Danny Parreno

Hi Danny. Where did it all start for you?

I grew up in a very multi-cultural household. My family from my Dad’s side are married to Japanese and Chinese. There was a mass migration of Japanese and Chinese people into Peru. I grew up from a young age helping my uncles and aunties make sushi rolls and tempura and things like that. It was very traditional. We had to take our shoes off before we went into the house. I was exposed to all that from a very young age.

From my mother’s side, my grandmother emigrated from northern Italy to Peru during the Second World War.

Goodness, there is even more to you than I thought.

She was very into the old traditions from Northern Italy. She was a very strong European woman. She still went shopping at 6am and carrying shopping bags around when she was quite elderly.

I grew up in that house because my Japanese family and my grandparents were my guardians for a long time. My mum and dad were off discovering the world. They were nomads. My dad was a musician and he travelled around South America discovering himself. My mother is a singer. So we travelled a lot and then we had some stability in Peru when my grandparents took on responsibility for me.

And what about the food side of things?

I saw my grandmother cooking all the time. Food has always been a big part of me from the two cultures.

Did she cook Italian food?

Yes, things like passata Sundays were a really big thing and we had gnocchi every Tuesday. She was a very structured lady and it was a big family and she cooked for everyone. From my Japanese side we would get together every second week and it’s called a tanomoshi which is a reunion between families where we all come together and help each other. Food was a big part of all that; the tempura rolls would come out and the sashimi. Again, from a young age I was exposed to raw fish and seaweed and all that.

Having said all that, I never thought at that young age that I’d become a chef. It was the last thing on my mind. Peru is a very multi-cultural country. We have our own style of cuisine, a little bit of creole, the Japanese influence and the Afrikaans who came down and they have their own dishes that are very heavy on beans and grains. Then you have the native style from the highlands; they bury food underground to cook it, very similar to a hangi.

Peru is a very big foodie country. Everything revolves around food. Every male in South America knows how to make at least four or five traditional dishes, especially when they go to a foreign country and want to replicate what your grandmother made. You get on the phone straight away and ask your mum how she makes a certain thing. So I was doing that, when I came to Australia at the age of 16, cooking my mum’s recipes at home.

I finished high school here then an opportunity came up to work as a kitchen hand in a pub. I started working there and then, it was just pure coincidence, one of the cooks got sick and the head chef put me on and ever since then I have never looked back. I asked the head chef what the next step in my career would be and he told me I should work in a fine dining restaurant, so I started looking around Sydney which was where I was living at the time.

I worked at Zigolini’s in Double Bay for a while. Martin Boetz from Longrain and a few other good chefs worked there. That was my first taste of a really structured kitchen. It was very old school style. Tony Mann, was the head chef there then. There was a lot of talent in the kitchen and I learned a lot there.

When you say old school, do you mean the hierarchy in the kitchen and the discipline?

Yes. I think my job for the first three months was peeling potatoes and de-seeding green chillies. My English was ok, but not that great and I remember the head chef locking me up in the cool room with a Spanish-English dictionary and making me label everything in two languages because I would be passing him the cucumber instead of the zucchini. He was a great mentor.

I had a little break in my career to travel. I travelled around and went to work in Tahiti for a bit. I went back to South America; Uruguay and Peru. I was just backpacking and working in kitchens to pick up different styles.

When I returned to Australia, I eventually decided to open my own restaurant in Sydney with a business partner there. I went back to my roots and was making Peruvian-Japanese cuisine. It did really well but after two and a half years trading I decided to sell up and go back to working for someone else. I had a young family and it was very demanding.

So, having fallen into this career, what do you think keeps you in it still?

I try and reinvent myself all the time. I don’t want to tie myself to any particular cuisine because there is so much out there. I love cooking Peruvian cuisine because it’s my thing. I like the connection with the providores; where things come from. That’s what keeps me motivated. I am constantly learning; from a second year apprentice or the chef de partie. I like the rush. I like when it’s busy. Also, it’s like a little family on the side. You spend a lot of time with those guys and that’s another definite plus.

I’ve heard a few chefs talk about their teams as family and I really like that. I think it’s important when you’re creating food for other people that it comes from a place where everyone gets on well and there’s a harmony. I feel as though that must be better for the food and the experience.

Absolutely. When it comes from that part of the heart, it does make a difference; like a special seasoning or something. My grandmother wasn’t a chef, but I thought my grandmother’s lumpy mashed potatoes were amazing because of where it came from. It was the environment and the love that made it so special. When you work in a restaurant and you see customers enjoying themselves and the feedback you get when someone has really enjoyed the meal, I feel as though I have done my job.

Absolutely. Do you think that anyone can be a chef?

We are a special people. Actually, that’s a hard question. There is a tight connection between humans and food; but that next level of being drawn to the food the way chefs are, well, it sounds great to start with but it’s a lot of dedication and you have to be persistent and don’t get beaten down or give up with the first negative feedback you get. You can’t take things personally. It is very important as a chef to learn from your mistakes. If you have those characteristics, then yes, you can be a chef. And we need a lot more chefs than we have at the moment.

It’s interesting that you say that. And yet we are so obsessed with food; Instagraming what we eat, watching MasterChef. I guess the glamour of what we see in the media doesn’t match the reality of the job.

That’s right. As professional chefs and educators in the industry we have a responsibility to teach students what it means to work in the real world. It’s not just coming and doing a few shifts; it takes a lot out of you, so you have to be passionate about what you are doing.

Do you see yourself as an educator?

I love teaching. I love learning and sharing what I learn. I like to know about what’s new, what the trends are, what might happen in the future. I was just chatting to the chefs through there about vegetarianism and veganism. Not far from where I live they have opened big vegan supermarkets and they are packed. People are becoming more aware. That’s another aspect to being a chef; we are responsible for teaching customers about ethical ways of working and cooking; incorporating more vegetables into the menu.

Are you still able to eat someone else’s food and be surprised by it?

Absolutely. Always. It could be a taco from Welcome to Thornbury or the menu at Attica. There is so much out there.

The Bridge Hotel

642 Bridge Road, Richmond