Today I'm chatting to Roger Lu at Laurus in Carlton. I first met Roger last November when I wrote about Laurus for Broadsheet. Laurus is a sleek and sophisticated modern Chinese restaurant which was just about to open. I went down to Carlton after teaching all day at school to meet owner Boyang Fu and chef, Roger, and hear all about it. They brought out beautiful cocktails and a selection of delicious dishes and a couple of hours later I very happily sailed out into the evening with a great story and the feeling that I definitely wanted to go back for the fall-apart beef rib and the caramel-glazed eggplant but also to hear more about Rogers story. Because Roger is very impressive. He was 17 when he came to Melbourne from China to do the Le Cordon Bleu cookery course. Eight years later and he is head chef and the one who came up with the name, Laurus. This is less surprising when you met Roger. He knows exactly what he wants and is single-minded in his approach to food, his career and the future. I spoke to Roger before service, so, while I've ticked off hearing more about his story, I still need to get back for his delicious food. I can't wait.
Hi Roger. It's lovely to see you again.
It's lovely to see you too.
This coffee is delicious. Is it from China?
No, we use lightly roasted beans from reformatory in Sydney. Our tea selection comes from different regions in China.
I didn't even know about the coffee in China before I met Yi Chen and Sijin Yu at Four Kilo Fish in Hawthorn.
Yes, their coffee is from their region, Yunnan.
China is a vast country, isn't it? Which part are you from?
The eastern part of China, a city called Changzhou, which is 150 kilometres away from Shanghai.
Is that a small town or a big city?
To be honest, the population is the same as Melbourne but in China, considering the huge population, it is a medium-sized city.
When you were growing up, did you always want to be a chef?
Not really. At the beginning I was always trying to get into business. That was my long-term goal. After I finished high school, I thought what was the point of me going to get a bachelors or business degree with no experience of industry, so I started thinking about what I was interested in. Suddenly there were ads from Le Cordon Bleu. At the time, Le Cordon Bleu had established a course here and were doing lots of advertising and I thought I would be interested in it. And actually once I started cookery I found that I had passion and I started to build more passion and there came a time where I could imagine becoming a great chef in the future.
Already you have come a long way in a short space of time. You were 17 when you came to Melbourne. Was that a big decision to make?
I was pushed by my family. My dad had always wanted to go overseas; he wanted to go to Japan and he said his dad didn't give him that opportunity.
Did you come over with your parents or by yourself?
In the beginning I came by myself and then my mum visited me sometimes.
It's a big move to come to Melbourne from China. And you came to do the Cordon Bleu course? What does that mean? How many years did it take?
The course I was taking was an advanced diploma of hospitality management in commercial cookery. It takes a bit more than three years because you need to complete half years on placement and with all the study you probably do a bit more than two and a half years.
Where did you have your placements?
A restaurant called Sezar. It was my first official full-time position there. I started as an apprentice chef and I did get a lot of kicks there because it was my first job but I did learn a lot of things. It was a relatively small kitchen of about seven or eight chefs.
What kind of food was that?
It was Modern Middle Eastern, Modern Armenian.
Right. So when you are learning at Le Cordon Bleu, that would be French techniques. Was it hard to go into a Middle Eastern kitchen? Would you have preferred a French kitchen?
It was actually a mind change for me to work in a modern Armenian restaurant. I didn't imagine after learning French techniques and French terminology that I would go into Middle Eastern cuisine. To be honest, when I read the menu for the first time, I didn't know what hummus was or lavosh or baclava. But actually when I got into the kitchen, it didn't feel that different because it was Modern Armenian and there are French inferenced techniques. Like for example when a chef asks you to chop brunois shallots, you get it straightaway. The kitchen was managed by white people and they had learned at TAFE and it all comes from the French and then they bring their culture or whatever the idea is to the business to make it Modern Armenian.
How long were you there?
Roughly about a year.
So you did your apprenticeship and then worked there?
After being an apprentice for a half year, I got my Certificate 4 so I could be a chef and I asked to become a commis chef there and I was a commis chef for another half year. After that, I went back to school to focus on the advanced diploma, which was mainly restaurant management. We learned how to set up your own restaurant and start a business. After that I went to The Atlantic, which is a restaurant in Crown.
Right, there's a lot of seafood there.
It's mainly seafood and steak.
That was another change. Had you worked much with seafood?
To be honest, when I started at Le Cordon Bleu, after about half a year, my goal was still to get into business one day but once I was in the kitchen at Sezar, I had clearer vision and I knew I needed to learn different angles of operation. So what I would do is that when I am in different sections, I pushed myself to learn new tasks. Once I have learned something new and mastered it, I would ask the chef what the next thing was to learn. Once I had been on a section and managed it, two or three months later, I'll ask the chef to jump into the next section if it was available. At Sezar, I experienced three sections: larder, pastry and a bit of grill. After grill I left and when I jumped on board at the Atlantic, I started on larder and that time a demi-chef left and so I replaced him in the larder section as a demi-chef. Then, it was pretty funny there because they do have a chef de partie take over the pastry section by himself and at that time, it was busy in the pastry section. Most commercial chefs don't want to touch pastry. In the start of a journey, you choose to become a commercial cookery chef or you choose to become a patisserie chef. A lot of people want to stay in hot, savoury dishes; they don't want to touch dessert. They think it is messy. But I don't care. I want to learn more recipes, more operation ways so I asked the chef if I could jump onto dessert. He said fantastic because he couldnt find anyone to go onto the dessert section. So I learned that section for about three months. After that, it was the middle of 2019 and there was was a big change of staff in the Atlantic group and they started to cut down on casuals and the hot section had a shortage and so I asked if could shift to that section. So at The Atlantic, I pretty much covered 80% of the sections and progressed to chef de partie there. For myself, after I manage a section, I want to move to the next one.
I think that has stood you in good stead because to be a head chef, you must have to have a good understanding of all the sections. Did you go somewhere else after the Atlantic?
No. Over Covid I was doing casual work there.
Laurus, the name itself is a Latin name of the bay leaf and that is the one common ingredient in Chinese and Western cuisine and thats what we want to do; combine the two cultures in one.
Right. So how did Laurus come about? Because that is a huge jump.
Yes. I didn't imagine I could do a restaurant in such a short time. I always knew I wanted to have my own restaurant, but the first goal was a cafe. I knew what my budget was and what my knowledge and experience was. The way I met Boyang, the owner of this business, was through a friend who worked for Boyang and he told me his boss wanted to jump on a cafe project. It was a perfect connection for me because I wanted a cafe. We had a chat, but from a kitchen perspective and I did have a feel for the hospitality industry, but still we had some gaps. Then we got Quentin (Ferguson) on board with us and at the beginning we were still thinking a cafe but after that we took this place and we did the financial plan and thought if we did a cafe here, we wouldn't cover the rent and with Quentin, he has more than 20 years of experience in the industry and has managed a couple of very successful restaurants like Vue de Monde and Levantine Hill in the Yarra Valley. We did a financial plan and thought we really needed to do a restaurant. So the plan changed from a cafe to a restaurant.
Was that daunting? Were you worried about that?
Yes, definitely. I did worry at the beginning but then I was also excited because I'm not too interested in cafes and I have never done cafes before.
That's true. I guess it seems like the next logical step because a cafe seems like less of a step than a restaurant, but you have had restaurant experience and not cafe experience. How do you go from chef de partie to head chef?
I think the way it worked was because we wanted to present our ideas. Even the name, Laurus, I picked the name. After we met our marketing partner, his name is Sam (Koh) and he helped us to find what our project would be. He guided us to see where we are from and what we wanted from our project; our backgrounds and the sources we could combine into the project. Laurus, the name itself is a Latin name of the bay leaf and that is the one common ingredient in Chinese and Western cuisine and thats what we want to do; combine the two cultures in one.
In a way, you had a clean slate to produce whatever menu you wanted under those guidelines of a modern Chinese restaurant.
Yes. Our concept was modern Chinese with local ingredients. So, basically that means that we want to bring Chinese flavours to local produce like fish and vege and great beef.
And your beef is great. Do you still have that on the menu?
Definitely.
It's so delicious. Maybe talk me through some of the dishes. I have eaten some of them, but for the sake of the readers, can you give them an idea? Do you have a favourite dish?
My favourite dish taste-wise is going to be the eggplant. Do you still remember that?
I loved the eggplant. It was almost meaty in that it was so textural and flavoursome.
We don't want to coat is too thick but for the batter we still want people to have the taste and texture of the eggplant. The batter is made from tapioca flour and rice flour, so it is gluten free. The most important part is the glaze and the main ingredients are two Chinese vinegars; Chinkiang vinegar and Chinese red vinegar and that brings the flavour and the punchiness to the dish.
I do remember that and my mouth is watering thinking about it. It was so delicious. What was the dish that had five spice but it actually had ten spices in it?
When I say Laurus five spice, it is a fundamental part of the menu, It is not only used in one dish, but in a couple of dishes. For example, the beef rib. We slow cook the beef rib with a beef rib glaze and that glaze is made from that spice.
Is that a traditional idea, the spices that go into that? I know there is five spice, but your version?
As a Chinese person, I can pick up that idea very easily because we eat a lot of five spice flavoured things, like five spice beef brisket or five spice duck. There are a lot of five spice dishes.
How did you decide which dishes you would put on this menu?
It was the first time I have done this, starting from scratch and putting up all the dishes and when I was doing that, this was just a concrete shell. At the beginning, I chose a couple of dishes to become the signature dishes which will stay on the menu and then I went to the floor plan to see how the kitchen would be set up physically with all the different equipment and then from that I developed the rest of the menu. That was my first menu and it's not perfect and we are working on it. We are always working on the menu.
I think a lot of chefs are like that. There is never a finished product; you are always thinking about what more can be done to make it better. Where do you get inspiration? Is it from cookbooks, or memories or Instagram?
To be honest, it is a combination from all of those. The first thing is always what is the concept of the menu and then I go to cookbooks, and it doesn't matter whether they are Chinese or Western, to be honest. You can get inspiration from both. I also watch a lot of YouTube videos to see how people do dishes. I went to restaurants in different states to try out different modern Chinese or modern Asian restaurants to see what their angle is. I can always pick up ideas from that.
I could tell from your desserts that you had had experience on the pastry section because they are really innovative and I was so impressed. They were very intricate and clever. Just remind me what they were.
There was the signature, the red bean ice cream with the brandy snap and after that we have the soy bean curd with honeycomb and nashi pear and then the chocolate ganache cake with coconut cream cheese. We have Asian fruit sorbet as well.
You brought out a little tasting plate of those. And that's the idea here, isn't it, to get the tasting menu so that people can really get the full range of dishes.
Yes, for the first time, the tasting is a good option because you dont need to think that much and it doesnt matter if you don't have much idea about Chinese food. The tasting is a good combination of all of the flavours.
Just to change the subject a little from food, although it is all about the food, but how do you go with managing a team? What's your style? Do you show, do you tell? As a new head chef how has that been?
I think I'm not a tough personality to tell people what to do. What I do is I show them how I do it and I expect that they follow me to get it done. I am also trying to improve myself in my management style. It's challenging.
Yes it is. So what is it about being a chef and working with food that you love? You were drawn into it and you have strayed from the business idea into being a chef and now a head chef. What is it about that that you love?
The great thing I love about it is that you can always explore and put what you want to do on your menu. I think that is the most exciting part and the part that drives me. I also like working with different people, different personalities and learning new things. When you get to know new people and see how they do things, that is something you learn straightaway and I really like that. There are a lot of challenges. You need to communicate with the marketing team, the PR team and work on the financial aspect so I dont feel a headache from that, but it is something I am learning. I am the kind of person who loves to learn new things.
160 Victoria Street, Melbourne
Photography credit: Parker Blain