Kobi captures the true spirit of Italian hospitality

Kobi Watson was once the youngest restaurateur in the nation. When he was just 17 he opened the door to his own Italian restaurant in McCrae. Scratching his head for a name, he reached for the moniker his dad has for him. “Dad calls me Kobi Jack,” the young chef says. “That’s my first two names: Kobi Jack Watson.” Kobi left school at the end of Year 10 when he was 16. In his last three weeks of high school he was already the owner of the restaurant business on Point Nepean Rd. As a minor he had to run the business through a family trust so he could do the basics of running a restaurant – such as ordering alcohol. “I have always had a passion for food and worked hard at The Epicurean in Red Hill.” Kobi had saved enough to buy the business and do the fit-out and had turned 17 when he opened in 2017. “I had spent my last cent and I needed to borrow $20 from my grandmother so I could fill the salt shakers on the table.”

Kobi already knew he wanted to cook Italian food. While at school he made a film about his grandfather, who had served at Gallipoli. The film impressed an international organisation commemorating the World War I centenary and flew young Kobi and his mum to London, where Kobi toured addressing English schools. At the end of the trip, mother and son spent more than a fortnight eating their way through Italy. “I realised back then that Italian cuisine is truly regional, changing from town to town.” A trip the next winter saw him work in a laboratorio, a pasta studio run by 70-year-old nonnas. “They only had a dough mixer installed a month before I arrived. They were getting too old to make the dough. But they made everything else by hand: tortellini, tortellone and tagliatelle.”

Despite not having a drop of Italian blood in his veins, Kobi has somehow been able to capture the true spirit of Italian hospitality. The restaurant is staffed by family and friends. Everything is as local and seasonal as possible. “People keep asking me to put on the casarecce al zucchini. But zucchini are not ready down here until summer – and then they are perfect. I grate them and lightly cook them with basil, garlic, chilli, stock and a dash of cream.” The dish that gives him the most pleasure to make is the tagliatelle. “It reminds me of the nonnas every day when I make the pasta,” Kobi says with a grin. He baps the freshly cooked pasta with a ragu made with slow-braised beef shoulder cooked with sofrito, red wine and bay leaves.

During COVID he and his younger brother launched a new business called the Mornington Peninsula Pasta Company, delivering fresh pasta and sauces to homes on the Peninsula and to other restaurants. “But the biggest thrill for me is being open and having a full house once again. I just love cooking for people and looking after them.”

RICHARD CORNISH

KOBI JACK’S 677 Point Nepean Rd, McCrae P: 5986 2100 www.kobijacks.com morningtonpeninsulapastacompany.com.au