It was a sweltering day in Melbourne when I caught up with personal French chef, . We had a beer in the Yarra Lounge overlooking the Sun Theatre in Romu’s adopted village of Yarraville. In a cinematic flourish, Romu came to Melbourne five years ago for the sake of love, and not only is that flourishing, but his love for the Melbourne food scene, Victorian produce and sharing his love of cooking has grown as well.
Hi Romu. Did you always want to be a chef?
Yes. I think when I was about 10 or 11 my dad would send me to my Uncle’s restaurant in Poitiers, in France. It wasn’t really a restaurant, but more like a little catering company; a charcutier, traiteur. Every night we would go out to all the restaurants in the city. I was very young and I was seeing all the beautiful places and big chefs and we would go into the kitchens and meet the chefs because my uncle knew them. I think it started then.
After collège, you have to choose what you want to do and I thought I really wanted to be a chef so I did the Ecole Hotelière for five years after that.
And what did you cover in those five years?
The school I went to was like a high school. I studied economy, law, physics, maths and everything but on the side you learn some hospitality skills. In my last two years at school I knew I really wanted to be a chef. It’s more like managing people.
That must work well because often people learn to be chefs and learn the food side of things, but managing a team or food costs doesn’t always come into it.
Yes, so I was learning to manage a full place. We hardly ever cooked in those years. That came after. During those five years, the training in food would be about two and a half months over summer. It was pretty full on. Only about 10 people in my class continued as chefs.
What do you think those people and you had that kept you in the industry, despite the difficulties?
Passion. You can’t do it without passion. Some people say lots of chefs are crazy. I know for myself, when I do something, I give it everything I’ve got and then when you manage someone who’s not doing what you want them to, it hurts. Without passion, you can’t do it. But I think it’s the same for a lot of jobs.
Once you‘d done those five years, where did you go?
I’m from Tours, in the Loire Valley, and when I finished school, I wanted to stay in my area for a start. I chose the best restaurant in the area. I worked there for a year. It was very intense. It was like a little castle. The chef had had a Michelin star for 15 years and it was the same menu for 15 years. It wasn’t a big challenge but it was nice to work there. It was full on and I think I learned what not to do as a chef. I nearly gave up after my first year.
I had a friend who had an interview with a chef in Paris and another interview in Spain and she chose to go to Spain. She suggested that I meet the chef and told me he was really good and really young. She said I should go to Paris and I was a bit sick of that first place so I had an interview with the chef and we communicated well and he said that we should work together.
This young chef was Jean-Christophe Rizet and his goal was to get one Michelin star.
Was he more innovative than the chef at your first job?
He was really young and he had never worked in a really big restaurant but he was really creative. He would just open books and all his ideas would come. I learned to work with truffles there and fine dining. It was next level. I was 21 or 22 years old. After two or three years there y head chef asked me to be sous chef there and after that I worked there for another four or five years. We got the Michelin star in my last year there. I quit after that.
I wanted to open something with a friend. We wanted to open a small cocktail bar with little sharing plates. Like something you’d find in Australia.
It does sound very Melbourne.
But I met Liz. We spent two weeks together and after two weeks she said she was going back to Melbourne. I wasn’t expecting that. I told her that I would go with her. She said why not, so three months later, I quit everything and arrived in Australia on the 31st of December 2013, five years ago.
We've been back to Paris and the place I wanted to run is open now and my friend is still my friend. She was a bit pissed off at first of course. But I think I made a great choice. I didn’t know any English when I got here. I had nothing.
That’s fantastic. There will definitely be a film about that; romance, food…
It was an adventure. A few friends have suggested a book or something. A film would be good. I have a few actors in mind already. It could be for my kids. The story of their parents.
People love us cooking restaurant food out of their kitchens. One of the clients told us she could easily get used to it and we would have to come back the next day as well.
Where did you work when you first got here?
I started at Bistro Gitan with Jacques Reymond’s sons. Liz knew Antoine a little. I worked there for a year. Bistro Gitan is an institution but it was a little too French for me and I felt as though I was in Australia and I wanted to do something different. It was such a great place for me to start in. I learned English with them.
What were your first impressions of the food scene in Melbourne?
I really like it. I know a lot has changed in France now but I remember going to a really nice restaurant in Paris and the price was what you expect to pay in a three star Michelin place and the guy told me I couldn’t eat there because I didn’t have a jacket. I told him I was a chef and he went and got a jacket for me from his office so I could eat there.
It’s not like that here. You can go to places like Attica or Brae, the best restaurants in Australia but the people are friendly and welcoming. The chefs come out and serve you. Ben Shewry will bring out the canapés and you can talk to him.
French gastronomy is old school. It’s really big and it can be hard to get into it. But here, it’s open to everyone. If someone has a good idea, like you want to make the best sandwich, and you make that properly, people will respect what you are doing. There is space for everyone. It is more relaxed but people have a lot of respect for what people do. You don’t have to wear a jacket to show that respect.
I think that’s the thing with Australia and New Zealand. We don’t have those centuries of tradition, so there is a freedom to be more creative.
That’s what I like.
It was a bold move to go out on your own. How long have you been running the private dining company?
We started two years ago, but it took a while to set up. It takes money to set things up and no one gives you money for that, and we had to buy 30 plates and all that, so I was working on the side in a little café. We have been full time with the business since January.
Do you cook French food?
I would say it’s more Melbourne food. I used to cook a bit of Japanese in Paris so there are some Japanese influences in my cooking. I’m French so there are French influences but I live in Melbourne so I want to use Victorian produce. I have more time now to talk to the farmers which I love.
The first time I went to Brae, we stayed at the Penny Royal Raspberry Farm and the guy there makes his own gin and cider from his berries, so yesterday we ran an event with seven little stations with different little courses, like a little degustation, with matching gin and cider. People could walk around the farm, trying the food and drink. There was music playing. It was really sunny. 60 people came. That’s the kind of thing I like to do.
I like doing events outside the city, bringing people from Melbourne out to the farm. The farmers love it too. They put a lot of effort into their produce so when they have someone come to them and suggesting an event using their product, it’s great. Victorians are really lucky. I’m really lucky to be living in Victoria.
Otherwise, do you go into peoples’ homes and cook or is it larger scale?
No, it’s for smaller groups of about 10 -15 people in peoples’ homes. We had one with Georgia Love at the weekend. We offer menus of six or seven smaller courses. Every season I change the menu. I prep everything beforehand and take it all into their home; plates, serving plates, flowers for the table; everything so that the people whose home it is don’t need to worry about anything. It’s great. Every time we have had really nice kitchens to work in and most of the time I end up sitting at the table by the end, talking to them.
It offers a really lovely alternative to going out for dinner but without the headache of preparing and cooking and cleaning up after. And of course people would love having a French chef in their kitchen.
Liz says I can’t lose my French accent because it’s a big part of the business. [laughs] But it’s going really well. We have a few people we have cooked for two or three times, which is good, because means they liked what we did.
Often the kitchens in peoples’ homes are bigger and nicer than the kitchens in restaurants. I really like what we are doing. When we started, I think it was more like a joke. We couldn’t open our own restaurant, so we started this. Our first event was a small degustation at a vineyard in the cellar. We just used the big white plates they had there. After that, we made a bit of money and we used that to buy our own plates.
People love us cooking restaurant food out of their kitchens. They are surprised at what we can produce from their kitchens. One of the clients told us she could easily get used to it and we would have to come back the next day as well.
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Photography by Simon Shiff