Stephanie Stapleton

Hi Stephanie. How are you? It's great in here.

Beautiful, isn't it?

It's really nice. Is that a whole wine room?

I lock myself in there sometimes.

I just heard a news story about someone maybe in the States who got locked in the safe of the bank overnight. And despite everyone's best efforts, they just had to wait until it opened up the next morning. If that was me and it was wine, disaster! So you've been open a year, is that right?

Yes, 12 months we've been opened.

Congratulations.

Thank you. It was a slow start, but its starting to pick up now, which is really good. Being out in the suburbs, it's not a bad thing.

It's interesting because one of my colleagues a few years ago kept telling me about Zero 95 and how great it is and there it is next door to you. Is there a connection between the two?

Yes. Some of our owners here also own next door. And then myself and my partner joined the group and we own part here.

That's great. And before that you were working as a head chef?

I was a sous chef. This is my first head chef role.

Wow. Head chef and owner. How's that? It's a big step up.

It's a lot.

What's the difference? Because I know as sous you've already got quite a lot of responsibility and then the step up to head chef, you're thinking more about food costs and staffing and menus. And then when you're a co-owner, do you sleep at night?

No, I don't sleep at all. I've done three steps all at once. I went from a junior sous, not even a senior. I was quite new to being a sous chef as well, I think I'd only been in it like six months or something. But I thought, alright, let's do this. Let's just go for it.

There's such a huge difference having to maintain your standards so everyone else maintains their standard and just always being above everybody.

And I guess doing it in an encouraging way, rather than a getting frustrated way. That must be hard sometimes.

It is. Especially if you're not a hundred percent sure of what you are doing, because it's the first time I'm doing this, am I saying the right things? Am I doing it the right way? And you are always second guessing yourself as well.

How many menus have you been through over the past 12 months?

Four.

So, it's seasonal?

Yes. I've done about four, maybe five. One didn't work out and then we just rebranded and did another one. So I've done about four.

And when you say it didn't work out, is that because of the public's reception of it?

The public having had so much say about it and me not knowing what they would like and not knowing how much seafood to put on and things like that as well. Trying to just have that balance.

And it's modern Australian with an Italian influence?

A Mediterranean influence. We have pulled a lot of Mediterranean ideas. My partner is Italian, so I get a lot of from him. I've come from a big Italian background with the restaurants I've worked in. I am pulling all of my ideas and then trying to still use beautiful local produce from all around Victoria as well.

What are some examples of it on the menu, is it a spring menu at the moment?

Spring, summer.

If someone comes in to dine, what's the ideal experience you'd want for them here?

Ideally, theyd start off a little snack; maybe a potato rosti and with beautiful taramasalata and they'd have a little cocktail in between. Then theyd move onto the smaller entre or the bigger entrees, possibly getting a eggplant parmigiana, which is a bit deconstructed in a way. And then having an octopus dish, which is a fresh and vibrant chargrilled octopus. It's beautiful and fresh. Then probably for mains we've got beautiful lamb rump that's on and we've got some fresh greens going with it. Coming into summer, having all the snow peas and sugar snaps on there as well, it's quite beautiful.

And your background, before you came here, you were at Jackalope and Montalto?

Montalto was my last place. Beautiful places. Stunning. I grew up down on the peninsula. So it is home down there for me. Im used to it all.

But you're not driving from there or anything?

No, not anymore. We tried for a little while but then moved up here.

You're surrounded by so much really great produce down there. And then wineries, the grapes and so on. I have just been discovering more about Tuerong Farm and the

Heritage grains.

Yes, it's amazing.

There's so much on that Peninsula.

There is. And it keeps growing. There seems to be something new popping up all the time. A lot of restaurants work together and all the farms work together as well and they kind of just bring everything as one. Tuerong might work with Torello and you just go there and buy and they'll help you and you can pick. They'll tell you all about the produce and it's just an amazing way to learn.

That's right. Would you say that you are still quite produce driven here?

Not as much as I'd love to be with trying to find my way around the Yarra Valley, trying to find out all the produce in the Yarra Valley. They work a bit differently up here. They're more happy to sell to profit and sell to wholesalers, whereas at Peninsula we're more restaurant based. Its a little bit different working out this way.

Is it a different microclimate in the Yarra Valley as well?

Definitely.

So different kinds of produce?

A hundred per cent different climate and you don't get that beautiful sea breeze as we got down on the peninsula. It all changes.

So, thinking about where you started or when you started, I read that your dad was a chef as well. So did you always know you wanted to be a chef?

Always, forever. It was always something hands-on. I've been in kitchens I think since I was three. Dad would have me in and out of his kitchens, I'd meet everybody. I'd stand there and I'd cook with them. Ever since I was three, I'd been in and out of kitchens. It has always been hospitality something.

Was he working down there?

Yes, he was down on the Peninsula. He was in and out of pubs and clubs and things like that.

Well, obviously, when you have a role model to follow, that's inspiring. But what do you think it was that you liked about it? Because you could equally have gone, oh, that's not for me.

I think it was that family environment. You felt so close and connected to everyone that you worked with. It was a home away from home at the same time. It was a family connection.

That's nice. And so when you started, where did you do your apprenticeship?

I started my apprenticeship in Mornington at the Rocks, so a seafood based restaurant. I learned everything about seafood I could imagine. We had fresh fish on, we'd go fishing on the weekends. We'd go and pick up local mussels. So everything that I wanted to learn about seafood, that's where I learned it. I was 16 when I started.

Wow. So straight out of school.

Yes. I was straight out of school, so I was contemplating whether I'd start year 12 or not. I think I got halfway through year 12 and I though, I can't, I'm done. I can't do this anymore. I already knew what I wanted to do as well. I was working full-time, and I was trying to finish Year 12 as well. And that was year 12 was done for me.

From there, were you always, until here, down on the Peninsula?

Always. Oh wow. Always great. I've got a huge passion for the Peninsula. It is home. It's where I grew up. I know where to go, I know where everything is.

I think there's definitely a Peninsula thing. My partner grew up down there as well. Crib Point and then Balnarring, and I've heard all the stories. They've got such a tightknit group of friends who all grew up down there together and had lots of adventures.

A lot of them stay down there. And then you've got the odd couple that move away. But we're so still connected.

It's pretty idyllic. It'd be an idyllic place to grow up and start your career, I would imagine.

It was.

And I saw when I was, you know, obviously social media stalking you before this and I saw that you'd been to Italy. Was that before you opened here?

Before we opened here, yes. My partner, he's from Italy.

Oh which part?

Naples. He is fresh off the boat and he's been here about five years now. I hadn't been back to meet his family yet. So I got to go and meet his family and eat all the food and just see how they live.

Were there things there that you brought into your cooking here?

110%; the way they eat is very interesting; having the antipastos and then they go onto their pastas and then they have their meat. I would love to base the menu on that. Starting with your snacks, then your entrees, and then you'd get a pasta in there as well and finish with your meats.

It's a really nice way to eat. It slows everything down by separating things out. You're really concentrating on each dish. And it's nice to sit around the table for it a period of time with your friends or family, isn't it? And I think sometimes we forget that or it's not part of our culture.

Sometimes I think whether it be the Western way, we just get up and go; we eat and finish, all right, let's go. We're done eating. But I think taking it slow and really enjoying what you're eating and enjoying who you're with as well. It's not just about the food, it's about who you're with as well. I think it's really beautiful.

Absolutely. Where do you get your inspiration for menus? Do you have lots of cookbooks? Do you look online?

I have a library of cookbooks. I look everywhere. I pull inspiration from everywhere. A lot of my older chefs, I take inspiration from them and I try and mingle their recipes together. But a lot of cookbooks. A lot of research.

I guess it's hard as an owner and head chef, but do you get to go out much yourself and try other people's food?

We try and eat out once a week and just see what's out there and what everybody's doing and trying to keep up with that as well. Because it's forever changing.

Can you still be surprised by flavours?

Every day. My palate is completely different to everybody else's and someone else will have something else on their menu and because everyone's palate's different. So being able to taste what they've got on the menu, it's incredible.

And do you think about food 24/7?

And the rest. Always.

And in terms of these days and the importance of wellbeing. What do you do to relax?

I've got my dog, my American Staffie. He is beautiful. I've got him that I each out to <and when I can, I get back down to the peninsula and when I am doing the research and development days, I try and get out in the fresh air or things like that as well.

Nice. Do you think things have changed? When you were 16 in the kitchen down there, you know, I hear a lot of stories about how hard it has been for women in the kitchen. Do you think things have changed?

I think right now there's a turning point.I struggled when I was quite young being a female chef, trying to jump into the boys club, having to talk the same way that they talk in kitchens. It's a boys club. There's a lot of kitchens that have that mentality of being a boys club. And there are a lot of women trying to change it. There's so many female chefs at the moment that are doing incredibly and just trying to change the mentality of females in kitchens.

I think it started with pastry chefs because there are so many female pastry chefs. My last head chef Diana, I'd never really thought about it the way that she thinks about females and in kitchens, but it's changed a lot, but we are still not there. There's still a big boys club around kitchens and hospitality.

Yes. I spoke to Alan Tompkins from The Burnt Chef project and they're all about trying to break that for men as well. Men in hospitality, there's this idea that you have to be staunch and you can't say that you're struggling. And they're trying to really break those stereotypes as well. It's just worth having the conversations about all of this.

Absolutely. I've had so many conversations with male chefs as well, and they're like, I'm not doing okay. You just have to try and take that into consideration as well and try to make it all work.

So I guess, with all that in mind, what would your advice be, maybe to your younger self or maybe to a young person who's starting out as a chef? What would your advice be?

Don't take everything so personal. At the end of the day, it's so many different emotions. And it's not that you're doing a bad job or it's not that you are doing the wrong thing. It's nothing personal. There's nothing personal to it. There's just a little bit of perfection in some chefs, as a group. We are perfectionists and we are control freaks. And there's nothing wrong with what you are doing at the end of the day,

Do you look at reviews? Because I feel like everyone's a critic these days?

I've stopped.

I think that's wise.

I think you get so many good ones and you get that one bad one. And it ruins everything that you thought that you were doing. I've just stopped.

It's a good idea. Just tell me as we finish, whats your one favourite thing on the menu? Or maybe can't have favourite children?

My favourite little dish at the moment is the octopus. It's fresh and vibrant and it's zesty and herby, it's really beautiful.

Awesome. And how many people are coming in tonight?

We've got about 60 booked tonight.

Good. Sun's out.

I know. Sun's out and everyone's after a drink.

Have a really good service. It has been lovely to talk to you.

Ms Jackson Restaurant, 1/906 Doncaster Road, Doncaster