David Dellai

Hi David. It is very nice to finally be here. And there is nothing nicer than seeing you all having your staff meal. I think that is so important. I know lots of places do do it but I also know lots of places dont and its so lovely when staff eat together.

Exactly. We've always done it and it is so important. It's the one time of day wen we all sit down together. It's true, we've always made it part of our day.

Also, it just seems mean to make staff run around and give food to other people when they havent eaten or they've had to grab something on the way. It's part of hospitality as far as Im concerned. So David, I have been reading a bit about you and there are a lot of things that come out quite consistently that I'd like to explore, such as the fact that you always knew you wanted to be a chef and that came from cooking with your mum at the age of four. Can you tell me a bit about the birth of loving being around food.

I think it was being brought up in the Italian culture; always when we were kids, my brother and sister and I were always brought up around food. Mum was always cooking at home and, you know, this time of year making sauceshe did it last weekend and I said, what are you doing, Mum, and she had already bought the tomatoes. She was always making the pasta sauce and salami and the Italian traditions. My brother and my sister werent really interested. so she startednot really backing off on it, but she started losing some of the tradition but then she saw how much I loved it and she kept on doing it. I've always been around food.

I think that's the same for a lot of people who were brought up in Italian and Greek cultures, those cultures where everyone is around the table, and as you say, the traditions of passata and sausages and those sorts of things. What was the next step for you to make a living from it? When did that happen for you?

My brother did his apprenticeship and when I was in high school, we had to do work experience and I knew I wanted to be a chef so I wanted to get in somewhere and at the time he worked for Qantas catering, so he took me over there to do work experience in Year 9 or 10. I got to see how it worked professionally. It was very different but from then I just really enjoyed it.

What do you think it was about that? Was it the buzz or the actual food?

I didn't really experience the buzz then, I think you get the buzz as you grow into it, that develops, for sure.

Ok, so you've been a chef for, dare I say, over 20 years

Yes, I think I've hit 21 years now.

And you are now an Executive chef, so for those listeners or readers who might not be quite sure what that means, what does that mean for you? Sometimes an executive chef is just overseeing things and not on the pans. Are you still hands on?

I'm still hands on now because we are struggling for staff between the venues right now, but there is a lot of overseeing and administration. I don't think I could ever be not hands on. Its not me. It defeats the purpose of doing what you love in the first place, I guess.

How many venues do you oversee?

I go between Il Bacaro, Bar Carolina and Tetto.

There has been a revamp in Il Bacaro and you've gone from generalised Italian back to its Venetian roots, is that right?

Yes, we've gone back to Venetian, more classical Italian styles, incorporating modern techniques.

Does Venetian mean more seafood?

A bit more seafood orientated. Venetian food is hard to explain. Traditionally, Venetian cuisine is more tapas style, generally speaking, when you speak to a lot of Italians, they don't rate it, they think Venetian is the worst because they take bits from everywhere, really.

So it's like modern Australian

To a degree..

a fusion of all the best of Italian, nice.What are some examples of dishes you have on the menu now?

Frutto di mare is our share plate that's like a raw seafood share plate. Our risotto is zucchini flower pesto, cheddar foam and silver leaf is our new go to dish. Its really good. And the cappellacci that I think she's rolling now in the kitchen; so lemon curd cappellacci with rabbit ragu.

Wow.

Yeah, she's getting that ready now. So they are the new dishes on the menu and we'll go from there.

Where do you get your inspiration after 21 years?

These young kids. These young kids that come in; my head chef and sous chef are a lot younger than me and you just see the things they come up with. Ten years ago I was like that and now there's a new generation who come in and try different things and learn different techniques and see different techniques on social media, Instagram. There's more access now and they can see different things to try out.

I'm just thinking through this question now as I ask it, do you think maybe the young generationand we were all a young generation once, but do you think they are more willing to break rules and be experimental?

100%. As I say, ten years ago, I was in that frame. I remember doing things a bit differently to my old head chefs and it was modern back then and it's just different now.

I wonder then as we get older whether we hark back to authenticity and all the things we grew up with and perhaps we go back to the more traditional ways of doing things because we believe they are really great? And absolutely, there's a place for innovation and experimenting and maybe the two can sit together.

Classics will always be classics. I think we take the classic as a version we can build off, but the classics will always be the basis, no matter what.

I was reading, too, that you like to go back to Italy as often as possible.

If I can, yeah.

When you go, do you have specific places you want to go to or specific foods you're seeking out? Whats your itinerary?

I don't really have one. I just sort of wing it. The last couple of times we winged it. Alba is always the last stop on the way back for truffles, but we just wing itlet's go here and then there.

It's the same, I guess, as a French teacher, always wanting to get to France and I lived in the South of France for a year and I think it's about the markets and seeing what ordinary people are doing with their produce. And that was something I was going to ask you about: you're doing Venetian food with Victorian produce.

Trying to stay as local as we can.

Can you do that for that style of food?

Most of it, yes. Obviously it's easy for fresh things like seafood because Victoria has good access to excellent seafood but for the rest, it has been pretty surprising how much we can access, it has been pretty good.

Victoria, certainly at the moment, as much as we can help out the farmers and the suppliers

Exactly. Last year was a real eye opener, seeing how much everyone in the country just struggled. We want to support each other as much as we can when we can.

Going back to your truffles, I read that you hand pick them, what do you look for in a good white truffle?

The first thing, you feel it. Visually it catches your eye. You feel it, you smell the aroma. Its hard to explain but you know, you just know when its a good one. Definitely.

Are you looking at them in a market or have you been out on a truffle hunt?

I attempted to go on a truffle hunt once. I was nowhere quick enough to keep up with the dog. The guys just laughed at me and I gave up. They are really secretive about where they take you to get the truffles. The guy saw the size of me and knew I would ever keep up with the dogs, so that was it.

It's quite nice to have some sort of mystery surrounding it, I suppose.

It was interesting, not that I saw anything! They had a few in the markets in Alba, but mainly we have a guy who has a shop that is all just truffle products. Its fantastic. Downstairs he has his fresh truffle area where he cleans and sanitises them for export and the whole room is full of truffles. Its crazy.

When would you usually be there?

Usually around October, November, so we obviously missed out last year. We missed out the last couple of years, actually.

What do you do in that case? You just import them?

Yes, we import them. Obviously last year we were closed and so there was no one to sell truffles to unfortunately, but yes, we have a good relationship with him and we can jump on the phone or email and order. He knows what we're after.

And apart from truffles, in one article you were extolling the virtues of some kind of vinegar and then I saw a video where you were cooking with stinging nettle and that was your favourite ingredient, but I imagine your favourite ingredient changes according to what you come across, so what is it at the moment?

At the momentgood questionI'm actually loving more proteins, at the moment, more meats, I think, and I can't really specify what. It's a bit weird but I'm loving cooking with charcoal and those sorts of flavoursI can't really say charcoal is a flavour, but coking with charcoal has been pretty enjoyable lately.

Have you got a grill here?

We have a normal char grill here, but we have the Jospar at Bar Carolina and I think that's the one with the wow factor.

Just to do a name dropI was talking to Ben Shewry at Attica Summer Camp and he has several char grills going and he was talking about the learning curve it takes to learn about cooking over coals. You have to learn about fire and different temperatures.

That's right.

And getting lots of burns.

That's true. I dont have many hairs on my arm any more.

David, just to finish, what would be your advice to someone who was wanting to get into cheffing now?

I always say, you have to love it. I think that's the same for any field, but for cheffing it is really important. You have to love it. I think it's really noticeable if you don't love cooking. You won't go that far. I think if you love it, give it a go and you'll go far. Stick to it.

Il Bacaro

168-170 Little Collins Street, Melbourne