Anuj Sanghi

Hi, Anuj. It’s so nice to be here at Bar Mercado. I guess the name means it’s a market bar.

In Spanish, yes, that’s what it means.

And you’re right opposite Queen Victoria Market. Does the name suggest a certain vibe?

So, yes, of course, market according to me is a place where people catch up to socialise. I think that is what we are offering over here to whoever walks in. And I think that is what our motto is. We are providing a place where people can come, they can share, they can drink, they can eat, they can socialise, the exchange of cultures, the exchange of knowledge, that is what Mercado is about. I think that is why we went for the name Mercado. We bring that to the table and also to focus on the market fresh produce that we get pretty much every day on a daily basis.

Do you go across to the market every day?

Yes, I personally go every day, and I talk to my veggie suppliers, I ask how’s the market, what other challenges they’re facing and I go handpick all of the things by myself. I love that.

That must be such an exciting way to start the day.

It is really exciting because I go and when I see something that is even not on the menu and I see that, okay, this is amazing, we can whip up something for that then we get that on board and then we create something special for the day itself.

And you’re doing South American cuisine?

We are South American, but also focussed on Spanish and Latin cuisine as well. Our menu is more like a seasonal menu and we want more flexibility to change it every season. So that’s why a lot of our dishes on our menu are covering a lot of regions as well. So that is what we are focussing on.

Why that kind of food? What drew you to it?

I think when we were out and about for a hunt for a venue, this was a Mexican restaurant before. So we thought that we don’t really want to take away that gem from the local neighbourhood, the community. We wanted to give it a little bit of our touch as well. Also the other thing, professionally, I’ve cooked a few different cuisines before, but this is something very different for me, which excited me more than anything else. And I really want to keep challenging myself as well so that I’m on my toes for also my team as well so that we all are developing and learning as well as we go because I don’t really want to restrict my knowledge to something that I’ve already done before. So that was the idea behind it. And then that’s why we wanted not to take that Mexican gist away from the community, but we expanded that and we went for a South American, Spanish, Latin theme.

What does it mean? What does the menu look like?

On the menu, we’ve got different dishes now. For example, we are doing an Argentinian dish which is woodfired chorizo, with some chimichurri and smoked butter. Then we are also doing some churros, which is the highlight, and I think most of the people are loving it so far, it’s served with some cinnamon sugar, dark chocolate sauce. It’s a mix of classic and a mix of some blends as well, and our take on that food. We’ve got some beef tacos, we’ve got some freshly shucked oysters, fresh from the market with some chilli jalapeno and lime granita. Very fresh, very summery. And we’ve got some shared main style food as well. We’ve got an Angus steak with some chimmichuri, some Spanish red wine juice, some chips. And also we are doing a few shared style sandwiches as well, which is a traditional Cuban sandwich, a slow cooked lamb shoulder sandwich, which is a paquito from Spain.

So delicious. Sounds so good. And have you got a woodfired oven in the kitchen?

We’ve got a hibachi grill in the kitchen, and that is where we do most of the cooking. All the proteins are cooked on the hibachi grill and also we’ve got this really nice vegetarian dish, which is a wood fired corn dish and that even that is finished off the grill.

When did you open?

We opened roughly about a couple of months back, so we are very fresh.

What’s the reception been like?

it’s been all right, I feel like, of course, we can get more of a crowd in, but I feel with a lot of factors affecting us like the tram construction, a bit of the weather change as well. And also since we are relatively new, not a lot of people know about us here so that is what we are trying to outreach as well and kind of try to attract more and more. But it’s been good. Whoever’s been visited us so far, they have really enjoyed the food and that really makes us happy. It kind of makes the effort worth it because hearing those words, when they come in, “this is so delicious, it’s so nice,” and all those compliments, it just motivates everyone, not just me and that is what we in hospitality we live for. We just want to offer the best of our potential, best of our skills, best of our traditions and you know, best of the culture. So this is our way of giving back to the community and I’m glad that people are enjoying it so far.

I love that. When you embark on a new cuisine and you said that you’ve cooked a few different kinds, where do you start? How do you learn about that food?

I came to Australia as a student, where I studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Melbourne campus as a pastry to become a pastry chef. I started as an intern in Maha restaurant, which is a Middle Eastern cuisine and then I moved from there to Rockpool Bar and grill at Crown to learn more about the Australian produce and the Australian style of cooking and also they are big on grill. I wanted to learn the concept of open fire cooking. Then after that, I went to Society restaurant to refine my skills and it’s a well-invested kitchen, of course, so it was a great learning experience over there. Then after that, I moved to Antara, which was a pre-opening serum. So I was part of the preopening over there because that was, I think, my first step to learn more about the pre-opening steps of a restaurant. So that one day, if this day comes, I’m ready to know what I’m getting myself into. And then my latest role before this was a head pastry chef at Entrecôte.

That’s a lot of different cuisines. But to know the nuances of the flavours of a particular country whose food you’re going to cook, so opening Bar Mercado, would you look at books? Do you look online? Have you been to Spain or South America?

I haven’t been to Spain yet, but that is definitely next on my list. But as I said, open fire cooking always interested me. I definitely got a lot of knowledge from my books, of course, and I’ve got a lot of connections with Colombian friends who are chefs as well. I’ve cooked with them. Whenever there’s gatherings, they would set up big ass barbeques in their back yard and we would be smoking some proteins and all. And that is really exciting. How they build that gathering and how everybody is just enjoying the simplicity of the food and that’s what excited me to go for it.

The one thing that I love about being a chef is the shared thing that we have, the shared passion that we have. I definitely love my team at Mercado. I definitely love the places I’ve worked so far and I’m really glad for all the mentors that I’ve had and the industry professionals who have refined me, trained me to be at that level where I can respect the food, respect the culture, respect the produce, and it means a lot to me. I think that’s the best part about being a chef. I’m glad that this could be my way to give it back to the community.

Anuj Sanghi, Bar Mercado

You moved here to study to be a chef? What was happening? Are you from New Delhi?

Yes, I’m from New Delhi.

So when you were growing up, did you think you always wanted to be a chef or where did that idea come from?

I think that idea came from mostly my grandfather and my mum. I used to cook with my mum in the kitchen growing up and also I used to take a lot of trips with her down to the weekly markets and the local markets where we used to focus more on how she used to select her produce and be very strict and affirmative, like, okay that really excited me. That concept of cooking: the knowledge, the experience that she shared and also the interest, the smile of that on her face is something nostalgic for me. The other important person in my life was my grandfather. He was from a business background. My family is from a business background, but he always taught me this one thing that I was to find my own way to give back to the community. He said, you don’t really have to do what we are doing or you don’t really have to do what you think you should be doing in terms of what others are guiding you to. Always listen to your heart and see what it says. And for some reason, it just stuck. My heart is into cooking right now and I think this is something that I need to pursue. So to give myself a little test, I enrolled myself in a hospitality university in India, but I studied in Goa. I left Delhi. I wanted to leave my comfort zone first so that I block all these people who are telling me, no, you’re good in this, you’re good in that. So I went to Goa, I studied management in Goa for three years. When I started working with Grand Hyatt in Goa, that’s how the journey began. So that time period was a bit hard, honestly, as a chef, because it was very labour-intensive back in India and you put in a lot of hours. After that, I worked there for two years, then somebody suggested to me, okay, that Le Cordon Bleu could be a good step up and then see if I could actually try and get an admission over there and then I came to Australia.

Why Australia?

I asked a few of my friends also who have been to other countries as well. There were a few main reasons over here in Australia, the job opportunities were good and a lot of my friends were here already from the same university. I think they sounded more convincing when it came to Australia and they also told me about how the Australian producers, how the Australian businesses are run and the Australian option suited me the most. That’s why I came to Australia.

When you first arrived, what year did you arrive?

I came in 2018 to Australia.

You’re still quite new. Was there was there a culture shock?

I think it was a bit of culture shock, for sure, from where I have travelled, especially places like Europe, there was a bit of culture shock. But I think I did a little bit of my research of my own as well and it really helped out a lot and then always I’m a person who really respects other cultures and I really want to be a part of that culture as well. So I think it was really a great experience for me in general to meet these new people, to meet these new faces, to build up my own confidence as well. It was a really good step up for me and I’ve really enjoyed the experience that I’ve had so far.

Le Cordon Bleu is such a good course. I feel like you really can explore lots of different aspects and it must give you good connections to industry as well, does it?

Absolutely. I think a lot of chefs from Le Cordon Bleu are professionals and they have worked at are really great places. So they definitely have those connections. Even my mentor chef, Sebastian, he’s the one who helped me with this project as well. He’s connected with a lot of chefs within the industry, not just in Melbourne, outside of Melbourne as well. And that is how I got my first internship as well at Maha.

You’ve worked at such good places in Melbourne. You were head pastry chef at Entrecôte and you were specifically pastry at Cordon Bleu, or was that just part of the course?

I studied to be a pastry chef. But then as I developed in restaurants, I developed more. I was trained in the larder section at Maha. Then when I moved to Rockpool, they offered to train me in pasta, fry, vege, pans and all. I started doing that also because then for me, it was just food. For me, I was like, you tell me how to do it and if somebody is willing to teach me, I’ll never turn that down. I’ll be the happiest person and then I just started getting inclined towards that.

What do you love about being a chef?

The one thing that I love about being a chef is the shared thing that we have, the shared passion that we have. I definitely love my team at Mercado. I definitely love the places I’ve worked so far and I’m really glad for all the mentors that I’ve had and the industry professionals who have refined me, trained me to be at that level where I can respect the food, respect the culture, respect the produce, and it means a lot to me. I think that’s the best part about being a chef. I’m glad that this could be my way to give it back to the community.

I feel like it’s quite a steep trajectory to go from learning to cook, now owning your own place. So, congratulations. I guess then it’s not just about cooking, is it? You’ve got to think about all that but that’s maybe where your family background comes in the business side of.

Yes. That’s absolutely correct. Honestly, there are literally some days. I’m just like, man, I really just want to be behind the pass, cooking what I want to cook because that was the idea, but yes, there is definitely a lot of things happening in the background as well. And you really need to pay attention to those as well. Because now you’re looking at this as an overall. It’s a business now, whether you like it or not, it’s not just a place where people will come to eat. For them, it is that. But then for me, it’s a business as well. I know I don’t really want to treat it as a business, but then obviously given the economy and everything, it just gets too hard. I have to step out of my comfort zone and actually deal with those issues. That is where my team actually supports me and then they take charge as well. So we do have a hierarchy, but it’s more about taking that at Mercado to our teammates and they’re very happy with that opportunity as well. And that is where we also see that, okay, how much passion, potential and efforts are they showing as an individual as well? Making mistakes is fine. We all make mistakes, even I make mistakes, but then in the end of the day, the result, the learning from the mistake is what we want them to take home when they leave Mercado. So the next day, when they come and they’ll be like, okay, now I know what I did wrong and I know how to fix that. So that confidence we need to boost them up and that’s what we are about. But yes, of course, it’s a really different world.

And then you’re really balancing that creativity with food costs, aren’t you, as well? You can’t just do whatever you like on the plate. It has to be tempered with the cost.

Absolutely. We need to be fair to our customers as well. We can not just randomly get something that is crazy expensive. We are not that type of food. Honestly, we are not fine dining. We are more like a casual elegant place where we want to offer the freshest available within the range that people would be comfortable spending, especially in these tough times. We just want everyone to be a part of that Mercado family, that we are trying to build over here and just for them to come and give us a shot, have some food, try it out, you really don’t have to worry about how much you spend over here because you can be like literally spending around 40 to 60 bucks on average and trust me, you’ll be leaving satisfied with what you get.

Although it’s not fine dining, you’ve had a lot of fine dining experience. Do you find that you still use those techniques from fine dining, even when you’re doing simple food?

Yes, we do. I think, whether you are doing fine dining or not, I think one of the most important things is that you have your basics clear. Like even if you’re working in a finding, for example, making a meringue is very basic. But if you can’t get that right, then your next step is not going to be right. So that is what we are about. We are using some of those techniques. So for example, smoke butter, we are smoking our butter with some apple wood. Now we are doing blending, we are doing all of these. We are using the syphon guns, liquid nitrogen. But that’s what, like we are using all these techniques, but in a manner, that will suit our requirements. And nothing over the top on that. So we don’t want to like, as I said, we don’t want to overinvest also on our food and we still want to focus on the flavour profile of it.

Well, I’m very excited because I’m going to be eating here tonight and I can’t wait to have all those flavours, but just for a last question, I feel as though you obviously loved food and you were drawn to being a chef and then I feel as though you’ve been very intentional in the places that you’ve chosen to work in and now you have your own place. What would your advice be to a young person starting out as a chef?

I think what I chose all the time was the mentor rather than the place. I think a great mentor can really help you mould the type of chef you want to become. I think for the young chefs out there, I would say this one thing, follow your heart. See what sort of food you really want to do and then choose the place and go for it. I know people would be talking about a lot of restaurants, which are doing great, which is good, of course, but then also think again. You could be at a very high end place and you still may not end up learning a lot or you could be at a mediocre place or some place where people haven’t heard much about, but they’re doing some really great food, something like a hidden gem and you may get to learn a lot about it. Then with the type of place you’re going to see what sort of produce you’re dealing with, what sort of techniques you’re learning and then what area of improvements you see within yourself that, okay, maybe if I go to this place, I’ll learn that. So maybe go for that. Don’t just blindly follow what might look good on your resume. Don’t build a resume. Build yourself first. And the resume will build automatically.

Bar Mercado, 85 Peel Street, West Melbourne