Mo Zhou didn’t start out wanting to be a chef, but a gap half year at Uni opened his eyes to Europe and food other than the Chinese food he had been brought up with. A stage at Attica and then roles at Vue de Monde and The Press Club further inspired him and he started doing a series of pop-ups here and in his native China, always challenging himself to use local ingredients, even if he had never heard of some of them before. In October, Mo launched Gaea, his intimate degustation restaurant in Fitzroy where his monthly menus are a testament to his passion and inventiveness as well as a homage to the foraging and walks through nature that inspire him.
Mo, when I first spoke to you for Broadsheet, you had just opened. Are you onto your second or third menu now?
Third.
That’s amazing…a new menu every month. How has it been going?
It has been going really well. We have been really busy since the article came out. We were almost fully booked the week after. The menu is always changing and people know that from the article and they come and then book for the next one.
I think Jemima Cody’s article was a really great run-down of your food as well.
Yes, it was really kind. We had two articles with The Age; one for the new opening and then a review a couple of weeks ago.
I think it’s probably word of mouth as well. Your Instagram is beautiful and that really shows off your food and your passion and then when people come, there is so much for them to talk about and tell other people about Gaea. I’m sure its’s not just about the media, but also about your own reputation.
Yes, but they know us from the articles. Without the articles, we could probably get there, but it would take much longer.
Gaea is an ambitious project for someone who has really only been a chef for 10 years. I know that you had an interesting journey to becoming a chef, so perhaps you could tell me about that.
I used to be a uni student for a Bachelor of Business. I was at Uni for three years and I was almost finished but I felt as though there was something missing and it wasn’t for me. I applied for a gap half year where I was introduced to different cultures and food and then that opened my mind. Plus my mum used to own a restaurant in China and I grew up with really good food and then when I was travelling around Europe I was introduced to a lot more than just Chinese food and then I thought I wanted to give cheffing a try. Also at that time, I didn’t really know what else to do.
You went to William Angliss. Did you do an apprenticeship?
No. I did Commercial Cookery Certificate 3.
So when you finished that, where did you work?
A Modern Asian fusion place, which has already closed. It was in Albert Park. Then I did a stage at Attica after that. I was there for three months. I wasn’t planning on getting a job, I was very new to the industry, but they offered for me to stay on and do a stage there.
Everyone speaks loves Attica and Ben Shewry and Mat Boyle. What did you learn there?
I would say everything. It was the first fine dining restaurant I had been in and it changed the way I thought completely and shaped the way I look at food today and how I cook. I still forage a lot these days and that’s where I start. I walk along the bush, I walk around the bay. That’s the inspiration for me to cook. I was maybe a bit too young technically wise to really learn at Attica, but Ben Shewry is the first one I would call a mentor. He really shaped how I look at food and how I cook today. Even after 10 years. I do things completely differently, but the way I look at food, nature and ingredients started from there.
I guess if you are going to have a restaurant named after Mother Nature and you are so inspired by nature, it’s lovely to think that it was inspired by foraging at Attica. I really loved hearing when I spoke to you before about your discovery of the fresh green pine needle shoots and how they are only out for a short time and how it was your favourite time of year. That to me really symbolised how passionate you are to hear your excitement. Where did you go from Attica?
After Attica I had a little bit of a break and then I went to Vue de Monde.
Was that different again?
It was very different. It’s a different team and a different environment. I started cooking a lot at Vue de Monde, so a lot of the techniques I learned at Vue de Monde.
When did you have the idea to open your own place?
I don’t really know. I guess every chef has a dream to have a restaurant. It could have even started at school. I might not have had clear ideas about having a restaurant but every chef wants to have something of their own.
I guess then, when did you think that it was a possibility that you could do it on your own?
I think probably three or four years ago.
I feel as though Gaea was really well planned because even before you opened, months ago, you were curing wallaby and pickling dandelion petals. Were you planning a ong time in advance to open?
Yes. I used to cook a lot at home. I would cook on my days off and go to the local market and I used to forage every week. Some of the stuff I wouldn’t use straightaway so I had to think of ways to preserve it. I actually started the process a few years ago and some things would take a year for me to discover they had an amazing flavour because I was pretty busy at work. I only had short periods of time to be experimental. I don’t like wasting ingredients so if I know I can’t use it right now, I try to think of different ways of preserving. That’s how I started preserving and how I discovered I could pickle dandelion and wild fennel pollen abut a year ago. And peach blossom sugar and pine needles and that kind of thing.
The pine needle butter idea was incredible.
Yes, that was really good. I had a lot of experience from that and then when I clearly knew I was going to open a restaurant, I started doing those things in preparation. I wasn’t sure when or where I would be able to find a place, but I made a start because I was pretty sure I was going to.
You did a lot of pop-ups here and in China before you opened. And you told me that you don’t like cooking the same thing twice. Once you’ve made it, it’s done.
I don’t repeat dishes.
That’s a big challenge.
It’s hard. I started this habit about three or four years ago. There was a period in between jobs where I gave myself a little bit of a break. One day I was thinking and you know China is very diverse with a lot of culture and a lot of different ingredients and I thought to myself, what would happen if I made a menu only using local ingredients. Then I started contacting all the people I know back in China and organised about eight different pop-ups in six cities in China and each one was very different. What I did was I went to the city for a few days and went to the local market to get everything interesting that was potentially for the menu and then I started experimenting. A lot of the ingredients I didn’t know before. I come from China, but China is big with a lot of cities I have never been to. Especially I went to Shantou…it has a lot of seafood. I grew up almost the central part of China, so we had a lot of carp and bread and noodles, rice, that kind of things, but we are not next to the sea. We had deliveries from there but at Shantou there was a lot of seafood I had never seen before; it was something very new.
I did another pop-up at Yunnan. One of my business partners, their family owns a mountain. So I did a pop up on a mountain where there was literally nothing. There was a historical place on the top but without any electricity, so I had to build a kitchen in the big empty room. I got a large bench as a prep bench and a small fridge and freezer and that’s it. We did the pop-up there for about a week. Yunnan is an amazing place. Half the ingredients I had never seen before. There was a lot of wild stuff…a lot of flowers…
How do you know what to do with them?
I just try until I find out what works. One of the pop ups I had turtle, sweet potato leaf and there’s a fish called Bombay fish. I have never seen it outside of Asia. It has a very soft texture like tofu, sometimes it is called tofu fish. So these three ingredients I had never seen before or used and I made a dish out of them and it was everyone’s favourite dish. Trial and error until it works out. There are a lot of mistakes. Sometimes I think something might work but it actually doesn’t at all.
There’s a lot going on; flavour, texture and then what happens when you cook it.
Exactly.
I still forage a lot these days and that’s where I start. I walk along the bush, I walk around the bay. That’s the inspiration for me to cook
What’s on your December menu?
I think it’s the best menu I have made so far. I really like it. The zucchini dish is surprisingly the most popular dish with people who have come in. It’s a vegetable dish.
What is the eucalypt element of that dish?
We use eucalypt honey to glaze the zucchini and eucalypt oil in the sauce. We get amazing zucchini from a small organic farm called Somerset Heritage who have a variety of zucchinis and I order a few kilo each and I use one variety a day. We trim the zucchini to size and with the leftover trimmings, we make into a paste, a zucchini gel, pickled zucchini and a zucchini crumb. A zucchini is pretty simple but every single part has been used. That’s always the way I like to cook; I don’t like anything wasted. So we have the main zucchini and we sear that in vintage beef fat to give it a little bit of a meaty flavour. Then we add butter to get a foam in cooking, then we deglaze that with eucalypt honey and rosemary vinegar and then on the bottom we have a little bit of zucchini gel, pickled zucchini and on top of that zucchini we have the crumb made from rosemary and the zucchini trim and we finish the dish with a cheddar cheese sauce and spray it with eucalypt honey oil and fermented honey.
There is so much going on in one dish.
There is but I don’t normally say that much, I usually just tell the diners that it is zucchini cooked with eucalyptus honey and vinegar…
Yes, but now that I have heard that…are all your dishes that complicated because it’s intense for you to be doing…how many courses?
Nine courses and three snacks, so about 12 serves every month and we change that completely for the next month. It’s a lot of work every month.
Do you at any point regret creating such intense dishes?
Not yet. One day I might. But I am really happy for now.
Do you feel the need to be challenged? What’s your idea of success?
It’s really just about people being happy eating my dishes. As a chef before you open a restaurant, of course everyone wants a hat and to be famous. It has changed a little bit over the process of day in, day out doing service. Some customers tell me things they like and sometimes things they don’t like and you realise that a restaurant is about feeding people and keeping the customer happy. That’s the most important thing. For me, when the customers say it was an amazing meal and they book a second one and then they book a third one, that’s enough. I don’t know if that’s success or not.
I think so. If it makes you happy and it is what you’re aiming for.
It feels then as though all the effort I have put in is worth it.
It is so much effort. You’re not charging a lot of money for this either and there is so much going on and so much labour involved.
The full tasting menu is $125 and the shorter menu is $95.
Is this a dessert? The potato, quinoa and milk?
Yes. We make ice cream from a whole baked potato. The idea started in a previous menu when we had baked potato that we used for something. When you open a baked potato, you have that aroma and I thought it might be interesting to make a dessert. We do the same thing as for a savoury baked potato and scoop out all the flesh inside to make ice cream and then we dehydrate the skin to really get the flavour, then we blend that to a powder and mix that in to make that ice cream. That dish has a little bit of fermented rhubarb juice and rhubarb jam just to balance everything. The quinoa has been caramelised with sugar and then we have two different kinds of milk; the milk meringue and caramelised milk skin to finish. That is probably the sweetest dessert I have ever done. I normally don’t do the desserts so sweet.
At the same time as you are putting everything up for this month, you must be thinking ahead to next month.
Yeah, I have the menu for next month. I’m not so rushed for next month because we are closed from the 22ndwhich means we have two weeks break, so I have one week to try out everything. I need to finalise the menu for January and then I will try a lot of things out.
I feel like you are very committed to the chef cause. I remember you telling me a story about doing a stage in Copenhagen and during that time, flying to Maemo in Oslo for lunch.
Yes I did do that.
When you are eating somewhere like that, did it meet your expectations?
At Maemo, yes. That was one of the best dining experiences I have ever have. Every detail was three star, truly. I have been to a few three stars in Japan and Copenhagen but Maemo is one of the best dining experiences I have had.
How important is it for you to be using sustainable ingredients, like fish and meat?
Very important. That is the reason we use the organic farm. We use the seafood from Clamms and Ocean Made and they do a good job. It’s not something you can see in the short term as a chef or even as a human, but it is something we should do and we have to do it.
I remember growing up we thought that maybe in the future, there wouldn’t be food, just pills and that would be so sad.
It would be sad. Working with food every day can be very emotional if you think that one day you won’t be able to use that anymore.
166 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy