FOR A chef who is not yet 30, Brett Graham has had a stellar career that has taken him from Newcastle to Sydney’s Banc and on to London, where he has won widespread acclaim at The Ledbury, earning it a Michelin star in his first job as head chef.
Yet there were times when Graham doubted whether he wanted to continue being a chef, especially when he was at Banc and working to the exacting standards expected by Liam Tomlin. “If it wasn’t for Liam, I wouldn’t be here today,” says an eternally grateful Graham. “He told me there were basically two choices in this business, you could go this way or that way. Thank god I chose to go this way.”
In dedicating himself to his career, the former Josephine Pignolet award winner has become a role model for young chefs, with many young Australians passing through The Ledbury kitchen, some of them returning to take up positions in leading Sydney restaurants such as Astral, Assiette and the Opera House, and Circa the Prince in Melbourne.
He gives back to the industry by supporting a competition for third and fourth year apprentices at Hamilton TAFE in Newcastle, giving the winner an opportunity to work at The Ledbury for a month.
Graham was born in Williamtown, near Newcastle, and knows how important it is to be given a kick-start. “We had no food culture in our family at all, not one spark,” he says. “When I got to 15, I got interested in growing vegetables and keeping chickens, so that sparked a bit of interest in where food comes from. The old man across the road showed me how to butcher a chicken and we ate it the next day for lunch.
“I liked the process. I wanted to be a vet or a chef. I decided to go for school work experience in cooking and I absolutely loved it.”
Graham worked at Scratchleys on the Wharf in Newcastle for two and a half years and, “started to get an obsession about food”. Shortly after his 18th birthday and while he was still an apprentice, he moved to Sydney. “I’d never lived in a big city before. It was a big eye-opener.”
He spent three years at Banc, joining the opening team and qualifying as a chef while he was there. “It was unbelievable. That was the hardest job I’ve ever done and [Liam Tomlin] was the most demanding boss I’ve ever worked for.”
Chef and restaurateur Matthew Kemp, who then worked at Banc, suggested Graham should go to work at The Square in London. “[Kemp] was right—I loved it.” Graham spent three years there, and a bonus was that it introduced him to the owner, Phillip Howard, who he is now in partnership with at The Ledbury. “He’s an amazing guy, a real gentleman, which is rare in this trade,” Graham says of Howard, who opened The Ledbury in Notting Hill in 2005.
Graham was 26 when Howard asked him to open The Ledbury. That was young enough, he says. On a recent visit to take part in the recent annual Brisbane Hilton Masterclasst, he expressed dismay that so many Australians were taking on the role of head chef in their early twenties.
Graham articulated some of these views during his presentation at the Masterclass event, lamenting the number of chefs who take on top jobs at the age of 22, “when they can’t even make puff pastry”. He says young people should, “concentrate on learning the basics of cookery”.
“It’s important that young kids resist the temptation to go into senior roles before they think about their training and their career,” he says. The “skills shortage goes in a horrible cycle” and the premature promotion of chefs was contributing to the skills shortage.
Graham says Australian chefs, “have such a great reputation”, it would be a shame to jeopardise it. “I've noticed the government has cut costs on training for young chefs,” he says . “The apprenticeship system here is great but it’s starting to be eaten away at now.”
For the past four years, he has supported the Brett Graham Scholarship at Hamilton TAFE, the winner of which receives an airfare and the opportunity to work at The Ledbury for a month. Most of the winners are still with him or about to return.
Although some Asian ingredients and techniques creep into his menus, Graham’s cooking remains classically European based. He describes the food at The Ledbury as “modern French ... quite luxurious. We try to remain very seasonal. We have asparagus only for two and a half months of the year.”
During his Brisbane Masterclass presentation, Graham demonstrated one of The Ledbury’s most popular dishes, Celeriac Baked in Ash with Grated Hens Egg, Hazelnuts and a Kromeski of Pig’s Head (although he doesn’t write “pig’s head” on The Ledbury menu “because it doesn’t sell”. Instead, it reads “krameski of middle white pork”, the latter being a rare breed of pig).
Graham has settled into the English lifestyle well, so well in fact that he has developed a passion for game, not just cooking it but hunting it as well. About 18 months ago, he was invited on a pheasant shoot and he loved it. He enjoys, “the whole process of the food to table sort of thing” and says it is great stress relief from his busy job. “I love going in the English countryside.” Furthermore, he says, “There’s so much strain put on farming these days, [shooting wild game] helps take the pressure off.”
At the Brisbane Masterclass, he also prepared Roast Venison with Sweet Potato Douglas Fir and Pepper. “Venison is my favourite meat so it tends to be on the tasting menu [at The Ledbury] a lot,” Grahama says. “What’s great about working with wild products is seeing how the flavour changes [throughout the year]. After shagging for six weeks, the meat is terrible because the deer are knackered.”
“The sweet potato in this dish takes on the flavour of Douglas Fir pine after the pine needles are infused with it. The deer eat the Douglas Fir so we came up with the idea of using pine with the venison. It’s like putting rosemary on things.”
Graham says running a restaurant in London is tough. “We’re a seven day business, lunch and dinner. I pay £2500 a week rent and wages are huge,” he says. “All those are costs that will be passed onto customers ultimately. Real estate in London is so expensive.”
Then there are the critics to contend with. “In the first month, someone in the media said we should knock the building down and build a car park.” Still, he must have been doing something right because The Ledbury earned its first Michelin star within nine months of opening.
Graham considers himself lucky to be in business with partners who recognised his commitment and gave him the opportunity to become a partner without him having to put up capital. “It’s not like the old man had two and a half million pounds floating around.”
He is now about to open, “a little pub in Fulham called Harwood Arms”. It will offer “really simple food heavily based on wild foods”, such as deer legs, and boiled salmon with herbs.
“It’s just a bit of fun really,” And, no doubt, some light relief for a chef who has gone so far, so quickly.