Michael Craig

Hi Michael, thanks for having a chat with me today. First of all, I have to say that both my parents were born in Paisley and so I do have some sort of connection to Glasgow, albeit a tenuous one. I say that because youre from Glasgow and trained as a chef there.

Thats correct. Im from Glasgow, Ive lived in Australia for about eight years now, I think. I started off in kitchens in Glasgow when I was about 18. It started off just as a part time job washing dishes when I was at university and then quite quickly I stopped going to university and sent more time in the kitchen and I guess that was noticed buy the head chef at that first job. Eventually I dropped out of university and was in the kitchen full time.

What do you think it was about cooking and being in the kitchen that really appealed to you?

For me, I guess, because I was at university studying computing at the time…

Quite different.

Its quite different and I was really studying that because it was what I could do well at the time but I didnt really have a passion for it, it was just something that I could do, whereas when I was in the kitchen working, even though it meant my social life went wherever with the late nights and long shifts, it was a much more enjoyable environment to be in. It was a busy, fast-paced environment rather than sitting at a desk all day. So, for me, I was initially drawn to it being a fun environment to be working in. When I started cooking my skills started from there; I didnt really feel like I was going to become a chef, I was just enjoying the environment.

What sort of restaurant were you in when you started?

The first restaurant I was in was called Ad Lib and it was in Glasgow and it was an American style BBQ place. It was a very busy place and everything was made in house so it was a good place for me to learn. But from a personal side, it was a strange time because at the same time, I was questioning… I wasnt vegetarian or vegan at the time but I was thinking about it and it was quite a heavy meat oriented environment. While it was a great place and I enjoyed working in it, it also made me question my ethics around working in that environment. I actually became vegetarian as I was working in that American BBQ place, which is a strange thing. But thats where I started.

I was fortunate there because the head chef at the time…its quite funny, his name is Chris Orr and he is actually running a kitchen in Melbourne too now, I bumped into him 15 years later, hes in Preston… he took me under his wing and I got some training under him. Then that company was part of a bigger group which sent me around different restaurants and bars, so I was in a Latin American one, a French one, and a more event-focused one, so I got a good mix of experience in my early years going around restaurants from that group.

Then I got a job at The 78 which was a new vegan bar restaurant that opened up in the West End of Glasgow. I worked there for five years and was head chef there for three or four of those years. Thats where I was before flying out to Australia and Id probably still be there of I was still in Glasgow because it was a really good place to work. It was a good place to go after my initial few years training because that kitchen aligned more with my ethics, obviously, being fully vegan. At that point while I was still working in non-vegetarian restaurants, my personal diet had changed a fair bit, so it was good to get into there. But it was also a really good place to work in because the owner there was quite relaxed with what we could put on the menu and we would change it on a weekly or sometimes daily basis, depending on seasonal produce. He allowed us to experiment and there wasnt really much of a limit on what we could do there. It was a good place to experiment and learn as well.

This is a nave question because Im not vegan although I do prefer to have a more plant-based diet and I do like cooking but this is the naivety of my question, going from training as a chef working with meat and animal products and shifting to vegan, whats the process? Its not as simple as just taking away meat and cheese and so on? How do you do that as a chef?

My early training was more about building up flavours, starting with a base, like most things start with onion and garlic and spices and seasonings. Really, its easy to make a steak taste good but really cooking should be about building up flavours through herbs and spices and seasonings which are generally plant-based anyway. But I think things have changed quite drastically in the time Ive been vegan. Ive been vegan for the best part of 15 years now and cooking for most of that time. Things are definitely different now with the availability of vegan alternatives to everything, they are now quite easy to come by. I think we have come a long way in the past 15 years and definitely anything non-vegan. you can make a good vegan alternative. And if you have those fundamental skills and taste to be able, not just to replicate things, but to understand what it is that makes something taste good, then you can do a vegan style.

I know that at Red Sparrow you use vegan alternatives to meat, so pepperoni and sausage and you have some almond cheese, are you making those yourself or are you sourcing them from someone else?

We source most of those things. Our kitchen in the Collingwood location, which is where we first started, our back kitchen there is absolutely tiny. We took on a place and the kitchen is quite a lot larger now because we extended it after the first year. We first took it on a s a 20-seater and the back kitchen there for prep is the smallest kitchen I have ever worked in, but its what we could afford at the time. It limits us as to what we can do in terms of making cheeses and that kind of thing and we do go through so much because we are so busy, so a lot of those things are sourced. We do make a lot of things in house, like our sauces and our desserts; our cheesecake which my partner made, we do make a lot of that kind of thing in house. But a lot of other things we source and work with our suppliers, like some of our cheeses are made especially for us and are a bit more available now but when we first opened, we worked with our suppliers to get those things right. I guess its also an interesting question that people do ask quite a lot but they dont necessarily ask that in a non-vegan place.

Thats very true. I think Im just a bit fascinated because when I went back to my home town, Christchurch, in New Zealand, I had a chat to my friend Flip Grater who with her husband has a caf deli called Grater Goods and she has experimented for years and makes incredible products. I know it can be hard to make to get the same stringiness of cheese and so on..

We have made some things in the past and experimented with it, particularly in my early years as a chef working at other places. When I first started working as a chef, the vegan cheese in the UK was terrible, so a lot of things wed make out of cashews or soy. But I think things have dramatically changed over the last few years or so with what you can get commercially. Its quite hard to produce some things without the right equipment.

And you are absolutely right, with a dairy cheese, I wouldnt be expecting a restaurant to be making that! And you are wanting to use the best products out there. As you say, your volume, your turnover is so high. I actually have tried a few times when we were in a normal world, to go to Red Sparrow but it has always been busy when I have wanted to go. But I do have friends who have been and loved it. You are very busy. Did you anticipate it being as busy and nailing it so well?

Yes and no. Obviously I had confidence it was going to be successful because I risked everything, and we had no financial backing. Its me and my partner who run this. Pretty much as soon as I got my permanent residency visa to stay here, we managed to get a bank loan and our savings and tried to make it work. So I had confidence that it was going to be busy and I didnt have plans to open up a second one. Our first restaurant we opened up we had 20 seats inside and quite quickly we realised that wasnt enough and after our first year, we took on the lease of the building next door and smashed a hole in the wall and expanded it so we can fit about 100 people in there now, which definitely wasnt something Id planned on doing. I take things as they come and theres not really a huge grand plan for things.

But I think to get back to the previous topic, I think the thing that makes us different is that because I am vegan and because I am a chef, weve been making sure that everything weve been doing is done properly; whether thats making the dough in the best technique possible or whether its the cheeses or the mock meats we use, making sure its what I think is the best available. Some other places that sell vegan pizza think, well theres vegan cheese so that will do, but theres a wide variety of things out there and you need to take some time and care to source the best products.

Of course. And youd already been working in the area at Trippy Taco, so you probably had a feel for the clientele and so on.

We opened up in Collingwood and part of the reason for moving to this area was because of the vegan food scene. I know its something that is definitely in demand here. I worked at Trippy Taco for a couple of years and while it wasnt the most creative part of my career, it was definitely a very busy place to work in and shows theres a huge demand for vegan and vegetarian in Melbourne.

Well I guess when you first move somewhere youve got to get a feel for whats going on. What brought you to Melbourne?

We moved to Australia, me and my partner, we came on a Working Holiday Visa, we didnt actually have plans to stay here forever. But we moved to Melbourne and to the Fitzroy area in particular, because it seemed like a cool city. I lived in Glasgow back home, which is an ok city, but Melbourne is a lot bigger and theres a lot more going on. The food scene over here is incredible compared to back home I feel its far ahead of what is happening in the UK, for sure. The draw of vegetarian and vegan friendly restaurants in this area was a particular draw, for sure. As I say, we didnt necessarily have a plan to live here forever, but we moved here and loved it and I got a job that allowed me to stay. I got sponsored as a chef which is what allowed me to get a visa. We fell in love with the city, I guess.

And now your next venture… I just looked on your site at the photo of the food truck. Its so beautiful. What a gleaming black beast that is. Its gorgeous.

It looks very nice now. We actually bought that second-hand, so it didnt look quite so nice when we bought it, but it is looking pretty good now.

Has it been out before all this happened?

Unfortunately no. We were looking into it just as Covid was starting to happen, but we continued with it. Our initial plan was to go to big events, music festivals and that kind of thing and obviously I dont know when that kind of thing is going to happen again, but for just now we are remaining optimistic that once the restrictions ease that there might be a demand for outdoor dining. It seems that might be something thats going to happen first, so we are hoping we might be able to use it fairly soon. We are actually waiting on the oven. Its on its way over from Italy still at the moment and that still has to be installed. The truck itself is all ready to go apart from the oven which is obviously quite an important part.

Yes, quite a crucial part of the pizza process.

Its the same oven as we have in our Collingwood restaurant, but a smaller size. That should be with us fairly son and hopefully well be able to do some events in the new year, is what we have been aiming for.

And how have things been for you over this time? Have you been well supported by the community?

Yes. We are definitely very fortunate with our position in the community. Obviously our sales are down because people arent dining in but there are definitely a lot of businesses that are seeing it a lot harder than us; some pubs and hotels. We were pretty fortunate because we were already doing a strong takeaway and delivery trade and weve got a very good following. Our customers are great, and they have really been supporting us over the past few months. While it hasnt been ideal and we have obviously had to change a few things, it hasnt been as drastic or as terrible as it has been for some people. We are definitely very fortunate.

That aside, youve had a fast track up through the kitchen to be head chef before you left Glasgow and then head cheffing here and now youre an owner as well. Being a head chef has its own pressures and stress, are you still able to enjoy the kitchen and cooking even though youre an owner and a chef.

Yeah, for sure. The past six months of Covid restrictions have helped me to become more of an owner and less of a chef, I guess, because Im leaving a lot of the cooking responsibilities to our team now. But definitely up until recently I have been very hands on in the kitchen still. We have been going for three and a half years now and definitely for the first two years I was working a full-time chef job on top of my owner responsibilities, so it was a constant eight to ten hour days, seven days a week kind of thing. But part of that is because being in the kitchen is where I feel most comfortable. I never really had plans to be a restaurant owner, especially now having to be at two places at once. So I am falling more into the owner side of things now.

Can you find joy from cooking at home then?

I think Im starting to get back to that now. I did find in the past that the more time I spent in the commercial kitchen, the less time I wanted to cook for myself, but Im finding a bit more time to that these days particularly with the current restrictions which mean theres not much else to do at night.

Thats right. Well look, Michael, thank you so much for talking to me and all the best for the remaining time of these crazy times.

Red Sparrow Pizza

406 Smith Street, Collingwood

260 Chapel Street, Prahran