Chef of the Month
Subiaco Hotel |
Brad Burton of Subiaco Hotel, WA
By John Newton
In a world of fickle chefs with their eyes on awards and their next job, the Subiaco Hotel's restaurant chef Brad Burton is a rarity.
When asked about the swag of awards the restaurant has won – including three American Express Best Hotel in a Restaurant awards and a place in the Hall of Fame - he replies that "for the group they're well-deserved" but goes on to say that "for the kitchen, the most important things are the food and the customer. Without the customer, the place is nothing."
To exhibit that kind of enthusiasm and focus after twelve years in the same place is rare indeed. But Brad insists he's a happy man.
"My wife Suraya is Malaysian, but I grew up in a typically Australian family. Mum cooked at a girl's school, and that was my first look into a big kitchen – diving into the flour drums, helping Mum with the potatoes."
His wife, he tells us "cooks amazing food, and I pick things out of her culture and modernise them. We're doing a roti canai with yellow king prawn curry right now. She's honest, if it's not right she'll tell me. And she gives me a hard time – she says you've been stealing my recipes again. I say I've changed three ingredients, now it’s my recipe"
The menu at the restaurant veers around the planet, which, Brad tells us, is to " keep it interesting for our fantastic group of customers and the other chefs." But while that menu may move from Spain (Spanish meatballs with Manchego toast) to Malaysia without missing a beat, he makes sure that "we don't cross cultures with ingredients."
"The most satisfying thing" Brad told us, "is that we have a full restaurant seven days a week. That's reward enough for me." We wish him well - and we also wish that there were more like him.
