Punit Fernandes

Let’s start with how long you have been a chef, Punit?

I started in 2006 in Melbourne. 

12 years.

Yes. Almost. It has been a long journey. A long and fascinating journey. I started back in India in 2003. I enrolled myself in a hotel management course and started a diploma. In India we don’t have TAFE. You have to go to a graduate college where they teach you all aspects of hotels; front of house, marketing, housekeeping, everything. Then when you are in your third year you have to pick what you want to do. All the hotels and restaurants come for a campus interview, so you have lots of interviews and you have to make a choice about what you want to do. So in that process I got a job at a big hotel called The Intercontinental back in India.

Which city was that?

Mumbai. I’m originally from Mumbai.

I’ve been to Mumbai. It’s beautiful. I did an early morning cycling tour to the fish market. 

Wow. How did you manage to push bike there, it’s so busy! Anyway, I got a job there. There’s something there called management training. They train you to become a chef de partie and onwards. So after that you can become a junior sous chef. They train you in all aspects. In India the kitchens are really big. They have commissary, and butchery and pastry and banquets. They have different kitchens for different cuisines; north Indian, south Indian. They train you in each kitchen and then you decide what you want to do… la carte, banquets…

Do you learn European cooking as well?

In schools, they teach you the basics; hollandaise, béchamel. And if you go into a hotel where they have Japanese or French and you are interested, they might put you over there. They train you three months in every department, so three months in banquets, three months in French, three months in Japanese, depending on the restaurants the hotel has. 

I started in banquets. Then my executive chef, he was from New Zealand actually. He was asking us what we wanted to do in the future because he was making a succession plan for everyone. That’s why I wanted to work with foreign people because they have a bigger vision. I told him that I wanted to be perfectly honest and that after my management training I wanted to head to London and work in a really good Michelin star restaurant and gain knowledge. Or head to Spain or France. He said, that’s all good, you can go over there, but what will happen after that? What will happen if you don’t get a job? He said, think about going to Australia, it’s really good. I asked him what it was like over here and he said I wouldn’t be able to come over and work straight away, I’d have to come as a student because of visas and so on. I thought that was fine and got into William Angliss. That was really good.

I’m lucky I got into William Angliss. The first two semesters were pretty basic and I pretty much knew everything and then my second year was really interesting. We were breaking down the whole lamb and breaking down the chicken and filleting a whole fish. It was really fascinating and very hands on. I thought it was really good. I graduated and worked in a small café in St Kilda on Fitzroy Street. It was a really good pizza place. I had only ever had round pizzas with all the basic Margarita and Hawaiian and I thought that’s what pizza was, but they did proper square pizzas. We put pancetta and broccoli on them. I thought it was amazing. Everything was fresh. Nothing came from a tin or a packet. I loved it.

I started working as a kitchen hand and I wanted to learn how to cook the dishes. The chef told me he didn’t have any vacancies but if I wanted to come in during my free time, he was more than happy. So I used to go in early in the morning and learn. Then the chef felt bad because I was coming in my own time, so he gave me one prep shift. I really took off. In a year’s time, the head chef left and the owners asked me to be the head chef. I thought it wasn’t right, how could I become a head chef in a café or restaurant after only a year? I did that gig for a while but then I said, there’s something wrong and I went back to hotels because I thought I would learn more there. I started in the Westin in the city. They were trying to cut costs, like everywhere, and everything was ready made, the steaks were pre-portioned.

It didn’t feel right to me. Then in 2008, the Hilton was opening in Docklands and the head chef came from Spain, Ramon Freixa, and I thought it would be a really good opportunity to work with him. That was a real eye-opener. It was more on the molecular side, so I learned how to make espuma, all the emulsions and how to use the smoking concept. Then after that something happened between the company and the chef and the chef left. So I decided to move back to a normal restaurant. 

I got a job at Rockpool. That was the gamechanger for me. Every morning we used to get boxes of things; fish straight from the trawler, we had a full-time fishmonger, we had a full time butcher.

What year was that?

2011.

Were you there with Daniel Salcedo?

Yes. 

I spoke to him recently.

Salcedo and another guy, Sacha. Me, Sasha, Salcedo, we were all one team. Sasha was senior chef de partie, I was chef de partie, Salcedo was chef de partie as well. The head chef, Paul Easson, was really good. I really thought I was in the best place. I worked hard there. It was long hours but I loved it, I really loved it. We used to freshly shuck the scallops and oysters to order. Every season the menus would change. I so loved it. I worked there for a while and then I got a little gig in Sydney to help a friend out. 

When I came back from Sydney, I worked at Morris Jones on Chapel Street, when Paul Wilson was there. He range me and said, Punit, I have a job for you if you’re interested, and I said why not? 

I feel like you’re always interested. 

I stayed with him for almost a year and a half and then I went back to India and got married and then came back. I got a job at Crown at one of the restaurants, Mesh, a buffet place. Then six months in, John Lawson called me and told me he had a sous chef position with him if I was interested. So I joined John Lawson. That was a really good time working with him, he was really cool and taught me a lot of things. Then they were planning to close No. 8 to make way for Long Chim. 

When I was at Mesh, my executive chef was a French guy, Laurent and he told me about the San Pellegrino Young Chef of the Year competition. He asked if I was interested and I said, yeah, why not? He told me there were 20 other chefs going for it. That was a really big opportunity for me. I did that and then first thing in the morning my executive chef called me to say congratulations but I didn’t know what for because the email had come at 2am and I hadn’t seen it. I had been shortlisted for San Pellegrino. I was so happy. It was a really big moment for me. I got to meet five great chefs from Australia; Peter Gilmore, Peter Doyle…Peter Doyle is my favourite…Jacques Reymond, Guy Grossi. They were all phenomenal, really iconic. From there, my career really took off. 

Then I went to Merrywell and there was another competition for Time Out magazine, the Chef Showdown and I won that in 2016. That was a really good experience. We had to prepare a dish for 110 people and then they vote for you. After that I decided I had had a good time at Crown and I wanted to try a bigger role. Someone from Mantra group approached me with an Executive chef role at Tullamarine. I did that job for a year and a half. There was a 200-seater banquet, 395 rooms, two penthouses and I was directly dealing with the owners. It was really good.

When you’re an executive chef in one of those companies, do you still cook?

The role involved 95% admin and 5% cooking. But I’m the kind of person who likes to be hands on. After 5 o’clock, I used to shut my office and go on service. The GM told me not to burn out, but I told him I liked to do that. I like standing on the pass and making sure every plate that goes out is spot on. Not that I wanted to micro-manage but I just wanted to make sure that the customers were being looked after. That’s my priority. 

That’s where I thought, hotels are good but a restaurant is like blank canvas. You get to paint whatever you feel like, straight from your heart. That’s what I do here. I’m here early in my black clothes just going around checking making sure menus are ok and not folded and the glasses are there. I want to make sure everything is ticked off. From the moment the diner walks in they should feel welcome. The first impression is so important. 

People always say to me the chef is the one who drives the service. I always say, yes, but the front of house staff are equally as important. It’s like a movie. When you see a trailer then you might go and see the movie, but if it’s bad, you won’t go to that movie. The moment guests sit down, the menus, the service, asking them if they want a drink, guiding them through the menu, that’s the first aspect. If that’s bad, it will change their experience. The whole thing has to come together. 

My front of house are like my walking chefs. They need to know everything. They are the ones who are going to talk to the customers. You have to make sure you look after them and train them and teach them. You give them the respect they deserve. It’s like a husband wife relationship. You have to keep them hand in hand and treat them with respect. That’s how you make the perfect team. That’s my philosophy.

T?ell me about the food at Elichi.

What I do in this restaurant is I take inspiration from an Indian dish and then I take Australian produce or indigenous ingredients and come up with a dish. Like lamb ribs, I garnish with saltbush and so on. Every cuisine is paying respect to indigenous produce and I think it’s about time Indian cuisine does that too. It was a good opportunity for me to come here and do that because Australia is where I have been brought up. I was born in India, but I was brought up in Australia, cooking wise, so it’s high time to give something back and treat the indigenous ingredients with respect. We make sure we always use local produce. That’s the key. 

I’ll show you the photo of the dish I did for the Time Out competition. It’s my favourite. 

I did the same dish for San Pellegrino. I wanted to do something with duck as my protein and then I researched where I could source the best duck. I spoke to my butcher and he said Milawa is very good for duck breast. Then I thought, let’s go and check it out over there to see how they breed them. I left early in the morning. It was winter time. While I was waiting for the people to come out, there was a massive paddock and all the ducks were coming out. There was a frost on the ground and on the other side of the paddock was his veggie farm, so that’s the whole thing. 

That’s amazing. I love it. That’s very clever. 

I’ve tried to replicate that whole image on the dish.  

What’s the frost made of?

That’s maltodextrin that I mixed with duck fat and the duck fat is infused with thyme, chilli and orange. It gives a nice citrusy and earthy flavour. Then we spooned it over the beetroot. And what I do with the beetroot, I cook the beetroot with orange and thyme and then we take off the skin and blend it and then dip the beetroot in that. So we take the skin off then put it back on again.

You’re not doing that level with all your dishes, are you?

No. This was for a competition. I never put these kinds of things on the menu.

So now you take an Indian dish and add a twist or an Australian touch, how do you know that saltbush will go with your dish, or warrigal greens?

We always do a trial run. I know that lamb and saltbush is a good combination or beach banana with fish or scallops. I sort of know what matches. You have to have understanding of the flavour profile. You have to know that the saltbush is very salty so we deep fry it and sprinkle it with a bit of vinegar and it goes really well with fatty lamb. The acids help break down the lamb and gives it a very good flavour.

I’ve mentioned this to a few chefs recently but it absolutely amazes me that you have this whole catalogue of flavours and you hold onto that and you know what is going to work. I know it’s your job but I still think it’s pretty amazing to hold onto all those flavours.

Absolutely. But it’s like if a plumber comes to your home and you’re telling him where to put the pipe, then you don’t need a plumber. A plumber should know how to do the job. It’s like that with a chef. You should always try, test, eat. Eat the saltbush on its own, eat lamb by itself and understand the flavour; if its citrusy or sweet or sour. Always do a trial run to work out the times and amounts. You always need to do some R & D on your dishes. That’s why I wouldn’t just go out and put a spoonful of this and a spoonful of that. You should always have a balance of everything. And you need to check your produce every day. Sometimes radicchio is sweet, sometimes it’s bitter. It’s Mother Nature. Some cucumbers are sweet, some are bitter, some with the skin are sweet, others not. It’s very important to understand all these things. Taste the ingredients in their raw state without salt or pepper. Taste everything. See how pungent it is or sweet. 

This country has the best vegetables, the best livestock, the best dairy. You can’t go wrong with all these things. They’re the best of the best. 

People always think an Indian restaurant is just a takeaway joint for curry and naan. Fair enough. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s always a niche for other restaurants who want to showcase something on the table. That’s what I really want to achieve.

I think that’s what you are achieving. From what I experienced.

They say progress is never satisfied. You always have the hunger, you always want to improve and listen to customer feedback. We had two lovely ladies in and they didn’t want to eat spicy food. I said, no problem, I’ll look after you. Or I get calls from customers saying they can’t have onion and garlic. 

Tricky with Indian food.

Yes, pretty much everything has onion and garlic, but again, that’s what I’m here for, I’m here to make them feel welcome. So I’ll cook them another dish. I’m not going to say, sorry, I’m not going to change my dishes. I will definitely go out of my way for my customers and give them what they want.

L?isten to the chat here.

Elichi 

6 Bluff Road, Black Rock