Pure South lures back young Aussie

Melbourne's Pure South has filled its head chef vacancy with a young Aussie star returned from 10 years in Britain.

Ashley Davis may not be a "name" in the expat chef stakes, but the lad from Sunshine, in Melbourne's inner west, has spent the past 2 1/2 years as head chef of Helene Darroze at The Connaught and, significantly, held that position as the restaurant, part of Darroze's three-restaurant (Paris, London, Moscow) group, rose from one to two Michelin stars. Davis was a sous chef in the hotel's general kitchen when Darroze grabbed him for herself three years ago; he assumed the role of head chef not much later and, clearly, impressed the boss. "Obviously we're pretty thrilled to have someone of Ashley's experience and calibre on board," said the restaurant's Phillip Kennedy. "His interest in directly sourcing produce is very much in line with our own approach."

Ashley Davis has spent the past 2 1/2 years as head chef of Helene Darroze at The Connaught
and held that position as the restaurant rose from one to two Michelin stars

It started as nothing more than registering a great name less than 10 years ago when Melburnian Paul Scott discovered "Cricketers Arms" could be his. Scott did a remarkable job getting his brand into restaurants and gastropubs. Subsequently, the beer has gone into the major booze retailers, alongside some of the world's biggest beer brands, such as Asahi and Tsingtao, the giant Japanese Asahi Group is about to add Cricketers Arms, brewed at Stefano de Pieri's Mildura Brewery, to its roster. Reminds us of when Coca-Cola Amatil bought Grinders coffee. Or Nestle San Pellegrino water.

So, who'll be on a plane in a few weeks headed for London and the annual hooplah of the S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards? Last year was not great for Australia with only Mark Best's Marque improving on its 2011 score; Quay (Australia's only Best 50-ranked restaurant), Attica (63) and Tetsuya's (76) slipped back in the polls (although Tetsuya Wakuda's Singapore restaurant Waku Ghin made a spectacular entry to the ranks at 39 first year in, and David Thompson's Bangkok restaurant Nahm made 50 on the list. You wouldn't need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure someone from Quay will be in London April 29 and ... A little bird at Restaurant magazine, the organisers of the awards, may just have let slip that another restaurant - one from Melbourne that starts with A - has slipped into the big league, reversing last year's form. Does it matter? For the punters, not really. A fair bit of the voting comes down to serendipity and mateship with important (read voting) food celebrities. But is it fun to talk about? Of course.

Joost Bakker has big plans for his uber-successful Perth Greenhouse. A significant portion of the restaurant's floor space is to be given over to a new bakery. A stone wheel grain mill is on its way from Austria; the plan is to bake organic grain breads on new electric ovens and finish them in the restaurant's wood oven. Greenhouse Perth will also see the state's first dehydrator/compactor for processing organic waste. Bakker already has such a machine at his zero-waste, no-bin Melbourne cafe Silo. "I'm fairly confident we can get Greenhouse down to just one bin per day," said Bakker. Back in Melbourne the eco-entrepreneur meets with Victoria's planning minister Matthew Guy on Thursday to plead his case on the establishment of a radical rooftop garden restaurant/garden/fish farm and environmentally self-sustaining eco park for the city's CBD.

Short season for chef Vas Donoudis down at Stan Sarris's Shed 5, in Melbourne's embryonic Southwharf precinct. He's taken the Italian route, his first love, and headed for Sosta Cucina, in North Melbourne, and the vacancy created by Paolo Masciopinto, who just started in the CBD at Sarti.

Source: The Australian, 16 April 2013