Suren Perera loves making pizza. And not just any pizza. Having learned his craft in Italy, he is now proving his dough for 90 hours to create a premium product at Posty on Swan Street. Lucky us.
Hi Suren. I’ll start by asking how long you’ve been a chef?
20 years. I started in 1997 in Singapore. After high school, I thought about what I wanted to do and I had a lot of ideas. I thought I wanted to be a pilot. But then in 1996 my Uncle, my mother’s brother, had been working in New Zealand and came back to Sri Lanka and he suggested that I do a cheffing course. He is a good chef and when he started cooking at home for us and I saw what he could do I told my mum that I wanted to do the chef course.
Once I had finished the course in Colombo I went to Singapore in 1997 to work and study international cooking. I did that for two years and then went back to Sri Lanka. Then another of my mother’s brothers who was working in a restaurant in Italy suggested I go to Italy and work there. It was in Messina. I decided immediately to go, so in 2000 I was in Italy. It was a big bar and restaurant. I worked there for just over two years cooking Italian food.
Did you learn some good Italian techniques?
Yes. I started as a normal chef there. The head chef was a very good chef and he taught me a lot of things. After one and a half years I went to Vulcano, an island north of Sicily.
I have just seen photos of Vulcano on Facebook. One of my friends was there last week.
I worked in a very good restaurant there and I’d been working there for eight months then I went back to Messina and I started in a new restaurant there. They did wood-fired pizza as well as other authentic Italian food. There seemed to always be a problem with the pizza chef. One day I tried making pizza at home. In Singapore I had made American pizza which has a different dough. I tried making the Italian dough at home by myself. My Uncle in New Zealand said I should do a pizza course in Italy to learn properly. He said it would be good for future jobs. So I did that course. I didn’t tell the owner that I was doing the course. I went to a course in Messina run by an excellent chef. Every Monday on my day off, I went to the pizza course and learned everything from him. After five months there were still problems in the pizza section of the restaurant. One day 120 people had booked into the restaurant and there was a problem in the pizza section and the owner said there was no one to make the pizza. I told him I could make pizzas and not to worry. From that night on I made the pizzas and he was very happy.
My job means everything to me. I am very happy at Posty. It’s like family here.
It sounds as though you developed a real passion for making pizza, but it is a very different practice from other roles in the kitchen. Does it get boring doing the one thing?
No. I have experience in Singapore, Sri Lanka and Sicily. I always try to do new things and modify recipes. I know how to make pizzas but I always change the toppings.
I spoke to a pizza chef over in Prahran who leaves his dough for 48 hours. Is there one rule about how to make pizza dough or are there a few?
There are three doughs; direct, semi-direct and indirect. Direct means they leave put the yeast in and let it prove for four hours, so it only takes one day to make pizza. Other chefs leave it longer, between 14 and 48 hours. Some chefs leave it for 70 hours. After 48 hours, pizza dough is excellent quality. Indirect dough is very difficult to make but it is very good for the digestion. We make the dough from equal parts flour, dough, water and leave it in the dough machine for four or eight hours, mixed a little bit. Authentic pizza, a lot of people in Sicily and Napoli use this version. After eight hours, I add the rest of the flour and water and finish the dough. Then some chefs put the dough into the fridge for 48, 70 or 90 hours.
What do you do?
90 hours.
90 hours? You’d have to be so patient and forward thinking.
The dough is the most important part of the pizza. The topping ingredients are easy, but the dough is very specialised. I had two teachers in Italy. They explained that we should never at any time make direct dough because people who eat pizza made form direct dough spend the rest of the night drinking water and the dough swells in their stomachs and they feel as though they have eaten a stone.
Is the type of flour important?
There are a lot of kinds of flour and I have tried a lot. I did a three-month course just on flour.
Do you use Australian flour?
I have been in Australia for two years and I have tried lots of flours but I haven’t found a good one. I don’t know why. The good flour comes from America. We get the grain from America and mill it in Italy. That’s the best flour.
Do you change the toppings?
Yes. I change them a lot.
But you have to always have the margarita.
Yes. 70% of people like the margarita.
Where do you get your ideas for toppings?
I have to think about who I am cooking for. I couldn’t use this menu in Italy. They wouldn’t like these ingredients on pizza. For example, lamb pizza or pork belly and pineapple. They wouldn’t accept those as pizza toppings but Australians love those. I had to adapt to Australian culture, In Italy the pizzas are always the same; capricciosa, napoli, margarita. But in Australia like variety.
What made you come to Australia?
It was a quick decision. My wife is Canadian. I went to Canada in 2015 but I didn’t like the climate. My wife’s brother is a chef in Melbourne and he said I should come to Melbourne, so we decided to come and one month later we moved here. My brother-in-law set me up in a job here and everything for the Atlantic Group in the city. I also worked in an Italian restaurant on Toorak Road for 11 months. Then for some reason I looked on Seek at the jobs and I saw that there was a job going here, so I dropped in my CV and got the job.
How long have you been at Posty?
A year.
Are you still enjoying making pizza?
Yes I am.
It’s interesting isn’t it, in other countries like Italy and France you have people who specialise in a particular thing and make that their whole life because it’s about the craft but in places like Australia, we seem to need variety. I think it’s great that you have found your niche.
My job means everything to me. I am very happy at Posty. It’s like family here. What’s important to me in my job is freedom to do what I know how to do and friendship, a good team. It is important for mental wellbeing in the kitchen.
Posty
90 Swan Street, Cremorne