PROFILE // Brendan Hill
Brendan Hill The chef is part of a serious shake up of Canberra’s dining scene.
BRENDAN HILL HAS spent the past
20-odd years in the kitchen, working at
What interested you about joining Harvac Group?
Wilma. It all happened pretty quickly;
a raft of venues from island eateries to
fine diners. Two decades culminated in
I think the opportunity to work with
umming and ahing about what was going
a move to Canberra to join a growing
James. I crossed paths with him a few
times over the years and I had eaten at
hospitality group and work alongside
James Viles. The chefs make a formidable force and are moulding a culinary
experience at Wilma that sees primitive cooking techniques teamed with standout produce.
Hill speaks to Hospitality about the
journey that led him to Harvac Group,
championing cooking with fire and the
perks that come with true collaboration in the kitchen.
Biota. During the three-year kitchen hiatus, I was working in foodservice as a sales rep and supplying Harvac. James reached out
to me and asked if I knew anyone who was looking for a job as I had a lot of contact
to TAFE in Toowoomba and began my apprenticeship and then I moved up
to The Whitsundays for a while. I then
went to Victoria before going to a little
place doing modern Asian cuisine on the
Sunshine Coast. I decided to go to Sydney
have inside at the time. So they sped up
the process and decided to do a refit and that happened over five weeks.
We opened on 3 December and had
weeks before opening and nailed down
I came on board in the first week of
July and Loquita opened in the first week of August. I hit the ground running:
the concept was done and James and I
and coaching the young team in there.
got me started in the food scene. I went
people, which was the maximum we could
and it organically happened from there.
Brendan Hill: I grew up in Queensland in
bakery when I was around 13 and that
venue, it couldn’t sustain opening with 25
a couple of weeks to come up with the
the idea of getting back into the kitchen
developed the menu. I oversee the kitchen
I worked with my father in a commercial
to happen to Kokomo’s. Being such a big
with restaurants. I had been toying with
Hospitality: How did your career in the industry begin? a small country city called Toowoomba.
we had come out of lockdown and were
at Loquita day to day, maintaining standards
“As a chef, you’re aware of the hours you work; it’s draining and taxing, but I’ve always had to scratch that itch.” – Brendan Hill Loquita’s business structure doesn’t
menu. James and I got in there a few
what we were going to do; looking at
recipes, suppliers, what was in season
and refining everything. With the menu
development side of things, we wanted to pay homage to our own backyard using
native Australian ingredients while heroing classic dishes such as char siu pork, XO
pippies, prawn toast and roast duck. We’re recreating those flavours with a bit of a
twist. We wanted the menu to be pretty big and grand like the fit out.
We have a wood-fired oven and added a
big custom grill made by a local blacksmith to the kitchen. Some deep fryers were
taken out and there were some woks put in before [Wilma] in anticipation of the location’s next move.
in 2010 and worked at Aria for four years
[necessitate] a hierarchy; it’s quite fast
eight months later and stayed there until
We probably do upwards of 350 covers on a
Friday and Saturday night. We try to be fairly
Cooking with fire is a key part of Wilma’s ethos, what are the pros and cons that come with the medium?
authentic with what we’re doing and we use a specialist Mexican supplier from Sydney.
There’s something really primitive about
People’s perception of Mexican street food
cooking over fire and wood and we wanted to emphasise that on the menu. We are
as a commis chef. I was made junior sous 2014. I went to Bentley as a sous chef
and spent time there working under Brent Savage and Aidan Stevens, but decided to take a step away from fine dining.
I moved into high-end catering for
brands like Dior and Cartier for a couple of years until my return to fine dining. I
opened 12-Micron with Australian Venue
paced and the kitchen is less than 15sqm.
is quite murky and Westernised from the
reality of what it is. The Canberra market is a little bit of a hard one to crack.
using applewood and ironbark from
Blackheath Firewood. The flavour you get
out of cooking with fire is so different and it’s a lot harder to cook with. You need to
wife became ill, so I stepped out of the
pay attention and use your intuition. It’s
kitchen for few years. I decided to get
Wilma has taken over the former Kokomo’s location, what prompted the team to develop a new concept?
back in with the Harvac guys in mid-
2020 at what was Kokomo’s and has now
We anticipated launching in early 2021,
easier to stuff things up. For me, it keeps
become Wilma.
but the idea was always to rebrand
Kokomo’s and separate The Pearl and
Co. and spent 18 months with them. My
42 | Hospitality
not set and forget like a combi oven; you have to manage the temperature and it’s me in touch with food more. It’s not so generic, if that makes sense.
