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.