The New Broom: Greg Malouf at Petersham Nurseries By Bruce Palling

What exactly is going on at Petersham Nurseries Cafe? It says something about the difficulties in a relationship when the only way two people can meet is through the intervention of the British Prime Minister. Strange as this sounds, this is how Greg Malouf, the newly appointed chef at Petersham Nurseries, finally got to meet up again with its elusive former chef, Syke Gyngell, since his arrival in town last February. The event wasn’t exactly contrived solely for this purpose – in fact, David Cameron held a reception at Number 10 Downing Street primarily to celebrate British cooking ahead of the Pellegrino Top 50 Resturant Awards. But it wasn’t that Greg Malouf, the former head chef at MoMo’s in Melbourne, didn’t try more conventional means, only appointments kept being made and then cancelled, a process I know only too well from my own experience with Skye. It took two months effort to finally get any comment about her abrupt departure from the restaurant she founded in 2004. All I managed, after various promises of coffee, meetings or chats was an email saying “I resigned because I felt although it was a wonderful eight years it was time to move on and explore different things and new challenges.” Which is like saying, absolutely nothing at all.

According to Skye, things started to go awry after she was awarded a Michelin Star in 2011, because the new throng of customers complained that the décor was not up to their expectations of what such a highly ranked restaurant should be. There were no linen tablecloths and the walls were prone to allow the occasional draft to intrude on windy days. Whatever the truth of this, it became a new reason for commentators who dislike the alleged rigidity of the Michelin inspectors to blame them for her demise. People did not pause to think that there was a certain injustice in blaming Michelin, who were celebrating the obvious quality of this idiosyncratic establishment, rather than the narrow-mindedness of any new customers. In fact, Michelin mentions the earth floors and other shabby chic attributes of the place on its web site, so it is hard to see how they are to blame for her departure. Others also wondered what was there to stop the restaurant’s receptionists merely alerting potential guests of its rustic rather than refined, charms? The common perception is that Skye resigned because she was fed up with “the curse of Michelin”, but what some journalists failed to notice was that this interview (in the Sydney Morning Herald magazine), which was published in February, was actually done last Autumn before there was any public talk of her leaving.

However, no one is claiming that Petersham Nurseries was a happy ship and people who worked at Petersham last year, told me that frequently Skye was not actually in the kitchen. One leading food journalist I spoke to was surprised she stayed as long as she had as there were several threats to resign in recent years. Still, during her tenure, Petersham Nurseries became an extraordinary addition to the London restaurant scene, with what was arguably the most romantic setting of any place in the country. It is not just the eclectic furniture, tables from Indonesia, Indian prints and exotic plants, but the atmosphere itself seems to have been imported directly from the Tangier period of Matisse. It is a ramshackle jumble of hot houses next to untrammelled pastureland surrounding the Thames at Richmond. The entire site is owned by Francesco Boglione, a wealthy Italian who spent several years in the Seventies as a hippy in Afghanistan and India. He first came across Skye when she catered for him at his exquisite Queen Anne place next door – Petersham House. In the magical stage set of the adjoining Petersham Nurseries, with statuary, exotic plants and Indian drapes, Skye’s food was a huge success, with its simple ingredient-led dishes of Mediterranean inspiration. They were big on salads rather than starches, which was a perfect recipe for the calorie-conscious celebrities and socialites who thronged here at weekends, when more than 500 people could be served both in the café and the adjoining tea house.

The dinner I had in April started with a range of raw vegetables accompanied by an intensely smoky baba ganoush, the existing Petersham brand of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and pita bread. 

The experience only gets better with his signature spiced rabbit and chorizo with parsnip, skordalia (a Greek garlic and potato dip) all covered with grumolo verde chicory.

The best dish of all was a large duck bistayeea, a delicious pastry-covered pie with layers of duck and Morrocan spices, which was partially inspired by a dish Skye served using pigeons. These, and his other dishes like braised fennel with Turkish chilli and walnut crumbs or an exquisite slow cooked lamb shoulder spices were executed with considerable skill and rigour.

However, Greg is not pretending that the future direction of the restaurant will be a homage to the past. “You look at dishes you want to introduce – you work with what you have and keep the dishes that work here. When you have just arrived, it’s not a good time to experiment, but its very difficult to cook someone else’s food.  However, I will strive to keep the Petersham food culture intact and then slowly evolve it. I think we have begun to shake off many of the bad habits. For instance the meat arrived here all packaged and prepared – even the fish was filleted before getting here. And until now, no stocks were prepared in the kitchen, which I changed immediately. The important thing is to be adaptable and not grumpy or pig headed – that’s not going to work.”

There also seems to be a problem in the levels of cooking skills amongst Skye’s brigade, as no one appears to even know how to de-bone a quail. When I walked into the kitchen to observe Greg in action, he was patiently de-boning a dozen quail for service.

“This is a good example – previously, it would have arrived like this and been served whole. As a chef, I have no trouble eating anything off the bone, in fact I love it, but to sit at a table, especially at lunch time, it is slightly too confronting for many customers.”

Asked why he has closed MoMo in Melbourne and moved to the other side of the world, Greg says it was time for a change. “For me, I had achieved what I wanted to and I think MoMo and Melbourne was shrinking for me. I could see all my peers were opening up smaller places and other outlets, but I couldn’t do that with MoMo, which was a very expensive operation and Melbourne does not have the population to sustain a lot of places that charge A$50 a plate. I wanted to get back to more solid foundations, so even though the prices are out of whack here, we are definitely changing.”

But why London? “Well, British food culture has gone from being a little wayward to approaching extraordinary heights and the other reason is that it is a lot closer to the Middle East than Australia, so I can visit Lebanon and elsewhere relatively easily. My travel plans for the next few months though, will be from my bed to the kitchen, There is a lot of work to do here and I want to get the kitchen into a comfortable position and then I will go to the Middle East.”

Greg, 53, must be unique amongst leading chefs in that he is now on his third heart, having had his first transplant in 1989 and what he hopes was his last, in 2003.

He is also having a good time getting to know the ingredients here. “We have very close contact with our “boat people” and I get daily calls about what is available. Just last week we got a text from our fish supplier about a six kilo turbot which he got hold of with rigor mortis still settling in. There is something very special when you cook a fish that is only been dead for a few hours and we served 25 to 30 portions from that fish.” It is not just the fish that excites him – even the fruit has affected him.  “I have never had a pear like the French ones we get from Rungis Market in Paris – they are gorgeous with a slight caramel flavour. The monks beard is also not seen in Australia. Our vegetable producer brought in some wild Italian thyme, which we toss into salads. It has longer leaves and is quite peppery. All the flowers we use are grown in the gardens here. We have also started a herb garden which is still growing but it will make such a beautiful difference to what we do – it should be ready by June, which is early Summer here.”

 He says that the bedrock of his cooking will be what it has always been - Mediterranean with Middle Eastern techniques and flavours plus a lot of childhood memories and inspirations from the places he has travelled to in recent years. “I will be toning down the spice notes and levels of chilli although the British quite like a hot curry. However, the Middle East is not just about hot food, that is more a North African thing. I take a broader sweep for the food that I cook, which includes influences from Persia, Syria, Jordan, Turkey and even Greece.”

More changes are likely in the future, and it is rumoured that Skye is searching for a new site to open a restaurant, despite saying to me that “future plans to be confirmed”. There are also reports that Greg intends to only keep on one of the existing kitchen staff, with the remainder likely to end up working with Skye.

All that Greg will say on the record is that “ I prefer to surround myself with people who are as good as me if not better, to get me through the initial period. The challenge is to get a good balance between staff and kitchens – it’s about being adaptable. We are working on that, but I am open to anyone who is interested to see what we do here and contribute.”

London is a big place and there is obviously room for both these talented Australian-born chefs. No matter what happens to their once close relationship, the customer can only benefit from their separate paths.

POSTSCRIPT: November 16 2012

Greg has just left Petersham Nurseries and returned to Melbourne. Technically, he was only hired initially for six months, but it came as a bit of a shock that he didn't stay on beyond this. Latest word in the souk is that he intends to work in the Gulf and ultimately return to London and open his own place. As for Skye, she is apparently still involved as an adviser with a Chinese entrepreneur who is supposed to be opening Heckfield Place place in Hampshire but the opening date keeps being put back further and further - the word in the shires is that the problem here is that the Chinese gentleman is a serious perfectionist, so keeps changing things. Officially it opening March 2013.

http://www.petershamnurseries.com/cafe.asp

A somewhat shorter version of this appeared in The Age (Melbourne)

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/fresh-and-fertile-earth-20120505-1y52z.html