Scott Lord

Hi Scott. Thanks for coming in on your day off. Do you have day off? Do you come in any anyway?

Monday's my admin day.I usually just get my week aligned on a Monday and then figure out what I'm doing for the week and reassess. That's basically my Mondays.

How does it feel being executive chef?

I think it comes with a lot of responsibility. I have obviously been in the head chef role a couple of times, at Tokyo Tina and New Quarter, so I sort of know what's expected of me from a head chef perspective, but working out the perspective of the owners and the other executive chef, and what's required of me has been a bit of a transition. But I'm really enjoying it. I think with this role as well, it's more numbers and understanding how the business works as a whole and what's required of me.

Do you still get on the pans?

Yes, absolutely. I love jumping into sections and I think it's nice when youve had your head in Excel for a whole day and then you go into the kitchen and then you realise what it's all about again. You're like, oh, that's why I'm doing it.

I guess putting something to the numbers, bringing the numbers to life in a way, because you wouldn't have the numbers if you didn't have the food, I suppose. And the guests.

It was nice to connect the two, but at the same time, it's really nice to see the customers enjoying themselves and that's what it's all about. Right?

Absolutely. And how long has Moonhouse been open now?

It has been about a year.

Gosh, a year already.

It's pretty crazy how time flies. I think we've had our first birthday. I think it was just all those lockdowns after lockdowns, everything just feels fast now.

That's right. And it was a big opening. Do you think there was a lot of expectation, on you or on the group to produce? I felt there was such a fanfare. I feel like I saw Moonhouse everywhere.

It was everywhere. The marketing was pretty strong on it and I think it's such a beautiful building that it deserves really good food. I think for us to produce that and make it consistent was a bit of a challenge at the start. But now we've changed the menu, the way the menu was has completely changed. Its more of a bistro vibe now. Its almost like a Cantonese Bistro. Everything's plated, really linear and the flavours are brought in from different Chinese flavours, instead of Chinese at its core.

So not really banquet style as such, or?

It's still a sharing menu. But it's more accessible. I think that's more about Balaclava and sitting in this environment as well. We've taken on board what people want from us around this area. And now we're in a good spot.

I was going to ask about that because I saw on the wall Cantonese with a Balaclava feel or vibe or whatever it was. It is a grand building and this street has so much personality. When I first moved to Melbourne, I lived in Elwood and so I spent a lot of time over this part of this side of town. Now I'm northside. But there is a quite a strong character and the people do know what they want over here too. Give me some examples of some of that style of food.

One of my favourites on the menus at the moment is the chicken. Its more based around, Kung pao seasoning. We basically get a chicken in, brine it overnight then we hang it for two days and then we break it down into half portions. And then when we de-bone it, we keep just the drumstick in, so it's technically boneless and then we just put it in a cold pan and then render out the skin so it's nice and crispy. Obviously the flavour is all in the sauce. The sauce is double chicken stock and then the kung pao seasoning is split with it and then just seasoned with a lot of kombu and pepper. The Szechuan pepper comes through it as well. So it's quite a clever chicken dish where it's just simple, but it's tasty.

And at what point in your career did you start heading towards more Asian inspired food?

I was at Cumulus. I love the flavours at Cumulus. It's very simple, but really, really good produce and they focus on that. But I almost get bored when there's no chili or there's no kombus or there's not enough kick for me. I was just eating around as well. You can go to so many restaurants in Melbourne and think that chili made that dish next level and then it's stuck in your brain for years. And then later on you come back to and you think, oh I might make that dish I had eight years ago. But I think probably the turning point was when I moved to Tokyo Tina and then I started dabbling in ramen and learned how they season ramen. That appealed to me. They've got dashis and sesame pastes and it's just a whole different paint box of flavours that you play with. So from Tokyo Tina, I was hooked on Asian food. Then moving to Sunda and working with Khan just took it up a level. His seasoning was just next level and just his whole ideology of the whole dishes was amazing.

His flavour repertoire is incredible. I don't know if you could distil him to some kind of library. He's just incredible, isn't he?

He is incredible, a really good chef.

How long were you at Sunda?

A year and a half.

Then you came back to the Commune Group?

At that point I moved to New Quarter and we went through a rebranding of going from Hanoi Hannah New Quarter to just New Quarter. And that process was just stripping the whole menu, well, ditching the whole menu and refining it, making it a bit nicer. But also, Richmond needs to be accessible. It needs to be so many venues to so many different people. You have people before footy that come in for a quick bite. You've got the general lunch trade that come in for a quick bite, but then you've got the boozy lunches that last four hours sort of situation. And then you might have the Sunday afternoon or whatever. So, it needs to be so many things to different people and that's what I like about Richmond.

I read in your bio that you've always been interested in food. How did that start in Dunedin?

I think for me it was a high school thing. There was a point in my career where I was tossing up between horticulture and I went and worked on some orchards in Central Otago as a bird scarer. But at the same time I got an understanding of how much hard work it was to do that. But at the same time I was doing a gateway course at my high school going into university kitchens because, Dunedin's a very heavy university town. Youre feeding thousands of people and just the vibe of people working together was what got me. Orchard work is very lonely. I need that connection between people and that's what I really enjoy. I think that's what got me hooked initially. Then as I started working with food and understanding recipes, it becomes an addiction. Many chefs say that too. It's an addiction. It really is. You come out of the kitchen for a bit, and you miss the feel of it. I think that's what got me hooked. And then my career really kicked off, I guess when I started working for Michael Coughlin at Pier 24. Conor Pomroy from Carlton Wine Room and I are on the same wavelength. We worked together there and then moved over to Melbourne.

Had you visited Melbourne before?

No.

Oh, you just came?!

My wife is a nurse, and she got a role at the Alfred Hospital. We could have been in Christchurch, Dunedin or Melbourne. We chose Melbourne and we didn't know anyone here I think the first six months were very difficult for us. But after we got past that point, it became home and then we have never looked back, to be honest.

That was 2015? You've done a lot since then. That's only eight years. That's amazing. Melbourne is a city that's known for its food and so on and there are some big names here and you are working for them.

It's nice. I think as you support yourself around really talented people, you'll do well.

How do you continue to learn? Because it sounds as though you are someone who is always keen to know more and that you really love what you're doing. Do you look at books? Do you look at what other people are doing?

I think I'm a combination. I get inspired through past experiences like dining out for dinner. I'll get inspired by a dish or a technique that gets me going. And then I'll read some cookbooks on my days off. I think it's more just something will trigger a meal or even Instagram's a massive power for all of us. Its a big trigger, but you have to be careful how much you look at of that because you do start to find a trend.

Or the trend finds you.

Exactly.

I guess too, now that you are high up and you're overseeing other people, you would've had this in your head chef role as well, what is your leadership style? How do you manage the people you're working with, and do you feel pressured in that role?

Sometimes, but I have really strong head chefs around me, so it makes my job a lot easier. At New Quarter we've got Lee Huckstepp, he's amazing, really operationally strong. And then Nabi Ansari at Firebird and then Chris Cann here. Between the three of them, if their teams are fully loaded, it's all about depth and hiring the right people, but also training those people makes my job a lot easier. As long as they're all fine, I can focus on bigger things and keep the business driving forward.

Do you pay attention to reviews and things?

I think reviews are quite important. They are really important; a guest is paying, coming here and they have an expectation, and if you're not meeting them, you will not survive in Melbourne. That's the short of it. It's Monday, I'll probably look at reviews for last week and I go through them and I find any consistencies. So if there's someone that says the dumplings here were a bit meh, then I'll think, ok, that has come up once, that might have been just a mistake on the chef's part or has it happened twice? Has it happened three times? If it's happened three times, something's wrong. So they are very important for consistency and keeping us on the toes really.

Everyone's a critic these days, aren't they? I guess it is important to look for the consistent things that are markers, rather than the subjective experience of someone who maybe brought their own views into the restaurant.

I'd say the hardest thing for chefs is reading a review when you've tried really hard for the week and you thought you'd done an amazing job and you read a review and it might have something bad and you think, oh man, it's kind of defeating. But you just have to bounce back and carry on. You have to think about the other 800 people that came that week and really enjoyed themselves.

Exactly. And, seasonally, I suppose you're using local produce and so on for the Cantonese inspired menu?

Our main suppliers are all Melbourne based. I'd say the only one that's not really Melbourne based is Top Cut from New South Wales and obviously there's some Asian products that we have to import, but, our core meats, all our fish, et cetera, is from Australia and Melbourne. Especially the way the economy's going, you have to go with it.

Do you change the menu every so often or are you tied into a few signature dishes?

We have definitely got signatures around the group, the beef tartare at New Quarter and the Banh Mi finger there, the wontons for example, there are certain dishes that you will never take off because your customers will kick up a storm. But at the same time, we have three to four menu changes a year and they can be quite substantial to just tweaks. It depends on what's happening with the menus and where they're at. Also over the past three or four months, we've had to change pretty quickly and bringing our printing in house has been a big thing for us, just being able to quickly change those menus.

That reminds me of talking to chefs in hotels where they always have to keep things pretty much the same. They were saying how agile restaurant chefs have to be, and I guess as you're saying, especially in this current climate where things aren't always accessible or the price point's not accessible, you probably do have to be quite flexible with what you're putting up. Tell me about the Yum Cha.

It's Yum Cha at Moonhouse. It's very busy, that's all I can say. But, basically there are two concepts at Moonhouse. There's the dinner menu, and also where we're sitting now is the bar, or cocktail area joined withthe private dining space. On a weekend if it isn't booked out for a private function, we actually open this up to tables of twos and threes, or just people interested in a cocktail, but we also seat some people in the main dining area for a la carte and also downstairs. The a la carte menu runs Monday to Friday and Saturday night and Sunday night, but then you also have your yum cha menu that just works on Saturday, Sunday lunches. There are 12 items. You smash through the 12 and then as soon as you hit them and you want more, just order more and that keeps coming for as much as food as you want, really.

Scott, you've had a few different experiences and you've worked your way up through the ranks. What would your advice be to a young person who was thinking about becoming a chef?

I think a lot of chefs, from my knowledge now, is that when you're younger just absorb information, don't care about pay rates. If you really want to do well, you have to just put your head down and absorb, be like a sponge and just absorb things around you. And if you start getting stale in a workplace, move because you start resenting things around you and you'll resent people. As soon as you get as much knowledge as you possibly can out of that one workplace, keep moving. Otherwise, you're not learning.

Moonhouse, 282 Carlisle Street, Balaclava

New Quarter, 79 Swan Street, Richmond