What have we learnt about each cuisine thanks to these remarkable restaurants? Let's find out...
Mexican cuisine @ Perth's El Publico
511 Beaufort St, Highgate WA 6003
Two and a half years ago, Tom Payne was a Melbourne-based chef with a ‘meh’ attitude to towards Mexican cuisine. He didn’t mind the food, but hadn’t been struck by its magic. That was, of course, until he tried Sam Wood’s menu at Perth establishment , a place he’d serendipitously applied to work, simply craving a sea change. Pouring over , it’s easy to see those influences in action. For one thing, much of the menu is written in Spanish, making the ‘101’ breakout box rather handy indeed. Divided into botanas (snacks), entradas (entrees), ensalada (salad), tacos y tostadas, parrilla (grill) and postres (desserts), the short, yet enticing selection has ‘playfulness’ written all over it.
Cook with...
Aside from a tortilla press, Tom recommends investing in a few key pieces of equipment, including a comal, “a big flat pan used to cook tortillas, toast spices or burn tomatoes and onions for salsa”. He also recommends finding a molcajete, a big flat stone that’s Mexico’s answer to the mortar and pestle, traditionally used to grind spices and ingredients.
The essentials
"Start looking at all the dried chillies. There are many different types. At the moment I use about eight different types at El Publico – all imported from Mexico. Really expensive [being] in Perth, but if you’re serious about it you need to invest in some chillies.”
Tom’s top three are:
- Chilli ancho
- Guajillo chili
- Chipotle chilli
El Publico has a strong Mexican game. Source: El Publico
Japanese cuisine @ Sydney's Sokyo
Level G, The Darling The Star/80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont NSW 2009
“I’ve been in the kitchen from a very young age,” he recalls. “So it was basically like, destiny. Saying that, I did go to school for IT and found out I hated it. But cooking was definitely my thing – I knew I was good.” According to Chase, in Japanese cooking, a subtle touch can be transformational. “You can see a big difference in texture, flavour and complexity of that fish just by aging it,” Chase explains. “And there’s no better complementing sauce than soy sauce. Yes you can use salt, but soy mellows that sea flavour.”
Sharp upper cuts
The Sydney-based chef says no matter how slick your knife skills are, a mandolin will always come in handy. “We use a Japanese mandolin brand called . It’s super sharp and we use it to slice things really thin with finesse.
Gluten-free friendly
Tamari isn’t just a great gluten-free soy sauce alternative, it also packs a flavourful punch. Rounder and less salty than traditional shoyu, Chase says it’s great for seasoning or saucing up dishes whether you’re gluten-free or not. “When you’re looking for umami in a dish it’s really good to sprinkle gluten-free soy sauce instead of salt,” he says. “If a dish is lacking anything, that’s the first thing I’ll go for.”
Head chef at Sokyo, Chase Kojima Source: Sokyo Sydney
French cuisine @ Brisbane's Montrachet
224 Given Terrace, Paddington QLD 4064
For those familiar with Brisbane’s dining scene, the name ‘Montrachet’ will ring a bell. Opened by Lyon-born chef Thierry Galichet and wife Carol in 2003, – which shares its name with a Chardonnay-producing vineyard in Burgundy – was beloved for its French charm, classic dishes and truly impressive wine list.
The basics: Bread and butter
“With your meal, serve good quality bread, made from good quality flour,” instructs Shannon, who’s in Montrachet’s kitchen at 6am everyday making his own batch for the restaurant. The quality of butter is also quite crucial. Shannon says many Australian butters contain high water content, but it’s best to choose out those with a low water content, if possible.
The essentials
“The pots and pans you’re cooking in are very important, especially when braising items. We use very good quality cast iron pots – cocottes.” Shannon adds: “It’s different to cooking in other pots, in terms of moisture retention and heat”.
Stylish and cosy, Montrachet welcomes guests for a French feast Source: Montrachet
Spanish cuisine @ Melbourne's Bar Lourinha
37 Little Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Matt’s culinary contribution carries a decidedly Iberian feel. As the chef-owner of Melbourne’s , you’ll find him chatting to farmers, butchers and importers by day, and serving up smoky cheese croqueta – the “benchmark” of good tapas – or cured pork cheeks by night. An aficionado of Spanish cuisine and culture, the seeds for Bar Lourinhã were sewn in 1997 on trip to Barcelona.
Edible education
“The most important thing is go to a Spanish delicatessen or grocery. Have a smell, talk to them, ask them about different things you haven’t tried before – things like pimenton.”
The essentials
Asked which ingredient he couldn’t live without, Matt’s answer was clear, or rather, amber-coloured: olive oil. “Good olive oil used in pretty much every savoury dish [at Bar Lourinha],” he notes. “It even goes in some desserts.”
“Whenever I’m asked what olive oil to use, I always say, ‘Buy the best one that you can afford’. Don’t buy something you can’t afford, because you can be spending ridiculous amounts.”
Head chef Matt McConnell on cooking Spanish at Bar Lourinha. Source: Bar Lourinha
Thai cuisine @ Melbourne's Easy Tiger
96 Smith St, Collingwood VIC 3066
Trained by two of Australia’s greats – Christine Manfield and David Thompson – Jarrod Hudson has been raising the culinary bar for Thai food over the past six years as chef-owner of Easy Tiger. While the hatted Melbourne restaurant will close this June, Jarrod’s passion and non-pretentiousness is sure to continue in his next culinary foray.
The spice story
“The two most important spices in Thai [cuisine] are white pepper and coriander seed,” says Jarrod Hudson, executive chef and co-owner of Melbourne's Easy Tiger which, sadly, is closing mid-June.
“Then you’ve got cumin in the curries. Thailand’s so close to China so they use cardamom, cassia bark and star anise in master stocks. It’s so close to India as well – Massaman is an Indian curry but the Thai’s adopted it.”
The essentials
When it comes to cooking Thai at home, Jarrod lists lime leaves, lemongrass, makrut limes, fresh turmeric (yellow and white, if you can find it) as his go-to ingredients.
“And if there’s one ingredient you need more than anything, it’s dried long red chilli,” he adds. “You can rehydrate them for sauce or curry paste; you can fry them; you can roast them for crispy garnishes.”
Enjoy your meal in Easy Tiger's fairy light-lit courtyard, about as Melbourne as it gets! Source: Pia Johnson
Lebanese cuisine @ Sydney's Nour
3/490 Crown St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Indeed, the team behind Nour is a multicultural one. Adding to Roy’s Israeli influence, co-owner Ibby is Lebanese, and the kitchen crew carries Palestinian and Libyan heritage. Drawing from these backgrounds and his personal interest in the Middle East, Roy created a menu that skirted the fine balance “between where you’ve pushed the tradition and stayed true to your roots”.
How to make great hummus
Every country – and, quite possibly, every family – in the Middle East will have their own variation of the chickpea dip hummus. “One of our secrets is onion water,” says Roy, who soaks his chickpeas with raw onion to “take away the edge”. It’s an old Arabic trick, and one that takes Nour’s hummus, made with dried broad beans, rather than chickpeas, to the next level.
The essentials
“Nowadays mixed spices are accessible, but your basic will be cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and turmeric,” Roy says, laying out the staples in a Middle Eastern spice rack. He recommends heating the seeds before use: “Every seed has an oil compound, which means you have to warm it up to open the oil. Now if it goes too hot, it goes bitter because all the oil basically fries the seed.”
The Nour team (L-R):Nader Shayeb, head chef; Ran Kimelfeld, senior sous chef; Ibby Moubadder, co-owner; and Roy Ner, executive chef. Source: Caroline McCredie
Indian cuisine @ Melbourne's Tonka
20 Duckboard Pl, Melbourne VIC 3000
Born into an Indian-Italian family, Adam D'Sylva was blessed with first-hand access to two of the world's most beloved cuisines from a tender age. While his father, a butcher, brought home the bacon, Adam's mother schooled her son in the fundamentals of Italian cuisine. In his 'ghee-free' kitchen at Melbourne restaurant Tonka, Adam D’Sylva is changing perceptions of Indian food, one butter chicken at a time.
O.M.Ghee
The clarified butter known as ghee is to Indian cooks what olive oil is to the Italians. It forms the basis for many dishes, of both the sweet and savoury persuasion, adding a depth and nuttiness that vegetable oils can't always achieve. For Adam D'Sylva, though, ghee also has a habit of making dishes greasy. “That's why I don't get [Indian] takeaway," he explains, “Because it's too rich.”
The essentials
“It's really important to use fresh spices all the time,” says executive chef of Tonka, Adam D'Sylva. “Every home cook should also have a heavy based saucepan, a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder and a good Indian style yoghurt.”
Adam D'Sylva and his spanner crab salad from Tonka Source: Tim Grey
Greek cuisine @ Sydney's Alpha
238 Castlereagh St, Sydney NSW 2000
A pioneer of 'modern Greek' cuisine in the 1990s, Peter Conistis is still livening up Sydney's food scene 24 years on. Marrying moussaka with scallops and baklava with muffins, the executive chef of Sydney's Alpha has retained a youthful self-belief since his uni days.
Filo 101
“If you’re making filo pastry you always use a Greek rolling pin. It looks a bit like a dowel. It’s very thin, very long and it allows you to manipulate the pastry so you can open it really wide, you need that length in it. That’s very important.”
The essentials
“Greek food is more about the ingredients, not so much the equipment you use." Greek olive oil and wild Greek oregano are two ingredients you almost can't cook Greek food without.
Head Chef of Alpha, Peter Conistis says his cooking is a "more relaxed approach to Greek food, indicative of the lifestyle I've grown up with in Australia". Source: Alpha
4/6 Cowper Wharf Rd, Woolloomooloo NSW 2011
“I was born into a takeaway family,” Executive Chef, Frank Shek explains. “Suburban Chinese where you get your chicken cashew nuts, sweet and sour beef, that kind of Cantonese grub.”
For the inner wok stars
Just because you’re not cooking in a commercial kitchen, doesn’t mean you can’t get great wok flavours at home, says Frank.
The essentials
“You've got to have your ginger, garlic, shallots, chillies, a couple of soy sauces – one light, one dark – and we're in business.” 
China Doll's head chef Frank Shek and his crab and prawn toast. Source: China Doll
76 Pirie St, Adelaide SA 5000
“[Northern Italian food] leans on the influences of other European countries close to it, like Austria, Germany and France,” Head Chef, Andrew Davies explains.
Pasta like a pro!
Andrew says don’t go for the cheapest model: “You’re better off buying the $70 to $100 one from a home ware place. The $30 one doesn’t last long, it’ll rattle and stick, the gauge mechanism doesn’t works sometimes.”
The essentials
“For Italian you need salt and pepper; good olive oil and good extra-virgin olive oil for finishing; nice Parmesan, nice pecorino and that’s about it. Definitely make your own pasta when you can.”
The Osteria Oggi team: Mimi Rivers, Max O'Callaghan and Andrew Davis Source: Jacqui Way
5/23, Barangaroo Avenue, Barangaroo NSW 2000
“In Istanbul, we eat exactly like this,” Executive Chef, Somer Sivrioglu says, referring to Anason’s menu of charcoal octopus, spicy camel sujuk (sausage) and dried eggplant dolma. “[It’s] small meze: lots of olive oil, seafood and, you know, drinking rakı or wine.”
Semantics and staples
Garlic and onion aside, Somer says there's one protein that reigns supreme: “I come from a culture [where] when you talk about meat, . If it is any other meat you name it by the animal, but if you say ‘meat’, it is lamb.”
The essentials
Somer tells us: “I always suggest to people, if you want to add a bit of Turkish flavour to what you do, replace the tomato paste you're using in your vegetable dishes with half-tomato half-capsicum paste.”
Renowned chef Somer Sivrioglu has been crafting Turkish food for Sydneysiders for more than 10 years. Source: Somer Sivrioglu
4 East Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000
“Every two years we do a flip,” Head Chef, Duncan Welgemoed explains. “So we went from South [Africa] to North, and after North, we’ll go East and West.
Fire up
Duncan Welgemoed says a good charcoal barbecue is key when it comes to cooking African at home. “You can cook anything from boerewors and whole fish to grilled meat and , too.”
The essentials
Chilli is the spicy bedrock of many African cuisines. “You’ll always find chilli in some form,” Duncan says. “In Africa, there’s everything from chilli in spice mixes to peri-peri sauce.”
Chef and Africola owner Duncan Welgemoed serves up Maghreb cuisine in Adelaide. Source: Africola
133 Ormond Rd, Elwood VIC 3184
“I wanted to move away from this demanding and expensive pursuit,” Executive Chef, Geoff Lindsay says of his time in the fine dining fast-lane. “And reconnect with what it was I loved about cooking and sharing food.”
Book your ticket
When it comes to honing your Vietnamese cooking skills, Geoff Lindsay says hands-on learning is the way to go. “Travel to Vietnam, eat, ask questions and go on a guided food or market tour."
The essentials
“Herbs are by far the most revered and essential ingredients in Vietnamese cuisine. The five key spices are cassia bark – not cinnamon as is often incorrectly translated – black cardamom, star anise, clove, coriander seeds,” he lists. “These are the key spices in pho and represent the five fundamental tastes and senses or ngũ vị: spicy (metal), sour (wood), bitter (fire), salty (water) and sweet (earth).”
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Dinner at Dandelion | Owner and executive chef Geoff Lindsay Source: Dandelion
