Michael Harrison is a modest guy. I could already tell that by talking to him. He worked in excellent venues with top chefs right from the start and you don’t get to work your way up to head chef by the age of 26 without having something pretty stellar about you. Pretty Little owner, Michael Byard, is full of praise for his new head chef, and mentions the level of creativity that Michael brings to the kitchen every day. The way Michael (the chef) describes some of his dishes has me hanging off his every word and desperately searching my diary for the next free night to get back over to Balaclava.
Hi Michael, how are you?
Hi, lovely to meet you.
I’ve been reading a little bit about you, but not very much, I really wanted to hear it all from you. I’ve also seen your very happy face in Pretty Little Instagram posts, so I’m intrigued to find out more. I saw that you didn’t initially think about being a chef but you were doing work experience when you were 16 and at school and that’s how you got into it. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Absolutely. When I was 16, I wasn’t really keen on school and I did some work experience in the city at the Athenaeum Club and the RACV Club. It was like going into the unknown and I really didn’t know what to expect but I just loved it straightaway; the atmosphere in the kitchen. It was pretty intense, but I just really loved it.
So from there, did you finish the year at school and get into it or did you just straightaway think this is it, I’m doing it?
It took a little while. It just started off with that initial work experience, but it definitely left an impression on me. After that, I went on to work at a place called Fenix.
Yes. I live across the road, so I know where it is.
Oh no way. I was working for a chef called Raymond Capaldi. He definitely left an impression on me; the intensity and doing things for a purpose and for the right reasons.
Ok, so it’s now an events and functions venue, was it a restaurant back then?
Yes. That was around 2000. That kitchen was chock full of personality; George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan, Ryan Clift.
Quite a few of the other chefs I have spoken to have gone through there. It seems to have been a great place to have been an apprentice.
A lot of people did come and go through that kitchen. It was definitely a tough culture, but ultimately there was a really good respect in the kitchen for what Raymond and Gary wanted to achieve.
When you mentioned a reason for doing things the way you do them, what did you mean?
I suppose not just going into a kitchen and just being lazy or blasé; having integrity when you do things and doing things for a reason and purpose and just trying to get better every day.
You talked about the atmosphere, but obviously also the challenges and I have heard that it could be quite tough in that kitchen, maybe particularly in the early days. I think things have changed now, but maybe it was that hierarchy of the kitchen and being in awe and reverence of the head chef.
Definitely.
I think it’s good, there was discipline.
There was definitely an old school way of doing things. I still have a respect for that. The times have changed now. There has been progression in kitchens. There is a lot better communication.. I think the hospitality industry has grown so much for the better.
Apart from the atmosphere, what kept you in, despite there being long hours and hard work?
For me, in my heart, food has always been number one. So when I actually saw the food he was doing and at the time he was really doing some brilliant food. That’s the one reason that really kept me there; seeing the technique and the passion, the intensity behind it. That was the reason I wanted to be part of it.
I was looking at the list of places you have worked at and it sounded as though you jumped to head chef quite quickly.
I was 26, so I’d been cooking for 10 years.
Did that feel like a natural progression for you?
Yes, it did actually. I went and worked for Jeremy Strode after Raymond. That was another amazing experience. Then I went on to work with his sous chef, Leigh Dundas, at Luxe after that, and he was a real mentor for me. then I met Ben Shewry though working at Luxe in St. Kilda. So when Ben went to work on Attica, I went on to work with him for a while. It was all brilliant and really good for me. I was 23 when I worked there, so it was a prime age for absorbing everything and learning as much as I could. I absolutely loved it.
Had you done much foraging before then?
I suppose that was the real beginning then. I wouldn’t say I was foraging. We were getting things like purslane and other things like that from going through the back streets and along train lines but it’s a different restaurant there now; the level of foraging and progression of it all. But I was there at the beginning. It was a massive learning curve for me. I was 23 then and over the next few year I went on to work with a couple of other restaurants and then I just felt like…not being cocky or arrogant…but I thought I could do that food myself somewhere else and I thought I’d give it a go. I had an offer and went ahead with it and thought there was nothing to lose if it doesn’t work out. It was time to go on to the next thing.
That next step, too, means managing people. Was that a challenge for you or was it easy?
At the start, for sure. I’m quite introvert, so when it comes to managing a lot of people, it takes more energy to do it. I can do it, but it takes more energy. Communication is number one. I learned that pretty quickly.
Sure. And then there’s costing and coming up with menus and so on as well. What’s your process for coming up with a menu? Here you’re coming up with a different menu every day. Have you been in a restaurant that has done that before?
Yes, quite a few restaurants I’ve been in have done that, even dating back to Langton’s with Jeremy. Not the whole menu daily, but constantly tweaking.
So that is obviously a style you feel comfortable with.
Yes. That’s me. If I see something when I’m out or get some inspiration and want to think about it some more…I’m constantly thinking.
Do you write stuff down or do you just have it in your head?
Bits are written down but a lot of it is in my head. I get inspiration from a lot of different places. It could be just from driving to work and I see something and then it makes me think about something else. It’s hard to explain. Working with Laurent (Jeannin) is great. We talk about food all the time and get inspiration off each other all the time. And that momentum just builds and builds. We will try something and then in my mind I just want to make it better and better; whether it be simply trying to make butter, we go through the process of trying to make it better.
I think if you naturally are good with flavours and have confidence in cooking, to me these days, that’s what it’s all about. If you just use simple ingredients, whether it just be tomatoes with crème fraiche or whatever it is, simple combinations, that’s a good cook to me.
Have you discovered any new combinations of flavours that you feel particularly proud of…I’m sure you’re proud every night…
One dish that goes back a bit now, but I’m pretty proud of and it is personal to me: when I went to America and just travelled around there with my ex-partner, it was an amazing trip and basically I ate at a few different places and travelled around the country and came back to Australia feeling really inspired. I thought of the classic combination of tuna and foie gras.
I guess it is like Veal Tonnato…those kinds of flavours…?
That’s it, it’s a classic combination. When you say tuna and foie gras it sounds different. if you read it on a menu, you’d probably think it was a bit out there, but it’s not really. It’s quite classic in French cooking. When I was working at Sofitel, we had a guest chef do a dinner for two nights and the main course he did was a 200g pieces of grilled yellow fin tuna with a big slab of foie gras on top that just melted over the top with veal jus and shaved truffles all over it. It was pretty yum. It was really elaborate. It goes a long way back. For me, I really liked that combination from one of the places I worked in, so I thought I would put my own spin on it. We came up with a really nice spring onion dressing and mixed that through it and added some crispy puffed rice on top for some nice texture, some native finger lime for that really nice acidity and then we had frozen the foie gras and we micro-planed it over the top. It gave a really nice creaminess with the texture of the rice and the spring onion for the umami and the acidity of the finger lime. It worked out to be a real winner.
I have only just discovered finger limes. They are amazing and they are just so photogenic as well.
When you first see them, the colour is amazing…I could stare at them all day, they are really beautiful.
I went out to Corner Inlet at the end of last year with Sascha Rust from The GoodFish Project. Ben Shewry was out there and a few other chefs, and Dani Valent, and they had them on the table and I wondered where I had been until that point not to have seen finger limes before. And then the fish that they were catching as well. It was all amazing.
That would have been a great day.
It was. I didn’t go out on the boats but the chefs went with the fishermen and really got a feel for what they do. It’s incredible. Have you noticed the quite sudden shift in season? I was talking to Sandy Melgavis out at The Beach House in Geelong and she was saying that she has been surprised that summer hasn’t really extended this year after it not being so great and that now mushrooms and other autumnal vegetables are starting to appear.
Absolutely. You can see through Instagram. Chestnuts should be popping up in a week or so as well. It definitely seems early for mushrooms.
We often get that Indian summer here, but I think we are just going to slide on into autumn. So, what’s on the menu tonight? can you tell me about a few things?
To start with we‘re doing a little chilled sweet corn soup. Sweet corn is still really good at the moment. It’s chilled with a vanilla cream on top and some espelette pepper. That will be to start off. Tomatoes are still going strong and are still realy nice so we are making some crème fraîche and serving the heirloom tomatoes with the crème fraiche and some fresh plums and chilli and some plum vinegar.
They sound really good. I can smell something buttery. What is that?
What are you making Laurent?
Laurent: Just the chorizo crumb.
It smells delicious. I think any time butter starts melting, it smells really good.
We use a lot of butter. We cook a Western Australian octopus and serve it with chorizo sauce, some sea succulents, like beach banana and sandfly and chorizo crumb and we make some lemon purée, some confit leeks. Everyone is really enjoying that at the moment.
It feels like you have to be really creative but also really practical and good with your hands to be a chef. Do you think anyone can be a chef at your level? I can cook, but I don’t think I could be a chef.
I really think it’s all about confidence. I think if you naturally are good with flavours and have confidence in cooking, to me these days, that’s what it’s all about. If you just use simple ingredients, whether it just be tomatoes with crème fraiche or whatever it is, simple combinations, that’s a good cook to me.
Although sometimes you need to know the rules and the technical side to be able to create something simple that’s good.
Definitely, experience gives you that. There’s a lot of food I don’t like these days because it’s trying too hard. That’s why I like to remind ourselves to keep it simple; just enjoy some beautiful heirloom tomatoes; treat it simply.
2?96 Carlisle Street, Balaclava