Woolworths_Taste_July_2017

WHAT I KNOW NOW
Ben Shewry
The head chef and owner of Melbourne’s Attica – recently ranked number 32 on the World’s 50 Best
Restaurants list – on incorporating Australian Aboriginal ingredients on his menu, the importance
of kindness and how he spends his Sundays (it involves kangaroos)
I decided to be a chef at age five. My mother,
Kaye Shewry, agrees. I didn’t do cooking in
high school until the last year because it wasn’t
complicated enough. I was already well ahead
of anything that they could teach me. I had
worked in professional kitchens from around
the age of 10 – and it was very intoxicating,
exciting. Overall, I think it’s my mum’s influence.
It was 1982 and it’s not like there were TV chefs
around. We didn’t even have TV.
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As young children, we had amazing
freedom. My parents had a sheep farm
in Taranaki, New Zealand. It was a hard land
to farm and money was short. My mother
had a huge vegetable garden; at the time
I didn’t realise that was because of our
financial situation.
I had a fascination with Thai cooking.
That’s also why I moved to Australia. I had
exhausted my learning options in New Zealand.
I was inspired by Australian chefs such as
Neil Perry, Maggie Beer and Cheong Liew.
My wife, Natalia, and I moved in 2002. I’d been
to Sydney, but I didn’t like it as a place to live –
it’s too full on. I heard about Melbourne being
lovely, so I came here to learn to cook Thai food.
But when I arrived, there was no good Thai
food. So, it was a bit of a funny situation.
[Attica started as a Thai restaurant.]
Independence is what makes Attica, Attica.
It’s a standalone business owned by my wife
and I for the past two years. There are no
backers. There is no influence other than myself
and my staff and the country, of course.
For a city restaurant, we have a huge
garden – about 15 acres. We rent it from the
National Trust and grow 100 different types of
plants. The chefs do it though, no gardeners. We
grow plants dating back 50 000 years that were
important sources for the Australian Aboriginal
people. This garden carries the history of the
First Australians, the European settlement and
the first Chinese settlers, who arrived just six
years after. I wanted the chefs to be in there
because it’s good for their mental wellbeing.
PHOTOGRAPHS ATTICA INTERVIEW ISHAY GOVENDER-YPMA