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More than just a pretty plate: How Attica blends food and form - An interview with Ben Shewry
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[Music]
[Music]
It's a very basic and humble beginning.
I answered an advert in the newspaper
for a head chef job here. M it had been
running for 1 and a half years before I
started. And so my inspiration for the
place was really u kind of more out of a
survival instinct, you know, had a
6-month old child. We couldn't pay the
bills and I was 27 years old and had to
become a head chef because of those
circumstance, you know, and um I'm sure
a lot of people can relate to that early
struggle raising kids and and trying to
manage finances. And so realistically,
it wasn't not a romantic start here.
It's just literally out of life's
necessity. When I did start, um, the
business was not doing very well at all.
It had been going for one and a half
years and it wasn't a restaurant that
people liked very much, um, in
particular
and I felt quite a lot of pressure to do
something about it and to really change
that mindset. I also Julie had a really
strong creative urge that I didn't fully
understand because I was a 27 year old
and and that was probably the thing that
helped us stick around in those early
years. Um yeah, when I was an employee a
lot of the early years are kind of a
blur. So there was this is our 20th year
and in August Adacru would have been
under my tenure ship um for 20 years the
first decade as an employee and the last
decade as the owner and I suppose like
that first five to 10 years really just
really felt like a total blur like I was
in a tunnel uh like we're just trying to
do anything we could to survive and
we're using creativity as the main
answer to all the problems. Um, and
we're just trying to develop our own
personal style and culture here and and
that takes time for a cook. Um, as they
shed their significant mentors. I mean,
the the restaurant um is vastly
different than it was 15 years ago, 10
years ago, 5 years ago, even 2 years
ago. Uh, this place is kind of has a
forward momentum of constant evolution.
We kill our darlings every day in terms
of the dishes that we create. They have
a life of course. And when they're done,
they come off the menu and they never
come back on again. And and because of
that, it always kind of keeps us looking
forward to what we want to be and what
we want to say on the plate and what we
think is delicious and what we think
people would like. But certainly
creatively um whatever our inspirations
are it it's easy to look back on it and
go you know what we had no supporters in
the early years um which is only partly
true. There was some really amazing
people who came in and said things that
were so kind and so helpful and without
those thoughtful words we probably
wouldn't have made it. But I would say
it was a pretty solid five years before
before the bulk of people started to
change their perceptions or found out
about the restaurant. And I would say
sort of probably 10 years it it it was
sort of solidifying itself
as as a restaurant with a serious
intentions. I suppose during the
lockdowns and co up until that point you
know we always had felt tremendous sense
of community support
but then we had to close down and it was
it felt certain that we would lose
everything. I was pretty sure that the
company would go broke and I don't come
from money and I don't have a backup
plan. This is it. And so it was
terrifying. And the community of
Melbourne supported the restaurant in
that 2 years like solely. Adica had
always had a reasonably big
international
um clientele and and so that went
overnight of course and so did
interstate support and then we were just
in Melbourne and the people of Melbourne
really turned up for us and I I think
that's because we'd always been
community-minded and engaged with our
community. But there was certainly many
moments of self-doubt and in every every
moment of doubt, you know, people
ordered lasagna, people wrote to us
expressing gratitude. We met people in
our bake shop, we met people in our in
our pop-up restaurant in the valley, you
know, so the so there was just an
incredible sort of sense of
um goodwill and it was something that
I've told myself that I'm never going to
forget. You know, it changed me forever.
I think Ripenley is like a very unique
community. It's obviously like more like
a small village where most people know
each other. It's super interconnected. I
think people are super respectful of one
another here. Um I feel like um that
I've always got friends here and and
that's been a very cool thing. Like
certainly back in 2005 when we started
it wasn't as bustling as it is now. you
know, it was kind of joke that was kind
of tumble weeds coming down the street a
little bit. U there weren't I think
there was one cafe maybe and now there's
three or four. I've always liked that um
that people are respectful but they'll
also let you do your work and don't get
involved too much if that makes sense.
Um and that's important and and I've
just always felt very welcome here I
guess. Um and you know I've chosen to
live here and and run this company here
for so long.
Well, that was just an answer to a
problem. And the problem was we were
going to go broke and we had to do
something. We were coming out of a
lockdown and the public was going to be
allowed to return to outdoor dining. And
Adica has almost no outdoor dining
options. The footpath wasn't going to
cut it.
And we were in Chadston and I saw an
enormous line of people lining up for
Kmart, like hundreds. And we walked past
Gucci and Gucci had nobody in it and no
line. Both businesses were open. It was
this kind of weird little moment. And
and just by seeing both of those scenes,
I knew kind of where we sat and I knew
where we needed to be. And we made the
plan to in the summer to open a a
restaurant that was much larger, a much
lower price and was almost completely
outdoors and and that was like a wild
and super fun time. So, it's just a it's
just a solution to a problem. I tend to
think that problems should be normalized
and seen um as things to just overcome
rather than insurmountable. and and so
yeah, our problem was we couldn't really
do any numbers here because of the
restrictions. We need to find a
solution. When we talk about native
foods, this these are ingredients that
kind of belong to people and there's
culture and story and cooking that's
attached to them. And so that's really
interesting as a cook and really a
massive source of inspiration because we
are living in a country with the old
world's oldest food and and that's a
beautiful thing and so I've had a small
window into that through relationships
and community. Um but we tread carefully
and I feel like you know there's around
5 to 6 thousand native foods in
Australia. We have really barely eaten
any of them. Uh even even Adica and our
our team who are heavily involved in
this industry, most people have probably
only tried five or six. Um we've
probably only tried 500 of those of
those foods. And so really the potential
for inspiration is endless. Um but we
try to do it responsibly. I I don't
really have favorite dishes. Um probably
my favorite dish is the dish that's not
on the menu that's in development. So at
any one time there might be up to six
different dishes being developed and
created behind the scenes. You know,
we've had my in my whole life I've had a
real love affair with lasagna. And it's
something that came into my family as a
small child and it became our family's
culture and the way that we celebrated
every special occasion from birthdays to
Christmas day. No matter how hot it was,
we'd make lasagna. My mother started
that. I
um I took that on and evolved it. We
made lasagna to survive during the
pandemic. We sold 17 and a half thousand
lasagnas. And I wrote 10,000 words on
lasagna in Bolognese in my new book,
Uses for Obsession. We put lasagna on
the menu after having a rule that is no
pasta here. Um, and so recently after
taking the Adica lasagna dish off the
menu and having some space from it, I've
come back and and created another
version of lasagna which is really just
about the crispy top of the lasagna. And
so that was what I was working on
yesterday. So that's probably like if I
had a favorite dish that would be it
that it would be this thing that I'm
working on that I'm excited to share
with people that I think is going to
bring joy to them.
[Music]
Well, that's actually a New Zealand
painting. Um, yeah. Yeah, that's by
Ruben Patterson, Tero Maui, artist.
Incredible, incredible artist. Um Um,
and so there's a variety of art. It's
not dogmatically Australian. Sometimes
there right now there's two New Zealand
paintings in the restaurant. There's a
there's a painting behind you from a
painter um in Ocean Grove. Um there's a
painter from New York City to your left.
So, it's really like a a wide variety of
art, but art is crucial in not only in
the experience of experiencing Adekica
as a customer, but certainly as as the
co-owner of the restaurant and as
somebody who's creative because the art
you see is generally linked to the
restaurant in some more meaningful way
than just a painting on the wall. Often
these people are personal friends and we
have collaborated on projects and so
there's an entire experience out the
back a whole installation built by very
very famous artists from from um Los
Angeles called Dabs Miler. Art informs
everything here you know art is is the
restaurant is part of the restaurant
that restaurant is creating art. Um
we're heavily involved in the art
community and the restaurant has a
collection of art that changes annually
as well in the dining room. So, it's
it's important that I think that the
art, you know, speaks to something about
the restaurant and informs the work of
the restaurant. Um, but also that it's a
place for our staff to enjoy as well and
for our guests to come in and, you know,
feel like um on some level that you're
in a small
gallery. Probably the number one thing
that I think of here when I think of
Adica in mid-century are the cheers. The
chairs are designed by Grant Featherston
1961. They're escape dining chair.
They're they're they're a Australian
chair. Um and they were remade under
license um from the Featherston's by
Gratzia Materia and by Gratzia and Co.
for the restaurant at a great cost and
and they're very very special. They're a
forever chair. Um, so specifically
re-engineered
uh for the customer to be able to sit 3
hours in and also because they're a
really important part of our culture and
history in Melbourne. Um, this is a
design from here that we of which we
should be so proud. Mhm. It I feel like
in terms of our home, I very much Connie
and I very much feel like we're the
custodians of this special house and
this this very special thing which is
like a work of art and it's our
responsibility to protect this home for
future generations so that this home
will always be around. Um and and so you
know that's a cool that's a cool thing
to live in. You live in a you know a
living and breathing work of art. And
you know, in terms of houses, you know,
the mid-century architects were
incredible at bringing kind of the
outside in. So, the way that the light
passes through our home, the way that
you sit on the sofa and view the four
seasons, um, and the way that the house
makes people who visit feel. And, and
you don't have to be an architecture
buff to to be affected by our house. You
know, it could be an Amazon delivery
driver just coming in and going, "Oh,
wow. This house makes me feel good." You
know, sadly, we don't see as much of
that these days. You know, we in the '
50s and 60s was kind of like the peak of
people engaging with architects to build
homes and not always at high costs. Many
of these architects were working to to
keep costs down and to and to solve
problems. and and and today we find
ourselves in a different situation where
not of enough of us are actually
choosing great architects to design our
homes. And I think that's you know
something that we've lost a little bit
and hopefully we can find back. We
should support architects. We should
engage architects if we can afford to.
Well, I I guess you know from the little
that I know about Dr. Ernest Fuks, he is
just this really hyper intelligent man
who's like a scholar and and who did a
variety of things from, you know,
qualifying very early as an architect in
Vienna and as a town planner to moving
here in 1939 and facing anti
anti-semitism and having to overcome
that and then building his own
successful architecture practice to
becoming really the preminent, you know,
Jewish architect or architect architect
of our time. I still don't think he gets
his just desserts. You know, I think
he's still to this day very underrated
and yet he bought built about and
designed about 400 buildings. Um, so
he's a really really significant
Australian architect. I think he he was
just a really deep thinker and I I
understand this because of my my study
on on on the guy and my admiration for
the houses that he built in our area and
they just um have a sense of a person
who knows themsel creatively like
there's a maturity about them and um
they are inherently beautiful. They have
unique features. the use of um timber
and natural materials and influences
from Japan is evident in these houses.
He was a person who traveled um and and
so I guess like um in a sense they were
some of the best well-rounded and but
certainly one thing that that um people
coming out of Europe in the 19 uh 30s
and 40s brought was this really knowing
sense of quality and what quality is.
And so when you when you go into a house
that was designed by Erns Fuks, you're
not only looking at the design, but
you're looking at the attention to
detail that he paid to making sure that
every single person that worked on that
job, from the builder to the to the
cabinet maker to the person installing
the toilet was on a high level. And I so
I think that's really the definition of
of an artist or a great architect is
that not only do they design something,
but they also have the context, the
friends and the collaborators to see it
be fully realized.
How do you find living in Southeast
Melbourne? Well, clearly I think it's
the greatest. You know, that's pretty
obvious. Um, and I and I've always lived
here from the time that I moved to
Australia in 2002 as a 25year-old. Um, I
think the green spaces, the proximity to
the beach. Uh, I also love my
neighborhood. I've got the best
neighbors imaginable. I've never lived
in such a tremendously kind and engaged
neighborhood. I just think that
everything is connected. You know, that
that that all creative endeavors are
connected. They all have
similarities. And often people, you
know, even people in business who don't
see themselves as creative are highly
creative. And I think there's a little
bit of a a disconnect between people who
see themselves creating art, somebody
like me, and somebody who, you know, is
is working at an accountancy firm and
thinks that they don't they don't have a
lot of creativity. But I I would I would
say that some of the greatest creativity
that I've seen, you know, could be in
accountancy, could be in problem
solving. And and so I think creative
creativity is just a a mechanism to
overcome things and to solve problems
and and so I think that that that that
creativity is fascinating in all walks
of life and that all humans have that
ability to create and and make things
and and and we shouldn't lose sight of
that.
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