ApartmentDevelopments.com.au had the chance to have an indepth chat with Vue de monde mastermind, chef, curator and father, Shannon Bennett. Shannon is the founder of, now Melbourne food icon, Vue de monde, and over the years has branched out to establish Cafe Vue, and most recently, his Botanical Gardens hideaway, Jardin Tan. Obssessed with food, Australia, and Burnham Beeches, Shannon Bennett discusses his home-farm, Australia's food identity, the importance of location, and his favourite dishes to cook at home.
Shannon Bennett:
Hi, I’m Shannon Bennett!
Hi Shannon! How are you?
SB:
Yeah, really good mate, really really good! Just got back from my property at Burnham Beeches. Absolutely love it up there.
AD:
I can understand why. But let’s back-track, why did you start to cook?
SB:
Hmmm, well I started to cook basically from being involved in home economics when I was growing up at Essendon Grammar. I was no good at Chinese, so they sent me to home economics. It was at a girl’s school, so I was absolutely wrapped! All of a sudden I realised that I loved cooking!
AD:
Why have you taken a step back from cooking?
SB:
I am more into restauranteuring, but I have not stopped cooking. I am now able to choose when I get to enjoy cooking, I suppose. I don’t cook as a job anymore; I mentor others to do that work. This was a decision that was not made by me, but the team around me. Cory Campbell, executive chef of Vue de monde, being a talented chef, doing what he does, he knew it was time, I said “Hey Cory you know what the mission statement here at Vue de monde is, this is your time to put your stamp on it.” You can’t really have two cooks in the kitchen, or you’ll spoil the broth. When I’m up at Vue de monde, I am a mentor, and I really enjoy it. When I am pottering around, I often help out with maybe a skill problem or it might be ingredient that needs to be sourced, but it really is something that I enjoy- I get to pick the good bits. As you get older, you identify what really gets you motivated. Burnham Beeches, my home-farm, is getting me motivated. This is where we grow all our Vue de monde vegetables from - we are putting a dairy on there too to compliment our truffle farm - these are the sorts of things that are motivating me a lot now.
AD:
“Sensory Stimulation and Imagination” – how hard is it to find the balance between functionality and creativity?
SB:
The balance is imperative, and it is ever evolving and changing cycle that you have to keep reassessing to make sure that you provide an experience to people that they cant keep at home. It’s about captivating every sense, the five senses, and even the sixth sense in people’s lives. We want to get them into a restaurant where we are meeting their expectations and then going above it. They then are coming away from that experience the following day and wanting to come back again, as they wont be able to recreate that experience back home.
AD:
You speak of evolution, and cycles – how important is it to follow this ideology, in terms of cooking, specifically using all the meat on an animal?
SB:
Completely spot on. You have an incredible opportunity as a restaurateur to see the bigger picture. I am able to give certain briefs to the team that I wouldn’t have done before. For an example, a carrot – we are able to see the peelings go back into the ground as compost; you are able to see the green tops used on a salad. We can now see a closed loop within the operation of the restaurant – it’s a cycle. For a financial point of view, you can see the advantages, but it is also the story. Every ingredient we put on a plate, has to have a story – there has to be a story on the plate and it is a very important part of the sensual experience for a customer.
AD:
Why has Vue de monde changed?
SB:
It has changed because my own thoughts and passions have gone that way. I used to be so passionate about France, which I still am. But, I’m now more passionate about Melbourne and Victoria. We have just as good producers, creators, customers and restaurants as you would find in France, particularly Paris, so to me it was about me recreating the fact that I love travelling. I also love travelling to a city knowing where I am by looking down at the plate, and I thought that was something that Vue de monde wasn’t offering a decade ago, that’s for sure. We were trying to recreate dishes that were basically in Europe. Our philosophy started to change and evolve around about 2006.
AD:
Would you say you are trying to encourage a food culture in Australia?
SB:
I suppose I’m trying to go on a journey to discover what our food culture is, because we don’t really know it. I hope that I am part of the process of potentially discovering and identifying what Australia’s food culture is. We have a food culture but it can’t be articulated simplistically yet like you can with France or Singapore. It effectively starts with produce, and that is where we are at now. Produce is dictated by the conditions that we live in.
SB:
It was really interesting listening to an indigenous elder last year, around my property in Burnham Beeches. He mentioned to me that this area near Burnham Beeches, which is near the Dandenongs, is known for having 13 seasons throughout the year. Instead of us thinking we have 4 seasons, lets go back even further and look at that indigenous aspect of the way the land was cultivated and respected. He was seemingly right - every part of the land seemed to be part of its own microclimate – the Dandenong’s had for instance, 13 seasons, and that is the way we should be looking at our ingredients – they are seasonal and we should celebrate the fact that we can have 13 different menus throughout the year.
AD:
As we attempt to learn and discover new ways to produce and prepare food, does technology also play a part?
SB:
Technology definitely plays a part, but as long as you stick to the rule that is ‘less is more’. In terms of telling a story on the plate, we always get told stories; we always remember the simple ones, not the ones that are complicated. I don’t want to allow technology to turn something beautiful into something mediocre just for the sake of it. It is there to help, so we need to use it wisely. There was a stage over the last decade, where chef’s got a bit too excited.
AD:
You recently shared something about your macadamia infused Vodka as well…
SB:
That is using technology primarily to deliver something simple- to create a macadamia nut infused martini. We wanted to create clear vodka that tasted of macadamia. I personally think that is a good example of technology and how to use it.
AD:
Do restaurants adapt to where they are placed, or do they attempt to redefine an area?
SB:
If you looked at that 10 years ago, they redefined the area that they were in, but now they are going the other way. Chefs are starting to listen to their producers, their suppliers, the land, the environment, and the geographical and social factors of the site they are on, to discover what sort of restaurant you have got. That is where technology can help, and also the fact that the Internet has now made the cooking world pretty small. I can now find information about what a restaurant in Copenhagen or Massachusetts is cooking if I wanted to. This information can help you find and potentially redefine what you should be offering to your guests. At the end of the day it is all about offering your guests something unique and making them happy. Restaurants aren’t an ego trip to chef or the owner; they are, at the end of the day, about having a viable business and offering a product that the guests want to come back for.
AD:
Are you finding, now that you are a father of four, that your priorities when creating a new restaurant have changed? I’m talking specifically about your latest restaurant, Jardin Tan.
SB:
Oh, for sure! Definitely! There is no doubt that you evolve, you change, and you learn more. I now have a new and different respect for young families and how to better cater for them. But at the same time, I have a young family of chefs and front of house team members that have shaped what I do. I always used to be the young one in my team, and now at 38, most of my team are younger than me. I like to think that I can inspire them with my new ventures, such as Jardin Tan – a place where young people and families can come together. I now focus on things such as soundtrack sand atmosphere and space. When creating a restaurant, food is only one of the many challenges you have to consider. It is a positive influence and with my life experience it has helped aid the restaurant creation process – and I do cherish it.
AD:
What dish do you find yourself cooking the most at home for the family?
SB:
Ha, that’s actually a really good question – and I think it is more so the method, rather than what it is. I am finding pressure-cooking my new thing. I just bought myself a bench top pressure cooker, and I love cooking in that! I can get two to three meals out if it. The best example of what I am always cooking in it is these Blackmore Wagyu beef-ribs. What I do is add a little bit of cinnamon and some star anise and a couple of onions. What I do is actually from a technique used in the kitchens of Jardin Tan. It is the method of burning the onions in a stock – you cut an onion in half and you chargrill an onion until it is really burnt and you get a really caramelised flavour in a stock. So I put that in a pressure cooker and all of a sudden I had this great meal that the kids would eat that had a bit of fragrance and spice. And I had this wonderful stock that you wouldn’t usually get with this traditional boiling pot method. I cooked it all in 90 minutes –and to cook a braised rib in 90 minutes is incredibly amazing - so technology plays a part in the home kitchen as well – and I am really having a lot of fun utilising that at the moment!
AD:
Thanks for the chat, Shannon; it’s been a privilege!
SB:
Thanks Jordan, it’s been fun!
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