John Paul Twomey got his first break in the kitchen at his uncle’s restaurant in the coastal town of Dingle, Ireland. He was just 15 years old. By the age of 19, he’d completed culinary school, worked a few summers in Spain and was on his way to carving out a name for himself on Australian shores.
Like many, Twomey’s career started fairly linearly, ascending the ranks from student to apprentice chef and, eventually, head chef. But when he met Andrew McConnell — the owner of Trader House which runs restaurants including Cumulus Inc, Cutler & Co and Supernormal — his career path delineated and took him places that pushed his creative and managerial bounds beyond what he could achieve on the pass.
In the 12 years that followed, Twomey exited the kitchen for a developmental role, left McConnell’s group and stepped right back into the kitchen again. Now, his latest move sees him in another developmental role; one that’s brought about a complete lifestyle change and an opportunity to learn new skills.
The chef talks to Hospitality about his time working within one of Melbourne’s most successful hospitality groups, what it was like stepping back into the kitchen after a developmental role and how he’s happy to have traded it all in for early mornings.
Baking was never something John Paul Twomey took a strong interest in. Now, some 25 years after making his debut in the kitchen, it’s become his entire career. In the first half of 2021, the Carlton Wine Room head chef hung up his kitchen apron and swapped the pass for all manner of pastries, moving into the role of production manager at Melbourne’s Baker Bleu.
“I’ve still got so much to learn,” says Twomey, whoʼs done everything from finessing fine dining dishes to cooking casual pub fare. But never has he spent his days working with the volume of bread and pastries he does now. On a busy day, Baker Bleu’s two outposts — one in Caulfield North and another in Prahran — can pump out up to 4,000 ancient grain loaves as well as hundreds of sweet and savoury croissants, bagels, buns and cookies.
Though he’s previously overseen the menus and activity of multiple kitchens at once, the industrial scale of Baker Bleu’s operations presented a whole new challenge for the seasoned chef. “I’ve made yeasted breads which are pretty straightforward, but I haven’t really delved into actual sourdough,” he admits.
“Sourdough is a whole different kind of beast, especially on the level of Baker Bleu. Also, it’s a big bakery, so there’s lots of machinery I’ve never used before.”
Not only are there provers and industrial-sized ovens to familiarise himself with, but there’s also Baker Bleu’s sourdough fermentation process to get his head around, which is longer than a traditional ferment, allowing extra sugar caramelisation and a deeper, richer flavour in the crust.
It’s a whole new world. “It’s exciting to learn something new, but it scares me as well because bread is pretty difficult,” he says. “Every day is different, and there are so many variables with the bread and with the equipment.”
The bakery floor is a far cry from the environment where Twomey spent the bulk of his lengthy career. After landing on Australian shores on New Year’s Eve in 2000, Twomey completed stints at the Park Hyatt and Botanical Hotel before finding himself a home under the wing of Andrew McConnell.
Once in with McConnell, Twomey worked the breadth of the chef’s illustrious portfolio. “There wasn’t really anyone else in Melbourne that I was interested in working with,” says Twomey, citing McConnell’s constant boundary pushing and positive encouragement as part of the reason why he stuck with the group for an impressive 12 years.
His time with McConnell began in 2005 when he was poached from St Kilda’s Circa dining room to head up the kitchen at Three, One, Two. Then, in 2009, he was given the position of founding head chef at Cutler & Co. His last role with the company saw him stepping out of the kitchen into a developmental chef position for Trader House, overseeing the menus at all of McConnell’s restaurants.
In 2013, he essentially became McConnell’s right-hand man. “It was a little bit less stressful than being at Cutler, which was a leading restaurant at the time,” says Twomey. “Breaking away from that and getting through the week at all the different restaurants gave me the time to train a lot of the younger staff, oversee the day-to-day stuff and help the head chefs develop dishes. I had more time to focus on creativity and training. I could actually spend one or two days at each restaurant developing dishes. I wasn’t so much on the pass.
By 2018, Twomey had taken his career as far as he could with McConnell, and was ready for a new challenge. Once again, the lure of the kitchen reeled him in. The chef joined Andrew Joy (the former manager of Marion and Cumulus Up) and Travis Howe (Coda and Tonka sommelier and co-owner) at a rebooted Carlton Wine Room.
“We’d spoken briefly about working together someday,” says Twomey. “Then, we caught up and had a coffee one day, which led to him asking if I wanted to come in and run the kitchen. I said, ‘For sure’. I didn’t really have to worry about the floor because that was all covered. I only had to worry about the kitchen.”
The Carlton Wine Room was where Twomey believed he peaked as a chef. “I think I was cooking the best food I’d ever cooked when I was [there],” he says. “I’d matured a lot as a chef.”
The skills Twomey picked up while working as a developmental chef away from the heat of the kitchen were what made the most significant impact on how he managed his role at The Carlton Wine Room.
“Working as a development chef had given me better skills for dealing with people; I had a lot more time with them,” he says. “That benefited me in my head chef role. I was a bit more cool and calm, and I just dealt with staff a lot better.”
Twomey temporarily shelved his knives during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 while The Carlton Wine Room took a brief hiatus. During that time, Mike Russell, owner of Baker Bleu, approached him with an opportunity. At first, it was just a request to cook and sell pizzas together for two months. Then, a production manager role came up over a casual lunch together post-lockdown.
“He said he had some stuff happening in Sydney with Neil Perry and was wondering if I would think about coming on as a production manager.” It wasn’t necessarily working with leaveners and baking loaves that sold Twomey on the job, but the lifestyle this new avenue would afford him.
“I’ve been cooking since I was 15,” he says. “I’m 40 now. That’s a long time in the kitchen. It’s early, early mornings at the bakery, but I’m usually home by two or three o’clock in the afternoon. It’s the lifestyle change that’s the biggest thing for me. I get more time with my family. The bakery is good like that.”
Though early mornings and developing new cookie flavours are a little different from Twomey’s past life as a restaurant chef, there’s really just one degree of separation. Many of the same skills he’s picked up over the years are still applicable, just within different parameters. Still, he’s not ruling out a return to his previous cheffing life. “I’m baking now, but there’s no reason why I can’t do pop-up dinners and stuff,” he says. “There’s always the ability to be flexible in this industry.”
Twomey’s career has taken him in and out of the kitchen and seen him cook, create, manage and bake. There’s not much he can say he hasn’t done over the years, which is the ultimate display of adaptability, flexibility and fluidity when it comes to a cheffing career.