Stalwarts of the hospitality industry, Richard and Suzanne Pavlov have realised a long-held dream to open a Lebanese restaurant and they have done it with great success at Bekka in Moonee Ponds. Inspired by a recent trip to the Beqqa Valley, a fertile valley known for its wineries and good food, and by their own heritage, they want to transport their guests to a Middle Eastern paradise.
Hi Richard. Let’s start with how long you’ve been a chef?
I’ve been cooking for 20-odd years now. I started my apprenticeship when I was about 19, so it’s been a while. A long time.
Was that always something you wanted to do? Sometimes people say they fall into it. How did it work for you?
I think I kind of did fall into it when I used to spend a lot of my school holidays and breaks helping my parents out. They had a café. I had the taste for it back then when I was in my early teens. After leaving school, I looked at other things, but I kept going back to the kitchen and I thought, no, that’s where I want to be. 24 years on, I’m still here in the kitchen and I still enjoy it, which is great.
You’ve had your own place before Bekka, the Brunswick Foodstore.
We were there for six years. I’ve been on my own setting up businesses for the last 12 years. Bekka is our fifth business that we have set up. But our first Lebanese restaurant.
Right, so while you were cooking the other kinds of food, did you always hope to perhaps get back to your heritage? Was it about timing?
Yes. It is. It all comes down to timing. The last place we had was Brunswick Foodstore and, going back seven years, I did introduce a lot of Lebanese and Middle eastern breakfasts and that was very new to a lot of cafes. It was a bit of a risk, but it became so popular and now if you go to most cafes around Melbourne, there’s a lot of middle eastern influences in their breakfasts. I’m proud of that.
You’ve been getting really great reviews for Bekka and I also read that you were inspired by a recent trip to Lebanon. What kind of food were you eating over there that you brought here?
That was my first trip to Lebanon and that was two years ago. I was only there for a short time and I got to experience the wineries, maybe four or five, and that was a great experience. Restaurants, a lot of take-aways and fast food outlets. I was only there a short time, but I got to cover quite a fair bit in the hospitality scene.
Do you think being in the country and eating the food in its context made a difference to hoe you approach making the food?
No. There is no better country or city than Australia or Melbourne to find pretty much any produce. We are so lucky in that way. That was never an issue, to source different ingredients or spices. They are pretty much on our doorsteps which is a big plus these days. It seems to be the trend these days.
Absolutely. It seems as though Moonee Ponds was a really great place to open because, judging by social media, you are getting lots of diners.
We just thought it was something Moonee Ponds needed. We are locals and we understand the demographic and we thought this is where we want to be and this is what we have to offer. It has been a long-term plan of mine to set up a Lebanese restaurant and as we mentioned before, it’s about timing, and the timing is now and it’s right and it’s going really well and it’s busy.
That’s what Bekka is; very subtle, modern European, but it also gives you an insight into a Lebanese kitchen as well.
When people come to Bekka, what’s the experience you want them to have?
Kind of walk in and just forget where they are and be taken away by the Arabic music in the background and to look around. It’s an open kitchen so they can get a feel for what really goes on in a Lebanese kitchen. That’s why I’ve kept it open and kept the ingredients up on the shelves. There’s a cabinet display there as well. We use that as part of the kitchen as a larder section, so the customer gets the opportunity to look in and see what we do.
Obviously, the setting as well. We’ve gone for a modern, very subtle Lebanese, Middle Eastern influence. That’s what Beirut is like and always has been. Here in Melbourne, a lot of people got caught up in, or misinterpreted the whole setting of a Lebanese eatery or restaurant. A lot of places have that Moroccan-type mosaic. That’s not what Beirut is. Especially these days. It’s so modern and cool. It has that French, European influence as well. That’s what I’ve introduced here as well. That’s what Bekka is; very subtle, modern European, but it also gives you an insight into a Lebanese kitchen as well.
I love those green tiles. I feel that something like that would be in someone’s home, maybe.
Exactly. That’s the green. It’s very Lebanon; the cedars. Then we’ve got the sand coloured walls and that’s the sand and then we’ve gone with the leather-brown seating which reminds me of a camel’s seat or something.
That’s so true. Have you pickled all those olives and vegetables in the jars up there?
We don’t pickle our own olives, but we do pickle our turnips, pickled cauliflower, we do carrots and cabbage and green tomatoes.
What’s that really delicious smell? Is that lamb?
It is lamb. Right on. We’re making some kibbeh at the moment. They’ll be rolled and put away and deep fried with some labne22, which we hang here as well. We make all the dips ourselves; the hommus, the labne, the baba ghanoush are all made here. Actually, everything is produced here at Bekka.
I’ve heard that every family has their own hommus recipe and there are great debates over what the correct recipe is. Is your recipe one you’ve inherited or one you have perfected yourself over time?
I think the one I have perfected myself. The most important thing to understand is what a good hommus tastes like and if you can replicate that, and I think I have, I think I make a great hommus.
We’ve done a lot of traveling. We’ve travelled the world and every time we go into a new city, we find a Lebanese restaurant, so we’ve spent a lot of time in Lebanese restaurants all around the world because it has been a long-time ambition of mine to have my own restaurant one day and I’m here now.
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22 Hall Street, Moonee Ponds