Walking up Canning Street to The Wine Corner Store on a sunny day is joyous. There are people sitting at outside tables and lounging on the grass strip in the middle of the road with bottles of wine and snacks, catching up with friends and enjoying the tease of a possible early spring. It's a vibe. Steven "Stevie" Mifsud-Ellul opened The Wine Corner Store back in 2016 with a concept of mirroring the relationships that milk bar owners have with a neighbourhood – but instead of selling milk, bread and lollies, he sells wines, beers and delicious food. One of the more unique things about The Wine Corner Store is that people can enjoy a bottle of wine that would usually cost hundreds of dollars at a restaurant because Stevie sells it at retail price. Heading the kitchen is John Cassie. John has worked at several of my favourite Melbourne venues includingThe Palace Hotel, Verge, Cutler & Co, Bar Liberty, Capitano, Old Palm Liquor, Waxflower and Atticus Finch. John and I sat down and had a lovely chat with a glass of wine and then I was invited to stay on with my partner for dinner, or more realistically the feast that John sent out. John is a master of flavour, and I would be hard pressed to say which dish was my favourite. I started with briny sweet Sydney rock oysters from front-of-house Miles' family's oyster farm in Lake Wonboyn on the remote far south coast of New South Wales. There are some Maltese leaning dishes as a nod to Stevies heritage, such as the Bigilla, a hearty Maltese broad bean dip served with warm house-made flatbread, and then there was a pork rendang croquette with charred pineapple and a stunning Jerusalem artichoke with romesco. We also shared the Fettuccini with duck and radicchio ragu and a seafood Moqueca, which owes its origins to Brazil and perhaps John's earlier travels throughout South America. I loved it all and I am already thinking about when I can go back for more.
Conversation with a chef: Hi John. What have you been doing in the kitchen today?
John Cassie: Prepping for a function upstairs tonight. 24 people, 40th birthday.
Do you choose the menu or do they choose what they want to eat?
We do a sample menu for them to get an idea of what we can do and if they have any dietaries or want to sort of change it up a little bit, we can adjust it to their liking.
How long have you been here now?
I started in March, so about six months.
So you're in the groove now.
It's still early days, but with winter it was a good chance to get the menu sorted and a bit more tuned to the ideas that I've had for a long time and wanted to put together. I think now coming into spring, summer, it's a good chance to hopefully get a bit busier and get a bit more word of mouth.
It's amazing out there on the grass in the sun.
Yes, it's beautiful.
I was going to ask you about the menu because you've been in a few kitchens and then when you move to a new place, and you've got ideas you want to try, but do you have to feel the vibe of the place and the diners as well?
Definitely. There was already a very established local regular clientele when I started. And probably a lot more leaning towards snacks and people just wanting drinks and something to eat. So I've been trying to accommodate that but also offer a bit more in terms of a dinner, sit down full menu in terms of mains and a bit more substantial food. We are still trying to get people on board with that because it can very much depend on what sort of crowd are in on a certain night as to how, how much dinner we'll do or how many snacks we'll do. It's still a little bit inconsistent in that regard, especially with winter. I think in summer that will happen and we are obviously trying to take advantage of the beautiful verge outside.
Can people drink out on that grass?
Yes, because we've got the takeaway license.
I love it. In terms of the menu, there are lots of really interesting flavours in there. Do you start with flavour or do you start with something else in menu creation?
A little bit. Definitely produce is a big one and trying to work in the seasons as much as possible and adjusting flavours with those ingredients. In winter I had more hearty options as well as having a lot of snacks, small, yummy bites. And I wanted to keep a little bit of a balance in terms ofsome lighter pressure things with the more robust and wintery warmers.
When you're having those ideas, do youwrite them down in a notebook?
A little bit. In the couple of weeks before the change of menu, it's about talking with staff and also doing a few specials here and there and trying things out, seeing what works and if it's something that might need a bit of adjusting before it goes to the menu. I try and keep it as organic as possible and obviously you get some feedback from the other chefs youre working with because theyve got cool ideas and theyre passionate and it's nice having that kind of collaborative team effort.
That's right and you need everyone on board.
For sure. Obviously, I've worked in a lot of places which havea lot of different flavour profiles and I dont want to have too many things clashing on the menu as well and having a little bit of input and the front of house guys as well have input. Everyone here eats out a lot and they have really good ideas of what works and flavours and I think sometimes working in kitchens for so long it's nice to have a fresh, outside perspective on things.
Keeping track of what other places are doing around Melbourne is interesting to me as well. It’s very cool seeing what people are doing. Social media has really changed the game a bit in terms of how aware people are of what’s in trend and what’s cool and I think also people have higher expectations. I think people know a lot more than they used to. Your average punter has a very good idea of what was probably considered pretty niche before social media was so huge. I think there is a lot more borrowing and lending of ideas than there used to be as well. I think nothing nothing’s created in a vacuum, and it’s similar to music when you’ve gota live music scene, everyone borrows from each other and what’s cool at the time in music and art and all those sorts of things. ~ John Cassie, The Wine Corner Store
Do you have to follow trends?
A little bit. I guess it's natural having worked in Melbourne, especially for the last four or five years, in wine bars with a similar leaning: Old Palm Liquor and Waxflower and Bar Liberty and those sorts of places. I think they're trendy places that are creating trends a lot of time, so it's hard not to be inspired by that. Keeping track of what other places are doing around Melbourne is interesting to me as well. It's very cool seeing what people are doing. Social media has really changed the game a bit in terms of how aware people are of what's in trend and what's cool and I think also people have higher expectations. I think people know a lot more than they used to. Your average punter has a very good idea of what was probably considered pretty niche before social media was so huge. I think there is a lot more borrowing and lending of ideas than there used to be as well. I think nothing nothing's created in a vacuum, and it's similar to music when you've gota live music scene, everyone borrows from each other and what's cool at the time in music and art and all those sorts of things.
That's good. It sounds very community based. I was actually at an amazing gig last night at Estonian house, do you know Cash Savage and the Last Drinks?
I love Cash Savage.
They had got a lot of musicians together and then all of the money went to the musicians rather than having a middle man. To me it was a celebration of community. So that's a good analogy between the music scene and the food scene. Passionate people as well.
There is a lot of overlap. Especially, Waxflower, having a different DJ every night and Old Palm Liquor, they only play vinyl and are very selective about what they play and music is a big part of it. A lot of places that I've worked are very much about creating a vibe andmusic is a big part of that. It's the same thing here. Everyone here is very into music.
I saw something on the menu I was intrigued by, a Maltese Dip?
It's a dried broad bean, lightly spiced with bit of cumin and paprika, bit of confit garlic and parsley mixed through: very robust and a hearty good winter one I think. And that's from Steve, the owner, his Maltese heritage. Its something that he grew up eating and has a lot of nostalgia for him with his grandma. I usually try and have a few little Maltese influences here and there. I'm not Maltese, so it's not my background. I hadnt tried Maltese food when I started working here, but there are really delicious flavours, sort of Italian with a little bit of Arabic, it's a little bit its own kind of microcosm being an island similar to Sicily, they have those slightly different flavour profiles, but very hearty robust, really delicious food.
I'm actually intrigued by Malta because my grandparents rightly or wrongly lived there, they were English and lived there just after the war in the fifties for five years and there was a big expat community, much to the Maltese people's disgust, but that was the best time of their life. When they talked about Malta, it was just this incredible time.
It looks beautiful. So many of those islands in the Mediterranean are just incredibly picturesque.
So that's a dip? What are you dipping into it?
We do a flatbread, it's a pretty standard flatbread fried in olive oil, so it puffs up and gets that nice bit of char and crustiness. I do that to order every time so it's warm and yummy and the dip is great with a bit of a chopped parsley and spring onion and some chili and olive oil, lemon juice. It's herbaceous and can be quite rich, but it also has that Mediterranean summery crossover as well.
I like those kinds of dishes that you can take your time with. I have been reading Annie Smither's new memoir and she talks about learning about Aioli which obviously there's the aioli sauce, but in Provence its a dish with lots of accompaniments and I feel like in the Mediterranean people seem to enjoy those dishes that take time it's a really nice way to eat.
For sure. I've not been to Europe and its high on my list. I've travelled quite extensively through Asia and Latin America, but haven't done Europe so much. I think everyone I know who's travelled there says the food is mind blowing and just so fresh and so produce driven. People love their food there and I think they're very passionate. There's so much heritage as well with things that have been passed down.
There are often flash fires, things are always popping up, lots of heat, and heat of the moment where you think how am I going to deal with this? How am I going to handle this? Having to think on your feet a lot which is exciting sometimes and sometimes awful. Sometimes incredibly stressful. As everyone knows, working in kitchens is not a cakewalk by any means, but it’s incredibly fulfilling as well. I don’t think I’ve done anything that’s so rewarding at the end of the night once you get through it all. Having so many problems come up and getting through them as a team and by the end of the night no matter what’s happened, no matter how angry the head chef has been, by the end of it everyone’s having a beer together and there’s a team spirit there. John Cassie, The Wine Corner Store
Where did it all start for you? When did you decide to become a chef?
I was aware of a passion for it when I was still quite young, 10 or so. My mum had studied home economics. She'd had my brother and I, so ended up dropping out of school, but she had a real passion for food and had a lot of cookbooks and I think I developed a passion for cooking because of that. I was always really interested in Asian food before it was a thing, more than just the local suburban Chinese place. I always wanted to cook Peking Duck and dishes that you couldn't really get anywhere that I'd read about and was just really excited by. All through high school I thought that it was something that I wanted to do. And then I went into a science degree after high school,a marine science degree, which I wasn't really that interested in and dropped out. I was traveling for a few years and I thought I think I'm going to finally bite the bullet and do something Id been interested in for so long and something I thought that I could do almost anywhere in the world and travel with. I definitely started my apprenticeship a bit later than a lot of people. I was 24 when I started. Id spent a couple of years traveling and was very interested in music and I think just wanted to do something creative as well. I always had that drive to be creative in a career. I think that's always been something I've wanted to do. I think there are a lot of unglamorous parts of cooking, but I think that's any career really. There are always parts of the job that are not to everyone's taste, but are essential. Having cooked for 15 years or so, I've developed a lot of skills that are relevant to everyday life outside of being able to cook delicious food for my friends and family and do a job that's creatively fulfilling. I think there's lots of crossover into being organised and so on.
Absolutely. I think that whole mise en place idea is a philosophy for life, when you've got everything ready to go and you are organised and anticipating what's coming. I'm always in awe of the techniques that chefs have and just that really practical way of approaching things. It's a real problem-solving job as well, isn't it?
Definitely. There are often flash fires, things are always popping up, lots of heat, and heat of the moment where you think how am I going to deal with this? How am I going to handle this? Having to think on your feet a lot which is exciting sometimes and sometimes awful. Sometimes incredibly stressful. As everyone knows, working in kitchens is not a cakewalk by any means, but it's incredibly fulfilling as well. I don't think I've done anything that's so rewarding at the end of the night once you get through it all. Having so many problems come up and getting through them as a team and by the end of the night no matter what's happened, no matter how angry the head chef has been, by the end of it everyone's having a beer together and there's a team spirit there.
And you're feeding people aren't you? Eating delicious food is such a treat. Youre making people happy. It's an incredible job and I like cooking but I couldn't do it night after night at the volume that you do it at all different times. I think it probably does take a certain type of personality or approach to be a chef.
I think so. And a little bit of a masochistic personality. Especially to get through the early years, the training side of things. You need thick skin. I thinka lot of people have incredible cooking talents in terms of home cooks and some of my friends cookfood that's more delicious than I cook, I think it's always nice having other people cook for you anyway, but I think the difference between someone who has a great palate and is a fantastic cook is a very different thing to being able to work in a commercial kitchen. I think it takes a completely different skillset. Sometimes the actual cooking elements take a back seat to the logistics.
That's right. And then you've got all the other aspects of leadership too as a head chef. I have been reading Annie Smither's memoir, and she was saying when you move from kitchen to kitchen, it's such an intense group when you are there because you're there for hours together and often in a small space and then you move on. How do you make that transition or how do you enter a new team, like here for example, and make them, not make them your own, but work with them?
This is my first head chef role. I've done a little bit of private chef work and worked in a few kitchens where I was the only chef. But this is the first time I've actually had a team. But as I was learning and kind of coming up, I think most kitchens for me Ive seen quite a high turnover of chefs, they bounce around kitchens fairly regularly. I do think you have to have a certain amount of adaptability, but also I think having skills that you've learned from one chef you can bring that to a new kitchen. I think you're always learning andsome places will be completely at odds with what you've learned at the last place. And then some places you bring something new and they'll be, oh, amazing. That can sometimes come down to what kind of chef you're working with. But, coming into a restaurant where I have a few people under me and training them, I'm finding that really exciting. You were saying earlier, having to change the ideas that I have, depending on clientele and venue, you need that adaptability. If you're very rigid and close minded I suppose it's going to make things more difficult, in my opinion.
And so with your chef experience and life experience in mind, what would your advice be to young people starting out as chefs?
I think, stick it out, for one. A lot of people start and find it very difficult and the hours are quite gruelling but it gets better and it's exciting. That feeling of accomplishment and how rewarding it is, it's a really incredible career. You can travel with it and move around and learn. I think especially now, it's a lot better than when I was coming up as an apprentice. There were a lot of unfair working conditions in terms of pay and I think it is now a lot better than it has been in the past. I think it's a great time to start. There is a lot more awareness of mental health and people are not letting chefs burn out like they used to and pushing them to the end of the tether. I think it's a really great time to start and lots of really intelligent people are doing really intelligent things. Its a good time in Melbourne.
The Winer Corner Store, 50 Princes Street, Carlton North