Prior is a huge pastel cathedral ceilinged wonder of a caf on High Street. It has a log burner in the middle for cosy winter days, a courtyard out the back for the warmer weather and a delicious menu every day of the week. Head chef, Nick Korceba has been in the game for 20 years, but still speaks with passion about the food he is preparing. His former boss, Shane Delia, has spoken highly of Nick's work as head chef at Maha where he was for a number of years, while also running Greenfields, an events venue in Albert Park. Nick is not scared of hard work but has worked towards a more sustainable approach which allows him to spend more time with his wife and three children. I love that.
Hi Nick. How are you? I was just looking at your video from Greenfields where you're cooking lamb
That feels like ages ago.
You must be really busy because you are still involved with Greenfields.
Yes, I'm a partner there and I started consulting with these guys and we became pretty close and there is a lot going on here too. I was getting a bit bored; a bit stale and it was good to open up something else.
This is a beautiful space. I was reading in Broadsheet and Delicious that you are doing upgraded brekkies. How would you describe what you do?
Im actually just trying to do caf food but with fine dining techniques, but done simpler, if that makes sense. No cowboy antics. There's a better lifestyle in cafes. I've done a lot of time in fine dining and I like that part of the craft but the hours are tough. I've got three kids now and managing all that, I thought, there's another way. A place like this, they want award-winning architecture and cafes have gone to another level.
It's interesting that you say that because I just had a chat to Ryan Berry at Naughton's in Parkville and we had that same conversation about how in the pastwell, my big analogy is that when I was growing up, film stars were the big thing and tv stars were the lesser actors, whereas nowadays everyone wants to be in a tv show and I think it's the same with cafes and restaurants.
That's so true.
And Ryan said, you don't see people lining up for fine dining. People line up for cafes. But it brings that added challenge that you're doing really interesting food with good product, but you have to have it under a certain price in a caf.
That's the challenge. When I made the transition from fine dining to caf I was still writing those menus for the chefs where now I'm writing them for the people. It's actually been better.
You were head chef at Maha.
I was. I started it up with Shane. I was a sous chef and stayed there and, in a year and a half, I was head chef.
Where did it all start for you? Did you always want to be a chef?
Pretty much. Food is massive in my culture; mum's side and dad's side. My father is Ukrainian and mum is Slovenian. I was first generation Australian and they brought a lot of that food here. Food was always huge. We were always around the table with family. I was always a part of that. There was something about it. Then I started working at McDonalds at 15 and I really liked the service, the speed. Then my uncle had done a lot of travelling and would be a cook and he told me some stories about cheffing and it got me. I looked at some jobs and went for it.
Sometimes the idea of that can be more exciting than the reality of long hours and so on. When you first started, where did you do your apprenticeship?
I'm from Geelong and I moved to Melbourne. Me and my sister got a house and I was working on Lygon Street at Santino's Terrace. I don't even know if it's there anymore, across from the pub. But it was huge hours; 14 hour days. It was a big shock.
What was it that kept you hooked then? You were a young guy doing long hours and late nights when your mates would be out; what was it that you loved so much that kept you in it?
I suppose passion. You don't know it's there until you look back. You fall in love with it and fall out of love with it at times, but the passion is always strong. There's nothing else I want to do. If there was anything else I'd do, it would be landscaping. In my spare time, that's my go to.
That's interesting because that is also creative and you have to have a vision. At Prior, it's breakfast, caf food, where do you start when you're creating a menu? What's your inspiration?
It can be if I go out and eat something or see something. It can be just one ingredient when I go to the market. I just build around certain ingredients and there will be a technique I have done before somewhere and that will come to mind and I'll think, I'll do that with that. Every chef I've met has a different approach. Mine revolves around ingredients and techniques, if that makes sense.
You fall in love with it and fall out of love with it at times, but the passion is always strong. There’s nothing else I want to do.
Do you have particular ingredients you gravitate towards or is it whatever you see that you like the look of in the market?
I've got my favourites for each season. Obviously autumn is mushrooms, summer is tomatoes, winter is swedes and all that; root vegetables. If I had a favourite, it would probably be tomatoes. I love tomatoes. That's my thing.
They're amazing. And this is another thing I often talk about, but when you eat seasonally you are getting the very best of that and it would be great if we could just leave that for summer and go away and look forward to it, but we don't, we buy it all year round and they can be pretty crappy the tomatoes you buy all year round.
That's right. Now because we are a globalised market, they come in from somewhere else, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad. In my early days as a chef, everything was more structured in that way, but now, especially with Greenfields, I'll do a menu once a year and it's a huge package, but the ingredients are there all year.
I was interested that you mentioned on the video I saw that you don't have to be constrained by local and seasonal because you have access to everything. I thought that was an interesting idea because I guess that's the beauty of our global world.
If it's cheeses and stuff…chefs bang on about local, which is cool, but if I can get a cheese from France and they are the cheese gods, I'll get it from there. I know that probably sounds wanky.
Not for things like that. Maybe not for produce from overseas. I'm a French teacher so I am always going to agree with you that French cheese is the best and they are the gods at making it.
Their produce is amazing. I worked at another place and they used to get the mushrooms flown in in wooden crates. You really can get everything.
You talked about different techniques. How long have you been cheffing?
About 20 years.
Right, so you have learned a lot along the way and seeing other people. But do you look at cookbooks or Instagram, or you go on your repertoire?
I don't look at Instagram. I have a lot of chef friends and they always ask why I'm not on Instagram and why I don't post, but they'll show me stuff. I like Chef's Table on Netflix, I watch a bit of that. I dont go there for the inspiration of it.
You started off with Italian and then Middle Eastern with Shane. Is what you're doing now Modern Australian?
Yes.
That's pretty good isn't it because you can pretty much do anything.
Exactly. You can pick out what you like. I love eating Italian and French food. I've done French as well and that was good. Modern Australian is pretty cool.
Could you just describe some of the dishes? What are people gravitating towards?
Our hash, they love that, and our Avo mash dish with halloumi. I'm using a local guy for that, an artisan Greek guy. I found him through the Calombaris Group and I have used him ever since. That's the shining light in that dish and more localised. The hash is a winner and the polenta is probably my favourite. It's almost like a fine dining plate up; really sharp and people give good comments on it. I've done a few healthy options as well which seem to be selling a bit more now.
I've seen on Priors Instagramand you might not be on social media posting stuff, but lots of other people are and I can see on stories that a lot of your customers are posting, so you are doing Instagrammable food. That's a terrible adjectivefood shouldn't be described as Instagrammable. You're doing it for the beauty of it and you obviously find it satisfying to plate up.
Yeah, I love it. I love plating up, it's one of my favourites.
And is Greenfields more of an event place?
It's an events space. It was always going to be that. We had a caf there, but we had to constantly close the caf down for the events because people paid a lot of money. The idea of a caf was to showcase the events room, so it was always selling itself. But it got to a point where it was just closing every weekend and it had served its purpose. It was health food which I had never ever done, which was interesting as well.
You must have a lot of people working for you, or you're working with a lot of people at Greenfields and here. That leadership role, did it come naturally to you? I know it's a big step up from sous to head chef because you have to manage people as well as food costs as well as food. Was it easy for you to step into that role?
Not really. I was 25 and Shane said I was ready, and I said, no I'm not and he said I was and had to be. They put me in it and I've told a few chefs this story, when you are given that much power, I was 25, I thought I was Gordon Ramsay and I lost a lot of staff really quickly. One thing about The Press Club Group when they were good, they had a lot of structures in place and I had a management mentor one on one. He was an Ops manager, a really smart guy and gave me some tools and key points that I still hang onto now; how to manage, pick your battles. It's a lot of life coaching. It took time. It was a big lesson.
It must be so hard because you're under pressure, but you have to manage these other people who are under pressure and don't have the experience you have. It's a tricky one. What would your advice be to young people who want to become chefs?
Hang in there, for one, don't give up. It will test you at times in all facets of cooking. People want it and they want it now. It's demanding, but it also has good points and it has rewarding points too. I grew up in kitchens; a young man to where I am now and it has been good to me.
I think it's an important point you made before about choosing work life balance. You have a family now so it's about choosing sustainability of staff and people as well. It has become really important here that staff don't work too many hours and wellbeing has become more important.
It's huge. I've watched that change too. That is probably the biggest change. It feels like the industry has grown up now. I think it was due for that.
637 High Street, Thornbury