
10 Feb 2023
We asked Australia’s Chef of the Year Andrew Ballard, who is in the process of opening a new restaurant on the Mornington Peninsula, and he delivered his pick of the best Melbourne and beyond have to offer.
Andrew moved to Australia from New Zealand 17 years ago because he fell in love with this country’s food culture, especially what he saw in Melbourne. Now with a couple of kids, a home and business here, he very much considers himself to be Australian.
The chef, who has twice represented New Zealand at the Bocuse d’Or in Lyon France, has just recently been nominated to represent Australia at the 2024 Culinary Olympics as its team captain. He hopes to represent all the things he loves about the food culture here and return Australia to the culinary podium.
Andrew is currently in the middle stages of opening Provenance by Andrew Ballard where ingredients – the most important aspect of his cooking – will be the focal point. The provenance of ingredients, how they’re produced, who produces them, and how those people are treated are the bigger picture Andrew hopes to communicate to diners when his new Mornington Peninsula restaurant opens.
The restaurant’s closed, you’ve cleaned up and packed down – where do you go for a late-night bite to eat or a drink?
“We travel a lot and have very late nights, as long as there’s a place with good quality warm olives and bread and a bottle of delicious wine, then that’s where I’m going. If I’m in the city – Panda Hot Pot, I love a good hot pot. Panda Hot Pot is a really funky place in Carlton with big dragons going through the middle of it. I’m a social person, I like to hang out with my crew, and hot pot is a great way to wind down together.
Otherwise, I’m pretty simple. Any souva or gyro but I always go with the falafel because – to go off on a tangent here – unless I’m working or eating at a restaurant with really high standards, I tend to only eat meat that I personally dispatch.”
You have the morning off, where would you go for breakfast ?
“Miller’s Bread Kitchen in Dromana is good. Great pastries and croissants. I’m pretty simple when it comes to breakfast. A croissant and a coffee and I’m happy, that’s pretty much me for breakfast. My waistline’s testament to that.
If I’m in the city, St. Ali Coffee Roasters is good. It’s a bit of a mainstay, and at risk of sounding like a hipster fool, their avocado toast with the finger lime is pretty delicious. I’m very partial to a good bircher, as well, and I think St. Ali do a good bircher.”
Where’s your favourite place to grab a coffee?
“Commonfolk in Mornington. I’ve got a warehouse where we store our equipment across the road from Commonfolk and whenever they get the roasters going in the morning it’s like ahhhhh coffee run time! They have stunning coffee, breakfast, and everything else is good there too, it’s just a great place inside. They have a Frankston location now as well.”
After a long week, what’s your favourite place to unwind with a glass of wine or beer?
“My veggie plot, when I’ve been working hard I don’t want to go to another restaurant! I just want to sit in my veggie patch with a glass of wine, beer if it’s warm, and my hands in the dirt. I mean that, it’s not just some romantic notion I just say. My veggie patch is my slow-down place.”
Where do you like to go shopping for food?
“Torello Farm down in Dromana is super cool. They have a farmgate shop there where they sell local products and the majority of stuff there they have grown so it’s super local, super seasonal and zero food miles! There’s a lot to love there. Not far away from that, there’s Tully’s in Mt. Eliza. Tully’s is the same thing. The ingredients are all from nearby, there’s stuff from Torello Farm or there’s the local broccoli grower, so Tully’s is great as well. We’re lucky on the Peninsula because there are a lot of small producers.”
If money was no object, where would you go for dinner and why?
“Geranium, absolutely, Geranium in Denmark with Rasmus Kofoed, that’s always been top of my list. I’m hoping when we go to Luxembourg and get a couple days off we’ll do a road trip up there! Core in London is absolutely on that list as well. Luckily my wife has booked a table for us there in November. I’m very excited about that. They have one in Sydney as well, but I really want to go to the original. If I travel with my team we kind of have a rule as a group, we always try to go eat somewhere really nice.
In Vegas, a lot of great restaurants have sister restaurants so you get to eat the best of America when you’re there. We went to Bouchon in Vegas, which is super cool. My wife asked for a table by the kitchen and as soon as we got there the chef came out and said ‘you must be a chef’! They realise that the people booking next to the kitchen want to see what’s going on… that sort of service and attention to detail is impressive.”
Any Australian restaurants on the dream list?
“Like I said we travel a lot so I’m fortunate enough to get to eat at a lot of these places. In Sydney, Aria is always stunning, I love Aria. It’s a bit of a stalwart – that is, it’s been around for a really long time, but for good reason, it’s always delicious.
When we were in the Hunter Valley for a job a couple of weeks ago we went to a place called EXP. and that was outstanding. Probably one of the top dining experiences I’ve had in the last decade. It’s super small, with a really young crew, such a knowledgeable sommelier and the food is just stunning. Everyone said ‘go to Muse‘, so we ate at Muse too, and that was stunning, but EXP. just blew me away. I can’t recommend it enough, I’ve been telling everyone about it. That’s on the go-back-to list.”
Which local restaurants do you as a chef and restaurateur take inspiration from?
“My taste and what I cook is eclectic, there are a lot of people and restaurants to take inspiration from. We are truly spoiled in Victoria, even post-pandemic when a lot of places have closed down.
I like the old school like Philippe in the city, it’s just solid cooking. Philippe’s been around forever, he’s just a gentleman and it comes through in his food. I trained some of his staff as apprentices 12 years ago and they’re still there now as senior chefs! That really says something about who he is and how he treats his staff, that’s something I take inspiration from.
Michael Cole’s restaurant Moke down in Flinders, if you haven’t been there yet that’s a must go-to. Michael is a good friend, my wife and I went down there about a month ago and we were blown away. He’s got an awesome young team and they work really hard and the food is delicious. Michael opened his restaurant on the smell of an oily rag and now he invests everything back into what is a really beautiful and refined restaurant. He’s really trying to do the right thing by his ingredients and the right thing by his staff – he’s inspirational.”
What do you love about the food scene in Melbourne?
“Even though I do a lot of traveling on the road and there are these amazing restaurants all around Australia, I keep coming back to Melbourne. I love that upmarket restaurants here are still approachable and casual enough to make you feel really comfortable. The experience and service aren’t stuffy, you sit down and it’s about the food. We’re lucky in Victoria to have really fertile lands, and Melbourne really seems to understand that, we seem to understand the ingredients really well. Then, of course, there’s the eclectic aspect of it, we are a very multicultural city and so you can get the very best of anything to eat, and often the reimagined, modern versions too.”
Andrew Ballard’s After service address book:
Panda Hot Pot: 100 Victoria St, Carlton VIC 3053
Miller’s Bread Kitchen: 116 Nepean Hwy, Dromana VIC 3936
St. Ali Coffee Roasters: 12-18 Yarra Pl, South Melbourne VIC 3205
Commonfolk Coffee Company: 16 Progress Street 14A, 14B Progress St, Mornington VIC 3931
Torello Farm: 410 White Hill Rd, Dromana VIC 3936
Tully’s Corner Produce Store: 630 Moorooduc Hwy, Mornington VIC 3931
Geranium: Per Henrik Lings Allé 4, 8. Sal, 2100 København, Denmark
Core by Clare Smyth: 92 Kensington Park Rd, London W11 2PN, United Kingdom
Bouchon at the Venetian: 3355 Las Vegas Blvd S 10th Floor, Las Vegas, NV 89109, United States
Aria Restaurant Sydney: 1 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000
EXP. Restaurant: 2188 Broke Rd, Pokolbin NSW 2320
Muse: 2450 Broke Rd, Pokolbin NSW 2320
Philippe: 115 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000
Moke Dining: 60 Cook St, Flinders VIC 3929
Want to know where other hospo professionals go after service? Check out where Flour Eggs Water chef Eugenio Maiale gets the best Italian food in Sydney or where Matthew Ng of Young’s Wine Rooms in Hawthorn East heads when everything is shut.