Peter Gunn of Attica rumoured for his own place at Semi Permanent site
Peter Gunn, the Kiwi sous chef at Australia’s most famous restaurant, Attica, soon may be the next star attraction on Smith Street, Collingwood.
Gunn, who runs a pop-up side business named Ides, is widely considered in professional cooking circles as the man to watch. He proved his mettle by representing the Pacific region at the S. Pellegrino Young Chef competition in Milan this year, one of 20 whittled down from 3000 worldwide. We hear the premises known as Semi Permanent (and before that Lee Ho Fook) is likely to be the home of Gunn’s first restaurant. The lease is held by restaurateur David Mackintosh and his business partners, who have joint ventures with chefs Rosa Mitchell, Victor Liongand Mark Best. “Just chatting presently,” says Mackintosh on the subject. “I think highly of him, though.” We hear it’s mutual. “Right now, I don’t have anything to share or confirm,” Gunn says via SMS. The chef, whose Ides project starts again on January 18, says he’ll be in touch next year “if things do decide to take shape”.
Awkwardness was on the menu in Hobart last week when staff, including talented head chef Tom Westcott, walked out of the rather excellent Westend Pumphouse on a Friday night. They left owner Alastair Derham and his prospective purchasers, a couple, empty-handed. Derham confirms the walkout is in response to news that he is selling. It’s understood the buyers have their own plans for the place, with a February transition on the cards. Derham says Westcott has plans for his own restaurant anyway. Derham will concentrate on his New Sydney Hotel, just around the corner in Hobart’s CBD.
Elsewhere in the Tasmanian capital, we understand the people at Frogmore Creek winery (known as Meadowbank, near Richmond) plan a new CBD restaurant and cellar door facility for next year. “Yes, we have a site, but we don’t have a name for the restaurant yet,” a spokesman tells us. Maybe Westcott knows something about it?
So what’s happening at Stokehouse City, Frank Van Haandel’s CBD Melbourne bar-restaurant where talented chef Ollie Hansford recently took the reins? To be honest, we don’t know. But where there’s smoke — and we definitely smell smoke. “I’m working through a number of concepts,” Van Haandel says, “but I cannot talk about it yet.” Van Haandel and his team, including executive chef Richard Ousbyand operations manager Peter McMahon, are working on a repositioning of the historic property for the new year. Elsewhere, Van Haandel’s $12 million rebuild of Stokehouse St Kilda has begun on the foreshore of the inner suburb.
Forget bongs and lentils. A new student hub and plaza for Adelaide’s Flinders University will see some local chefs and restaurateurs involved in campus life. Paul Baker, of the excellent Botanic Gardens Restaurant, has partnered with Blanco Food and Events to create the uni’s flagship restaurant Alere (Latin for “to nourish”). Baker will consult on the blueprint and execution of his menus. Alere will be joined by Adelaide eateries Parwana Afghan Kitchen, Myrtle & Mae Travelling Refreshments, Toly Gourmet Vietnamese Street Food and Burger Theory.
Melbourne chef Clinton Camilleri and Flinders Lane restaurant Woody P have parted company. The restaurant launched this year in the ultra-competitive Flinders Lane precinct; Camilleri, who came from the Healesville Hotel, says the goalposts shifted en route. “From what we were going to do to what it became, well it wasn’t really what I was expecting.” He’s spending the summer at Lorne, on the coast, cooking at the new Talimanidis family restaurant Ipsos (First Bite September 15). Meantime Woody P has brought in chef Tim Martin (former head chef at European) as a partner. Martin has taken the restaurant down a more rustic, Italian autostrada.
Nobody had heard of Australian chef James Henry before he went to Paris and opened Bones. Very soon, the one-time Andrew McConnell protege was feted by the city’s most influential fooderati. Bones closed in August and Henry is moving to Hong Kong. He is joining the Black Sheep group, which boasts Le Garcon Saigon (where Australian Bao La is head chef), Carbone, Ho Lee Fook (where former Merivale chef Jowett Yu is head chef) and La Vache, among others. It’s understood Henry will head up a new restaurant for the group, expected to launch early next year.
Source: The Australian, John Lethlean, 15th December 2015
