Riddik has only been open a week and when I went in mid-afternoon today to chat to head chef, Adam Robins, it was bursting at the seams. Adam took time out of the busy-ness to talk to me and I appreciated his openness and candour about the job. He exuded such a love for the industry; both the food and people side of things, and came out with such lovely ways of looking at things, I think and Lower Templestowe are lucky to have him.
How long have you been a chef, Adam?
Officially about 14 years, I’d say. I used to do a lot of work when I was younger in a pizza shop and other places and always had an interest. Then I moved to Front of House for a while. When I moved back home to Castlemaine, I decided to really jump into an apprenticeship and do it professionally.
You did that in Castlemaine?
Yes. I travelled to William Angliss in Melbourne one day a week and then worked at a few different places in Castlemaine over the three years.
What is it about hospitality and food that drew you in?
I think it’s all exciting; every aspect of it; getting to create new flavours and dishes on a daily basis. Interacting with staff and customers is always fun as well. It’s the kind of job where you go to work and as much as you plan, you never know what to expect and it’s good to keep you on your toes.
How do you keep on your toes? As in how do you come up with the ideas and keep up with it all?
Obviously I take influences and ideas from whatever I see, whether that’s from other restaurants or things on the internet or whatever the other guys have to say as well. I generally like the other guys in the team to have as much input as possible. If they have any ideas then we can all collaborate and come up with a dish. It keeps them excited about work as well, which I think is really important.
It’s usually just an idea here or there which gets worked on and sometimes revisited and sometimes improved on as time goes on.
You seem fairly young for a head chef and this isn’t your first head chef role.
Previously I was at Self Preservation which is a café/wine bar in the CBD in Melbourne and after that I worked with Andrew, one of the owners at Penny House in Richmond. Before that I was on Lygon Street at a nice little café called El Mirage and before that I was in hotels as a sous chef. I pushed myself as hard as I could early and worked really hard and jumped into head chef roles in smaller venues. This is the biggest I have been in.
Everyone is a human being so it doesn’t matter whether it’s at work or out of work, why treat them poorly?
I really like the way you talked about your staff and getting their input. You seem to have a real team focus which I think is an important part of modern cheffing. Did you experience any of that brigade, hierarchical kitchen mentality when you were coming up through the ranks?
To be honest, no. The chefs I worked with or worked under have been pretty good. There have been a couple who weren’t so great but I know that’s something I never want to be. Everyone is a human being so it doesn’t matter whether it’s at work or out of work, why treat them poorly?
For me, my kitchen hands are the most hard working people in the team and at the end of the day, I don’t want them just standing there washing dishes all day because it’s boring as. I want everyone involved and learning new things. Sometimes they come forward and have a play around and it’s fun for everyone.
As a head chef, you’re not just thinking about food; you’re thinking about staffing and costs as well.
There is a lot to it. The cooking part is the most fun part. I never want to be one of those chefs who spend two or three days out of the kitchen doing paperwork. But there’s a lot involved; a lot of organisation of rosters and suppliers. It can be quite challenging to get a good balance.
You’re a a really good role model because you obviously love the industry and food and you care about people which is so nice to hear, so what would you say to young people coming into this job? It’s demanding and I’ve heard it can be hard to get and keep young chefs these days.
It is hard but part of it is because younger workers can be treated a bit poorly as well. I think people need encouragement. It’s never going to be too hard if they’ve got the right sort of support. A committed chef or someone who is willing to learn is always going to succeed, as tough as it may seem.
Tell me about Riddik. You’ve only been open a week and you said today is a quiet day but it seems super busy to me. It’s a really huge menu. It was hard enough for me to decide what to eat, let alone for you to manage all those ingredients.
A lot of the ingredients are tied into different dishes. So many things are used four or five times. We’ve got our takeaway section as well, so a lot can be used up in salads and those things as well. We're prepping daily. There has been zero wastage but the way it all ties together is really nice, as long as I’m organised and keep on top of it. The menu that I originally put forward, this one, I had thought that we would sit down and cull and make a bit smaller, but the owners loved all of it and we just decided to go ahead with it and see what sells and maybe later we’ll do a cull.
There’s definitely something for everyone. With six types of eggs benedict and two kinds of smashed avo and burgers and healthy stuff.
That’s the thing. There are some finer foods there and some more simple things. I wanted the finer things and so did half of the owners and the other half wanted some simpler things as well. So it’s not only trying to offer something for everyone but at the end of the day I don’t want to be standing here cooking parmas all day.
And what about the evening menu?
It’s quite different. It moves more into restaurant food. The mains are quite substantial; we’ve got a couple of steaks and we have a really nice pork dish that’s an ancho, chipotle sous-vide pork cutlet that we slow-cook then chargrill. We have a lot of small items as well. I guess you wouldn’t quite call them tapas, but sharing plates, perhaps.
You’re open seven days from breakfast through to 11pm. You’re not here all the time are you?
This last week it was a solid 144 hours, which was quite tough. I was very lucky my sous chef and 3IC wanted to be around for that time as well. This week we’ve already started early finishes and late starts. Hopefully I’ll go back to Sunday and Monday off and just day shifts.
It’s interesting these days because a lot of chefs who get to your level in the past would have wanted the glory of the evening shift because that’s where you got to be fancy but nowadays you can be fancy during the day.
Absolutely. But to be honest the only reason I don’t like to work nights so much is because that first part of the day I can’t relax. I still get up at 6.30am and I’ll be thinking about work and then it’ll get to 9am and I think, ah well, I’ll just go in now. So that’s it really.
1/3 The Mall, Lower Templestowe
Photography by Phoebe Powell www.phoebepowellphotography.com