For our lamb focused Cut Two Ways, Tony chose to showcase chump on lamb leg from new season spring lamb and dry-aged on the bone for two weeks. Tony chose two cuts from the leg – cap on lamb rump and lamb osso bucco.
 
“The lamb osso bucco is actually a lamb leg chop but the boys liked the sound of this better. It’s quite tasty and can be cooked slowly or quickly unlike other osso bucco cuts as it’s from a smaller and more tender muscle.”

For Tom, being a chef is as much about process and creativity as it is about camaraderie and mateship. His cooking style is precise, practised, and produce driven. His approach to management is open, honest, and attentive.
 
 

“I started cooking straight out of high school and basically fell in love with it ever since. I’ve worked in fine dining for 10 years; the atmosphere in the kitchen is amazing, it’s high pressure, high energy and super detailed; everything about it is great.”

 
 
Tom has always put produce first, fostering relationships with producers and suppliers to ensure he is working with the very best Australia has to offer and doing it justice by constantly evolving the menu.

“Having great relationships with producers and suppliers really does make the day to day amazing. Using super seasonal produce and being aware of what’s coming in and what’s going out – just staying on top of it and doing my own research so I can change a dish comfortably and quickly.”
 
“When creating a dish or full menu, we first look at the flavour of the dish. With proteins, I try to get a whole range of different options in to find the right flavour and then work with the in season produce to create a dish from there using high quality ingredients.”
 
“I am really into Australian Wagyu at the moment – it’s coming out really strong with a beautiful flavour and I like using long braising cuts like the brisket or short rib. With lamb, we’re now looking for marble score which is the new thing in lamb – generally I’m working with lamb that is living on pasture and is really well looked after and can get to that marble score level.”

A priority for Tom is to try and minimise waste as much as possible – being a tasting menu restaurant, he acknowledges that at times it may look wasteful when plating a small piece of meat – but behind the scenes, everything is being utilised.
 
 

“With our lamb dish we look for something super simple but super tasty. We are using whole lamb saddles from Gundagai Lamb that have been dry aged to intensify that beautiful lamb flavour.”

 
 
“We cook it on the bone then portion for service, the saddle itself we throw back into the stock while all the trim gets put back into the sauce as a refresh that intensifies the lamb flavour. So, we actually get more portions out of it, and we get a better yield – ultimately it makes it better for everyone.”

“For our pastrami skewers we have used Mayura Station Brisket which is a phenomenal piece of meat. We have brined it for four days, cooked it for 16 hours, then it is iced down, sliced very thinly and layered onto a skewer. We then have a sourdough miso emulsion that is made from leftover sourdough at the restaurant. We make lots of kojis and lots of ferments which is a great way to use up leftover produce and ensure we show respect to these products.”
 
Like hospitality venues across the country, Tom is working hard to overcome the challenge of a severe nationwide staff shortage, leading his team forward through attention and responsibility.
 
“Keeping and training staff at the moment is obviously a challenge but all in all it is just another level of progression that we need to go through to ensure we are at the top of our game and that we are better the next day.”

“We give our staff a lot of responsibility and personal attention to that responsibility. We really look after them and make sure they can see how the work they do affects the restaurant on a daily basis. It’s acknowledging all the good work that they do day to day and showing them how it maintains our kitchen at a high level and contributes to the restaurant flow.”
 
Reflecting on where he is and where he has come from, Tom’s advice to young chefs is simple.
 
 

“You need to put in the work. It really does pay off when you do the hard work. Stick to it, it’s a long grinding process but it has amazing rewards at the end.”

The room is a smorgasbord for the senses. There are the block-rockin-beats that pulse into your seat, the hypnotic dance of flame inside the hearth, and the accompanying swell of tempting smells that permeate the air. It’s entrancing – and we haven’t even got to the taste part.
 
Magnaye’s background is Filipino-Spanish, and he grew up eating the traditional foods of his heritage. From his mum’s home cooking in suburban Melbourne – he counts her as perhaps his biggest influence; to family trips to the Philippines to visit relatives, Filipino flavours are embedded into his being.
 
 

“My background is Filipino-Spanish, but I grew up in Australia. My business partners (Shane Stafford and Ben Waters) aren’t Filipino, but what unites us is a love for eating, drinking and partying. At Serai we don’t pretend to be something that we are not, we do what we do, and it just makes sense.”

 
 
“For me, food has always been part of family – it’s a very Filipino thing. My grandma used to have a restaurant overseas and amazing food has always been the centre of many celebrations and parties. Everything is about food, drinks and getting together – and that’s what we try and replicate here at Serai,” Magnaye said.

“Bistek is Filipino for beef steak and this dish is based on a traditional Filipino beef stir fry that is topped with fried onion and served with rice and a fried egg. Our Serai twist is the wagyu short rib served with a burnt onion jam and salted duck emulsion.”
 
“The onion is caramelised in the woodfire and blended with coconut, vinegar and soy; and the duck egg emulsion is like a hollandaise. We use the bone from the rib and reduce it down to make the sauce adding Don Papa Rum which is a Filipino rum. It’s not a traditional representation of the dish but when you eat it, all those flavours are there,” Magnaye explains.
 
And then, there’s the Gippsland lamb ribs with sticky ‘adobo’ sauce.
 
“Adobo is normally a chicken stew in the Philippines and it’s probably the most popular Filipino dish. Our twist is lamb ribs from Gippsland that are cooked in a master stock then smoked in the woodfire and served with adobo sauce. We make a glaze with the sauce and brush the lamb with it then finish with black pepper, coriander seed and garlic crumb on top to give it texture.”

For Magnaye, Serai is a platform to share Filipino flavours and culture – to bring together everything he loves while throwing off the constraints of what people think a restaurant ‘should’ be.
 
“I don’t want people to think dining should be pretentious – it should be fun and accessible to everyone. We want you to come here and have a good time, when people remember Serai, I want them to remember fun, tasty food, and amazing staff. That’s the most important thing.”
 
 

“Filipinos are very generous and kind, even if they don’t have a lot of money, they still invite their neighbours to come and share their food. For me, that is the best love language, sharing food with everyone. I think it is super important and that is the culture I am trying to represent here.”

 
 
“I love working with people and that’s the most rewarding part – our staff, customers, and all our producers and suppliers. The Filipino community that comes in and supports the restaurant, they are proud that we are representing the culture and for me that is very heart-warming,” Magnaye said.

Open less than a year, Baba’s Place is making itself known in a city heaving with openings, closings, pivots and pirouettes. On any given Thursday, Friday or Saturday night Jean-Paul El Tom, Alex Kelly, and James Bellos are serving up to 170 covers a night from a menu inspired by their childhoods growing up in Western Sydney.
 
 

“Baba’s Place is a celebration of Western Sydney or suburban Sydney – growing up as a first or second generation Australian with immigrant parents and what that means through the lens of food. From barbecues at soccer fields to eating on Sunday with family or going to Yum Cha as a Lebanese boy living in Hurstville – it’s a celebration of Western Sydney which really, I don’t think has been done before,” said El Tom.

 
 
The story of Baba’s Place is one of determination, confidence, rebellion and resilience – three mates making a go of it to change the narrative on ethnic food and bring their interpretation of suburban food pop culture into the hearts, minds and bellies of diners.

With plenty of said resilience, Baba’s Place began making its mark slinging takeaway during the second lockdown. Now in full swing, when the roller door goes down, the fun dials up – and diners indulge in a menage of memories of a Western Sydney upbringing.
 
 

“Everything we make is tied to a memory or an interpretation of a memory – something my mum or my grandparents would have cooked. My grandparents lived with us, and I learnt techniques from my grandma; or when I’d go to Lebanon I learnt a lot of techniques there as well. Growing up and playing football at Rockdale or Bankstown you have the different ethnic communities putting on a different barbecue – even those memories really shape what we make.”

 
 
“I love nostalgia, and I’ve always loved cooking, even when I was a kid I’d try and get off school and just watch the Food Channel all day. Nothing is not good enough to be put on the menu here – even Swedish meatballs from IKEA inspired me for one dish. Growing up with Aussie food pop culture references is so important to us and everything we do.”
 
“We are taking away the highbrow element and just elevating unassuming dishes that deserve more credit than they get because they have technique that no one really appreciates or acknowledges as technique,” said El Tom.

It’s a ballsy move for a team of young restauranteurs with limited hospitality experience – but it’s paying off. It’s testament to believing in something enough to make it work. It’s the invaluable support of friends and family; and chasing a dream you didn’t really know you’d dreamt.
 
“I don’t know how we came about getting into hospitality, but food was important for me. Maybe it was just a stupid amount of confidence, but we just went for it. I guess if you care about something enough and you’re willing to give it a go, if you’re willing to be vulnerable and accept that you’re not going to know everything, and you can learn from your mistakes – then it’s definitely possible,” El Tom said.
 
But Baba’s Place is about something bigger than just themselves. For El Tom, Baba’s Place is an opportunity to push the dial on ethnic and suburban food and to educate customers that Lebanese or Macedonian food isn’t just quick, cheap food that fills you up.
 
“What we want customers to get out of Baba’s Place is that ethnic food or Wog food isn’t 10 dollars all you can eat. That’s the biggest thing, not assuming ethnic food is cheap and shit. People sort of look down on Wog and ethnic food when it is loaded with just as much technique and flavour as any other cuisine. Just because the narratives are different around certain dishes or cuisines it doesn’t mean that the food isn’t amazing. We are trying to move and elevate the Wog cuisine.”

“Everyone is using the same ingredients, the only thing that determines if something is special or not is the care and respect for those ingredients. It doesn’t matter if you’re cooking Italian, French, Arabic, Indian – if you’re bringing that level of respect to the dish. Just like a grandma casually making a hundred dolmades on a Sunday, that’s hard. That’s excruciatingly hard,” said El Tom.
 
One of those ingredients is lamb and at Baba’s Place it is Hampshire Downs via producer Tom Bull at Kinross Station. Whole saddles are broken down in the kitchen with the tenderloin and backstrap prepared separately then served together – while the bones are roasted and turned into a stock that is then reduced to a glaze.
 
“Growing up as an ethnic first-generation Aussie, you eat lamb a lot; all the Wogs eat lamb and we obviously wanted to have a dish on the menu that showcased lamb because it is such a pivotal part of suburban Sydney. We wanted to find the best lamb and we had no idea about how good it could get until we found Kinross Station Hampshire Downs. This is the best lamb that I think I’ve ever tried in my life.”

“It’s just about using charcoal, which is sort of as Wog as it gets, and just respecting the lamb. We don’t do much more to it because Tom has already done all the work – the amount of marbling on that lamb is crazy. Showing people that lamb can taste like that – people freak out. It’s wild, it just melts in your mouth. It’s pretty special.”
 
 

“My dad always used to get the backstrap and the tenderloin and that’s what we use here. We just cook it very nicely, very slowly – we slice up the backstrap, slice up the tenderloin, add a bit of mint, the lamb glaze and charcoaled eschalots that have been marinated in a chardonnay vinegar.”

 
 
The Baba’s Place team are also working hard on their own manufacturing line of suburban classics and new flavours with products like ajvar, lefet (pickled turnip), toum, fermented garlic and chicken salt, fermented garlic caramel and taramasalata.
 
“We are attempting to showcase a range of condiments that build flavour to dishes at home and are manufacturing them in-house for the restaurant menu and also gearing up to do larger batches for take home and wholesale. A lot of effort is going into this side of the business and we’re excited to be able to share the Baba’s Place love and flavour at home,” El Tom said.
 
Baba’s Place is a special place – it is warm with family and friendship, somewhere to share a meal and relax. It’s also a place pushing the culinary boundaries of how we think about ethnic food. It’s a place born of creativity that artistically shares a lifetime of memories through food. And, at the end of the day, Baba’s Place is a place to get fed.

“Baba is Alex’s grandma – we wanted to use a lesser-known Wog matriarchy, so we went with Baba. In Wog culture Baba is essentially a universal term for any senior figure, it is a familiar identity for comfort and safety – going to their house, eating and just being yourself and forgetting your worries for a bit – just getting fed.”
 
“A lot of the time at work you have to be a different person but here everyone is encouraged to be themselves. For me the best part is having the ability to do what I want and work with the best ingredients – we are so lucky to eat and taste the best Australia has to offer, to work on dishes with that produce, with my best friends and my family, that’s pretty special,” El Tom said.

In a heritage building on the parade in Norwood, Kellie has built his dream restaurant – from a decadent fit out rich in textures and oozing opulence to a kitchen fully fuelled by fire with no gas or electricity.
 
“It’s a pretty unique dining space, we have 19 seats around the counter with a big open dining space that seats 80 and a beautiful courtyard. The fit out was done by some local designers called Studio Gram – what they’ve done with the textures throughout and timber benches replacing stainless steel in the kitchen – it’s how my dream restaurant would have looked and it’s how it looks now so it’s great.”
 
 

“In the kitchen we have a 2.5 tonne dual cavity wood oven – one side is a furnace where we burn ironbark timber to produce coals for service. The coals are shovelled onto four elevation grills where we cook proteins and we have a beautiful open hearth where we do a lot of hanging and grilling of meat and we have a little cauldron deep fryer too,” Kellie said.

“Mayura Station has been a massive backing for me and our steaks that we cook here. Scott de Bruin is a good friend of mine and has been for some time so it’s good to support him and to showcase Mayura here.”
 
Kellie had his first experience cooking with fire at 22 at the Dark Mofo festival in Tasmania – a fascination that continued to develop throughout his career and ignited further by his time at Burnt Ends.
 
 

“I learnt a lot about the whole process of how you can cook with fire with Dave at Burnt Ends. It is a learning process every day, it’s something that always changes, and you can’t really control. The oven will be 800 degrees one day and it might be 1100 degrees the next day, every log of wood you chuck on is going to burn a certain way and it’s not always going to burn exactly the way you want it to.”

“What we do here at Arkhé is an on off method – so we cook a steak on for 30-40 seconds searing around all sides, then we take it off. What that does is bring it up to temperature slowly but at the same time it is developing a really good crust which I think is the best thing about a good steak; that nice crust on the outside and beautiful blushing redness on the inside.”
 
Kellie’s easy going nature and calm, collected demeanour are not at odds with a man navigating the balancing act of being a restaurateur, chef and father. Perhaps the secret lies in taking his own advice.
 
 

“The advice I would give to a young chef is to stick to your roots and what you love – cook what you want and have fun while you’re doing it. Cooking is such a broad scope these days that I think people get confused with what they want to do; find something that you love and stick with it,” Kellie said.

“The untapped potential of such iconic venues is being recognised across the industry and many old-style pubs are being revitalised with exceptional food and beverage and quality service. Discussions about the desolate venue were soon taking place with EQ management and pros and cons were being thrown around with my partner Rachel and business partner Danny Stapleton.”
 
 
 

“Next thing I knew, my dream became a reality and within the space of a month Watson’s was born. It wasn’t exactly the stepping stone venue I had envisioned but I’m not one to shy away from a little risk and opportunity.”

 
 
 
Renovations began in July 2021 and the dark, dilapidated two story Irish pub is now barely recognisable after a bright, modern update. Almost every element of the venue has been refurbished including the two alfresco decks with the addition of a four-metre mega screen – but still home to the three giant Moreton Bay Figs now adorned with 2.5km of fairy lights.

“We would love to see Watson’s used for both brand and personal events as well as create unique offerings of our own for key calendar events such as Melbourne Cup and Mardi Gras. Our beer garden is just screaming for long Sunday sessions with acoustic performances – something we will introduce as soon as possible along with traditional pub entertainment like trivia nights.”

 
 
 
When it comes to food, Watson’s will offer modern Australian pub food and classics with a few delicious twists. The kitchen will focus on using seasonal and local produce and making as much as possible in-house including pickles, preserves and sauces.
 
“The majority of pubs in Australia are not what they used to be and I would say this has a lot to do with people’s expectations. Pubs have lifted their game when it comes to quality food and beverage and you can now get a restaurant quality feed at your local pub as well as enjoy a cocktail and a beautiful bottle of wine.”

When asked if he has any advice for other young professionals thinking of opening their own pub or venue Watson laughs and says “don’t do it” but adds, if you do, to make sure you are all in and have the patience and stamina to see it through.
 
 
 

“Put plans in place, cross all your t’s and dot all your i’s, this is not a fast game and it is so important to put in the effort and the attention to detail. Spend the money and the time upfront to get it right – just make sure you get three quotes because prices vary significantly and with construction in particular.”

 
 
 
“Most importantly, surround yourself with a talented, professional and driven team that share your vision. The end game is what keeps me positive and driven – I cannot wait to see our doors open and that first schooner poured from our taps.”

When Lachy first took over the shop it was just him – no mean feat for a 24-year-old who had just purchased his first business. Through vision and determination, he has grown the business to now support a team of six young butchers.
 
 
 

“Starting out it was just me at the shop and then over time I tried to find a few butchers but found a bit of push back against the things I was trying to do. I needed the freedom to do things my way and I found that putting apprentices on was the easiest way because I could train them up the way I want them.”

 
 
 
“They can get behind the vision, get behind the movement. Our first employee was my brother who is an ex-chef followed by my first apprentice Hayden who started in 2016. I generally look for young guys that I’m able to teach the vision and get them in the saddle from day one learning the way I want them to learn and getting behind things.”

When he reflects on the future of the butchery trade in Australia, Lachy wants to see more shops like Cleaver & Co popping up. He wants people to think about doing things the right way – which isn’t always the easy way.
 
 
 

“I want to see more butchers sourcing farm-direct meats and people thinking more about how they’re eating meat and not necessarily seeing meat as bad for the environment but realising that it’s not as simple as that. I want butchers educating themselves on that too.”

 
 
 
“I want to see more people in the trade. The last couple of years with COVID, people say they don’t have work but when we advertise for jobs it’s hard to get people in. Everyone wants to eat but no one wants to hunt. It’s pretty cold and messy work at times but it’s super fulfilling, it’s meaningful and I just want more people to be attracted to it.”

There are two types of goat – rangeland goat, goat that is wild harvested and tends to be gamier and leaner; and farmed goat, goat that is raised in a similar way to lamb.
 
For this episode we decided to choose two different cuts to demonstrate the diversity of the goat carcase – the neck fillet and the belly ribs.

The lamb necks in this feature are sourced from Margra Lamb from Oberon in NSW. Grant has recently started distributing the product through Feather and Bone, impressed by the way it is produced and the characteristics of the lamb itself.
 
“Margra Lamb appeals to us because we are focused on grass fed animals and Margra was developed to specifically be a very hardy and robust sheep that would fatten on grass exclusively. They have succeeded in that venture remarkably well and the happy accident in this breeding process is that they’ve managed to produce lambs with a very low melting point fat.”