When Quinn Spencer isn't cooking for 300 in beautiful locations, 12 on the 84th floor of the Eureka or even 100 in a jewellery store made into a dining room, he's on the family farm growing all kinds of produce, nurturing ducks, chickens, bees and basically, living the dream.
Hi Quinn. I’ve just been reading about you and it seems as though you have a lot on the go all at once.
Very much so.
How does it work here? It feels pretty huge.
Pretty much. Tommy Collins merged with the Atlantic Group about two years ago. We specialise in boutique offsite catering and The Atlantic Group do the venues here. They also do the races and the Grand Prix. One thing they needed help with was outside catering which is what we do best. We couldn’t grow our company because we struggle with large volumes and it was a mutual merging. We take care of all the offsite catering for them and they do the rest.
So you do all the cooking here and then take it offsite?
We do. The kitchen you just came to before is called Sumac and that’s one of the rooms. There’s The Peninsula which holds 1400 people, another one that holds 300 and another one that holds 200. Where we are based is the quietest of all the kitchens so they let us use that one. If there’s a function in Sumac we have to shuffle around. We have access to their main reef of freezers so when we have big events we can load all our stuff into that, park our truck next to it and then take it off to functions whereas before we had a poky little cool room.
How many would you be cooking for at one of these functions?
We go up to about 300-400. But the major events guys do really high volumes. It tends to water down once you get over the 300-400 mark. It’s harder to get the consistency.
So you are producing more high-end food at Tommy Collins? It is very much the high-end. We do clients like Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, all of the Ilhans, we will be doing a caviar and champagne tasting for Patricia Ilhan then we’ve got lots of Zagame events. It is quite fine dining, but it can also be boxes of salads or sandwiches dropped off to people.
It’s interesting because I was reading that you have a family farm and that you are really interested in all aspects of that; bee-keeping, growing vegetables and so on. It seems like two quite juxtaposed experiences; high volume cooking and your own philosophies on growing and harvesting.
The major event high volume stuff is few and far between, maybe once a month. The event for Patricia Ilhan is for 12 people, fine dining, so a lot of my produce comes into that; all the herbs and duck eggs and those things.
I find it hard enough to coordinate a dinner party. How do you go from cooking for 12 to cooking for 300. There must be such precision organisation and your team would have to be trained so that everyone knows exactly what they are doing.
Very much so. It’s very much about the logistics. It is still about the food but there needs to be forward planning and how you are going to pace it all out. We have a massive team who work behind the scenes and are in charge of operations. They go in and look at the venue and look at the space and the power points. Then it’s all laid out for me and I can look at a picture of my kitchen, where the entry points and exit points are, how many power points, whether we need to hire anything or bring certain things. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes which people don’t realise when they organise outside catering. They think the chef just comes in with some trays of pre-made canapés and away it goes but there’s a lot more to it.
Are you still able to love the food and cooking it when it is such a big operation?
I still have to go there and make a beautiful evening for a group of people. It’s just all the details you need to go. You can’t hit the ground running with an hour to go and not know there’s no oven. It’s just about ironing out all the creases so that we have a smooth surface to work on.
What were you doing before you got into event catering?
I trained in fine dining. I did my apprenticeship at a two hat restaurant. Then I veered into pastry for about five or six years. I didn’t like the hours involved with baking and pastry so I went back into cooking. Then I did more bistro styles. I always had in the back of my mind that I’d like my own little bakery, bistro type thing further down the track, which is still a plan. So I wanted café experience, then bakery experience and then I found myself back in high-end food.
I worked in Scotland for a couple of years which is where I met Tommy and Ben. Then I ran a small French bistro in Collins Street called Bistro d’Orsay, across the road from the Regent Theatre. I was there for about eight and a half years. I got burnt out during long services night after night. I caught up with Tommy and Ben again. I’d been watching from afar what they’d been doing with their catering and I thought it’d be a nice change. Before that I didn’t have any high volume cooking experience so it has all been off the cuff.
It would definitely have been a learning curve. All of the chefs I’ve spoken to are so hardworking and creative and they talk about the need to continually learn and evolve. Obviously in a position like this, it’s what you have to do.
Exactly. I love the challenges of what comes next. What’s the function, it might be a new venue, a custom menu. In restaurants, every season you change the menu, day in, day out you might perfect it over those three or four months but there’s a lot of repetition. Here, there are different things going on all the time.
Is that how you got the nickname, Macgyver? Because of your creativity?
Very much so. I have to walk into an offsite event and think ok, what am I going to do here?
Duct tape and spit.
Well, maybe not spit. It’s about making something out of nothing and working with challenging spaces. We have Anton jewellery tomorrow for 100 people in a jewellery store turned dining room that would really only fit 60 maximum. I’ll be working out the back of a jewellery store with a fairly narrow bench and another small bench to make a three-course meal for 100 people. I have to go in and Macgyver it.
Just to go back to the farm aspect of your life. How big is it?
It’s a property in Newnham. It’s about five or six acres; a little hobby farm. It’s owned by my mum and it’s a family project. We have planted out every type of nut you can imagine, lots of different types of plums, stone fruits, different types of strawberries. We have a couple of truffle oaks, Suffolk black sheep, chickens, ducks. There are all sorts of things going on. If I want to try growing something, I can just grow it and see how it goes. I bring little bits and pieces into the kitchen and use them for garnishes and incorporate them into the menu. It feels like such a holistic approach. I’ve spoken to other chefs like Annie Smithers who grows 90% of the produce she uses and she talks about the different respect you have for the food. It must be a very full kind of existence. It is. It’s really lovely. I live down the road in Woodend. It’s an hour and a bit out of town but once I get there and I have my day off, it’s like being on holiday every day off. At the weekend I go to my mum’s farm and do little bits and pieces. I was inspired by Dan Hunter at Royal Mail. I did a tour of the garden and he was growing all these amazing herbs and it’s a similar climate there; it’s quite cold and frosty. It’s amazing. To grow carrots, onions and the basic staples is almost impossible for a large scale operation. But for garnishes, I could grow a field of wild strawberries and just use the leaves and the strawberries and New Zealand yams and soon. Every year it’s a bit different. It’s quite fun. Now that you say that, you just don’t see yams here, and they are really common in New Zealand. I’ve never come across a supplier who has them here. Even the leaves are good to use. The climate is identical. I’ve ben growing many different varieties and using the leaves for garnishes. It’s good to incorporate all these little bits and pieces. We did an 84th floor of the Eureka Tower for a sit down dinner. I’m totally afraid of heights. It was an off the cuff tasting menu and I used lots of bits and pieces from my garden. It’s nice to be able to do that. You must go to some interesting places. Yes. And on the opposite side, there are places you wouldn’t be expecting to cook out of. But I’ve seen some amazing properties. All the way from the coast down to Geelong, central Victoria, along the Murray. Wherever people want to have a wedding is where people take us. We’ve seen some amazing spots. Did you imagine this is where you’d be when you started your apprenticeship? I love cooking. I’m not an interactive going out and talk to the people kind of chef. I just love looking over and seeing people smile eating their food. Cooking is what I’ll always do. This was a new challenge and I like it.
I love cooking. I’m not an interactive going out and talk to the people kind of chef. I just love looking over and seeing people smile eating their food.
Is that how you got the nickname, Macgyver? Because of your creativity?
Very much so. I have to walk into an offsite event and think ok, what am I going to do here?
Duct tape and spit.
Well, maybe not spit. It’s about making something out of nothing and working with challenging spaces. We have Anton jewellery tomorrow for 100 people in a jewellery store turned dining room that would really only fit 60 maximum. I’ll be working out the back of a jewellery store with a fairly narrow bench and another small bench to make a three-course meal for 100 people. I have to go in and Macgyver it.
Just to go back to the farm aspect of your life. How big is it?
It’s a property in Newnham. It’s about five or six acres; a little hobby farm. It’s owned by my mum and it’s a family project. We have planted out every type of nut you can imagine, lots of different types of plums, stone fruits, different types of strawberries. We have a couple of truffle oaks, Suffolk black sheep, chickens, ducks. There are all sorts of things going on. If I want to try growing something, I can just grow it and see how it goes. I bring little bits and pieces into the kitchen and use them for garnishes and incorporate them into the menu.
It feels like such a holistic approach. I’ve spoken to other chefs like Annie Smithers who grows 90% of the produce she uses and she talks about the different respect you have for the food. It must be a very full kind of existence.
It is. It’s really lovely. I live down the road in Woodend. It’s an hour and a bit out of town but once I get there and I have my day off, it’s like being on holiday every day off. At the weekend I go to my mum’s farm and do little bits and pieces. I was inspired by Dan Hunter at Royal Mail. I did a tour of the garden and he was growing all these amazing herbs and it’s a similar climate there; it’s quite cold and frosty. It’s amazing. To grow carrots, onions and the basic staples is almost impossible for a large scale operation. But for garnishes, I could grow a field of wild strawberries and just use the leaves and the strawberries and New Zealand yams and soon. Every year it’s a bit different. It’s quite fun.
Now that you say that, you just don’t see yams here, and they are really common in New Zealand.
I’ve never come across a supplier who has them here. Even the leaves are good to use. The climate is identical. I’ve been growing many different varieties and using the leaves for garnishes. It’s good to incorporate all these little bits and pieces. We did an 84th floor of the Eureka Tower for a sit down dinner. I’m totally afraid of heights. It was an off the cuff tasting menu and I used lots of bits and pieces from my garden. It’s nice to be able to do that.
You must go to some interesting places.
Yes. And on the opposite side, there are places you wouldn’t be expecting to cook out of. But I’ve seen some amazing properties. All the way from the coast down to Geelong, central Victoria, along the Murray. Wherever people want to have a wedding is where people take us. We’ve seen some amazing spots.
Did you imagine this is where you’d be when you started your apprenticeship?
I love cooking. I’m not an interactive going out and talk to the people kind of chef. I just love looking over and seeing people smile eating their food. Cooking is what I’ll always do. This was a new challenge and I like it.