You’d be forgiven for thinking humans had just discovered fire, with the plethora of restaurants serving coal-cooked or flame-licked food these days.
I’m standing in the kitchen of Melbourne’s hottest restaurant, Grill Americano, learning how to drive a wood-fired Josper double grill. As chef Douglas Keyte turns a wheel at the base of the grill clockwise, the rack rises up; as he turns it the other way, the rack comes back down.
In Sydney, chef Mitch Orr is busy grappling with his “amazing” new toy, a wood-burning grill custom-built for rooftop restaurant Kiln before its launch at Surry Hills’ Ace Hotel next month.“I’ve done bits and pieces [of wood-fire grilling] on a hibachi, but nothing like this,” says Orr. “It’s a very different and challenging form of cooking; much harder than cooking over gas.
“We’ve become more sophisticated over the past few years in the way we do this type of cooking,” says CutlerCo’s Andrew McConnell. He credits the pioneers of the contemporary trend in Australia: Lennox Hastie at Sydney’s Firedoor, Neil Perry at Rockpool Bar“What’s changed over the past decade is we’ve learnt a lot about cooking more delicate items over coals, and on smaller grills like the hibachi,” says McConnell. “Oysters, mushrooms, clams … so many ingredients can be transferred to the grill.
And it’s such a great feel, isn’t it? The look, the smell, the flavour, the vibe in a restaurant … People love an open fire.” A light touch: Venison cooked over the coals at Cutler & Co, served with fermented blackberry, dandelion and mustard seeds. While Woodcut has multiple wood-fired grills, including a robata, they’re not the Barangaroo restaurant’s only source of fuel .
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