Page 10 - foodservice - June 2018

10
CHEFS’ CIRCLE
Chefs’ circle
ALLA WOLF-TASKER AM
SHARES WHAT IT’S LIKE TO HAVE A LONGSTANDING VENUE AT THE FOREFRONT OF SO MANY MOVEMENTS WHILE DEFYING FADS AND STAYING TRUE TO HER ETHOS.
Alla Wolf-Tasker AM is the culinary director and proprietor of Daylesford’s Lake House.
Longevity offers lots of potential benefits – a big picture perspective, understanding the
context of culinary innovation and the inevitable transitory nature of things. Plus ça change, if you like.
Relevance is one of the cornerstones of our culinary DNA at Lake House. No matter how intense and breathless the social media might be about the hottest and latest, no matter that we might have a momentary lapse of confidence in our own conviction and allow a little FOMO to worry us, longevity and continued success give us the courage to filter things through the lens of a personal vision. We’re certainly keen on tapping into contemporary culinary thinking. Renewal and reinvention rather than resting on our laurels is essential. But innovation needs to be relevant to who and what we are.
Witness the years of molecular gastronomy followed by the long dominance of culinary thought by the Scandinavian foragers and proponents of various indigenous ingredients. At one time I swear that there were even simple little cafes doing spherification. Foraging for ingredients also took on considerable seriousness of intent and often new meaning, as even polluted city laneways were explored for weedy leaves. Meantime, more recently, a whole generation of us, having previously tried many of Australia’s indigenous products, were once again being romanced into giving them another and much more substantial go. It’s worked well for some.
Fear of not buying into widely exclaimed-over contemporary trends, lest one be considered a has-been, can often drive young cooks, not yet
having the courage of their convictions, into emulating current heroes and even copying entire dishes. The consequent delay in developing one’s own individual culinary voice and perfecting, perfecting, perfecting sometimes results in unrealised potential and a tsunami of sameness.
Like never before, food has become part of pop culture, in the way it moves and fragments. The rampaging speed of knowledge transfer nowadays can mean that we get caught up without taking the time to reflect on a personal direction. Right now with the nanosecond absence of a singular, hugely dominant global culinary movement – I’m loving the emergence of a whole raft of very individual Australian voices in our industry. Long may that be the case.