From restaurants that have mastered classics like duck a l orange to those bringing a contemporary twist to old-school French hospitality, we re spoiled for .
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Flat out or time out? How Melbourne chefs are playing lockdown 5.0
Emma Breheny
Photo: Eddie Jim
Lucy Whitlow hasn t been in a restaurant kitchen for more than a week, but she s still kept to a strict schedule. The pastry chef at Osteria Ilaria in Melbourne s CBD is also a budding cheesemaker and COVID lockdown means more time to hone her craft.
Mornings are spent making new cheeses, which takes about four hours, then in the afternoon she checks on those already draining in one of four refrigerators. Others might need brushing with brine to stop them drying out. Later, it s time to make her clabber – a term for fermented milk that behaves in a similar way to sourdough culture. Whitlow must feed the clabber 12 hours before she wants to make her next batch of cheese.
New talent time: Meet Melbourne s emerging hospitality stars
Michael Harry
Photo: Joe Armao
There s energy rippling through our city, with creativity bursting mains all over town.
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Many people kept their heads down in 2020, but Ellie Bouhadana had her busiest year ever. When the pandemic put an end to her shifts at Balaclava s now-closed Ilona Staller, the self-taught chef started a pasta delivery business on Instagram. I got my home kitchen council-approved and was making hundreds of portions of pasta by hand, she says. I started delivering to 20 or so people, then it got much bigger and I was suddenly delivering 160 portions every Sunday.