Axel Archenti

Hi, Axel, and welcome to conversation with a chef. It’s great to be in Bottega. It has such a great name.

Yes. Bottega has been here for quite a while.

I was just talking to you off mic about the fact that I had hoped to get in before Valentine’s Day, because I know you had a special menu, but that’s all over and done with now. Was it a really big night here?

It was really big. Every year we hold a night like that. It is always frenetic with special menus. There I a lot to think about, but it was amazing. I cannot complain. Obviously, at the end of the night, everyone was demolished on the team, but it was really good.

When you’re thinking of a special menu like that, what do you take into consideration? How do you plan for that?

Over the years I have found out that it is easier to have a straightforward menu, rather than experimental on Valentine’s night. On a night like that at Bottega, customers are looking for more traditional flavours, so I’ll stick to traditional and simple flavours, without experimenting too much. In the past, I failed to hit the mark with menus, because I was a little bit too experimental. I think I have found the right balance between doing what I like and what the customer likes. It’s always a fun balance between the two things.

What was on that menu?

We went with a couple of canapes to start: beignets filled with house smoked king salmon and one with mortadella mousse and pistachio. So, two quick bites on arrival. We had an entrée of tortelli, filled with stracciatella ricotta, on a smoked tomato sugo, with Parmesan fonduta, and basil oil. Then a choice of mains: we had a simple flat iron steak, cooked as the customer likes, served with rocket. That sold the most. The other option was a yellowfin tuna steak served with zucchini puree, potato gnocchi, and fried zucchini flowers and lemon dressing. It was really good. It was my favourite, but unfortunately we didn’t sell as much. Australian customers are very carnivorous, let’s say. They love their meat. We served 140 people, and we sold 95 steaks. We were close to running out. Then to finish, we had a lava cake with milk chocolate, strawberry, Chantilly cream, and house made gelato.

When you do get to experiment, what do you like to experiment with?

Bottega is an Italian restaurant, and we do not serve traditional Italian food here. To me Italian food is about using local produce. That’s important for me and experimenting with locally sourced produce. There are a lot of native Australian products that I like to add to my menus, like finger lines, and Geraldton wax. Those products are not developed in Italy, but here they are, and they fit so well with Italian cuisine.

It’s interesting that you say that, because I spoke to another Italian chef a couple of years ago, and he was lamenting Australian produce. He said that you have to do a lot to it, to get flavour out of it, whereas in Italy, the tomatoes are all really beautiful, and you don’t have to do very much to it.

I would say it’s down to the supplier. We do collaborate with a couple of really good suppliers. Natura is a vegetable supply here in Collingwood, and they are great at connecting farmers to restaurants. They source from independent farms. Their product is outstanding. There are products that you don’t have to do anything to extract the flavour. Obviously, working with small farms, the availability is very dependent on the weather; you’re in Australia, the weather is a bit all over the place. In Italy, the seasons are more stable. Summer is summer, winter is winter, while here you go from a couple of weeks ago, 45 degrees on a Wednesday, 17 on a Sunday. Obviously, tomatoes suffer in conditions like that. Tomatoes love warm nights to ripen. So yes, there will be limitations on some produce, if you compare apples to apples from Italy, but at the same time, there are really valid alternatives, or other produce you don’t find in Italy.

Is your menu seasonal then, or do you change it a bit more often than the four seasons?

I change it more often than the season. The menu changes when I get bored of something. I think every chef can agree that we do enjoy our food, but then once we don’t like it anymore, it needs to go. Some dishes are more important to us; some stick on the menu longer than a season. There are some dishes that have been on the menu forever, and some of them change a bit more often. Our carpaccio has been on the menu for 20 years. It is the honest favourite, and it’s amazing.

You must have a lot of regulars as well. And the fact that it’s a pre-theatre place, do you have to have meals that are just ready to go?

Of course we do. Pre- theatre, is a really fun moment of the night. Sometimes it is normal, sometimes it’s 60 people in half an hour, and they have a show at 7.30. As I was saying before, you have to look at the kind of customer that you have in, and think about the menu from that point of view. Pre-theatre is going to be fast. They want to be well fed, but it also needs to be on the faster side. And I would say Italian cuisine is really good for that, because fresh pasta, is quick. 10 minutes, you can be in and out from the moment, they call it.

I was listening to the radio this morning, and Beshea Rodell, the food critic was speaking, and she was talking about the gap in Melbourne, between places where that are offering expensive high end, fine dining, and then the cheap eats. Melbourne’s always been really good at that middle section of just really good everyday food. Where does Bottega fit in that?

Bottega is middle too high. We are not a true fine dining place, but we do everything from scratch, and at the moment, with the cost of wages, that’s water is the price, you know? Yeah. So, I mean, the people that know what they’re doing, it is, have come with this cost, and obviously, that reflects on the menus. But you are not going to find caviar or oysters at Bottega.

Besha mentioned that Rene Redzepi is doing a pop-up in L.A. and it’s $1,500 a head. And he justified that because of the 20 people going and foraging for the things. That really is an elite market that you’re going for.

Yes. There are places where you go, for example, I went to Attica once. It is a very pricy meal. By it is not just a meal. It’s an experience. If I go out with my partner all night long and I get food, entertainment, and everything else, it does cost more. And that’s what it delivered. I was there three and half years ago, and I’m pretty sure I can mention all the dishes I had then, because every dish is presented in a way that is so spectacular. But at the same time, my partner didn’t like it, because it was too pricey for her. She’s not in the food environment. I do enjoy using my partner to have an outside view on the world, because, as a person who works in the industry, we react to pricing and things in a different way.

You’ve been head chef since 2023, but you’ve been here since 2017, so you must like it at Bottega.

Yes. I had freshly arrived in Australia, and Bottega has been my one and only. When I came to Australia, like most Italian people coming here, I had a Working Holiday Visa, and I was looking for a job. I saw the advertisement for the job at Bottega, I sent my CV, and they called me in. At my trial, they asked me to break down three whole goats for ragu. I thought, yes, I’m going to work here. My intention at the very beginning wasn’t really to work in Melbourne for long. I thought I would go to the Gold Coast. But I started working here, and then a couple of months after, I got promoted to sous chef, they offer me sponsorship, and I stayed here. Then, as you said, in 2023, when I was getting my PR, they offered me the position of head chef. I really enjoyed the environment from the owner to the operational manager, to my chefs. It is a really neat team, and it’s really fun to work here. It doesn’t feel boring. I never stay for longer than two years in a place, because I always thought after a bit, the situation becomes stale. But because I started as a chef de partie, and then had time as sous chef, and now I am head chef, it’s always been evolving.

Had you been head chef before?

No, this is my first position as head chef. I was junior sous in a five-star hotel in London for quite a while. But then I decided to move here, and obviously I thought I would only be working for six months, so I didn’t look for manager positions. I wanted to be chef de partie because honestly, chef de partie is the best position in the kitchen. You’re the strongest, you have no responsibility, perform yourself. I loved those days. But, head chef is also fun.

What changes? I know that that jump to sous chef, you’re doing a lot of the head chef responsibilities.

I think sous chef is the worst role. You are the police in the kitchen, because you’re not making the law, but you’re have to make the other people obey. You come out as the bad guy, even when it’s not your rules because you have to make sure everyone’s following them. Sous chef is obviously a great responsibility, the importance of having, like, a starting sous chef, like, Federica, my sous chef, it’s very important, because I can’t always be here. You want to be relaxed and know that things get done as you like, so, it’s a very important role. At Bottega the team is really close together, and that made a bond between us. Everyone knows what we have to do, and everything is done very quick. For instance, for Valentine’s night, we got everything ready in one week, and there was no hiccups on the preparation. Everything was smooth sailing with 140 customers, and we were sharing beers at midnight, really happy.

I think it makes a really big difference. As you say, you enjoy coming to work. It is never boring, and I think it makes a difference for the diner. I have this belief that when there’s harmony in the kitchen, you can taste that.

That’s a good point.

I know in some of those old school kitchens, you can have extremely high end food, and there’s a lot of disharmony in the kitchen. But I have a belief it must somehow be better for us if there’s goodness in the kitchen.

I came from old school cuisine. Before I came to Australia, most of the kitchens I had worked in were fine dining places, and very old school: a lot of screaming, a lot of shouting, a lot of toxic relations between other chefs. And like you said, because of that toxicity, people don’t really help you as much. So they don’t elevate your job. They actually try to push you down, so it’s harder to improve. You have to do everything by yourself. While here, if you get distracted one second, someone will save your sauce, they will never let it burn just so you can have a problem with the head chef. Everyone looks after each other.

Bottega is an Italian restaurant, and we do not serve traditional Italian food here. To me Italian food is about using local produce. That’s important for me and experimenting with locally sourced produce. There are a lot of native Australian products that I like to add to my menus, like finger lines, and Geraldton wax. Those products are not developed in Italy, but here they are, and they fit so well with Italian cuisine.

Axel Archenti, Bottega

Where did it all start for you? I did see that you’re from La Spezia. I was in Cinque Terra at the end of 2024. I loved it so much.

It is a really nice corner of the world. I did love growing up there. The way I became a chef was a bit random. When I was younger, I always worked on boats, so I was working as a deckhand, and a sailor on yachts and sailboats, travelling around Italy for summer, and then studying in school during the high school. I helped a lot in the kitchen. I also come from a hospitality family. My father is a pizzaiolo. My uncle owned a restaurant, my auntie owned  an Agriturismo. I don’t know how to translate this word, but it’s pretty much a restaurant and bed and breakfast, where you have to produce a certain amount of the food that you’re serving. They were producing everything from scratch. But I never saw it as a profession. Once I finished high school, I was looking for something to do during winter, because sailing is a seasonal job. I decided to travel to London to improve my English, my English was pretty much zero. I started working with a friend who was working in a kitchen, and he told me, oh, come on board, I need a kitchenhand and so I started as a kitchenhand for the first couple of months, until I could speak English, and then I moved to the kitchen, and I fell in love, and now 14 years have gone by.

What is it you love? Is it the creativity? Is it the hospitality side?

The fast pace. And the fact that you don’t do the same things over and over and over. You might do the same recipe for a period of time, but then there is always a change while, you know, like, you don’t sit on a desk. I like to be, you know, standing and do stuff with my hand. I’m pretty sure it would have been a tradie if I wasn’t a chef. I need to do stuff with my hands, I like the creativity side of producing something physical.

I know you get inspiration from the produce, but where else do you get your ideas?

Childhood memories are very important, and then also it’s very important to dine out, to see what other people are doing and using. It’s really fun. And like you said, in Melbourne, there is everything from cheap eating to very high end and everything in between. It’s really fun, go out and experiment and taste different cuisines. It is good to see how they balance the use of fatty and acid on the dish and it just ticks something in your brain.

Do you cook at home?

A lot.

Oh, do you? So you still love it.

Of course.

What’s the dish you love to cook?

Pizza is once every two weeks. Me and another chef, we really enjoy cooking pizza at home, so we are always sharing recipes and tips, and new ways to make it. Pizza is so fun. You can always like change a percent of moisture or salt or how long you prove it, and there can be a big difference in the final product. I always have to do a cacio pepe once a week for my partner, otherwise, probably she probably won’t talk to me. Also a piece of meat on the barbie. I have to admit, I have a gas barbeque and it’s really easy to get the stuff done. 15 minutes, you come back home from being out all day, have a shower, turn on the barbie and by the time you come out of the shower, you can put the steak on, have a salad, fresh bread. It’s the perfect dinner, and it looks like something from a fine dining restaurant.

You are training for the Iron Man. Has that been and gone, or is that yet to come?

I’ve done one and there is another one in a month’s time. It has been really good for my life. It gives me a lot of stability, and I’ve stopped binge drinking and things like that. That is a really big problem in this industry. But I like competing in everything, and this has given me a reason to get out of the bed in the morning, nice and early, and to go to bed early. Rather than, finishing work around midnight, and getting home, and then not going to bed until 2.00am, now,  I have a shower, got to bed, because the next morning, I want to go for a run, or a swim, or a cycle. Here the sport environment is so nice, there are so many really cool places to go. I have a loop around my house, where I live in Altona, Williamstown. It’s all along the beach, and it’s amazing.

It probably makes everything in your life easier; your stamina for the kitchen and all of those things.

Yes. And especially keeping more focussed and more engaged. If you drink too much, then, obviously, your cooking the day after is going to be problematic.

Just to finish because I know that you’ll have people coming in for their pre-theatre dinner. What would your advice be to a young person starting off as a chef?

Don’t go for the money at the beginning. Experience is more important for the first five, six years. Work as hard as you can. And don’t stress too much about the dollar. That will come. It’s so important to maybe stay half an hour extra, because in the extra half an hour, you’re more likely to learn more than when you get paid. I know it’s brutal, or it shouldn’t be like that, but it is actually true, because people are more for prepared to teach you when you show them that you actually really care and you are not just doing it for the hardcore cash.

As you say, being able to come in and break down three goats, a lot of young chefs don’t get to learn that if they don’t stay and do some time with their mentor.

Exactly. It takes time, especially at the beginning. Experience is so important, and then opportunities will come.

Bottega, 74 Bourke Street, Melbourne