Ben Shewry, owner of the highly acclaimed Attica restaurant in Melbourne, is one of Australia’s most celebrated chefs. In his memoir he shares his obsession for relentlessly pursuing perfection in every dish he creates.
Melbourne is where he lives and works but his formative years were spent growing up in a close-knit family on a farm in Taranaki. His lifelong obsession with food started when he was a toddler. He had his first job in a restaurant when he was just 10 years old.
Ben Shewry developed a love for hangi (food cooked in an earth oven) at the local marae. It triggered his deep respect for the cuisine of Indigenous people and led to his belief that the real Australian cuisine is the food of Aboriginal and Torres Islander peoples because it is the ancient living cooking of Australia. He sees it as ‘unimaginably more connected and sustainable than any other cooking on our planet, and our guide for the future.’
Two years of full-time culinary school training in New Zealand put him off classical French haute cuisine for life. It was so far removed from the close-to-source cooking and eating of his childhood that he found it constraining and boring. It triggered his obsession with creative freedom which continues to drive him.
And it was his fortuitous discovery in Arty Bees, a secondhand bookshop in Wellington, of a copy of David Thompson’s Classic Thai Cuisine which led to a Thai-food obsession. To this day, he continues to use Thai flavours in some of his dishes.
Ben Shewry writes honestly about the pressures of work and the challenges he had to meet to keep his restaurant afloat in challenging economic times and how this led, at times, to serious depression.
His worst time came during Covid when the restaurant was on the brink of closing. They were given only five days before the restaurant had to close down. He temporarily converted his high-end restaurant into a takeaway and bakery at his wife's suggestion. This was miraculously achieved in just a very few weeks. It meant a lot to Ben Shewry that he was then able to retain all of his staff on full wages.
His mother’s lasagne helped to save Attica. It was a hugely popular item on their takeaway menu. It first appeared on the family table when he was two years old. From then on bolognese and lasagne became the way they celebrated every family occasion - birthdays, neighbourhood pot-luck dinners and most importantly, Christmas day.
He has devoted a whole chapter to lasagne and bolognese which includes a series of recipes which he says must be created in the correct order, starting with the simple Shewry family bolognese, to the authentic ‘ragu’ bolognese to obsession level bolognese, as well as instructions on how to make your own pasta and build a lasagne from scratch. This masterclass is one I am sure will be welcomed by anyone who loves to cook.
Ben Shewry has also devised ‘10 commandments of bolognese and lasagne’. In one he informs us that lumpy bolognese is a sin! He does actually provide a scientific explanation for what he sees as a culinary travesty. In another, he proclaims that there is no place for vegetables in lasagna or bolognese. To suggest otherwise is blasphemy.’ Having cooked and enjoyed the vegetarian lasagne created by Yotam Ottolenghi, Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, I must disagree!
Ben Shewry is not afraid to speak his mind. He calls out the toxic culture so prevalent in restaurant kitchens. It needs to change! And Ben himself is doing just that. He treats his staff like family and leads them with empathy.
He is also extremely critical of the sour impact that food media has on restaurants, the perils of hats, stars, and best-of lists.
Ben Shewry is witty, emphatic, brave and hugely talented. And he is a great storyteller, a skill which he attributes to his wonderful English teacher at high school, Mrs Meads, which she would undoubtedly be chuffed to hear! I found his memoir an inspiring and entertaining read.
Reviewer: Lyn Potter
Murdoch Books