For the guests it feels like they are coming into our home. Like a French provincial little restaurant. And it’s a bit like a show. I’m just doing my thing. People feel like they are watching a cooking show.
When you walk into Curly Whiskers in Brighton, it feels as though you are walking into someone’s house; someone who is an amazing cook. It smells divine and Silas and owner, Rosalin are working in the ‘kitchen’ which is very much part of the dining room. A large island bench divides the back workspace from the tables and chairs; everything is on display and they like it like that. So do the diners. When I arrive, Silas is grating fresh truffle, which he tells me is for the crème brûlée. It turns out Silas is a bit of a culinary savant. He has a keen sense of smell and an incredible knowledge of flavour profiles. He is 21 years old.
Does the truffle give it an earthy flavour?
Yes. It’s very subtle, but strong as well. It’s in between. It goes great in a crème brûlée. It was just an idea that popped up. Would you like to try a crème brûlée?
I would love to try one. Thank you. (here you have to picture Silas deftly spooning custard into a ramekin, sprinkling it with sugar and then turning the ramekin upside down to shake off the excess sugar, then he torches it with a handheld burner) I’m always amazed with how fearless chefs are of food. I feel as though home cooks are worried about burning or wrecking things. I would never have turned a ramekin upside down because I’d be worried about the custard falling out. Why doesn’t it?
The custard is quite solid. It’s a different structure; thick and creamy. We also make it with duck eggs and premium cream. It doesn’t get any better than that. We are all about quality ingredients and produce.
I had a look at your menu online and it looks beautiful.
Thank you. We are making some changes. It depends on the season.
How long have you been at Curly Whiskers?
Just over a year. I started on the 14th June last year.
I was interested in your roles here. Rosalin, I read a description of you as the “gatekeeper” of the kitchen. That sounds quite formidable.
Rosalin: It does. I’m the one who sorts out all the products and has the relationship with the producers and suppliers and the providores which is perhaps why that word came up. I work very closely with Silas to agree on products and on the menu.
It looks like a pretty classically French menu, quite traditional. How much do you stray from that?
Silas: Yes, it is a classically French menu with a curly twist. I try to do it a bit modern, a bit my way, actually, so I’s classic, but it’s a bit different.
How often would you change the menu?
Frequently. Definitely when we feel like it. Seasonally.
Rosalin: More than half our menu is du jour.
So what we see on the menu isn’t necessarily what you’ll get.
Rosalin: Possibly not. It depends on what fish is available from market, for example. Often I’ll text Silas and say, we can’t get John Dory, what do you want and give him options.
That’s the way you want to be doing things. How many do you seat here?
Silas: We can fit up to 24 seated. We did some stand up functions up to 40.
Are you often full?
Weekends definitely. During the week, sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the people, holidays…
(Me eating) Wow. I have never had crème brûlée like that. It’s unctuous. I’ve just started watching Chefs on SBS. It’s a French show about a restaurant in Paris and anytime anyone eats his food, they’re closing their eyes and some kind of dreamlike transporting to a beautiful place happens. That’s what’s happening here with your brûlée.
A lot of people when they eat here are quiet and they just look at me and nod their heads.
That’s what food should do.
People are coming back for my food and it doesn’t get better than that.
You’re really young.
Yes. I’m 21. I started at a cooking school when I was 15.
Was that at home in the Netherlands?
Yes. And I absolutely hated it. I didn’t want to learn or go to school. So I just learned the basics of the basics and finished with school. I did a career change. Meantime I needed to earn money, so I ended up in a restaurant as a dishwasher and from there I built my way up.
How did that initial terrible experience work?
It wasn’t a very nice school. It went all wrong. In the Netherlands you have to choose a school on time and all the schools I wanted to go to were full. So I had to go to that cooking school, I was forced to do it. But now I’m here. I never had the dream of being a chef. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But now I love it.
What brought you to Melbourne?
I was traveling in Asia. I was on a big trip and had planned to work in Australia. Three or four years ago, my brother did the same and worked in Melbourne as well. I was in the North first and did farm work to extend my Visa another year. I didn’t want to do it but I really wanted to go to Melbourne I was broke and I needed a job. I looked on line and saw this job. I applied. I didn’t hear anything the next day so I wrote a letter with all my recommendations from my old jobs and the next day I got a call and a trial.
I applied for kitchen hand, because Rosalin was the chef. After three of four weeks, it changed around and I was the chef and Rosalin was my helper.
So before when you said you didn’t want to do it and you were a dishwasher and then got into it again. What was that step into cooking?
I had two internships. I started at a tennis club cooking Indonesian food. It was very weird. I started with Indonesian and really learned to work with flavours. The first month I started with recipes and then I just cooked with flavour. That’s what really helped me.
Ok, so you’re a naturally gifted chef.
Actually yes, but it’s in my family. My brother is a chef as well in the Netherlands. My parents always cooked as well.
So you grew up with that idea?
My dad is very good at cooking with structure and my mum is very good at flavour. I am both of them. It’s very special.
Ok, so what’s your process. When you’re thinking about doing a dish and adding your twist, where does that start?
It mostly comes out of nowhere. I don’t cook with recipes. My choice just pops up. It’s hard to describe.
So you’re inspired by product?
Yes. Because we have the best of the best products. We go to the market and get the best organic stuff.
Rosalin: Sorry, I said I wouldn’t interfere, but Silas, when I say he’s a natural, what I mean by that is that he is able to just smell an ingredient, try an ingredient for the first time and straightaway know what to do with it. Not just that, but all of his dishes are balanced in the acid, sat, sugar, fat. There are a couple of dishes on the menu that have been on from Day One but they are so much better now.
What do you reckon that is? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about memory codes from different cultures and how knowledge is passed down and I wonder whether some people have a link back to old knowledge. Where does it come from for you?
Rosalin: He has a very acute sense of smell. If there is something slightly different, he picks up on it immediately.
How has that been with the ingredients here? They’d be really different to Europe.
Yes.
Has your nose adapted to that?
To be honest, back home I used a lot of processed ingredients and when I came here, a new world opened for me about fresh and organic produce. If you want to make good food, good quality ingredients are number one.
And this is obviously a good context for you to be working in and you’ve probably learned a lot from Rosalin.
Yes, we keep learning a lot from each other.
Do you look at books and Instagram and go and eat out at other places too?
Yes I do, always for inspiration. I love food, I love to eat.
Rosalin: Silas never switches off, he’s always on. He had a day off and borrowed his uncle’s car and went for a drive and saw kangaroos. He called me and said, can we get kangaroo fillet? And sure enough he made the most incredible Roo Steak Tartare. Unbelievable.
So what flavours were you thinking when you thought about putting that dish together?
I don’t really like to eat it as a steak, it’s tough. Raw it’s just like a steak. And I like that.
Rosalin: People commented on the balance between the sourness of the cornichons and the sweetness of the sauce. He is really fascinated by Australian proteins and Australian natives.
Yeah, I really like to work with those. It’s new for me and it works.
Rosalin: In a classic French bistro. Who would have thought emu rillettes? Served with pickled Australian wild hibiscus.
How do you even think of that?
It just pops up.
These are all amazing ideas and you don’t use recipes, and obviously you don’t need to share, but I’ve just been to two cookbook launches lately…it sounds like these ideas happen really organically….if you had to write them down or teach someone else, could you? Or is it such a different process for you?
I think I could do it, but I would have to make it then write it down it. If I have the ingredients in front of me, I can definitely make it. I don’t know if I could write the recipe down now. I think I could do it. I’ve never really done it, so maybe I should do it. It might be good for me.
Who knows? Well you’re not starting out because you’re doing it, but I think about some of these chefs who have ben round for a long time and the repertoire of flavours and flavour combinations and dishes they hold within them, it’s incredible.
It’s true. Even in just a couple of years I have learned a lot.
How many years now?
Six years.
You can pack a lot into six years, can’t you? And if you’re sparking every time you’re going out and being inspired, then a lot happens in 24 hours.
Definitely.
What about foraging? I know a lot of foraging happens in Europe.
Rosalin: We’ve used wild foraged mushrooms but we haven’t done it ourselves.
I’ve done it on holiday a few times. My Mum is from Austria and her parents live close to the forest and we picked mushrooms then but I was really young, so basically I didn’t. We do use fresh herbs from Rosalin’s garden at home, or lemons and grapefruits.
It’s a small kitchen, isn’t it? The diners are really seeing everything that happens.
For the guests it feels like they are coming into our home. Like a French provincial little restaurant. And it’s a bit like a show. I’m just doing my thing. People feel like they are watching a cooking show.
You seem to have a permanent smile on your face.
Yes.
So that’s good, but do you feel under pressure?
Of course. Sometimes I am very relaxed and chilled, sometimes it’s a stressy day. But people don’t notice it because I always have a smile on my face and I’m in my zone.
So it was a good decision, you’re happy being a chef?
Yes I am.
What would be your advice to someone wanting to get into the industry?
Be happy, be motivated to learn new things. That’s definitely number one and cook with the right ingredients because it tastes so much better. You have to want to learn new stuff.
I think that’s the thing, for anyone I think it’s important to keep learning, but it feels like it’s a creative and technical industry and I’m lucky to get to speak to lots of chefs and they are always chefs who love what they do and want to learn more.
That’s the thing. If you’re not motivated, you won’t have a good time.
What’s your favourite thing on the menu tonight?
My signature dish is scallops, pan-fried, served medium rare and they’re served with a champagne cream sauce with a beetroot vinaigrette. That combination is amazing. I like everything that’s on the menu, but duck is my other signature dish; confit duck. It’s served cassoulet-style tonight, so really French.
I should know this, but how long does it take to confit duck?
Well for home cooking, because mostly duck is falling apart and I’m not doing it like that, it’ll take three hours but I’m not doing that, I do it in an hour. I use a higher flame and it doesn’t fall apart. Then I also fry it again in duck fat to get a nice crispy skin. It’s actually three times cooked, very moist. We house render our fat as well, so from our duck man we get duck skins which we put in the oven and make our own fats.
That’s hard core.
I use the whole duck. From the bones I make a stock. From the legs I make a confit, from the skin I make fat. I use the eggs in my crème brûlée. We smoke the breasts over French Grey tea and smoking chips.
It sounds like a lovely way to be spending your day.
Definitely. It’s pretty special. We are big fans of ducks.
I’m sure your diners are as well.
I love people’s feedback; their faces when they take a bite. It’s amazing.
You’re lucky to be able to see that. So many kitchens are hidden away.
We think it’s very important. People feel like they are in somebody’s home. In the evening, it’s dark, we have French bistro music on, it feels like home, it smells good.
I’ll come back and eat duck.
That would be good.
124 Martin Street, Brighton