In my segment Beers with Brad, I enjoy a beer with some well known hospitality professionals.
This segment sees me interview Chef Matt Stone from The Greenhouse in Perth.
Matt is very confident and well accomplished for a Chef so young. His performance on Iron Chef against Neil Perry was certainly impressive.
Here's the interview we had over a pint of Coopers Pale Ale:
Q. What beer are you drinking?
A. Coopers pale ale my favourite beer.
Q. Why is it your favourite?
A. Coopers pale ale in Margaret River, if you're not drinking it as Settlers Tavern, you're not considered a local, and um, I've just been sort of sixteen hanging out in the pub and that's what everyone drank so that's what I drank, that's what my old man drank and we're lucky enough to have it on tap here so I'm pretty stoke with that one.
Q. Why has the Greenhouse been such a success?
A. The Greenhouse has been a massive hit in Perth in the last, well it's just two years that we've been open. I suppose we've really brought a point of difference to the hospitality industry not only in Perth but in Australia, with the..way we build our restaurants, the way we run our restaurants, through to the products that we serve, products that we source, and serve them on a plate, which here isn't really a plate, you know we've got lots of sort of quirky different things that we serve our food on... it's a very interesting place, it's very visual and ethically it's.. you know, it's where we think a lot of people should be heading, with not only hospitality but offices and just urban environments. We're up here on the rooftop where we.. have twenty four cubic metres of growing space in the middle of St Georges terrace in the city so there's no excuse that people can't be growing their own herbs, fruits, vegetables, whatever it may be, on their small terrace balcony or whatever it is in the city. Yeah, you know there's so many different elements that make up the Greenhouse and I think a lot of, a lot of our customers take it for different things, a lot of people use it as a cafe, a lot of people use it for..a night time cocktail bar,... lunches, that sort of stuff so we really appeal to a really broad market in a lot of different ways.
Q. Tell us a little about your background and how you got involved in cooking?
A. I started cooking almost ten years ago now. I left school really early down in Margaret River, school wasn't for me. I started cooking..in a pretty average cafe down there, washing dishes, really loved the environment, the atmosphere and the people. Went on to work at Leeuwin Estate winery which is an internationally acclaimed winery in Margaret River.. I worked there for about two years with some really good Chefs before moving up to Perth and working with David Coomer for about five years. I was originally a business partner and helped open Pata Negra on Stirling Highway Nedlands and then about two and a half years ago signed up for this gig and haven't looked back since.
Q. What's the most important thing you look for in a restaurant when you eat out?
A. When I'm looking for a restaurant to eat at? I'm lucky enough that I get to travel a lot through the East Coast and through Asia and Europe so and stuff like that so I'm probably a little more spoiled than some, but um. Here in Perth I mean it's quite hard, there's a lot of bad food in restaurants, there's a lot of produce going to waste in silly ways, but.. I suppose people that are really trying, people that have a bit of an ethos as to how they source their food, people that are creating cool fun environments, and I think that the Perth food scene is really kicking off, and the small bar scene is coming along nicely. There's a lot of development in the city so I suppose I'll keep my eye on that and see what's happening, but places like Rockpool come to town and spend ten million dollars on an amazing fit out and serve some of the best beef in Australia if not the world, so there's obviously those sort of draw cards but at the same time of got a couple of local restaurants in Vic Park, like the Prophet and Good One BBQ Restaurant that are cheap, cheerful and just awesome, you know, with mates and a couple of beers on the weekend and stuff like that, so it's a time and place thing, who you're with, what you're looking for, but.. I suppose at the end of the day if you're going to be serving... good food... being friendly as well..there's nothing worse than someone, sort of looking down at you and making you feel scummy for being in their restaurant, whatever, it's just you want a comfortable, friendly environment where everyone's cool, the food's cool and they're not trying to rip you off which is often the case in Perth.
Q. What's the best way to get started as a Chef/
A. To get started as young Chef, I suppose there's a lot of really good programs in place in high schools these days, there's a lot of students doing pre-traineeships and stuff which wasn't available when I started cooking, I didn't really hang around school long enough to do that anyway, but um, that sort of stuff is really great. I mean I'm not a qualified Chef on paper, essentially so I've never finished an apprenticeship, I suppose it's just having a passion and a love for food, being willing to give up a lot is a big one. Being a Chef you've got to give away your weekends and nights, I basically don't surf any more which I used t do every single day, obviously I live in Perth so it's kind of hard but I just don't have time. So it's a lot of sacrifice but at the same time if you're really in to it it's a really rewarding job to do, but.. just hard work and just read lots and lots of books.
Q. How long does it take to become proficient in the kitchen
A. To stand your ground in the kitchen, I mean the apprenticeship now has been reduced to three years, which I'm quite skeptical on to be perfectly honest, I've got a couple of kids, newly qualified Chefs and there still at the same level as the younger apprentices... it takes a lot of experience. I was in the kitchen for about six years..well it was even seven years before I..stepped up to a senior role. It takes a lot of time, a lot of hard work but like anything if you stick at it you'll definitely get there and it's a matter of working with the right people as well.
Q. If you had one secret to cooking good food, what would it be?
A. The secret to cooking good food..keep it simple, use..nice produce to begin with and don't mess around with it too much, you don't have to... I mean I have the utmost respect for people like Heston Blumenthal and Feran Adria for the food they do I think it's absolutely amazing but it's not food you're going to cook at home, it's not food we can execute in restaurants here in WA especially, Australia..We have amazing produce, we have great producers and just fantastic food around us we don't need to do much with it..I think it shows a lot of confidence as a young Chef to just char grill a piece of beef and serve it with a chunk of lemon and some broccoli... to me stuff like that, that's delicious that's what I want to eat but I suppose it takes a whole new confidence to be able to put that on a plate and serve it, which is what we do here at the Greenhouse... at first it was up and down but now we've sort of stuck to our guns and it's been really well received.
Q. What are some of the problems that young Chefs experience when they start out and what's your advice to them?
A. Problems with young Chefs? I suppose the biggest thing..for me also is just the hours you have to work it's really draining. You're on your feet for..between eight to twelve hours sometimes often without a break..you're lifting heavy bags of flour, you're going up and down stairs it's quite a physically demanding job and I suppose once you can get over that barrier you're half way there but unless you're at the top you're always going to cop stick from everyone the whole way down and that's..just the way it is and I suppose it's not near as bad as it used to be... it's just the hierarchy sort of system which I try not to have in our kitchen but inevitably it sort of does happen so you've just got to have thick skin and stick through it.
Q. Which Chef has had the most influence on your career?
A. The Chef that's influenced me the most in Australia would definitely be Neil Perry... he's opened some amazing venues... of different calibers..steakhouses... amazing Chinese style restaurants... also though he's had a lot of failed restaurants so..he's taken the good with the bad but he's come out on top and he just does amazing things with food. He really takes the Australian approach to food he's not necessarily mixing cultures on one plate but he's knowledgeable on a lot of different cultures, Australian produce... I've admired him from when I first started cooking and I'm now lucky enough to be sort of friends with him, hang out with him, have dinner every now and then..I really sort of looked up to him.
Q. Which cook books do you recommend?
A. Yeah we're constantly reading cook books..it's sort of hard for me now to keep motivated and keep creating new dishes obviously because I'm at the top so I'm constantly teaching and same with my sous chefs as well so we're constantly reading books, at the moment we just got Philippa Sibley's dessert book which is..Philipa Sibley is... probably the most amazing pastry Chef Australia has ever seen. Here and Donovan Cook had Est Est Est in the nineties in Melbourne which really set the bench mark for fine dining food in Australia at that time. Also momofuku, David Chang in New York..He's got a really cool restaurant doing some really cool, not necessarily fusion but sort of Korean American sort of food... which is cool... we just got the Cumulus inc book..which is a restaurant I eat at every time I'm in Melbourne again the serve food..similarly to how we do, very simple using great produce... Constantly we're in book shops buying new books, reading, we might not even read the book we might just flick through, flick through see a picture and that's enough to trigger an idea... I think as a young Chef reading is probably one of the most important things you could be doing.
This segment sees me interview Chef Matt Stone from The Greenhouse in Perth.
Matt is very confident and well accomplished for a Chef so young. His performance on Iron Chef against Neil Perry was certainly impressive.
Here's the interview we had over a pint of Coopers Pale Ale:
Q. What beer are you drinking?
A. Coopers pale ale my favourite beer.
Q. Why is it your favourite?
A. Coopers pale ale in Margaret River, if you're not drinking it as Settlers Tavern, you're not considered a local, and um, I've just been sort of sixteen hanging out in the pub and that's what everyone drank so that's what I drank, that's what my old man drank and we're lucky enough to have it on tap here so I'm pretty stoke with that one.
Q. Why has the Greenhouse been such a success?
A. The Greenhouse has been a massive hit in Perth in the last, well it's just two years that we've been open. I suppose we've really brought a point of difference to the hospitality industry not only in Perth but in Australia, with the..way we build our restaurants, the way we run our restaurants, through to the products that we serve, products that we source, and serve them on a plate, which here isn't really a plate, you know we've got lots of sort of quirky different things that we serve our food on... it's a very interesting place, it's very visual and ethically it's.. you know, it's where we think a lot of people should be heading, with not only hospitality but offices and just urban environments. We're up here on the rooftop where we.. have twenty four cubic metres of growing space in the middle of St Georges terrace in the city so there's no excuse that people can't be growing their own herbs, fruits, vegetables, whatever it may be, on their small terrace balcony or whatever it is in the city. Yeah, you know there's so many different elements that make up the Greenhouse and I think a lot of, a lot of our customers take it for different things, a lot of people use it as a cafe, a lot of people use it for..a night time cocktail bar,... lunches, that sort of stuff so we really appeal to a really broad market in a lot of different ways.
Q. Tell us a little about your background and how you got involved in cooking?
A. I started cooking almost ten years ago now. I left school really early down in Margaret River, school wasn't for me. I started cooking..in a pretty average cafe down there, washing dishes, really loved the environment, the atmosphere and the people. Went on to work at Leeuwin Estate winery which is an internationally acclaimed winery in Margaret River.. I worked there for about two years with some really good Chefs before moving up to Perth and working with David Coomer for about five years. I was originally a business partner and helped open Pata Negra on Stirling Highway Nedlands and then about two and a half years ago signed up for this gig and haven't looked back since.
Q. What's the most important thing you look for in a restaurant when you eat out?
A. When I'm looking for a restaurant to eat at? I'm lucky enough that I get to travel a lot through the East Coast and through Asia and Europe so and stuff like that so I'm probably a little more spoiled than some, but um. Here in Perth I mean it's quite hard, there's a lot of bad food in restaurants, there's a lot of produce going to waste in silly ways, but.. I suppose people that are really trying, people that have a bit of an ethos as to how they source their food, people that are creating cool fun environments, and I think that the Perth food scene is really kicking off, and the small bar scene is coming along nicely. There's a lot of development in the city so I suppose I'll keep my eye on that and see what's happening, but places like Rockpool come to town and spend ten million dollars on an amazing fit out and serve some of the best beef in Australia if not the world, so there's obviously those sort of draw cards but at the same time of got a couple of local restaurants in Vic Park, like the Prophet and Good One BBQ Restaurant that are cheap, cheerful and just awesome, you know, with mates and a couple of beers on the weekend and stuff like that, so it's a time and place thing, who you're with, what you're looking for, but.. I suppose at the end of the day if you're going to be serving... good food... being friendly as well..there's nothing worse than someone, sort of looking down at you and making you feel scummy for being in their restaurant, whatever, it's just you want a comfortable, friendly environment where everyone's cool, the food's cool and they're not trying to rip you off which is often the case in Perth.
Q. What's the best way to get started as a Chef/
A. To get started as young Chef, I suppose there's a lot of really good programs in place in high schools these days, there's a lot of students doing pre-traineeships and stuff which wasn't available when I started cooking, I didn't really hang around school long enough to do that anyway, but um, that sort of stuff is really great. I mean I'm not a qualified Chef on paper, essentially so I've never finished an apprenticeship, I suppose it's just having a passion and a love for food, being willing to give up a lot is a big one. Being a Chef you've got to give away your weekends and nights, I basically don't surf any more which I used t do every single day, obviously I live in Perth so it's kind of hard but I just don't have time. So it's a lot of sacrifice but at the same time if you're really in to it it's a really rewarding job to do, but.. just hard work and just read lots and lots of books.
Q. How long does it take to become proficient in the kitchen
A. To stand your ground in the kitchen, I mean the apprenticeship now has been reduced to three years, which I'm quite skeptical on to be perfectly honest, I've got a couple of kids, newly qualified Chefs and there still at the same level as the younger apprentices... it takes a lot of experience. I was in the kitchen for about six years..well it was even seven years before I..stepped up to a senior role. It takes a lot of time, a lot of hard work but like anything if you stick at it you'll definitely get there and it's a matter of working with the right people as well.
Q. If you had one secret to cooking good food, what would it be?
A. The secret to cooking good food..keep it simple, use..nice produce to begin with and don't mess around with it too much, you don't have to... I mean I have the utmost respect for people like Heston Blumenthal and Feran Adria for the food they do I think it's absolutely amazing but it's not food you're going to cook at home, it's not food we can execute in restaurants here in WA especially, Australia..We have amazing produce, we have great producers and just fantastic food around us we don't need to do much with it..I think it shows a lot of confidence as a young Chef to just char grill a piece of beef and serve it with a chunk of lemon and some broccoli... to me stuff like that, that's delicious that's what I want to eat but I suppose it takes a whole new confidence to be able to put that on a plate and serve it, which is what we do here at the Greenhouse... at first it was up and down but now we've sort of stuck to our guns and it's been really well received.
Q. What are some of the problems that young Chefs experience when they start out and what's your advice to them?
A. Problems with young Chefs? I suppose the biggest thing..for me also is just the hours you have to work it's really draining. You're on your feet for..between eight to twelve hours sometimes often without a break..you're lifting heavy bags of flour, you're going up and down stairs it's quite a physically demanding job and I suppose once you can get over that barrier you're half way there but unless you're at the top you're always going to cop stick from everyone the whole way down and that's..just the way it is and I suppose it's not near as bad as it used to be... it's just the hierarchy sort of system which I try not to have in our kitchen but inevitably it sort of does happen so you've just got to have thick skin and stick through it.
Q. Which Chef has had the most influence on your career?
A. The Chef that's influenced me the most in Australia would definitely be Neil Perry... he's opened some amazing venues... of different calibers..steakhouses... amazing Chinese style restaurants... also though he's had a lot of failed restaurants so..he's taken the good with the bad but he's come out on top and he just does amazing things with food. He really takes the Australian approach to food he's not necessarily mixing cultures on one plate but he's knowledgeable on a lot of different cultures, Australian produce... I've admired him from when I first started cooking and I'm now lucky enough to be sort of friends with him, hang out with him, have dinner every now and then..I really sort of looked up to him.
Q. Which cook books do you recommend?
A. Yeah we're constantly reading cook books..it's sort of hard for me now to keep motivated and keep creating new dishes obviously because I'm at the top so I'm constantly teaching and same with my sous chefs as well so we're constantly reading books, at the moment we just got Philippa Sibley's dessert book which is..Philipa Sibley is... probably the most amazing pastry Chef Australia has ever seen. Here and Donovan Cook had Est Est Est in the nineties in Melbourne which really set the bench mark for fine dining food in Australia at that time. Also momofuku, David Chang in New York..He's got a really cool restaurant doing some really cool, not necessarily fusion but sort of Korean American sort of food... which is cool... we just got the Cumulus inc book..which is a restaurant I eat at every time I'm in Melbourne again the serve food..similarly to how we do, very simple using great produce... Constantly we're in book shops buying new books, reading, we might not even read the book we might just flick through, flick through see a picture and that's enough to trigger an idea... I think as a young Chef reading is probably one of the most important things you could be doing.
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