Julian Chew

Julian you have really achieved a lot over various different areas. It’s impressive. You trained as a chef but you also have a degree in Interior Design.

That path was a side track after high school, I was about to start Uni for a mid-year intake but it was a private college and it was quite expensive and I was umming and ahing about what to do about advertising at the time. My mum was studying in London and she asked me to go out and visit so I was there for two or three weeks and it opened my eyes. I went to Paris and the London. Up until that time I had just been living in Sydney’s outer suburbs and my exposure to food wasn’t great. When I got back, I decided I wanted to become a chef.

I’d been cooking at home from about 16. My dad was always at work and he would come home late. I grew up with my mum and her family and there was always dinner on the table waiting but with Dad it was more take out or he’d cook something in the morning and I wasn’t quite happy with that. So the pursuit of a home cooked meal was where it began. I’d been cooking for my friends through Year 12. They’d come over and hang out and I’d cook. It wasn’t anything big, just packet sauces, but that’s where it began.

The week after I got back from London, I just went scouting. I was in Darling Harbour and I just looked at Ampersand, that was a good restaurant at the time but I think they were going under which is why they didn’t hire me. Then I landed in the Toaster building opposite the Opera House and Matt Moran had just opened Aria. It was six or so months old so it was very fresh. Matt wasn’t around so I just went for a walk into the city. They said he was coming back so I went back for an interview and two days later I got a trial. I had to buy a uniform and I did my first double shift starting at 9am and going until 10pm. It was pretty long and I didn’t know what to expect. It was still pretty quiet then though. We did 50 covers for lunch and 100 for dinner, so it was manageable. There was a big team and they were all really talented chefs working there. I got the job and started on Monday.

So you’d gone from cooking packet sauces to getting a job in a restaurant with top chefs.

My friends always told me I should become a chef. Coming from a Chinese background, I was discouraged from pursuing a career in hospitality, especially as I was one of the eldest in the family. But food in Australia is different to Malaysia and I had to change their mindset. I think my dad was ok with it, because being big on the food scene, he liked going out to eat and when I scored that job I think he was pretty happy.

The only reason I only lasted two years was because it was exhausting. I lived really far away from the restaurant and the commute was huge. I’d finish at midnight, catch the bus at 1am, get home and fall asleep by 3am and then up again at 7am and back to work. It took a toll after a while. Whenever I would go and visit my friends, I’d just pass out. I suffered from fatigue and take a step away from the industry.

Is that when you did interior design?

I gave it another six months. I was lucky there because I had some very good mentors and I'd been able to move through the whole kitchen within a year and a half. The pastry chef was very supportive of me and he said, give it some more time, don’t just walk away. I landed a job with Peter Doyle and worked with him for about six months but he was in a bad spot at that time and I wasn’t in the right mind frame. I took a year off and got myself ready to come to Uni in Melbourne.

You got back into hospitality, so the call is obviously strong, and you’ve had your own places, Eat a Scroll, Café Lip and Miss Marie.

Yes, so I’ve bought into Miss Marie and Sideshow Burgers.

What made you want to get back into hospitality having left it to do something else?

My original calling was architecture or be a draftsman; something to do with drawing or anything to do with my hands. After I did TAFE I got an internship at Spaces, a company in Armadale. I was there for six months and they encouraged me to go to Higher Ed and do the Uni course and then go back and the come out and work. The six months there was good. There was a really nice family network thing going on. They were working on a lot of hotels and residential projects. But I guess I was restless, siting at the desk, answering phone calls and picking up samples. It wasn’t satisfying.

Throughout TAFE and Uni, I still worked in kitchens, washing dishes, making pastries. I graduated in 2008 and the recession had just hit. I think it was always tough in that industry to get a job but there were some massive cuts and Interior Design was one of the areas people weren’t hiring. My study allowance finished once I graduated, so I just got a job with my old boss in Fitzroy North called Loafer Bread. It was only meant to be temporary while I looked for a job but I ended up staying there for two years. She inspired me to open my own place.

You seem to have your finger on the pulse in terms of trends. The scroll thing was big there for a while. Did you start that?

Not quite. I did come off the back of doughnuts being on the rise and you really have to be special to add more doughnuts. People like Bistro Morgan did something interesting. The fact that he was 16 and making everything from home was ground-breaking for the industry. I was making scrolls at the café and we already had the start of a following. There was a mob in Sydney who had started it, but they’d only just started coming down to Melbourne when we got up and running. I don’t know what happened with scrolls. It just fizzled. It was quite strange. It was my first experience with being on trend.

It was a real wave, wasn’t it, it surged and then subsided.

Yes. That was heartbreaking for me. We had just invested into a whole new set up to get the business going. I had to move into wholesale which was good because that introduced me to a whole lot of other cafes and restaurants, which was exciting. Abhish (Gupta), my business partner at Sideshow and at Miss Marie, got me out of a bad situation with Scroll and convinced me that coming back to a café was a good thing to do, even though I was trying to step away from that. And it was my push for the burgers to get me out of here (Miss Marie).

It’s an interesting choice. Burgers seem to be perennial. They have been around for a long time but there has been a real resurgence in their popularity. How many burger places can there be? It’s an ambitious choice but obviously one you feel is timely.

Yes. When I had Lip Café, Huxtaburger had just started on the scene with the whole Heston in search of the perfect burger story. We started our burger nights at Lip and I guess what I’ve noticed has changed with burgers is the move away fro the fish and chip shop burgers and the move away from McDonalds into gourmet burgers. Neil Perry was doing his $25 burger in his restaurant. But I’m more about making food accessible. I trained in fine dining and I loved what I learned there and the amazing food I got to eat, but I felt that it wasn’t accessible. It was for people that did it occasionally or for people who were wealthy. It didn’t gel with me, as much as I enjoyed it. The pursuit of the café and Scroll and burgers is more about accessibility. That’s why I opened it in the suburbs as well. I didn’t want to have to compete with the likes of Huxtaburger and The Burger Project in the city. I like this locale.

It’s good for the people in Rosanna to have a good café and a good burger place and to not have to travel for that.

The other part of that is I’m working with quite a different team now. Instead of working with trained chefs, I’m now working with kids. People who live locally and haven’t worked in the food industry before.

Is that a deliberate choice?

Yes. Initially, no, but I have noticed that because I’m very systems driven, it works really well for me. Chefs are good at what they do, but they’re freestyle and a bit more creative. Following my systems and procedures might be a little bit tough for them. They want more flexibility.

Having done pastry and savoury food, that’s the biggest difference I noticed. I love pastry because of its consistency. You have to follow the recipe or you won’t get the results you want. This is a version of pastry for me.

A couple of chefs I have spoken to mentioned that they had worked at McDonalds as kids. Not that I am at all comparing your burgers to McDonalds, but just the systems aspect. The chefs appreciated that structure and it meant that actually 14 year olds were running a whole restaurant in some respects. I imagine what your team are learning from you is really valuable.

That conversation has come up with friends who worked at McDonalds when they were younger. I never did but I’m enjoying seeing how it works here.

There’s perhaps an interesting discussion around creativity vs. systems. There is a certain creativity and freedom that comes from rules.

Yes, but also having owned a bakery and a café over 8 years, I have only so much stamina and there are only so many weeks I can do seven days straight. That’s the tough bit, because I was always wanting to be in control. But I can relinquish that control as long as they are following the systems. But it’s more about them staying col under pressure. I didn’t want them to have a bad time there. Having worked in a busy kitchen, I know how stressful it can be. Even if you have 15 chefs in the kitchen, it can be a domino effect. One course gets sent back and the whole communication gets lost.

You haven’t been open long, how is it going?

We’ve been open for 9 weeks and it’s going well.

What do you think is the most popular burger?

The Sideshow. It’s the cheeseburger. I think it’s because of price point and simplicity. Although the Ringmaster, the fried chicken burger is starting to pick up and they are almost on par.

You’re not about to tell me the secret, but what’s the thing that sets your burgers apart?

This time around, I’ve done a 180° and I’m not producing anything in house. What I learned from Scroll and Lip is that there are some really good suppliers and manufacturers out there who are in line with what I’m trying to achieve. Being able to source them and have them on my menu really helps. I’ve eaten a lot of burgers and I know what I am looking for in a burger and I just hope that’s what everyone else is looking for and that’s all I can do.

Sideshow Burgers

61 Beetham Parade, Rosanna

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