By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 18.06.2016  (The Hindu): Neil Perry, the pioneering Australian chef, has been a defining contributor to how the world perceives Modern Australian cuisine. It is in Rockpool, his iconic fine dining restaurant located in the hub of Sydney’s financial district, that I meet him on an unusually balmy autumn afternoon.

The dining room is abuzz with men in dark suits on a business lunch, a young Korean couple perhaps on a life-changing date, an Italian family raising a toast to the parents’ 50 years of togetherness, and a group of women engaged in animated conversation, all relishing the exotic aromas wafting from their plates. The wood décor bathed in mellow light radiates warmth.

A friendly waiter ushers me up the stairs to The Balcony room, where I meet Perry with his trademark ponytail in a crisp white shirt and black suit. He is excited about launching his Burger Project in the new St Collins Lane luxury precinct in Melbourne. I can’t resist stirring the traditional Sydney-Melbourne rivalry. Perry appeases with his disarming smile. “I was born in Sydney and I have lived my whole life here, but I really do love what happens in Melbourne. I love the fact that Melbourne and Sydney are quite different, which makes it really interesting”.

I quiz him on whether he would like to open restaurants in other cities of the world, besides Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, given his entrepreneurial success with the Rockpool food empire, which includes Rockpool established in 1989, Rockpool Bar & Grill, Spice Temple  [Chinese], Rosetta Ristorante [Italian] and the Burger Project [fast food].

He is enthusiastic. “I have been talking about one [restaurant] in London. Certainly with my Burger Project, we are looking at New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, perhaps China and America and may be India”. He recalls as “absolutely fantastic” the couple of meals he had in India about 10 years ago and he is eager to spend some time travelling in India when Christine Mansfield [Australian chef, author, and gastronomic traveller] is there.

Perry’s face lights up as he begins to talk about food and his close affinity with nature. His father was a fisherman and butcher and he loved gardening. “So we would really eat the fish that was in season and fruits and vegetables picked off the vine or from the ground. We had chicken and we harvested our own eggs. I didn’t realise what a privileged upbringing that was because that put me, I suppose, in my relationship with nature”.

It was the 1960s and the Australian food landscape was very different from the melting pot of cultures it has become today. His mother was a solid cook, making kidney pies or roasting the chicken while his dad loved spices and curries. “He would cook Chinese, make eggplant [brinjal] and red peppers, and bring wonderful salamis home from his mates at work.” The joy of food was instilled early.

Perry calls his cuisine `Australian’ because he says, “It has such an amazing and very genuine Asian influence. I view Australia as part of Asia so I really think that our relationship with our cooking with Chinese and Thai and Japanese kind of ingredients, dry goods, sauces and techniques is what kind of drives our stuff”.

The culinary luminary loves simple things made with fresh produce. His refrain is, “You get out of it, what you put into it”. At home, he is cooking food from varied nationalities. “One day, I am cooking Korean, the next Mexican and then I am roasting a chicken or making a simple bowl of pasta or stir frying prawns with Schezuan (Schezwan) chilli paste. I do tend to eat a lot of chilli [laughs] and more often than not cook in that Asian genre”.

He is conscious of the energy used in cooking and always barbecues over timber or charcoal rather than use electricity or gas. “Having three kids, I just worry continually about what state the world is going to be if we don’t act [now to protect and preserve it]. When you are shopping, you have to think and decide on the things that you can buy within your budget that has sustainability, good farming practices, and that celebrates season and biodiversity”, says Perry, who is a Consulting Chef responsible for designing and managing all the menus for First and Business Class and the airport lounges for Australia’s flagship carrier, Qantas.

In recent years the popular MasterChef Australia television show, on which Perry has been a guest chef and judge, has successfully brought food into the mainstream. “If eight or nine years ago, you would have said to mainstream commercial television owners that you are going to have a cooking show on prime time, they would have said you are all crazy. So it is pretty amazing what has happened. Hopefully, it leads to healthy eating”, says Perry, author of many cookbooks with delicious recipes and useful cooking tips.

Food for him is a complete lifestyle. “I am looking at markets, how people shop, what they eat, how they eat in restaurants and on streets, all of these things are interesting to me. I am thinking today about what I will be cooking tonight and where I will be at work tomorrow so it all revolves around food”, says Perry, who spends 12 or more hours, six days a week at his restaurants or travelling working with Qantas.

He enjoys travelling, but says, “I am never sick of returning home. Australia is an extraordinary place with great restaurants, fantastic produce, beautiful wines and I think a wonderful sense of hospitality. We enjoy inviting people into our place”.

© Copyright Neena Bhandari. All rights reserved. Republication, copying or using information from neenabhandari.com content is expressly prohibited without the permission of the writer and the media outlet syndicating or publishing the article.