things like making sure that you’re keeping hospitalitymagazine.com.au

That’s why we use REAL Egg Yolks to make KNORR Garde d’Or Hollandaise Sauce.

Manfredi’s latest venture Balla Osteria at The Star.

your eye on your group of tables; not as some sort of metaphysical thing of keeping your eye on someone, but literally keeping your eye on them, because if you’re in a restaurant and you want attention, you’ll turn around and what’s the worst thing? It’s when you can’t catch someone’s eye. There’s a lot of that in Sydney.”

Experience and character are

what Manfredi looks for when hiring floor staff, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to simply making people happy. “I think service is probably more important than food,” he says.

“You can have okay food and really fantastic service but you can’t have really fantastic food and really poor service. You can’t. That’s the killer. People just won’t come back.” hospitality | february 2012

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imbibe

Wine on show Hospitality’s wine writer Christine Salins goes behind the scenes at one of Australia’s top wine shows with judges chairman Tom Carson.

"W

ine shows are not about the past, they're about the future," says Tom Carson, chairman of the National Wine Show, the pinnacle of Australia's show judging system. Sitting before him is a heavily oaked Chardonnay that sticks out like a sore thumb in a line-up of elegant Chardonnays being judged. “It’s like going back 20 years,” says Carson, dismissing the rogue Chardonnay.

Senior winemaker for Yabby Lake Carson is acutely aware that shows must respond to winemaking trends. “The most dynamic edgy wines are coming from cool climates at the moment and that's what the wine show system is responding to,” he says. “We're looking for wines that are more vibrant and full of character, balanced and pristine, with great clarity. We don't want wines that are jammy or porty, with high levels of oak and high tannins. They're dinosaurs.”

Carson is making these comments in a room full of industry folk led by Karen Macalister, manager of wine education at McWilliam's Wine Academy. The academy has invited people from the wine trade (including yours truly) to experience the judging process for themselves, so they can better understand the system.

While the show system is often criticised for everything from a perceived bias towards particular styles to not representing the best of Australian winemaking — many wineries, for whatever reason, choose not to enter — it's a tightly run system judged by some of the most experienced palates in the business.

About 50 wine shows are held around Australia each year including regional, capital city and national shows, as well as specially-themed shows such as the International Cool Climate Wine Show.

The National Wine Show began in Canberra in 1975. Run by the Royal National Capital Agricultural Society, it represents the final round on the annual judging circuit. Wines are only entitled to enter the premium, premium gold and single vineyard classes if they’ve previously been awarded a medal at a capital city or approved regional show.

During the national show judging late last year, the McWilliam's Wine Academy staged a simulated tasting of two classes that had already been judged, so industry folk could compare their assessments with the scores awarded. The wines are judged on a 20 point system with three points for colour, seven for bouquet and 10 for palate.

The classes we are given to judge are the 2010 Shiraz class and a Chardonnay class spanning vintages from 2007 to 2009. Each has already been assessed by the judges and associate judges hovering around the thousands of wines lined up on tables in the hall below. Eventually we'll get to see how our own scores compare with theirs, but first we are given about half an hour to do a blind-tasthospitalitymagazine.com.au

Judges chairman and Yabby Creek winemaker Tom Carson.

ing of 15 wines.

The timing is generous, for as Carson points out, in the real situation, the initial judging is done quite quickly, to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Quickly dismissing a Shiraz for being “porty, desiccated raisin fruit...I'm not interested”, he looks for the best wines first. “I would rather spend more time on the good ones,” he says.

In the end, there's a fair bit of variation among the scores awarded by we amateurs, which prompts a discussion probably not unlike that conducted by the judges in the real situation - although their evaluations come from a more educated base.

In the real situation, all wines that are contenders for a gold medal (18.5 points and over) are called back for a new tasting.

If agreement can't be reached, Carson comes in with his chairman's hat — and fresh palate.

Carson stresses it’s a "technical environment".

“Winemakers are critical [to the process] because they have the technical basis for judging. But with too many winemakers, it can get too technical. Too many sommeliers and they run around excitedly.”

In order to keep pace with the times, wine shows are seeking out "dynamic young people" as judges, not just winemakers but wine writers and enthusiasts with experienced palates. “One third of the judging panel [at the National Show] this year is female — you wouldn't have seen that ten years ago.” says Carson. “We have two international judges and it's good to have their perspective.”

Lest anyone doubt the rigour of the judging process, Carson says it is a job that it taken very seriously. “"It's not about what you like; it's about quality. First and foremost, the wine has to be technically correct and then beyond that it has to be edgy, it has to have character and personality, and it has to have heart and soul.”

Real Gravy is made with Real Roux That’s why we use REAL Roux to make KNORR Rich Brown Gravy.

hospitality | february 2012

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socialmedia

The social scene Whether you love it or hate it social media is here to stay and clever hospitality operators are learning how to put it to good use. Danielle Bowling got some tips from businesses using it to their advantage.

T

he old 'customer is always right' mantra was thrown out the window recently, when leading Sydney chef and restaurateur Michael Moore from The Summit restaurant turned to Twitter to vent his frustration.

Tired of 'no show diners' who don’t

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hospitality | february 2012

bother cancelling their bookings when they can no longer honour the commitment, Moore let lose on the social media site.

“I sent the first tweet out of frustration and then it just snowballed from there,” he told Hospitality. Moore continued the process of naming and shaming people

who don't turn up to their bookings, posting out the details to his 877 followers, in tweets like “Katia Zeynoun 5 pax no show lunch. Merry Christmas” and “Edward Myint 2 pax Kim Tran 3 pax no show!!”.

Moore received huge attention for his comments, with social media sites buzzing hospitalitymagazine.com.au

socialmedia

‘We're living in a very different world and my idea of [social media] is to use that communication to also have a voice coming back to the consumer.’ with talk of no show diners for the next few weeks.

The hashtag #noshowshame was even created to collate comments from both Moore's supporters and critics.

Moore insists Twitter was the cheapest, easiest and most direct medium to air his frustrations, and says social media has turned the restaurant industry on its head, making every diner a critic, and every restaurateur a potential target.

“The biggest impact that [social media’s] had is that restaurateurs or service providers are judged on the spot and that judgment can go out to many thousands of people very quickly, so we can serve an entree in the restaurant and before the main course has hit the table someone can take a photo of it and blog out their opinion to thousands of people,” Moore says.

“We're living in a very different world and my idea of [social media] is to use that communication to also have a voice coming back to the consumer. As a service provider, there's this terrible situation where people think the more they pay someone for providing a service, the worse they can treat them and the less respect they need to show them ... That's what #noshowshame is all about. It's saying 'respect us, we're human beings that are working hard. hospitalitymagazine.com.au

Top tips for social media success Here are some handy bits of advice from three of the country’s top chef/restaurateurs on how to make a name for yourself (and your business) in the world of social media.

• Be consistent. Try to post on your social media sites at least once a day • Speak as an individual, not as a brand or a business. Let your personality shine.

• Be aware that what you say can be broadcast to countless people. But at the same time, don’t be afraid to be controversial.

• Follow people that are interested in you, and that you are interested in. There needs to be a common interest.

• Keep an eye on your competition.

• Read and learn about social media before you dive in.

Salsa tastes best made with Sun Ripened Tomatoes That’s why we put 24 Sun Ripened Tomatoes into every bottle of KNORR Mexicasa Mild Chunky Salsa.

“We're running quality businesses and spending a lot of time and effort and money in providing you with an environment to enjoy yourself. Please don't abuse that.”

GETTING SOCIAL Craig Macindoe from MuMu Grill in Crows Nest was one of the industry's early adopters of social media, dipping his toe in the Twitter and Facebook waters about three years ago. MuMu is also on Foursquare, a location-based website for mobile devices where users can "check-in" at a venue by selecting it from a list that the application locates as being nearby. hospitality | february 2012

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socialmedia

Macindoe uses Facebook and Twitter to engage with MuMu's diners and other foodies in general, by posting pictures of dishes, new ingredients in the kitchen or information on the next cooking class that MuMu will host.

This keeps the restaurant front of mind not only for the diners, but for the media as well, Macindoe says.

“There's a strategy behind it in that you have some [Twitter] streams where you're following people from the media. I have a stream of media people like [media personalities] Simon Thomsen and Simon Marnie, and if you watch that and occasionally comment on things that they're talking about then you come into their consciousness.

“And then we'll put stuff up that's happening in the restaurant, so they may follow you for a little while.

There are a lot of people in the media who just watch Twitter. So when we get new organic meat we'll put it up, like when we get whole organic lambs coming in or whole organic wagyu, the media will follow it. At the moment we're doing a new tapas class, so most of my tweets are photos of things that we've done for the class.”

Macindoe says restaurateurs need to be active on social media these days or run the risk of being left behind by information-hungry diners who want to engage with the face behind the business.

“My first bit of advice is just to get involved,” he says. “You'll see what other people are doing and that'll give you great ideas, so you can have a look at your competition, which is number one. The second thing is to read a bit about it so you can understand what you're actually trying to do, and the third thing is that you have to remember that everything you say is broadcast, so if you're going to tweet on behalf of your business, make sure it's you that's doing it, not some 15 year old or some person you've [given the job to] because you don't understand social media."

MANAGING YOUR SOCIAL LIFE While Macindoe is a firm believer that the restaurateur should manage his or her business' social media presence, Martin Boetz, who owns the Asian-inspired Longrain restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne, has a third party to manage each venue's Facebook page.

“We need to have something writ22

hospitality | february 2012

‘You need to be computer savvy, you need to be business minded, you need to be creative, you need to be able to public speak. And you need to, obviously, be a good chef.’ ten on the page every day, whether it's about dishes, or it's pictures or things like that,” Boetz says. “It needs to be updated constantly. I follow a few people and I'm surprised at how much time they actually put into doing it.”

Longrain is about to launch its own Twitter account and, while Boetz himself has a personal account, he's surprised at the 200-odd followers he has considering the little time he puts into it.

“I very rarely put anything on there,” he says. “I only started about two or three months ago. In the first 24 hours I had about 40 followers. If I put more stuff on there I think I'd have more followers.”

Longrain uses its Facebook presence to tell the public about what's going on in the business, like where it gets its produce from, any exciting news or interesting dishes on the menu. Like Macindoe, Boetz agrees that the public, especially his Twitter followers, want information from the face of the business, not PR spin from someone representing the brand.

“People want to know a bit more about the actual person they're reading about all the time and they might feel that they're getting a little bit more personal time with whoever that person is,” Boetz says.

“I think people are looking for more information all the time and they like to know a little bit more about the people that they're going to give their money to.”

Boetz says chefs today need to understand that their job description extends way beyond the confines of the kitchen. “To become a good chef today, it's not like. ‘Oh I don't know what else to do, I'll become a chef’, because you need to be computer savvy, you need to be business minded, you need to be creative, you need to be able to public speak, and you need to obviously be a good cook.” hospitalitymagazine.com.au

Crack open some

Easter goodies Easter can be a challenging time for hospitality businesses but smart operators are tapping into the time when their customers are in an extra indulgent mood, writes Rosemary Ryan.

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

T

here's no denying that for many people today Easter has become synonymous with indulgence, a time when you can get together with family and friends for plenty of eating and drinking.

For the hospitality industry it means an opportunity to attract excited consumers who feel they have extra permission to let down their culinary guard, fling of any lingering new year resolutions, and enjoy some no guilt eating.

Hey, we all know it’s the only time of year when you can eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner with abandon if you so please..

From restaurants and cafes to some of our major hotels, chefs and restaurateurs are underway with plans to make the most of

Easter with special menus and events that will delight their customers from best ever hot cross buns to concierges dressing as Easter bunny.

There’s no getting away from the fact that chocolate has to feature on Easter menus, but chefs are also of course focusing on seafood to feed the traditions of Easter, and also seasonal dishes that reflect autumn’s arrival.

Chef Philippa Sibley who’s attempted to throw off her pastry queen tag with her new Melbbourne venture Albert Street Food and Wine, says she of course can’t escape the demand for chocolate around Easter time.

With Albert Street attracting more than its fair share of children as part of its regular clientele in the

restaurant,. as well as the retail store expecting to attract plenty of customers shopping for special Easter treats, Sibley has been turning her thoughts to chocolate desserts and goodies.

“Chocolate actually hasn’t feautured very heavily so far on our menu but I guess Easter will be the time when I put some more chocolately desserts on,” Sibley teased.

“My Poire Belle Helene is always very popular so I will be doing that definitely. I do it with a honey ganache and poached pear with vanilla ice cream. It comes to the table looking quite architectural and when you crack into it you get the surprise — that’s the ice cream in the pear and the honey ganache in the chocolate.”

Sibley says that for Easter she hospitality | february 2012

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easter

will reprise her famous Snickers dessert, which she removed from the menu in January in protest. “I’ve taken it off the menu because it is out of control — I call it the Charlie Sheen of desserts. People were ringing ahead to see if it was on the menu and if it wasn’t they wouldn’t come in! But it’s eight years old now — so I’ve taken it off for three months but that means by Easter it will be time maybe to bring it back for a bit. Don’t tell anyone though.

“I might also bring back my Million Dollar Bullet as well as a treat for Easter — it’s Madagascan chocolate mousse which is more like cream really with chocolate plaques and chocolate biscuit.

Three different textures of dark chocolate, which I love. It’s really fruity this Madadagascan chocolate — it’s almost red, it is so fruity and acidic.

“Then I do a pink grapefruit reduction, sort of like a clear jam, with raspberries, grapefruit segments, and liquorice ice cream with Mexican tarragon shoots, which are tiny little shoots with purple stems that taste like sambuca. They taste like black jelly beans. It’s an old Circa dish from my time there.”

Sibley says by Easter time the food store

Philippa Sibley’s Raspberry and Chocolate Delice and (left) her Poire Belle Helene. Image from her book PS

Desserts published by Hardie Grant.

side of the business will be in full swing selling more of its house made products, and with a second commercial kitchen due to be operating by then there will be the capacity and the facilities for making a range of Easter treats.

“By Easter we will be doing lots of home-made marshmallow and nougat and

‘It’ve taken it of the menu because it’s out of control. I call it the Charlie Sheen of desserts.’

24

hospitality | february 2012

chocolate chip cookies — white chocolate with macadamia nuts, orange flavoured dark chocolate ones.

“And I have done before a mandarin scented Easter egg with gold leaf that looks divine. I might do them and sell them in little egg cartons. And I’ll do some Schmorz, bicky with marshmallow and chocolate — like a Chocolate Royale biscuit. I do a raspberry juice marshmallow piped on to a biscuit and dipped in dark chocolate and then a passionfruit version with milk chocolate. I’m thinking mini ones.

“I have just pulled my beautiful Matfer chocolate tempering machine out of storage and once upstairs is running we will be doing more chocolate — I have some really talented pastry chefs working for me now and one who particularly likes doing chocolate work.”

But it’s not just sweet decadence on Sibley’s mind for Easter. “Even if people aren’t so religious they like to follow that tradition and having fish on the Friday, she says.

“We are doing lots of lovely specials but we’ll heavily feature fish and do some extra specials on Good Friday, depending on what’s available from our suppliers,” she says. “We’ll do something with John Dory, I reckon that’s probably my favourite fish — the texture, the flavour, the beautiful skin. And I love Flathead. We are doing a dish at the moment — a fritto misto. It’s flathead fillets and Crystal Bay prawns, and beautiful courgette flowers stuffed with scallop mousse. ”And we also do a poached salmon dish with school prawns still in their shells plus a prawn bisque finished with basil butter.

“And I think we’ll probably have the guys behind the bar look at featuring a special cocktail that’s nice and decadent hospitalitymagazine.com.au

easter

‘[Easter] is becoming a time that’s more seen as just as a good holiday time to be enjoyed with the family.’ and fits with the Easter theme.”

With Easter revolving around strong family traditions of some heavy duty feasting for chef and restaurateur Joseph Vargetto, the Easter menu at his latest restaurant venture Mister Bianco will reflect his Southern Italian roots. “Our family always has the panettone and the little Italian doughnuts — which are basically cinnamon donuts with some sultanas inside and deep fried,” he says. “You eat them warm with honey on top. And we always traditionally have some lamb on Easter Sunday — it’s always the lamb season there — so something like a roast lamb or maybe some roast goat, something like that. Plus there are always lots of the wonderful autumn vegies.

“But we would start with the antipasto plate with salumi, and lots of vegetables under oil, like eggplant 26

hospitality | february 2012

and zucchini, fried broad beans.

And then you would have a soup — a chicken broth with meatballs, with some faro or something like that.”

Vargetto says he’ll also be injecting plenty of Easter tradition into his fish offerings as well for Good Friday at his city restaurant Mezzo Bar and Grill and then on Sunday at Mister Bianco. “As a family we would usually have garfish, marinated the day before in a very light salt water brine. You just take it out dry it a little and flour it really well with salt and flour, and then fry it a big pan of olive oil until it’s really crispy and serve them with salt on top and lemon on the side, he says.

“Or swordfish, usually grilled with a sauce on the side of lemon juice, olive oil, chilli and chopped parsley. Just very simple.”

Vargetto said that increasingly people were heading out to dine at hospitalitymagazine.com.au

easter

Easter time making it a big family affair.

As a restaurateur he says it’s a good opportunity to really connect with people by sharing some of your own traditions around food.

“I think that, like Christmas, it’s becoming a time that’s more seen just as a good holiday time to be enjoyed, particularly with the family,” he says. “And a lot of people really appreciate it because a lot of traditions have been lost and they like to be able to experience something new and to understand that culture.”

At Brisbane’s elegant and recently refurbed Royal on the Park Hotel, Easter strategies were well underway by early February with special packages on sale for the long weekend that were firmly targeted at families.

As well the hotel was preparing to pull out and dust off the Easter bunny suit that is traditionally donned by the hotel’s concierge for an Easter Sunday egg hunt for the hotel’s younger guests.

“We put some good rates out there that are more conducive to the leisure market over that period and we tailor make it for families, making it a bit cheaper for families, bundling up the accommodation with a free breakfast, and kids eat free deals,” says the Royal on the Park’s food and beverage manager Grant Anderson.

“And we always make a big deal of the

28

hospitality | february 2012

fact that it is Easter for the kids with the Easter hunt on Sunday morning. We put letters in all the rooms for the kids letting them know that Easter bunny will be coming on Sunday and then our concierge dresses up in the suit and makes his way around the hotels handing out chocolate eggs — he’s been doing it for the last five years. Then at breakfast we will annnounce the Easter egg hunt for the kids out in our courtyard — we will probably do that three or so times through the morning.

“And on the breakfast buffet we always serve some really good hot cross buns — we get them made for us by our very good local bakery. We keep them on the buffet all through the weekend.”

In the hotel’s restaurants, executive chef Rhian Rodrigues will be adding extra seafood dishes to the menus as well as some decadent chocolate desserts to cater for the guests at a time when indulgence is in the air.

“I think yes people are in a more indulgent mood and ready to spoil themselves during that time,” says Anderson. “We do a fantastic seafood tower for two that we are expecting will be really popular and we are planning a big seafood promotion around Easter.”

Anderson said that while he sees Easter as a good opportunity for hospitality

The bunny gets people in the mood for family celebration and indulgence.

operators, they should be aware of the staffing challenges that come with a four day long weekend.

“At the end of the day during that period you’ve got three public holidays involved so you have to be careful with how you organise your staff,” he says.

“You don’t want to be doing double the covers if you are making half the money at the end of the day.”

“We try to be very smart in the way we do business and control these costs. What we do is look at fixed labour costs like managers and supervisors and try to work them as much as possible.

“We’ve got a great team that are cross trained on food and beverage, who can always jump in and make espresso or pour some teas, or clear some tables for me if there is a really busy period.”

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

easter

Easter fish feasting ahead Even the non-religious amongst diners see seafood as a part of the Easter tradition. We got some tasty tips from the experts about what fish to include on your menus to tap into the demand.

I

t’s not just chocolate that’s going to be on the minds of diners at Easter time — seafood will be in demand too because of its traditional association with Good Friday.

To help you plan your Easter seafood menus we headed to a couple of experts in the trade for their advice on what seafood is going to be at it’s tempting best in early April when the Easter bunny heads our way.

Seafood guru Frank Theodore from De Costi said there is a spike in demand for seafood around Easter as families embrace the traditions and head out to enjoy the holiday period. Theodore says April is fortunately a great time for seafood when a large range of species will be at their peak.

“You have the great farmed fish that’s always available but around that time [fisherman] are all out and raring to go and we generally have a very good supply of wild,” said Theodore, whose company is also in the restaurant business as partner in Martin Benn’s seafood focused restaurant Sepia and also supplies to some of our other top restaurants.

“You have fish like your wild barramundi coming from up north that’s available around the month of April, that will be a great one to have on the menu,” he says.

“It’s a very popular fish — people really associate it with being an Australian fish. But it depends on their experience — there’s a lot of fresh water barramundi out there that has a nasty earthy flavour about it so you need to make sure you’re getting good barramundi.

“There’s also a company that farms barramundi in the Kimberley’s Cone Bay Saltwater Barramundi that is an amazing product. It’s farmed very well there because it has incredible tides, 12 to 14 metre tides. The fish are always swimming and they end up with a really nice firm texture about them.”

Blue Eye Trevalla, John Dory, Flat Head and Leather Jacket are also species Theodore says will be in strong supply.

“John Dory is one of my favourites but it tends to be a bit dearer than other dory,” Theodore says.

“The humble Flat Head will be available and Garfish is another popular one that will be running at that time of year.

“And there will be Leather Jackets — it’s one of my favourite fish and I think it’s

30

hospitality | february 2012

completely under rated and misrepresented. But it’s a beautiful fish.”

Landing on top menus more and more as well is eel, another good choice for Easter menus, according to Theodore. “It’s something a little bit different that most people aren’t using, but it’s very good as part of an entree dish,” he says.

“Martin [Benn} is using the Silver Lake Eel in his dish with liquorice powder. It’s a very good product. I love a good eel.

“There is a big demand now amongst some of the better restaurants who know how to use them, chefs like Justin North and Matt Kemp.”

Easter is firming up as a busy time for chef and sustainable seafood champion Tom Kime who runs the popular local Fish & Co restaurant in Sydney’s Annandale.

“I think Easter is a much more relaxed holiday for most people and once Lent is

On the menu: Coorong Yellow Eye Mullet is a sustainable choice.

over I think there is a real feasting mentality,” he says.

Kime says one of the fishes he’s serving at the moment that diners are particularly enjoying, and that he plans to offer at Easter, is whole Yellow Belly Flounder. “The ones I’ve got at the moment are from New Zealand but there are some local ones coming in too,” Kime says.

“They are fresh and beautiful. The smallest is probably 500 grams and they go up to about 800 grams so a two person serve that’s great for sharing. I’ve been doing it in a kind of Penang style.

“I score the fish in a diamond pattern and then rub a mixture of finely chopped garlic, chilli, and coriander root into the cracks and then sear in a pan and roast in the oven. The cracks open up and you can just lift these squares off the bone. I serve it with a lemon grass and black pepper dressing.

“If I have the time I’ll often take the dish out myself and show people how to eat it — then it comes back to the kitchen looking like a cartoon-style fish skeleton with nothing left on it.”

Kime is also a fan of sea mullet that offers good value because it’s an underutilised species. “The underutilised fish are often going to be the ones that are cheaper in the fish markets,” Kime says.

“And the mullet with the skin on is a great fish, really clean tasting and lovely. and. It crisps up beautifully and has nice creamy flesh. The only problem is it’s called a mullet which puts some people off.

“I’ve been doing it with a crisp skin and an Asian noodle salad with peanuts and pomegranate.”

Fish & Co diners are also lapping up some of the smoked fish dishes the British -born Kime loves. “We’ve got a smoked fish salad on at the moment using smoked Coorong Yellow Eye,” he says “I get it from the fishery already smoked but I do a lot of other smoked fish as well.

You can smoke any fish. Say for example you’ve got a loin of tuna on [the menu] then you have that underside nearest the skin that doesn’t look that great on the plate but it’s still beautiful.

“We will often smoke those and it will go into a salad or maybe in an aromatic fish curry. And we do traditional fish cakes using smoked haddock with lots of herbs.

It’s really versatile.” hospitalitymagazine.com.au

refrigeration

The cool future Efficient and reliable refrigeration is at the heart of all foodservice operations. With ever growing pressure on the cost of refrigeration for business operators, commercial kitchen expert Tim Smallwood looks at the options.

R

efrigeration is vital to your business but often taken for granted, that is, until it stops and you lose all your food.

The failure of the refrigeration system frequently results from lack of maintenance, but often also the choice of equipment that was originally made.

The need for regular maintenance of all machinery equipment rather than waiting for it to break down shouldn’t be too hard to understand. But all too often operators who regularly send their motor vehicles in for service fail to see the need for the same attention to their kitchen equipment, the equipment they rely on for their income.

In a refrigeration system maintenance can be as simple as regularly cleaning the coils and fins and checking door gaskets and hardware. But often you’ll see refrigerator door hinges which are loose with operators doing nothing to fix them — until the door falls off and damages the cabinet in the process. More involved maintenance which requires the service of a technician includes checking for gas leaks and checking motors and thermostats.

How often and how efficient your refrigerator will be depends on your original selection. Refrigerators can be supplied as custom fabricated one off cabinets or standard cabinets manufactured by reputable compa-

1 R290 gas replacement.

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

nies which will have been the result of considerable research and development and testing and comply with the MEPS (Minimum Energy Performance Standards). This ensures the refrigerator will perform reliably and efficiently and minimises the risk of food spoilage and loss over the unit’s life. The selection of the right refrigerator is important for the whole of life cost of ownership.

The cost of owning refrigeration including power and maintenance represents approximately six to ten per cent of the overall running cost of a commercial kitchen.

The difference between the lower cost and the higher cost could represent the actual profit of the foodservice business.

As refrigerators age the need for maintenance to keep them running increases. At the same time the tax on refrigeration gas is also set to increase costs as the new Australian carbon tax takes effect making it more important to take steps to minimise risks and maximise efficiency when selecting refrigeration equipment.

When refrigeration gas came under the Montreal Protocol for the elimination of ozone depleting gases (ODP) traditional refrigerant gases which had high ODP rating were replaced with newer gases with zero ODP rating so as to comply. The problem is that these new gases, while they have zero ODP rating, have a high Global Warming

‘The cost of refrigeration including power and maintenance represents about six to ten per cent of the running cost of a commercial kitchen.’

Potential (GWP). In other words one kilogram of 134a HFC refrigerant that’s used in nearly all commercial refrigerators has the equivalent of 1300 kilograms of C02.

The effect on the cost of gas in Europe under the carbon trading scheme was an increase of 40 per cent in 2010. And the cost continues to increase. The solution for owners and operators is to either replace the gas altogether or to minimise the use of the gas through the operation of more efficient equipment and systems.

Self contained systems Commercial kitchen refrigeration can be installed in two configurations: individual self contained cabinets and a number of cabinets and cold rooms connected to a remote refrigeration system.

Self contained refrigeration cabinets are now available using refrigerant grade propane R290 (CH3CH2CH) which has a zero GWP rating. Although this refrigerant is a hydrocarbon and therefore flammable most cabinets will use less than 150 grams of the gas and so the risk in the event of a leak is practically eliminated. It should be noted that the majority of domestic refrigerators on the Australian market are approved for use using hydrocarbon gas. Because of

2 R404a gas currently used. hospitality | february 2012

31

refrigeration

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hospitality | february 2012

the improved efficiency of refrigerators using R290, operators will find lower energy costs of up to 25 per cent and faster temperature reduction as well as longer compressor life and reduced maintenance costs. (You can see a comparison between a typical freezer cabinet using R404a HFC (hydrofluorocarbon) gas versus R290 (hydrocarbon) gas in the charts on the previous page).

Remote refrigeration systems In most large and medium sized commercial kitchens instead of each refrigerator having individual compressors all the cabinets and cold rooms are connected to a remote refrigeration system. This can comprise a number of refrigerators powered by a single compressor or, in the case of multiple remote compressors, all the cabinets and cold rooms are connected to a rack comprising a number of compressors combined into a single remote system. This is considerably more efficient than the use of individual remote compressors but has the potential risk of all refrigerators failing in the event that the compressor rack fails or the system develops a leak.

All these remote refrigeration systems use the HFC gases which are pumped under pressure around the building with every joint and bend a risk point for a costly leak. The cost will be in food loss and finally in the cost of re-gassing the system with expensive HFC refrigerant gas.

The alternative to a remote refrigerant system is to replace the hydrofluorocarbon gas with an alternative means of refrigeration. This can be achieved using alternative gases. Unfortunately most of the applicable gases are unsuitable for use in commer-

cial applications as well as having the potential problem of leaks when pumping compressed gas through a building.

An option is to use a secondary refrigeration system which uses glycol, a food safe fluid with a low freezing point that can be pumped around a building to refrigerators and cold rooms at minus 80C to minus 100C. The fluid system is not pressurised and is therefore not prone to leaks which shut the system down. There will be a small primary refrigeration system which has a small charge which can be a non HFC gas and provides the refrigeration to a heat exchanger to reduce the temperature of the glycol secondary refrigerant. Glycol secondary refrigeration systems are being used in Australia in supermarkets and have been installed in both large and small commercial kitchens over the past five years and overseas for longer.

In addition to resolving the GWP potential and the potential cost of replacement gas, glycol secondary refrigeration systems have been found to lower energy cost by up to 25 per cent and also improve the storage condition of refrigerated food because it doesn’t have a drying effect like a conventional refrigeration system. The benefit of a secondary refrigeration system is reduced risk; reduced energy cost; reduced maintenance cost and improved food quality.

Tim Smallwood has more than 35 years experience as a designer and advisor to the foodservice and hospitality industry and has provided catering design and operating systems development advisory services to a wide range of operators in Australia, Asia and the Middle East. He can be contacted at ts@fcaonline.com hospitalitymagazine.com.au

refrigeration

What’s new?

Break through refrigerated drawer technology, the latest in cook chill equipment and innovation in cool room systems are amongst the new equipment products on the refrigeration shelf.

Adande Refrigerated Drawers

Cook chill from Irinox

The Adande Refrigerated Drawer equipment was hailed by judges in this year’s Fine Food Australia Best New Hospitality Equipment award who said it was taking refrigeration technology and “turning it on its head�.

Now being used in Australia by top chefs including Adriano Zumbo and Garagiste’s Luke Burgess, the equipment was originally developed by two design engineers to meet the demands of chefs working on North Sea oil rigs for fridges and freezers that would hold temperature in high use situations. The unique design ensures that when the drawers are opened cold air is retained because it's forced down onto the food, rather than escaping.

Even during prolonged openings the drawers are able to maintain their temperatures. Another advantage is the option for the drawers to be set at different precise temperatures to suit the contents from -22C to up to 15C. Garagiste’s Burgess, who took delivery of his two drawer Adande unit in November, said it had met his needs for refrigerated drawers that could precisely maintain the required temperatures in a kitchen as busy as his. “I’d been trying to find the perfect solution for underbench refrigeration and freezer in one,� he said. “This ticked all the boxes and has had a big impact on the efficiency of our kitchen,� he said. Contact: Stoddart

The latest new offering from Irinox is a unit that allows operators to blast chill, freeze and slow cook — all in the one cabinet. The new energy efficient Irinox Multifresh Plus unit features the new Low Temperature Cooking function that has a range of benefits to operators wanting to cook and chill food. By eliminating the need to handle food between functions it reduces the chances of any cross contamination of the food being prepared, at the same time allowing your kitchen to operate more efficiently. Available in a range of sizes, it’s able to cook food at temperatures of up to 70C and then chill the food down to 3C. Or if required the blast freezing option can chill the product down to -18C. Plus it can work as a holding cabinet allowing operators to hold the cooked products until service time without damaging.

Contact: Skope

MISA Modular Cool Room system Now available in the Australian market is the MISA Modular Cool and Freezer Room System that offers the advantage of very fast construction of an energy efficient cool or freezer room to suit a range of size requirements. MISA’s “fast fit� Camlock system requires no sealants so rooms can be easily assembled and disassembled. Two people can assemble a typical room in 2.5 hours. It’s made from 100mm polyurethane panels that delivers increased energy efficiency for operators.

Contact: Skope Refrigeration

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oils

THE

good oil

The array of oils available to chefs are at the heart of beautiful food. Rosemary Ryan spoke to a couple of very passionate chefs about how they select and use the oils in their repertoire.

A

sk chef Danny Russo to chat about oils and you’d better have a little bit of time up your sleeve.

Oils, in particular olive oils, are one of his many passions and star as key ingredients in his cooking for a range of applications from drizzling over a porter house steak Tuscany-style or for cooking peaches sous vide.

At his new restaurant venture, Italian restaurant The Old Library at the Sydney beachside suburb of Cronulla, his collection of olive oils are working their magic on the menu which has won him some very positive reviews since the restaurant opened in November last year.

“For me oils are one of the most important ingredients and I do have a variety of different oils, from different regions of Italy,” says Russo who’s an ambassador for the region of Puglia for its olive oils.

“We use a lot of oil in our dishes, it’s vital. It’s the finishing touch adding great flavours. But you need to know how to use them — just because you have a Ferrari doesn’t mean you’re a good driver.

36

hospitality | february 2012

“They all have different flavours and I like to use an oil from the region that the dish comes from. We use extra virgin olive oils (EVOO) from Sicily, and from Puglia, from Tuscany and from Liguria, and it depends on the dish which one we use.

“For example we do a beautiful porterhouse steak and for that we use an EVOO from Tuscany made from the Frantoio olives. We use it because it’s a full bodied very good olive oil and because traditionally in Tuscany that’s the oil you would be using for your Bistecca Fiorentina, your 1.2kg t-bone steak. It’s an oil with beautiful flavours, quite peppery. We drizzle it over the steak just before serving. It’s sensational. You just need a little to finish it off and give that authentic flavour.

“And we have a pasta dish, Orecchiette alle cime di rapa with pork sausage and pecorino which is a dish traditionally made in Puglia so we finish that off with a coratina EVOO from Puglia. It’s another full bodied oil.

“Then we do a great dish with sword fish, which is quite a strong flavoured fish

that is used a lot in Sicily so therefore we use an oil using the varietal Nocellara which is a bit nutty and goes extremely well with the dish that we do. We do it with avocado, avocado mousse and orange salt and served with a crispy crumbed quail egg. We just drizzle the oil over the sword fish at the end. “But then we also have another fish that is quite light — King George Whiting. We use an EVOO from Liguria.

Because [the fish] is quite delicate you don’t want a very strong oil. You want a light to medium fruity oil that will compliment the dish. The fish is done with peas and mint, so clean fresh flavours, and if you put, for example, an oil from Sicily or Tuscany or Siciliy it is just going to kill it, it’s too strong.”

Russo’s advice for choosing the right oil for each dish is to taste as many different olive oils as you can. “You do a lot of tasting, like with everything else, like looking for a good wine. Try to find out about the producer. Is it estate grown?

“Importantly make sure you have a good distributor and only deal with rephospitalitymagazine.com.au

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utable suppliers so you always know what you are buying.”

Along with the olive oils and EVOO oils Russo is also a big fan of rice bran oil which he’s using for a range of different purposes when olive oil isn’t suitable, from frying to making flavoured oils to drizzle over desserts. “Number one I guess we are using it for the deep fryer,” he says.

“I like it because it’s odourless and has a high smoke point. And it’s a very neutral oil so that when you fry with it you are still tasting the product you’re cooking.

I’ve found too that it doesn’t take on the odours of other food — we can deep fry calamari and then also deep fry our sweets like our cannoli and our doughnuts in the same oil.”

The lightness of the rice brand oil also means it lends itself well for making flavoured oils and also salad dressings, says Russo. “We use it to make an almond oil for our desserts to drizzle over our beautiful almond milk panna cotta,” he says. “And we make a pistachio nut oil to use with our fig and beetroot salad and also to drizzle over grilled peaches.

“We first do the peaches in a bag with some orange and then cook them sous vide. Then we roast them off and serve with our pistachio and olive oil torte. We also use it to make a lemon oil that we use to finish off our halibut dish.”

Also singing the praises of oil including rice bran oil is chef and restaurateur Tom Kime who runs the busy fish restaurant Fish & Co in Sydney’s Annandale.

Like Russo, Kime has a variety of oils that range from premium extra virgin olive oils from Italy and Australia, to vegetable oil blends for deep frying.

“I think it is a really important thing for chefs to have a good knowledge of different oils and have a variety in their reper-

38

toire,” Kime says. “It’s a fascinating thing for chefs to get involved in, to do tastings and understand all the different flavours.

“With olive oils you can have some that are quite lemony, and you can have ones that are peppery and green.

“I really like to use an olive oil from a cool climate — then you have olives that are less ripe when they’re picked so you get that nice peppery kind of chlorophyll taste to them. I look for one that is quite green so that colour again shows it’s coming from olives that are less ripe, and that has that viscosity that shows that it’s a good quality olive oil.”

At Fish & Co the focus is on seafood — in particular sustainable seafood — but the different styles of food on the menu can run from a Thai curry to an Italian influenced dish, or a serving of good old deep fried fish and chips, each requiring a different oil to bring out the best in them.

“So if I was doing something in a wok I would but if I was making a dressing, something like a salsa verde type sauce or a sauce to finish a dish, then it would be some good quality EVOO to get that lovely flavour into it,” Kime says.

“If you have a good quality olive oil then you can get away with just using that with a little bit of lemon juice to make the dressing for a salad. I did a dressing last night that was just chopped red chilli, some chopped mint lemon juice and olive oil for some grilled fish — you don’t need anything more complex than that.

“I have a vegetable oil blend that I might fry a bit of fish in but often I will go with an olive oil — but not an extra virgin.

“I have various olive oils at different price points for different uses as well so I might use a mid shelf one if I’m roasting potatoes or something but then a top shelf one that I might just use a few drops of to

‘It’s a fascinating thing for chefs to get involved in, to do tastings and to understand all the different flavours [of olive oils].’

finish off a dish.”

Kime says he’s found the rice bran oil is handy for making sauces and also for pan frying fish during a busy night’s service.

“I haven’t used it for deep frying but for cooking a piece of fish it’s great because you can get a high smoke point without it scorching,” he says. “That’s always important in a restaurant when things are moving quite fast and your pans are quite hot,. and you have to work quickly and get the fish in. You don’t want to be using an oil that is going to scorch and scorch the edges of your fish. In that way the rice bran works well. You’re going to get a nice colour and it’s not going to discolour or changes its flavour.

“I’ve also used it very successfully to bind or emulsify a sauce. I did a dish recently where I did a peanut, coriander green chilli paste and by adding some of the rice bran oil I was able to bind it together so it was a lovely emulsified sauce that I just put on a piece of some grilled and sliced rare tuna.”

Kime says he’s also used many Australian olive oils including a current favourite. Primo from the Adelaide Hills.

“It is from the same estate that Joseph’s peh’scomes from and it’s a fantastic entry level olive oil,” he says. “There are some really good Australian olive oils and they will definitely getting better and better as the trees get older.”

Oil convenience

Oil quality under scrutiny

Making life easier for chefs who are using large quantities of oil is new packaging that oils are being delivered in.

Leading foodservice oil supplier Peerless has released new packaging formats for their range of cooking oils which offer both convenience and easy disposability. There’s a new lighter 15 litre (14.3kg) “Bag in Box” range that means less impact for staff. The disposable cartons are fully collapsible, which allows you to, simply and conveniently, fold up for recycling once finished. Oils available in this range include Formula 40 and Pure Canola.

Also new from Peerless are four litre casks with fresh seal taps that make it easier to pour oils. Oils being delivered in this packaging includes Pura Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Pura Tuscan blend.

THE OLIVE oil being supplied to the Australian foodservice industry will be coming under extra scrutiny this year by the Australian Olive Association.

Since the approval last year of the new Australian olive oil standard the AOA has been working hard to ensure both olive oils being imported into Australia and also those being produced here meet the standard that aims to establish a benchmark for olive oil quality to ensure people buying olive oil are getting the product they think they are paying for.

While the AOA’s focus since July last year when Standards Australia approved the new standards has been on testing oils in the retail market, this year it will be turning it’s sites also to foodservice.

“The biggest area of adulteration of olive oils is the foodservice industry,” AOA chief executive officer Lisa Rowntree told Hospitality. “It’s completely unregulated and we’re now discussing plans to increase testing of foodservice oils. There are a lot of oils sold through foodservice and a lot of it is rubbish. ” Rowntree said AOA’s testing in retail found the age of imported oils proclaiming to be extra virgin was a common issue. “There are a lot of old and deodorised oils, she said.

hospitality | february 2012

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

management

New year resolutions Forget about those personal new year’s resolutions. Here are some for your business from Ken Burgin to help make 2012 a more successful year.

‘Make your business the one in town that the smart people want to work for.’

LET’S MAKE 2012 different — more profitable, less stressful and with more of the pleasure that people outside the industry assume we enjoy. Hospitality is a great way to make money while meeting people and making them happy. Remember?

Smarter marketing usually tops the list: creating more impact with less cost and greater certainty. This is the year for a much more effective website, one that really sells, rather than just being a shiny brochure.

Add more of the information people want to find at 11pm when no-one’s answering calls — downloadable menus, a link for online bookings, gift vouchers that can be bought via Paypal and a gallery showing your venue in every situation. How exciting when you make your first online sale — a cookbook, gift box of jams or a deposit payment. Add a lot more written information to your site. Many people visit websites in ‘research mode’, so make sure they’re satisfied.

It’s time to learn about SEO— search engine optimisation. You don’t have to do all the website writing yourself, but understand the importance of including ‘keywords’ in all the text on your site like ‘wedding menu’, ‘special menu’, ‘birthday party’ and ‘private room’. By including the words and phrases that are commonly searched for on Google, you have much more chance of being found on page one.

As you share more information online, this can become the year of fewer phone calls. Mobiles are being used in many new ways — as maps, guides, encyclopaedias, critics and friends. Text messaging and SMS was hot in 2010, then smart phones arrived and along came Facebook, Foursquare and a dozen other ways to use a phone beyond just texting out deals. 40 per cent of Facebook traffic occurs on mobile phones, so make sure what people find is informative, interesting and fresh. Is this the year to bring on a social media assistant? There are people on your staff who would love to help, and in a couple of hours a week they can monitor and update social media sites, reply to online questions and update the photo albums.

It’s time to start contacting your customers more regularly, using the email addresses they gave you all those months ago. Yes, email is as relevant as ever, but it must be interesting to get attention. A great way hospitalitymagazine.com.au

to gather contact details is on a simple feedback form, asking for email and phone numbers with their thoughts on the food, the service and the atmosphere.

Most Aussies don’t say much if they’re not happy, saving it up to tell their friends later. Let’s organise it so you hear about problems straight away, and praise flows freely when you’ve done a good job. Your assistant will also be watching out for comments on Eatability, TripAdvisor, Yelp and Urbanspoon — it’s time you were the first to know.

Support for community and social groups can be a potent source of business and reputation. This year take a more active approach, reaching out to the groups that match your target demographic groups.

Ask for written acknowledgement on their website, and don’t spare the highly regarded ‘Dinner for Four’ vouchers. You’re uniquely placed to give a reward that costs much less than its perceived value, and prizes for social events are highly appreciated. Is the football team your target, or the netballers? The pre-school parents or those with older children? Start to build a long-term relationship with key groups, and watch the favours flow back.

2012 will be the year for more effective staff management — writing job advertisements that really attract attention, running them online and linking to a great web page that talks all about the advantages of working for you instead of the competition. Make your business the one in town that the smart staff want to work for. It’s time to explore online rostering — there are some great local systems now available and staff response is usually enthusiastic. Commit to having an hour of uninterrupted conversation with your important employees at least twice a year, covering their skills and attitude, plus their effectiveness as leaders and aspirations for the future. Great! You just ran a performance review. Everyone likes the idea of reviews but rarely take action — your commitment will be noticed and appreciated by all your staff.

This is also the year for handling poor performance fairly and much faster. Less tolerance of the slow and the shifty. Plenty of short training sessions for those with potential who need, and will appreciate coaching. Whatever the IR rules, the biggest issue is often the courage to confront problems when they arise. As you make the necessary changes, morale will improve dramatically. Ultimately, this is year for more enjoyment at work and looking forward to the start of each week not the end.

Ken Burgin is a leading hospitality industry consultant. To find out more visit profitablehospitality.com or call 1800 001 353

The HMDA is the professional development arm of the Club Managers’ Association Australia (CMAA) serving management in the wider Hospitality Industry ‘I have benefited both personally and professionally in my career through education and training.

HMDA offers all managers that same opportunity’ Ralph Kober Executive Officer

DID YOU KNOW?....

If you are a Chef, a F&B or Catering Manager, a Hotel Manager or a manager within a hospitality venue you are eligible to join Australia’s premier hospitality management association, the CMAA, & take advantage of a range of education opportunities, representation, and networking with similar professionals.

Go to www.cmaa.asn.au to find out more.

CMAA CONFERENCE & TRADE EXPO Mon 12 & Tues 13 March heralds the CMAA Conference & Trade Expo at Darling Harbour Sydney where visitors and conference delegates can view the offerings of over 120 hospitality trade exhibitors and a high impact management conference. Hospitality managers and their staff are welcome to attend the Trade Expo free of charge (conditions apply for trade if not exhibiting). The conference is great value and priced below market rates.

Register www.cmaa.asn.au click on the Conference tile.

MANAGEMENT COURSES Looking for relevant professional development courses or qualifications? HMDA via the CMAA delivers nationally accredited courses and industry conferences and seminars.

Go to www.cmaa.asn.au to see what is on offer.

GROWING THOSE WHO GROW YOUR BUSINESS For further information: Ph: 02 97464199 E: training@cmaa.asn.au W: www.cmaa.asn.au

hospitality | february 2012

39

management/comment

doctorhospitality

Good show, by George The recent fiery debate in the media over penalty rates was well

The new barman is a ball of energy and very talented. He’s already doing the stocktake. How else can I keep him motivated?

Meet your new head trainer. Busy venues usually have a steady stream of new staff, and most of them need their skills improved and aligned with your standards. This is normally left to the duty manager who rarely has enough time. Send the barman along to a short ‘how to train’ course so he puts some structure to the new responsibilities, and start him off working on staff product knowledge and sales skills — this will give the fastest payback. He should also do a First Aid Certificate and update the OH&S training — these are always time consuming and need a constant reminder with staff.

After 12 years, it’s time to sell our cafe. My partner wants to use a broker but do we need to pay all those fees?

Were you a smooth-talking salesman in a previous life? If not, let a broker handle the sale. Most businesses for sale are not in first grade condition and need lots of advocacy to turn mildly-interested inquiries into definite prospects.

A good long lease is one of the most critical factors in creating value for your business — discuss this with your lawyer, so the sale has a chance of success. In the many months that it will take before there is a new owner, you should be promoting your business like never before and boosting the quality of food and service. Leave the sales work to the experts.

We’re going crazy with special requests for glutenfree food. How do I say ‘no’ without causing offence?

Why not start to say yes? Some restaurants and cafes have found a whole new market by having gluten-free or allergen-free events once a week or month. Many of your competitors have a special part of every menu showing what’s available. This trend is here to stay — your challenge is to cook delicious food that doesn’t always depend on lots of flour, salt, sugar and fat. Menu flexibility is what creates real word of mouth, rather than being the lone battler against popular opinion. Your cooks will need assistance with a new style of menu, but this can be a motivating team effort.

The new head chef wants our kitchen staff to have formal titles eg commis chef, and to call him ‘chef’.

Isn’t this outdated?

Maybe, but a little more respect from junior staff is what most employers are craving. French influence is still very evident in kitchen management, and the real issue is the new chef’s effectiveness. If you undermine his authority at the beginning, it will be harder for him to get the team snapping to attention when the pressure is on. Kitchens are very hierarchical, as are most hospitality businesses — we can’t just serve the food when it feels right for us.

Support your main man to run a tight ship. Yes chef!

Do you have a burning question for the good doctor?

Email it to him via editor Rosemary Ryan at rosemary.ryan@reedbusiness.com.au

40

hospitality | february 2012

over due, says our columnist Tony Berry.

HAVING earlier offered my online congratulations to George “Headline” Calombaris on his stirring of the penalty rate pot I do feel he somewhat lessened the impact of his justifiable outburst by almost immediately opening yet another restaurant.

As he extends his empire faster than a rampaging Ghengis Khan he obviously believes he can continue maintaining profitability despite the huge imposts about which he complains. Not only can he attract staff to work the stoves and wait at tables but also he is able and prepared (however reluctantly) to pay the surcharges exacted by way of penalty rates and leave loadings.

His detractors — those whinging yet willing foodservice employees who prefer abuse to reasoned argument — might see this as a case of crying wolf; something akin to a divorcee claiming they are impoverished on less than a million a year.

But pause to note George’s comment that although this latest venture is pitched to the middle market no dish will have a price tag of more than $35. Middle market? $35? How is that for a warning of how costs are soaring?

It seems my online forecast that George and his fellow restaurateurs will soon say enough is enough and pump up their prices to truly reflect their wage bills is already coming true.

And if they do, how can anyone complain? After all, we’re all in this together as foodservice is far from being the only industry being slowly murdered by the farce of penalty rates.

Who among those demanding cheap fodder at the nation’s restaurants is not themselves happy to gather in their “penalties” for working outside what are no longer “normal” hours in this 24/7 society. Ye shall reap as ye shall sow, said he getting all biblical folks. The penalty these days is on the employer, not the employee.

But if this iniquitous system is to be maintained, then expect to suffer the consequences when dining out, or even buying a simple takeaway on a Sunday or bank holiday excursion.

The trouble is MasterChef George has done the unthinkable in attacking one of the bastions of Australia’s lotus-living lifestyle. He couldn’t have attracted more venom if he had called for the banning of AFL or suggested the Sydney Harbour Bridge become a skate park.

Interestingly, once the initial rush to Twitter died down, more reasoned debate prevailed.

As one correspondent noted, “the hours that the hospitality industry operates provide significant flexibility for its workers and with that comes a range of lifestyle benefits for families, couples and singles”. My point entirely. There’s little evidence that the majority of foodservice workers don’t find a good measure of satisfaction in the lack of so-called normality about the hours and days they work.

As noted earlier, if those attacking George were honest the majority would admit they actually like the hours. Rather than being anti-social, they can be highly social — you are working with like-minded people who prefer irregular hours, and love the wee small hours.

They’re spared the crush of the daily commute and can do their shopping and leisure activities when everyone else is slaving away (without penalty rates).

When reason prevails there seems to be diminishing support for the concept of penalty rates in a 24/7 society; they are an anachronism — a hangover from a far more restricted era when leisure as well as business hours were tightly limited. What would make more sense would be to increase the base hourly rate and only to pay penalties when staff work beyond the decreed number of daily or weekly hours. How can anyone justify being paid more for a 20hour week than for a 38-hour week? Lift the base rate and there would be greater incentive for young people to enter the industry.

I write as one who has worked nights, weekends and public holidays for at least two decades.

I also count among my nearest and dearest those who choose to work in a broad range of foodservice positions. They do so because it suits them and also because they happen to get out of it the sort of buzz that seems to keep hyperactive George in perpetual motion.

And, of course, they get paid penalty rates — the money is there for the taking. It is written into the rules. But where is the logic? Where’s the sense in that if a business is to thrive and survive? O Paradise, thy name is Oz — but for the entrepreneurs who make it all possible and sustain these leisure-filled livelihoods it is little short of hell.

For many years known to Hospitality readers by his nom de plume E S Scoffer, Tony Berry is a former editor of this magazine as well as a travel editor, restaurant reviewer, chef and restaurateur. He's also the world's fourth fastest half-marathoner in his current age group. hospitalitymagazine.com.au

whatsnew

shelfspace 1

2

3

5

4 1 No guilt white bread. Leading Australian bakery goods supplier Tip Top Foodservice has unveiled a revolutionary new bread that allows foodservice operators to offer a soft, white bread that's also nutritious. Called Tip Top The One, the new bread is being positioned as the first nutritionally complete, soft, white bread. Tip Top executive baker Wade Ashley said Tip Top had spent more than 12 months researching and developing a white bread that would deliver foodservice professionals across the country "a highly nutritional and sought after product". " The One is made from the best quality ingredients available, and follows strict baking processes to produce our softest white bread yet," Ashley said. Tip Top said The One meets the Department of Health and Ageing’s voluntary salt targets for bread, as well as both government and nongovernment based ‘Green Food’ canteen guidelines. Get more information at gwffoodservice.com.au/brands/tip-top

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

2 Aussie made cultured butter.

No longer do chefs have to look to France for high quality cultured butter because some of Australia’s best cultured butter is being produced at a small factory in Tempein Sydney by local company Pepe Saya. Already top restaurants including Sepia, Rockpool Bar and Grill, Black by Ezard and Bells at Killcare are all serving or cooking with the product. Pepe Saya owner, Pierre Issa, started making cultured butter just 18 months ago in a small factory but following demand had to relocate to its current larger location. The butter is made from single-origin cream from farms in New South Wales and Victoria that have only grass-fed herds. It’s soured with a lactic culture for two weeks before being churned to become cultured butter. Murray River pink salt flakes are added for the salted range. For more information go to pepesaya.com.au 3 Taylors goes on-premise. For the first time Taylors Wines has

launched its own exclusive, onpremise range under the newly created Crooked Horse label. “We’d seen strong demand for a premium quality yet affordably priced onpremise range from restaurants who want to be able to offer their diners something special from a trusted brand, that they couldn’t buy at their local liquor store, to enhance their dining experience,” Taylors Wines third-generation managing director Mitchell Taylor said. “And so the Crooked Horse was born.” The new range consists of two ever-popular wine varieties, a shiraz plus a semillon sauvignon blanc blend. Find out more about the range at taylorswines.com.au 4 Handy new pastry fryer. The Lotus Italian electric fryer now available in Australia is a speciality fryer with a large surface area that’s perfect for frying items like donuts and pastry products but is also useful for other foods like fish fillets. It’s specially designed for floating pastry items and battered

fish where the larger surface area is important for the higher production, rather that kilos of yield with items submerged in oil. The many features of the machine include a large draining shelf, a large shallow single basket with two handles, removable discharge for bench top models, and removable basin with filter for oil saving on cabinet models. There are three models in the range, 17, 24 and 31 litre, and the machines come in four different widths from 600mm to 1000mm. Contact Scotts Ice at scotsice.com.au 5 Gourmet dipping. The Chris’ Dips brand has extended its line of traditional dips with the launch of its new delicatessen range. The six flavours in the range include ingredient combinations like Spinach, Pinenut, Pecorino and Chilli; and White Caviar and Almond Meal. The Chris’ Dips range is available in bulk quantities for foodservice. Get more information at chrisdips.com.au

hospitality | february 2012

41

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hospitalitydiary MARCH 2012

APRIL

Hall of Industries, Sydney. See foodserviceaustralia.com.au

11-13 Fine Food Queensland; Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. For all the details and to register head to finefoodqueensland.com.au

9-12 Hotelex Shanghai; Shanghai.

See hotelex.cn

AUGUST

MAY 27-29 Foodservice Australia; Royal

SEPTEMBER

6-7 Lunch!; Royal Hall of Industries.

Sydney. Find out about this new show at divexhibitions.com.au

10-13 Fine Food Australia; Melbourne Convention Centre. This is Australia's largest hospitalty trade event. Head to finefoodaustralia.com.au

P R O D U C T S

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hospitality | february 2012

1815 Inspired by heritage.

Designed for today.

Contact WWRD Customer Service on 1300 852 022 to enquire about our Royal Doulton Commercialware distributors.

hospitalitymagazine.com.au

hospitalityjobs To see the latest jobs available visit

To advertise a new job contact Hussein Azzan at 02 9422 2851

No.674 July 2011

hospitalitymagazine.com. au

foodservice

www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au, which is updated

EXECUTIVE CHEF — AMAZING ISLAND RESORT Location — Queensland Company — Black Nugget Hotel Description: We are an independently owned hotel/motel in Moranbah, Queensland, two hours west of Mackay. Moranbah has a population of approx. 8000 people and is very well serviced with lots of opportunities for sport and leisure activities. We are currently seeking a qualified person to take on the role of chef.

The hotel/motel consists of 30 motel rooms, bistro dining to 120 people, sports bar, TAB, drive through bottleshop and function facilities. The successful applicant will have the necessary qualifications and experience to work unsupervised.

This position includes subsidised motel style accommodation The successful applicant will display the necessary qualifications and a commitment to work with an enthusiastic team to maintain the high level of food preparation and presentation. $55k - $65k salary based hospitalitymagazine.com.au

RECEPTIONIST: TEMPLESTOWE HOTEL Location – Melbourne Company – Dominion Hotel Group Description: The award-winning Templestowe Hotel is seeking a smart, energetic and confident professional for the role of casual Receptionist for approximately 25 hours per week over a seven day period.

accommodation

I

beverage

ACCOMODATION HOTEL DUTY MANAGER Location – Darwin Company – AA Appointments Description: This position is responsible to develop and establish the best relationships with suppliers so that we are their preferred wholesaler, ensuring the product is negotiated with the best conditions on rate and inventory, in order to position itself as a market leader.

Act as the face to face key point contact for accommodation supplier vendors to maintain the relationship for matters related to contracting, operational, commercial or financial activities.

Negotiate the initial purchase quality metrics of the contract with new suppliers and contract renewals. Conditions include rate, inventory, offers, release periods, marketing contributions, overrides, cancellation policy, credit terms, pricing model (net or commission etc.)

To apply for this role, please visit www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au

management

Success is in the detail with event catering

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FULL-TIME RECEPTIONIST POSITION Location – Canberra Company – The Waldorf Apartment Hotel Description: The Waldorf Apartment Hotel is centrally located in Canberra City CBD. We have a choice of accommodation styles with studio, one and two bedroom Hotel serviced apartments available as well as our unique one bedroom plus office apartment for business travellers. Each serviced apartment is stylishly designed for spacious accommodation, decorated with timeless elegance with a superior finish.

We are looking for a full time receptionist person to join our professional and dedicated front office team.

To apply for this role, please visit www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au

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QUALIFIED CHEF Location —Queensland Company — Coles Careers Description: The legendary Leichardt Hotel, Rockhampton is currently seeking an experienced and successful Qualified Chef to join their fast paced kitchen team.

Possessing outstanding communication skills and strong attention to detail you will understand the requirements for food preparation to prescribed standards, together with maintaining a safe and hygienic kitchen environment. Your passion for cooking and perfect presentation will see you succeed in this exciting role. You will have flexible availability to work rostered shifts across hotel trading hours including nights and weekends. Previous experience working in a high volume kitchen environment is essential to your success within this position. We offer great benefits and salary packages, and the opportunity to advance your career.

To apply for this role, please visit www.ahospitalitymagazine.com.a u CHEF DE PARTIE Location – Sydney Company – 3 Weeds Description: The 3 Weeds Rozelle is an award-winning venue renowned for delicious food.

Conveniently located off Victoria Road, just ten minutes from the CBD over the Anzac Bridge, the 3 Weeds is a unique place being both a destination venue and a friendly local pub. We are looking for hospitality professionals with experience in fine dining.

To apply for this role, please visit www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au

Candidates must have experience in managing several phone lines & taking restaurant bookings.

To apply for this role, please visit www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au or send your resume to jmarie@dominionhotels.com.au

PP349181/0

dependent on experience.

To apply for this role, please visit hospitalitymagazine.com.au

Print Post Approved

EXECUTIVE CHEF — AMAZING ISLAND RESORT Location —Queensland Company — AA Appointments Description: All accommodation and all meals included. An amazing opportunity exists for an experienced and dedicated executive chef to lead this brigade in a luxury resort catering to the rich and famous. We are looking for the best of the best to take this role and make it their own.

Leading a very talented and successful brigade you will be responsible for managing the kitchen, coordinate the production of food, monitoring and budgeting all food costs and wage costs and menu development for this high end luxury resort that offers daily changing degustation menu with matching wines.

Leading a brigade of up to 20 chefs you will also be responsible for all staff management. Your previous experience in financial reporting and expertise in degustation menu will see you taking your career and reputation to a new level.

To apply for this role, please visit hospitalitymagazine.com.au

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Hospitality operators put social media to work Get hopp ing

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FINE FOOD

Brisbane Conference & Exhibition Centre March 11-13

Visit us

at Fine Food Brisbane,

STAND A14

Meet the Hospitality Magazine team and check out our special offers!

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