MADE IN AUSTRALIA

100% DOING IT AUSSIE

FROM PERTH TO BRISBANE AND ALL POINTS IN-BETWEEN, THE GREAT AUSSIE PUB HAS NEVER BEEN MORE AUSTRALIAN. CRAIG HAWTIN-BUTCHER TALKED TO EXEC CHEFS ACROSS AUSTRALIA, FROM SOLOTEL TO MERIVALE, MANTLE TO AUSTRALIAN VENUE CO, ABOUT WHY SOURCING 100% AUSTRALIAN FOOD AND BEVERAGE MAKES PERFECT ECONOMIC SENSE.

“We have our own cattle [at Bilambil Heights, NSW] on about 450 acres, just inland from the Gold Coast at Tweed Heads,” says Deniz Coskun, Executive Chef for the Queensland-based Mantle Group Hospitality.

“It’s a beautiful piece of land – I keep saying to the boss we should have a wedding venue up there – luscious green grass overlooking the Gold Coast, it’s stunning. We take our head chefs out there and go mustering.”

The Australian Heritage Hotel, The Rocks

Coskun and the leadership team at Mantle aren’t in it, however, for the scenery. They’re one of a number of groups taking the provenance and sourcing of their ingredients incredibly seriously and looking to reap the rewards.

“Just last year, food made up 50% of the sales, so it’s a huge part of our business,” says Coskun. “In every venue we open, we certainly put a big emphasis on the kitchens, the food and having a restaurant within our fitouts. It’s definitely a main target of ours.”

Over at Merivale, Jordan Toft is witnessing the emergence of a defined Australian cuisine. The Executive Chef of Coogee Pavilion, The Newport and The Collaroy says, “Australia’s size allows for different climates during different seasons and therefore we have a vast variety of produce coming from our lands. Australian cuisine is hard to define and an area for interpretation. We have generally taken techniques from other cuisines while morphing it to Australian taste using our Australian sensibilities.

“There has been a rise in native Australian products available and in use which may push us into a cuisine we can definitively call Australian.”

FOIS GRAS FORCED OUT

“In my younger years it was all about the French bries and fois gras, imported stuff and imported wines” says Telina Menzies, Executive Chef at Australian Venue Co. “In WA especially [where Menzies hails from] they’re very proud. The guys in Perth are very proud of the local produce, and now when we’re writing menus we’re trying to source the best local produce I can and support local producers … before I reach out anywhere else, but definitely Australian. We’ve got the best seafood in the world, and a lot of sustainable stuff. We’re producing great beef, and the cheeses these days are really world class. We’re really progressing.”

For some, like Solotel’s Group Executive Chef Sebastian Lutaud, using Australiansourced produce is no longer a question – it’s simply heavily engrained in their business.

“As a business, in terms of pushing Australian, we’ve been doing the right thing for a while,” says Lutaud. “We would be pretty much 90% all-Australian for our food. 100% we support Australian, most of what we get is from New South Wales and Victoria.”

The main issue is adapting to fluctuating prices as a result of the drought.

“Last year we got an increase of lamb of 30% and we ended up copping a bit of that as a business. It’s about educating our guests about prices. If I was to put 30% onto the price of lamb we received, I don’t think anyone would pay for it.

“Profitability is harder every day, to be honest,” says Lutaud. “Two weeks ago I got an e-mail from our fruit and veg guys. Half the stuff, the price has gone through the roof. 100% of that is drought-related. We’re starting to increase our prices – we sort of have to – but we need to be smart about it.

“If it’s protein, do we cut down the size by 10-20%? You know consumers – they’re willing to pay to a certain point, we don’t want to scare the consumer away. But talking to Vic’s Meats, they’re copping [increases] and not passing it on to us. Everyone’s just trying to absorb something here and there,” says Lutaud.

GROW YOUR OWN

Meanwhile over in Pullenvale, 25 minutes out of Brisbane, the Mantle Group is trying to seize some of the initiative around supply. They own 10 acres of land currently laid with citrus trees and herbs including curry leaves and rosemary, supplying some of their venues.

“It doesn’t supply all of them,” says Coskun, “obviously 10 acres isn’t enough to supply the 14 venues we have now, but we use key venues and source from there.” For the fruit and veg, that primarily goes to the two venues nearest the farm, the Pig ‘N’ Whistle Indooroopilly.

130 Australian beers are on offer at The Australian Heritage Hotel

“Across 14 venues we would need probably 20 times the size of land at that property to supply us, so we run these as specials. We’ve got that flexibility purely because of logistics,” says Coskun.

Down in New South Wales in the heart of Sydney’s tourist-driven Rocks precinct, the W Short Hotel Group’s Australian Heritage Hotel is a shining example of going all-in on all-Australian. The venue’s GM Lincoln Baker says:

“We offer a classic Australian dining and drinking experience. We have emu, kangaroo and crocodile on the menu and try to support Australian grown and owned producers as much as possible. Our beer and wine list is exclusively Aussie with over 130 Australian owned craft beers on offer in venue every day. “We are also seeing growth in boutique Australian spirit producers and putting a focus on having as many Australian spirits on our back bar as possible.

“We have a long history of supporting Australian owned brewers, distillers and providers. Being the Australian Hotel I think it’s important we remain true to this. There is great quality coming out of Australia at the moment as well so we can understand why people are demanding we use home grown products,” says Baker.

Pig ‘N’ Whistle

ALL-AUSTRALIAN DRINKS

Over at sister venue The Tudor Hotel, Redfern, the all-Australian beer list continues. GM Chris Jones says,

“We only serve Australian beer. With our produce, 50% comes from our local green grocer (next door) and the rest from local suppliers. It’s all about supporting your community and keeping it local.”

The support for locally produced extends to spirits, too. “We are strong supporters of anything Australian and spirits is something Australia has blossomed in, especially in the last few years,” says Jones.

Across town at another W Short Hotel Group venue, The Buena, GM Lloyd McKerrell explains their passionate support of Australian produce.

“We are constantly on the hunt for the highest quality local and Australian produce to put on our menu. Our salmon is from Tassie, our lamb is from Cowra, kingfish is from South Australia and our beef is from the Riverina.

“By chance, we have also formed a very special relationship with our egg supplier. Our head chef, Jon Trouillet, was on a trip through the Kangaroo Valley when he stayed the night at a farm he found on AirBnB. Now we exclusively use that farm as our egg supplier,” says McKerrell.

Open kitchen of Wickens at Royal Mail Hotel

A recent innovation at The Buena is a new gin bar showcasing the best of old British flavours and fresh Aussie herbs.

“Our most recent addition to the gin list is the Brookies ‘slow’ gin, from Cape Byron Distillery - a local and sustainable distillery up in Byron,” says McKerrell.

SOUND ECONOMICS

For many, using local or Australian produce isn’t a badge of honour. It’s a sound business decision, a way of supporting their local community and a cost-effective way of sourcing the right in-season ingredients, at lower cost.

“I want to do it [use our own or local produce],” says Coskun. “But I don’t feel the need to have it on every dish on the menu. I think some venues put it against every single dish, and I wonder if I’m reading a menu or getting an education lesson. So we do play it down a little bit. But I think the management approach and the direction we’re going in, it just shows in the food where you’re sourcing things from.

“It’s also about using things in the peak of their season. We’ll go out to fruit and veg markets and see what’s on the floor. When you see pallets and pallets of stone fruit, you think ‘righto, we’ve got to get these on the menu now’.

The Buena, Mosman

“We use a local trawler fisherman – Terry. He’s 76 years old, still doing it, been doing it since he was 16 years old, his whole life. We use him and we understand when he says things are going to finish – when we should be pushing prawns more, taking them off, letting things recover and working with that,” says Coskun.

Working in tune with the seasons to reduce costs, working with knowledgeable suppliers to inform the menu, and taking control of more of the supply chain has helped the Mantle Group and others forge ahead, reduce inefficiencies and create a point of difference.

The group has its own beer label, the Spitfire, its own wine label, Jacqueline's Ridge, and roasts its own coffee having sourced the beans from around the world, and operates out of a central kitchen facility, which they built around 10 years ago.

“It enabled us to go to farms, get things direct and manage some of the quality control by producing it [at our central kitchen],” says Coskun.

Whether its in-house or simply a traceable supply chain, the movement supporting Australian food and beverage, from farm to fork, looks set to impact the industry for years to come.

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ROYAL MAIL HOTEL, DUNKELD

ROYAL MAIL HOTEL, DUNKELD

Executive Chef Robin Wickens’ two-hatted fine dining restaurant in Dunkeld is not your average Australian pub. Not because their five or eight course degustation menus are served in decidedly modern surrounds (much of it Australian sourced), but because it has its own 1.2ha kitchen garden in pursuit of Wickens’ ambition to become ‘hyper-local’.

The hotel has its own farm, producing beef and lamb for the restaurant. Local produce from other nearby suppliers ranges from seafood from Port Fairy, duck from Great Ocean Road, pork from Colac and charcuterie from Ballarat.

Over 800 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts, edible flowers and plants are sourced from the garden, supported by other plots including stone fruit orchards, an olive grove, citrus grove and a glasshouse for microherbs.

Chef Robin Wickens of the Royal Mail Hotel

A full time kitchen garden specialist manages the garden working closely with the kitchen team and chefs harvest from the garden daily. Organic and some permaculture principles are practiced, while overnight guests can take a 45-minute tour.

Even the building design is intended to connect diners with their surroundings and where the produce has come from. The hotel’s architect Nicholas Byrne says “Dining at Wickens is an immersive experience. Our design focuses on the guests’ engagement with three defining elements – food, wine and place. Sitting in the dining room guests are literally immersed in these elements.”