Spencer Patrick

Conversation with a chef: Thanks for taking the time to chat today.

Spencer Patrick: That's okay. Thanks for wanting to chat.

Of course. I love to chat to chefs. You are up in a place I've never been to Port Douglas and I imagine it's really beautiful up there and an ideal spot to bring all these culinary geniuses together. Maybe you could describe what you are looking at right now?

Looking at right now? I'm in a car park at the moment. But, normally I'd be looking out at my restaurant into lagoon pools around the Grand Mirage and palm trees in the background with the sea breeze keeping me cool.

Amazing. I looked at some photos of the restaurant online. It really does look so glorious. The inside dining room with the chandeliers, and so much greenery and then the outside, as you say, looking out onto the lagoon. How nice to work there.

Yes. It's a beautiful place. We've been at the resort for six years, but we've been in Port Douglas the same age as the restaurants and the same age as our first born son. So that's 16 years.

I was reading that you came out from the UK and you really only spent a short time in Melbourne before you went to Port Douglas, actually, where you worked in Melbourne at Fenix with Raymond Capaldi is just across the road from where I used to live in Abbotsford.

That's a long time ago.

So you came here from England and then pretty much went straight up to Port Douglas and it must be pretty great up there because you've been there ever since.

For sure. I'll tell you a story. I came over to Melbourne from London about 17 years ago and then, as you know, went to go and work as Raymond Capaldis head chef there. Then I met Reina. It's actually quite funny though, because where I used to work, my last head chef job in London was at a place called Quo Vadis on Dean Street in Soho and she used to work on, I think it was Brewer Street or something, its only 200 metres away around the corner. She was there at the same time I was. We would've walked past each other. I know we used to go to the same cafe every now and again, but we never bumped into each other. We never met each other. And then we met each other on the other side of the world in Melbourne.

That's so crazy.

Crazy, right? Then we decided to travel around Australia. We bought a 4 X 4 and pretty much a camping shop. The idea was to go all the way around Australia, then get back to Melbourne and then decide where we wanted to set up shop and then, you know, then, then moved there properly. But we had such a nice time finding the sun clockwise and went to Margaret River was absolutely amazing, lovely beaches and all the wineries and all the way up to Broome. We stayed there for quite a while and then up over to Port Douglas and then we found ourselves pregnant there. We were going for a walk in the park and I said, oh, do you want to live here? She said, yes, I said, okay, then let's do it. So we decided stupidly to open up a restaurant while Reina was pregnant. She was running the front of house, I was running the back and that's it. The rest is history.

It's actually interesting how many chefs I speak to who open restaurants at the same time as their partner is about to have a baby. It's like it's the birth of the restaurant and the birth of the child.

In our businesses, she does what I can't do and vice versa. And so we had got a stage where she was heavily pregnant waddling around the restaurant. I was searing my foie gras, banging the bell for service and all that kind of stuff. But we've got three children now. We've made a lifestyle for ourselves up there and it's a nice part of the world.

Beautiful. You've received many accolades and Harrisons just does so well, at what point did you think, I'm just going to give myself a really big challenge and start this huge event, Taste Port Douglas? Was it 10 years ago the first one?

I think it was about nine years ago. Before that I was always invited to do festivals, be part of Noosa Food and Wine, Gourmet Escape and things like that. And Reina has always been fantastic at running events and she said, why don't we start something a bit like that, you've got a couple of friends in the business, give them a shout and we'll have a mini festival. So we did that. The first people that came up were Ian Curley, Massimo Mele and Colin Fassnidge. This is before Colin was on any kind of TV. We did that and we put them on the main stage and we put them around restaurants doing takeovers and at Harrisons and it just went really well. We kind of winged it. The second year we just got bigger and bigger and bigger and, and we're really getting quite big now. We've got 22 great chefs and friends coming up and they're all people I know, which always makes it nice.

I looked at the list and I know quite a few of them as well. I've spoken to, well I met Colin briefly when he was at Murat Ovazs restaurant in Elwood. I went to a collaboration they were doing. Ive spoken to Ian Curley and Julian from Navi and then I spoke to Michael Wilson from Singapore on the phone and Telina Menzies as well. I saw the line-up and thought, oh they are all my favourites.

Yes, it's really good. I try to make the line-up bigger each year and I make new friends through friends and then I connect to them and have a chat on the phone and they're a nice person and we get on then, then they get an invite. We just like to have a nice happy family. No arrogant chefs. Everyone gets involved, everyone supports and it just makes it really, really nice.

Is it still that same format where you have them on the stage but they might also do some takeovers of restaurants?

Yeah, for sure. We've got Masterclasses as well. We've got the main stage on the Sunday and the Festival Village. We have demos going all day back-to-back. Then we have a good eight master classes, which is close up and personal. Ben Williamson is doing the story of Agnes, weve got Mark Best doing a Masterclass as well. He's doing his grilled sea foam oyster, I don't know if you've ever seen that. It's an iconic dish of his. Some of the chefs have doubled up doing Masterclasses and demos. The Masterclasses go from Thursday all the way through to the Sunday. And then all the takeover dinners as well. There are a good ten takeover dinners. We pair chefs together for those. I think the only two we haven't paired up with chefs and that's Ian Curley who's doing a French Saloon takeover at Zinc and also Jerry Mai who's doing a takeover at Paper Crane in Cairns.

Amazing. I see that there were over 10,000 visitors last year and some of those came from overseas. Obviously, they're all foodies. Do you have an idea of the proportion of chefs that get involved that want to come and see other chefs at work? Or is it mainly the public kind of foodie person that would come to this?

It's mainly the public. But I do know some of our major sponsors, like Estrella, they get a load of chefs who want to come over and they all hang out in the VIP area and have a bit of a chef party. It's mainly public and foodies.

I just love the idea of it. It sounds incredible and it's in a couple of weeks time.

Yes. It's the 8thto the 11thAugust. We call this the storm before the calm, getting it all organised. But weve got systems in place, so we have gained a bit more control as the years go by, but we keep on adding stuff to it as well. There's always new stuff to take on because were actually going to Cairns as well this time. We've got three events in Cairns, one event in Palm Cove, which is a good 40 minutes to an hour away from Port Douglas. So we're spreading out. We originally started it as a Port Douglas Festival, but now we want to make it about the region. The region's amazing. Port Douglas is a part of that and its really important to us to showcase the best of what we have around there. We've got all these amazing people coming. It's not just about the chefs, it's about the fantastic producers. And what we do really pride ourselves on is using the best produce we can in Australia; local where we can, but the best award-winning producers. We invite them up as well so they can showcase their product; everything with a story. We put them on that pedestal and give them a round of applause for all the passion and hard work they've put in. Then the chefs showcase those products on the menus, and it all works.

Just to focus on you now, where did it all start for you? Did you always know that you wanted to be a chef?

No. My parents sent me to a very expensive school in the UK and I didn't do very well in the end. I got expelled and they said I had to go and get a job. I ended up being a waiter in a restaurant. I wasn't very good at all. In fact, I got sacked from that being a waiter, but I used to get on with the guys in the kitchen. So instead of me going home saying, oh, you know, I can't even be a waiter to my parents, the kitchen staff employed me as a dishwasher, a kitchen hand. I used to get changed at home into my waiter's outfit, go to work and get changed in the car to my T-shirt and jeans and wash dishes. But when I was washing dishes, I could look down the line at these chefs. I could see their adrenaline pumping, especially on a Friday and Saturday night. I could feel the energy. After work they'd be sitting around the bar just like a bunch of pirates high fiving each other and getting drunk and I thought it looked really cool. I used to wash dishes as fast as I could, so then I could go and give them a hand in the kitchen. I used to do it more and more. One time one of the chefs didn't turn up and the head chef gave me a chef jacket to put on and I looked at myself in the mirror and thought, this fits just right. So that's where it all started really. I think it's the only thing I've ever been patted on the back for. I ran with it and here I am now 36 years later.

That's wonderful. It feels like it was 'what a time to be alive' in the nineties in London. I worked as a waitress when I was at Uni and I met a couple who had worked in London and Nicola had been a chef at Pearl in London under Jun.

I worked with Jun. I spent a very short time at Nico's. I first started working at the Relais et Chateaux in the English countryside. And then on my days off, you know when you're young, you just worked, didn't you, you didn't care about money, you just worked, and so on my days off, I used to go on stages, I used to go down to Nico's, used to go to Le Manor aux Quat Saisons. Jun was at Nico's. And then when I went and worked for Marco, he came and worked for Marco for a bit, but Marco didn't like him too much.

I remember Nicky saying something about Marco coming into the restaurant and it was all a bit strange. Everyone had to be on their best behaviour or whatever. But that was actually why I started this podcast. I would talk to Nicky about all the industry stories and the reasons why you do certain things and so on. But then, once you get past that coolness of the chefs and the pirate attitude, I guess you get hooked by something else. Was that the adrenaline of service, pleasing people, the creativity aspect, what's kept you in it for 36 years?

I think maybe I have stayed in it because it's not a job. It's something that you become good at and you're proud to do it. Especially if you've worked in some great places and you've earned your stripes and you're part of that stable, I think it's pretty cool. Because when you do spend those times in those places and all that hardship, even the young kids today know about that. So, it's a kind of a club and then the old hardcore club and it's really something to be proud of. But then you see the young chefs who you train, who come through your kitchens, and they all want a piece of that. It's really great to nurture these chefs and show them the old ways of cooking and the nose to tail, that sort of stuff, and show them how to do really tasty food consistently. But not through as much high pressure as it were. Does that make sense?

Absolutely. That's part of what you're doing now with SNR Consulting where you are advising restaurants, but also mentoring young talent. I often ask the question, what would your advice be to a young person who's starting out as a chef? And then a couple of times lately, people have said to me, but where are those young people, that it's quite hard to attract people into the industry. What are your thoughts on that?

Advice firstly is to work for the best and work as hard as you can and absorb as much as you can. Don't worry about how much you're getting paid, all that stuff. Travel to work as well in those best places. You see the world, you see cultures. Think about moving forward. Have a game plan, rather than just chasing the money and going from job to job. I think that's very, very important because these days chefs are working six months here, six months there, maximum a year. But if you go and work in a great place, you need to spend at least two years there. The first year is getting a pair of balls and getting used to the actual environment of that kitchen. And the second year is being that full sponge and absorbing all that knowledge. That's when you properly learn and take it all in because you've got it in your stride. You've got your confidence, and you're ready to learn then. You do two years and then you leave with respect to the head chef, respect to that kitchen and your resume is great. Then on you go to the next.

Do you think there are still young people wanting to come into the industry?

I think so. I think it has changed because they're looking at the money side people these days are really into buying the cool stuff and chasing the things they can't afford. They buy things they can't afford. Do you know what I mean? It shouldn't be about that. The kids are still out there. It's a different type of kid these days, but the ones who are coming into the industry, they're all quite nice and clean cut. Theres less of that rock and roll going on. You see amazing chefs like Aaron Ward and that kind of circle of chefs who have got so much fantastic technique and they've all worked in these great three hatted restaurants. They're all amazing, beautiful people. But there's no rock and roll there. They're all nice and fit and gleaming and clean. Seriously. Times have changed. But that is the new era, and I'm not saying that rock and roll's a great thing. Times have changed and I love the way the industry is going in that way. It's all about the correct work environment. Years ago, when you were doing all those long hours and struggling conditions six days a week and god knows how many hours a day, that kind of sticks with, I call it a bit of scar tissue. And it does affect people later on, as we all know.

You've obviously eaten at some incredible places around the world, and you have access to all that great produce and, and suppliers and so on up the top part of Australia. Can you still be surprised by food and flavours?

Can I be surprised? I can be surprised by simplicity, for instance, getting an amazing octopus and then finding where it comes from, what it eats, then you cook it a different way. Once you've steamed it, you need to hang it for a couple of days and get that moisture out so then it hits that grill. Nothing amazes me. It makes me feel great. Do you know what I mean? Nothing's like, wow, but it makes me happy if I eat something that's really delicious and it's been thought about, the way it's cooked with integrity and great technique. It makes me feel good rather than excited and surprised.

It would be lovely to eat food that makes us feel good all the time. That's what we're after.

It's a feel-good thing. If you have three amazing things on a plate, and they all are cooked perfectly, they're all in season, they're an amazing three ingredients, all perfectly seasoned, perfectly cooked, and they're ingredients which go well together; you can't beat that. And then you eat that with some people you love, that's beautiful.

That's it, isn't it? That's the ideal. Well, Spencer, thank you so much for your time and all the best for the event in a couple of weeks. I'd love to be going and maybe that I can put that on my radar for next year.

Yes. See you next year.

Taste Port Douglas, 8 – 11 August, 2024

Harrisons, Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Port Douglas