Akad Al-Guepa

How’s your day been?

Pretty busy with prep. We had a busy night last night. It wasn’t a busy lunch though, so it was alright.

I came in near the start and Sacha (Lorusso-Zyskind) was saying he hadn’t quite worked out the busy times. What are the busy times, now that you’ve been up and running a while?

Nights are really busy. During winter, I’ve noticed people coming earlier, so 6 or 7pm. When it was warmer, people came later. 

You’ve come from cooking Italian before here, so is it different preparing Middle Eastern food?

In a professional kitchen, yes, I did Italian, and Modern Chinese as well. I did a bit of everything. I did private catering as well. I’ve done Middle Eastern functions, but not much though. This is the first professional, commercial kitchen working in a Middle Eastern restaurant. 

Well, it’s definitely a different style of food, so there must be different things to think about and different ingredients.

I’m very familiar with the ingredients and the cuisine because of my background. I lived in Lebanon for nine years when I was younger and grew up with that food. I was born in Iraq and my parents cooked that sort of food at home, so I am really familiar. But the hardest part is bringing that style of food into the restaurant. Doing home cooking and cooking in a restaurant is very different. That was the most challenging part. And doing things that not everyone loves was challenging as well and making it into food that people like.

When you say food that people don’t love, what do you mean?

Sometimes people are a bit funny about traditional food, so we wanted to go in a different direction and not do traditional stuff, like kibbeh nayeh, a raw tartare with cracked wheat. And then kubba, also cracked wheat and mince. A lot of people do like it, but some don’t, so we didn’t put them on the menu. We worked hard to get the concept right. That was the hardest part. Now I reckon we are at a really good level. 

I can run you through the menu and explain some of the dishes. The halloumi cigars is a little bit traditional, but not 100 %. That’s one of the ones that have a twist to it and people love them a lot. The Brussel sprouts with harissa and chilli sauce and cauliflower leaves…

Cauliflower leaves?!

Cooked out cauliflower leaves. Again, that’s not really traditional. We’re heading in the direction of having more vegetarian dishes, really fresh, more affordable.

I know the baked cauliflower was a big favourite. Is it still a favourite?

It is, it’s one of the best-selling dishes and people love it. I really like it as well, but I like the eggplant more. We just put that on last month.

Date molasses! Yum.

Yeah. People are really enjoying that. Also the Beetroot went on last week. It’s roasted beforehand and then stuffed with halloumi cheese…

Stuffed?!

Yeah, it’s stuffed. The idea was to make something like dolmades, but doing them in a more modern way. So we stuff the beetroot with halloumi cheese.

Is that an idea you came up with, or have you seen that before?

I hadn’t seen it before, but it was an idea to bring traditions and modern ideas together. I wasn’t sure whether it work. I thought it might work or it might not, but we had to try it. The experimental dish worked out really well and we had to put it on the menu.

I’ll have to come back and eat that. It sounds amazing. 

People really enjoy it. The Persian meatballs are traditional…the falafel pita is your standard.

These falafel are so bright green. What makes them so green?

I had to work out the recipe. I use fresh coriander, fresh parsley, onion, cumin and the spice coriander as well. It has a lot of coriander; that’s why it’s so bright green.

I love your falafel. They’re moist and soft and really delicious. 

Putting in a little bit of liquid is important. I was trying to work out how to make them moist. I really don’t like a dry falafel. 

So many of them are.

I really tried to work out how to do it. Obviously good quality chickpeas help. Really fresh ingredients and a bit of liquid; that’s it.

I had a friend from Israel and he made falafel with grated apple and that made them moist. He said that every household has a different recipe.

In Lebanon, they don’t really use green, they use more spices. In Israel, they use more green. A lot of people make them really green. I thought I’d do something in between and make nice flavours, spices and really fresh as well.

So you were born in Iraq and had some of your childhood in Lebanon. When did you decided to become a chef?

I decided to be a chef during high school. I always liked cooking with my mum. I decided to be a chef in Year 10, dropped out of high school and started an apprenticeship.

Were you here by that stage?

Yes. I came to Australia in 2002, so I did the majority of primary and high school in Australia. I went to William Angliss to do my training.

You must have been young.

I was 17. I was a little kid. I started at Rockpool. 

That’s a pretty good place to start.

It was really good then. It’s still good now, but it was amazing when I started. It was up there with one of the best restaurants in Melbourne and had a really good reputation. But now there is so much else happening.

I spoke to Charlie Watson at Lupo the other day and he said when he first started, the thing he really loved, was the atmosphere of the kitchen, as much as the cooking. What is the appealing thing for you?

Trying to please customers. The vibe of working in the kitchen is exciting. When I started, it was really hard for me. I felt a lot of stress and pressure because I didn’t have the skills or knowledge for that level of restaurant. But I learned a lot when I went to a restaurant called Il Bacaro. It’s on Little Collins Street. It’s a One Hat restaurant. I improved my skills and service there. The vibe of service is the most exciting part.

Did Rockpool have a big kitchen team?

Very big. We had about 12 to 13 chefs. I started in right at the bottom. I used to run for everyone, pretty much.

How long were you there? Where did you work up to?

I was there for two years. I did my apprenticeship there, so I did almost every section except maybe one or two. There are six or seven sections. I did learn a lot there, but I decided to leave and do something a bit different and try Modern Italian. That was a good experience for me. At Il Bacaro, I wasn’t just doing one thing. At Rockpool, you work on one section for a week, but at smaller places, you learn more because you have to prep pretty much everything on the menu. 

I think I learned a lot about quality at Rockpool, and knife skills. But if you want to improve your knowledge of fine dining, then you need a smaller place.

How many were on the team at Il Bacaro?

There were only four. After a year there, I decided to move on and do something different and do Asian food.

That feels me to me like it would be a big jump because there would be so many different flavour profiles.

It took me about two or three weeks to learn the names for ingredients and dishes. I didn’t grow up with it. My parents never cooked Asian food. Modern Chinese was very different for me and it took me a while to learn. After that it was pretty easy. It’s like anything, the more practice you do, the better you get. You have to find out what’s right for you and I don’t think Modern Chinese was right for me. I love eating Asian food, but maybe the concept and style of service in the kitchen wasn’t for me. I enjoyed it at the start, but I wasn’t as excited by it as much.

In my career, Italian, or now Middle Eastern, are my favourite to work with. The most exciting part of my job is doing really good food. That’s why I enjoy it. I wouldn’t be able to go and work somewhere where everything is frozen and pre-made. I can’t see myself doing that. The most exciting part here is doing really nice, fresh food and still managing to do things with skill, but keeping it cheap. We manage to do stuff that other restaurants charge a lot for, but we’ve kept t very affordable.

Your desserts…the halva semifreddo must be one of the most instagrammed desserts…it sounds as though you have focussed on the savoury, but what’s your experience with pastry sections?

When I worked at Il Bacaro I did the larder and dessert sections most of the time. Dessert was very popular there. Also Luke who just walked past, my sous chef is really good with desserts. He’s amazing. I talk to him about my ideas. I think about stuff and run it past him. The halva semifreddo was my idea. He made it and it came out amazing, with date pistachios all through it. Have you tried traditional halva? It can be really sweet. So we are trying to make it less sweet and not heavy. If you’re an ice cream person, you’ll enjoy this.

With the menu and venue, as in Middle Eastern, are you stuck with this menu now or you able to change it?

We’re able to change it but we don’t want to change it too much now because we have already changed it a lot since opening and for now we are happy with it. At least five dishes are not on the menu any more. The eggplant and the beetroot are very new. The tabbouleh as well, which we are excited about. Traditional tabbouleh is great but in my opinion, it’s only nice with a falafel wrap or you have it with skewers and stuff. But this one you can eat by itself and really enjoy it. It’s got grilled corn, cucumber, tomato. It’s really fresh and doesn’t have the whole too much parsley thing going on.

Ok. You seem like a very happy chef. What advice would you give a young person coming into the industry? What do you think is important to know?

It just really depends on what they want to do. If they want to work in a fine dining place or work somewhere more casual, it is always good to try different things. Always learn different types of restaurants. I suggest following your heart rather than what other people say; follow your instinct. It’s really all about you and what you want to learn and achieve. I think it’s always great to have good restaurants in your resume because you can go somewhere else and be accepted more easily. Your skill level and knowledge improve as well. That’s all I can think of. I had a different perception at the start compared to now. I always wanted to do fine dining and really modern. I didn’t think I would ever be doing street food. But then again, it just happened. Good things happen to the right person and it’s good here.

Balagan Kitchen

184 High Street, Windsor