You’ve moved from Sydney to run the kitchen at Gerard’s Bistro. What’s on the new menu you’ve launched, wedding Australian ingredients to a Middle Eastern theme?
Kangaroo kofta with fermented tahini-miso paste and chilli oil; raw coral trout with sea tabbouleh, spiced bush tomato and coriander oil; and pressed Jerusalem artichoke with garlic sauce, desert lime and crisps – one of the chefs here said it’s like a “vego snack pack”.
Your Sydney pop-up, Ételek, was known for its outstanding breads. What will you bake at Gerard’s Bistro?
A Persian flatbread called barbari, which has a ridged pattern with nigella seeds on top – it’s super tasty. I’ve also brought my eight-year-old sourdough starter and we’ll be doing a fried pita that’s similar to the lángos we did at Ételek. We’ll serve it with matbucha, a traditional Moroccan condiment, except our version uses vegetables, fruits and plants local to the area: peppers, plantains, strawberry gum.
Any other exciting condiments planned?
We had a lot of leftover flatbread, so I thought it’d be cool to create a flatbread miso. We fermented it and it had this salty, sour flavour, not too different to kashk, a Lebanese ferment with yoghurt and burghul.
When you worked at Yellow, you were known for your vegetarian dishes. Will vegetables play an equally big role at Gerard’s now?
They’ll be an integral part of the menu. I’ll make a version of kataifi, with potato instead of pastry, and I’m starting to work with a lot of local growers.
Do you think more chefs will make the move to Brisbane?
I hope to see more chefs moving here. The seasons aren’t as dramatic as in the southern part of Australia. The coastline of Queensland has some of the best fruit, vegetables and seafood in the world; I’m very fortunate to be so close to it all.
Gerard’s Bistro, 14/15 James St, Fortitude Valley, Qld, (07) 3852 3822, gerardsbistro.com.au
