A big year for Fred’s debut chef Danielle Alvarez
2017 will go down as an important year for rookie Sydney restaurant Fred’s which took out No 1 spot in the Delicious Magazine's Top 100.
That saw the 60-seat Paddington restaurant coming out ahead of the some key venues including Quay (7), Hubert (11) and Brunswick Heads’s famous Fleet (3). These restaurants routinely take out the “best of” lists across the state.
Fred’s is part of Justin Hemme’s Merivale empire
The award also makes it a pretty big year for head chef Danielle Alvarez.
American born Alvarez, who is making her debut as head chef, has some terrific plans ahead to cap off this year’s award.
She is playing around with setting up a Saturday morning produce market. She also has an idea of creating an edible schoolyard.
“I guess you could certainly call this past year as challenging,” Alvarez told the Daily Telegraph.
“People often say: ‘What now’ but I have some very big plans for 'what now’?
“I like to think that now the first year is over we can really start to get good. And for me personally I’m really excited about getting more into exploring that connection with family and food and improving the restaurant in every way possible.”
Alvarez started out in San Francisco and came to Australia for a holiday, to soak up sun, beaches, and do some dining at some of Australia’s hot spots. She fell in love with the country and stayed.
She has a CV which features Californian venues such as The French Laundry, the place where she started her career, and four years at Chez Panisse.
She has also put in time at Merivale’s other venues including the Coogee Pavilion and The Paddington.
At Fred’s, she embarked on an almost-all female kitchen. The ratio is now a 50-50 male-female split.
She wants to bridge the gap between her kitchen and sustainable producers without relenting to big suppliers.
by Leon Gettler, December 4th 2017
