Gomez Braham is a practical man. While acknowledging that chefs’ whites do look good he has also been in the game long enough to know the reality of chefs’ whites which hardly ever remain white and need to be ironed before every service to keep them looking good. Gomez’s team at wear black t-shirts; they don’t need to be ironed and they’re easier to maintain…or replace. Gomez is here to put up good food. He’s not that fussed about taking photos of his food; he’s all about producing deliciousness and making sure everyone is having a good time.
I’ve been reading that you’ve worked in top places in Australia and around the world, when did you start that path as a chef?
Professionally, or in general? When I was a child, my mother was fantastic at making cakes. She started a bootleg muffin and brownie business when I was a wee snapper and I started helping her out in the kitchen. We used to make Christmas cakes out of the home kitchen and sell them to David Jones and delis around Sydney. Then David Jones started coming and getting our brownies and Christmas cakes and shipping them all around Australia.
My father was quite into food as well and we’d eat out a lot and then I started cooking at home. It seems to often be the way that chefs either grew up with someone that couldn’t cook and so they had to, or in a family where food has been really important and it’s a natural progression. I was living with my father in my teenage years and he was away a lot on business so as a 14, 15 year old, it became a necessity to learn how to cook because I was there by myself. There’s only so much toast you can eat.
So from there you thought you could do that for a living?
I finished…well I wouldn’t say finished…I bombed out of high school and was in a position where I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I’d been kicked out of home and was staying at a friend’s house and her mother asked me what I wanted to do with my life. She asked me what I enjoyed doing, and I enjoyed cooking, so I thought I’d give that a go. So, armed with not even a CV, just a bit of bravado, I called a few restaurants, had a few interviews and a few trials and got a job.
What were those first months and years like?
They were hard. I started as an apprentice 18 years ago. It was a pretty fire and brimstone situation to be in. I was working at a place called Aria, which is a massive juggernaut in Sydney with 18 chefs. It was a very busy venue doing 250 covers a day. It was a baptism of fire.
Not everyone would make it through that, so what do you think you have that helped you persevere through that time.
Resilience, I suppose. I’d had a fairly hard upbringing so I just kept going. Some people wilt and others think, fuck you, I’ll take it and be back the next day to do it all again.
What is it in particular about cooking that appeals to you? Is it satisfying to feed people or is it the creativity?
It’s the food. That’s the only reason to do it. It tastes good. You can make something that tastes average, amazing. It’s the whole process as well. It’s systematic and regimented in the kitchen and if its not, it doesn’t work. That’s what I enjoy.
Were there people along the way who shaped that idea?
Any kitchen is run to a certain standard in the better restaurants; consistent and regimental and I love that. I was exposed to good restaurants where technique and respect is instilled in the staff.
From Sydney, what was your path?
I left Sydney in 2006 and went travelling for 6 months with my then girlfriend and we travelled through India and south-east Asia and ended up in London. I stayed in London for 2 ½ years, working for Tom Aikens for just over two years and then six months for Richard Corrigan and then went to the South of France and worked on a yacht for a French billionaire.
Antibes?
Off Antibes, Monaco, Nice, St Tropez.
So that was small private dining situations?
Yeah. It was a maximum of 12 people on the yacht.
And probably money was no object.
If he wanted something flown in, it was brought in by helicopter. Yeah money wasn’t an objective. It was fun. I was basically given carted blanche and a black Amex card.
Did you get to go in to all those wonderful French markets?
We did all our shopping on a daily basis. We were rarely out at anchor. Out of the six months I was on the yacht, the boss was probably there for eight weeks. We were mostly in dock. I went into the markets every day to buy fresh ingredients. There was an amazing array of ingredients. Fresh bread, fresh croissants.
And all the different stinky cheeses…
I gorged myself on cheese. I love cheese. I’m getting married in two weeks time and we’re having a cheese mountain.
I love it.
All my experiences have broadened my horizon and it has been amazing and it’s a great job. It’s an adventure.
So where to from there?
From France I moved back to Sydney and worked at Pier for a year. I got a phone call from a chef I had worked for previously who was opening a restaurant in Hong Kong. So for about a year I worked in a little place in Surry Hills called The Pelican until I went over to Hong Kong. That was Basque and it was fantastic and then I went to Hong Kong for just over a year of working crazy hours and opening a restaurant over there which was very successful.
What style food was that?
I’d say contemporary cuisine…just to throw a blanket over it all. It was great fun and very interesting because of the great access to food. Nothing grows in Hong Kong. If you want pigeons or foie gras from France, it comes in fresh. If you want oysters or pork from Japan or crabs from the States, fruit from the Amazon, everything is available all year round.
It’s not a very good carbon footprint. But what can you do in that location, I guess?
It’s good to try and reduce the carbon footprint and I would love to live in a world that’s a lot healthier, but it’s a challenge in a kitchen. We have our lights on all day and night. Restaurants drain energy.
That’s true. We hear a lot today about places having zero wastage but there’s a lot more to be done.
You’ve been in a real range of places and environments and suppliers that you’ve had to work with. I was reading some of the reviews online for Archie Green and some people described it as Eurasian. How would you describe the food here?
I love Asian food. I always have and it’s what I like eating. Coming from restaurants that have a strong European ethos and training, I like to try and mix the two. Some things match, some things don’t. I suppose it’s a mix of the two. It’s just food I like to cook.
When you come to putting a menu together of food you like to cook, where do you start?
Sometimes I’ll look through past menus and pick and choose dishes and rework them. I’ll look at what’s in season and start planning from there.
Are you using local producers?
Where I can. I will try and go with Victorian or Australian producers first but sometimes there’s better produce overseas.
How do you find the Melbourne dining public? That’s a bit of a barbed question, really, isn’t it?
What I’ve learned is that Melbourne does big restaurants really well. People seem to dine out a hell of a lot in Melbourne. It’s fantastic that you can go out any night of the week and get great food. I know when I’m not working, I am part of that dining public and you get to look around at other tables and see how much people love eating out. You see these big institutions like Chin Chin and they are consistently busy with lines out the front. You don’t see that as much in Sydney. I think it’s great that so many restaurants still have an avid following.
Do you feel as though you have to follow trends or do you just do your own thing? Do you get caught up in social media?
No. I don’t believe in garnishing every dish with 107 types of edible flower. Baby herbs have a time and place and shouldn’t be there just to fluff up a dish; they should contribute to the dish.
I try not to get caught up in trends. I love Instagram. It’s great to see what other chefs are doing and I went through a phase where I took photos of my food but these days I don’t really have time. I use it more as a tool to see what other chefs are doing.
What would you say to new chefs coming into the industry?
Do it. Go and work somewhere where you’ll work really long hours for little pay. Do that for four years and then make a decision whether you want to continue or not.
That’s the reality, isn’t it?
Yes. You have to work very hard and you have to be ready to be pushed. Don’t go in half-arsed. If you really love cooking, prove it to yourself that you do. Then step back and see if you do.
The glamour comes later.
At the end of the day, if we’re short staffed, I still wash dishes occasionally. I don’t think there’s any glamour. Maybe one day…
I think it’s a great job. You can travel the word and have some great experiences. I’ve met great friends through cooking. I met some of them 15 years ago and they are now some of my closes confidants and friends. I wouldn’t trade that for the world. All my experiences have broadened my horizon and it has been amazing and it’s a great job. It’s an adventure.
10 Katherine Place, Melbourne