Chris Jackman

Has more ideas and energy than seem possible to contain in Hobart

Chris Jackman must thrive on nervous energy. He is rake thin and seems never to sit down to eat, or to eat much at all. And to try and talk to him is very tricky. He is constantly on the move between his three businesses. We caught him one morning whilst he was waiting for the Jackman McRoss delivery truck to arrive at the Battery Point bakery/cafe. He was about to go from there to the second bakery/cafe in Newtown. And sometime during the day he would be checking into Mit Zitrone, his award-winning restaurant in North Hobart.

At Mit Zitrone he cooks five nights (in summer, six), and during the day supervises all three businesses. At the bakeries he is in partnership with Justin McRoss, the senior baker, and his wife, Nerida, who used to run front of house at the restaurant.

At Battery Point, which opened in September 1998, there are queues of customers waiting to buy bread and cakes. As well as the takeaway and wholesale customers (which include other bakeries, restaurants and the Kosovar refugee camp), there are a steady stream of people sitting down to a light meal, morning or afternoon tea. The business is perfectly pitched for the area, with its middle class residential population and tourists. It took off much more quickly than Chris and his partners imagined, so the decision to buy the second bakery in July 1999 was mainly in order to acquire the large old bakers oven and substantial kitchen facilities at the Newtown shop. The only problem was that not long after opening, they won a ‘best pie’ award for their slow cooked beef pie and didn’t have enough tins to keep up with the demand. At one stage, Chris was baking all night in one premises and then rushing off with the pie tins to do the baking in the other.

Tins have now been bought and the kitchens well equipped but a lot of work is planned for the front of the shops. The floor is to be redone, new chairs bought, and, most importantly, some proper display shelves and refrigerated cabinets installed so that they can do more delicate tarts and desserts, which need to be kept chilled. Chris’s training is as a chef, but he has quickly added baker and cake maker to his CV. And he may add ‘farmer’ to that, as there are dreams of going into fruit and vegetable growing in a big way.

Not content with two bakeries and Hobart’s most successful restaurant he is looking at the possibility of setting up a food store beside the Battery Point premises and also of doing a cafe in the centre of Hobart. He is also talking about a revamp of Mit Zitrone which would increase the size of the kitchen, upgrade the front of house and gain a full license. He expects to do this in partnership with Anne Ripper, a Hobart ex-restaurateur and hospitality college teacher.

Currently at Mit Zitrone, Chris and two young girls are turning out an impressive range of dishes from their very limited facilities. There is an eight burner stove, a chargrill which is used to keep sauces warm, common use now as more chefs saute rather than grill that grilling is giving; a plate warmer, two ovens and limited bench space. It is, however, well organised and though Chris says that he writes menus on the run and makes up his mind at the last minute, the mise en place is very thorough. He does get frustrated though in doing ‘restaurant’ food for a cafe. "Our food sometimes seems out of context in the space. There are so many cafes in Hobart but no place to go if you want to get dressed up to go out. We may as well do it, make it into a ‘proper restaurant’, I think people want it."

Chris said that his aim in setting up the restaurant had been to create the feel of a Brunswick Street café, and it is still that during the day. It is open right through for coffee and cake and has a simple lunch menu. But at nights, with the level of food that Chris is serving, it is aiming for a more serious audience, though Chris insists that it will maintain its price level and remain honest and ‘simple’. He says that his main influence in cooking is Stephanie Alexander, and it is interesting to compare what he is doing at the bakery/cafés with Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder. Chris also worked in the kitchens of Paul Bocuse in Melbourne with chef Philippe Mouchel.

But it seems that much of his motivation in wanting to change the look and feel of Mit Zitrone is his inability to sit still. The cafe/restaurant works very well, is constantly full, receives rave reviews and wins awards, but for Chris it has become ‘boring’, he needs to "do something else."

Chris Jackman is now responsible for quite an empire. The Battery Point bakery employs about 18, there are five at Newtown, added to that about 10 staff at Mit Zitrone. But for all that, it seems that Chris still likes to do things himself, he finds it very difficult to delegate. Watching him work it is clear that he enjoys the process of cooking, the adrenalin rush in getting the orders and dispensing them quickly. As with many chefs, he rarely eats a whole dish, just tastes little bits. But Chris is honest enough to admit to the faults he finds when he does stop – "I say ‘My god I can’t believe I have been serving that dish’. So I either change it or take it off."

It would be very interesting to see how Chris’s cooking might develop if he had the kitchen he dreams of and the time and resources to concentrate on his dishes. But I suspect that he will always be thinking and working towards developing the next idea.

INFLUENCES

Stephanie Alexander, George Haddad, Phillipe Mouchel, living in Tasmania

A review of Mit ZitroneChris Jackman's Recipes

Sea urchin custard with salmon eggs on toast, oysters in wakame cream
Hare "Pot-au-feu" braised hare leg, hare sausage, small vegetables and almond dumplings in a game broth
Ewe's yoghut bavarois and ewe's cheese ice-cream with rose water candied carrot and pistachio nuts