Page 18 - foodservice magazine June 2019

18
DINING
“People always go on about how good the burgers are but there’s only three ingredients in them. Two types of beef, salt and pepper. The reason they’re so good is because [Poole] minces them ... and then we’re serving them within 24 to 48 hours, rather than buying in mince that’s been sitting in a bag for who knows how long.”
“It’s just nurturing the product. It does it by itself, losing moisture and intensifying the flavour,” says Lichter.
But Lichter says the advantages of ordering in whole beasts goes beyond freshness or aging. It also allows the kitchen to maximise profits on every part of an animal.
Offcuts like meat from the shoulder, between the ribs, and the chain running along the porterhouse go into the burger patties, along with some Robbins Island Wagyu body fat. Lichter says that when you pay for a premium cut of beef you’re not just paying for what arrives in the kitchen on delivery day, but also the parts of the animal that never get sold.
“If you just buy in the different products cryovacced, you’re missing out on all the bits and pieces you can use to make a special, to cut down on the final cost of what you paid for an animal,” says Lichter.
“That’s what being a chef is. It’s not like, ‘Here’s the eye fillet that we bought in, cryovacced it, cut it to a certain weight, cooked it and presented it’, it’s what you do with the rest of the animal to make real money.”
But while there are benefits to having a butcher on site, running a 24- hour venue presents its own challenges – staffing for starters. Overlapping chef shifts run from 6am to 2pm, 9am to 5pm, 4pm to 12am, 8pm to 4am and the red-eye 10pm to 6am.
“It’s amazing when you come back in the next day, even though you’ve gone home and got some good sleep, it’s actually been open the whole time,” says Lichter. “It’s good because you come in fresh but the guy who’s leaving is getting ready for bed. It’s bizarre but it’s interesting that way.”
In fact Lichter used his key for the first time in two years one night in late May, when the crew needed to vacate for a mandatory power upgrade. But they didn’t take the night off, they ran service as usual around the corner in the European instead.
Kitchen hands at Butchers Diner are also trained to cook so they can step up if there’s only one chef. If a chef moves on, a kitchen hand will likely move up to take their position.
Another challenge with a business that’s always in business: cleaning.
Cleaners come across from the neighbouring European Group venues in the wee hours of the morning to do the daily scrub down amongst the chefs, when the restaurant is quiet – something that has been made quicker and easier by Christopoulos’s clever kitchen design. The floor is moulded up against all the equipment to stop scraps escaping underneath, making mopping a 10-minute job. All that’s left then is the stainless steel, which is all custom-made with curved edges throughout the kitchen, to avoid bruised hips.
Butchers Diner is heavily tied to the European Group culture, although not technically part of it.
The butchery space and dry-ageing stores are used by the Group and have been incorporated into its training programs. In the European Group staff room, sign up sheets are available for butchery lessons from Poole, from sausage making to identifying cuts and breaking down a whole animal.
“Your staff are your greatest resource any way you look at it. So if you can keep them interested, happy, and learning, they tend to stay longer,” says Christopoulos.
Respect for staff extends to the wider hospitality community too. There’s a Monday “Staff Meal” special that’s a nod to the many industry folk who frequent the venue, which has also become a fixture on the Instagram accounts of Melbourne’s notable chefs.
“Even though it’s 24/7, it’s not that crazy. It’s turned into a well-oiled machine,” says Lichter. “A lot of hospo people respect what we do, and having a beer at the end of their nights creates a good atmosphere.”