Russell Jeavons

Pizza chef, caterer and patron of the young Willunga worker

Can a one night of the week be agreat chef? Not exactly, but it’s only on Friday that Russell’s is open to the public, and all that’s on offer are pizzas, salads and cakes. What makes it great is the life and leadership Russell Jeavons has given to the Willunga community, and to the sense of regionalism of the McLaren Vale.

Russell is also something of a culinary philosopher, who says that being a chef is not only about preparing and serving great food, it’s about making people know and understand that it is great food. He’s pretty concerned that "chefs have got to get a story, if they can’t communicate they can’t get on." However communication for him is not always done in the most obvious of ways. There is no sign saying ‘Russell’s outside the old cottage which is the site of his Friday night restaurant (open for functions at other times). You have to know about it and you have to be patient to get a booking. He has a huge waiting list every week and now refuses to answer the phone. So persistence and persuasion are needed.

There are several areas: the two main rooms in the cottage, one dominated by the pizza oven and long kitchen table which doubles as serving and dining space; then outside, you can sit around the fires in the gutter or in the ballroom (a converted shed) which has been the scene for all sorts of fun, notably tango parties. There is a garden area under development, a cellar which has been excavated and plans for a bar. Russell would love to see a cellar door facility here, as there is nothing nearby to showcase the best of McLaren Vale wines.

At the moment he thinks he pretty much has the formula right, limited public dining and catering, plus a little bit of manufacturing. He is also interested in doing more work outside of the area, to help others to set up brick ovens. This means that he will need to rely on his team to work without him. They are all locals and all trained by him, a total of about 17 casually, and some full time. For the party catering, which is much more arduous than what is involved for the restaurant, he relies on Laudes, a Philippino woman who has been working with him for three years. And he has about six local kids come in every Friday for the restaurant.

Russell seems to get enormous satisfaction from working with kids and just loves teaching. He enjoys seeing them develop confidence but stresses the importance of giving them ‘age appropriate work’. Then there is the task of keeping them motivated and continually challenged. "There are not many jobs where kids get a sense of being valued." At Russell’s they get immediate feedback from the customers they serve. It’s an open, happy and warm environment; a great start to a working life.

At 42, and after 25 years cooking, Russell feels that his career options are still open, but not for much longer. There is only a limited physical time you can stand for 16 hour stretches, when you can cope with the stress of the kitchen, of problems with staff or with produce. Then, most importantly, to put those pressures behind you in a situation where enjoyment, without the awareness of the hard work which must surround it, is all that matters. He has seen too many chefs opt out at 45 and choose to retire, or to do less or to stop caring. "It’s an expensive drain of talent, we have got to work out ways to inspire people – not only to get into the industry but to stay there." Russell believes that young chefs must be made aware of the need to develop their communication skills from very early on, because there reaches a time when they have to pass on that knowledge successfully.

The Friday night food at Russell’s is normally salad-based appetizers, pizzas baked in his woodfired oven, and huge cakes (the recipe he gave us for almond cake had to be divided – the original was for 40 people). Homemade bread which is served to dip into the good local olive oil, and Russell’s own secret recipe for dukkah, the McLaren Vale speciality of ground almonds and spices which he manufactures and sells.

All the food served at Russell’s has a relationship with the McLaren Vale region. He tries very hard to develop dishes using local ingredients so that an understanding of the region and its resources becomes second nature to his customers. The bread and pizza dough use South Australian flour, the oil is from olives grown in the area, the fennel and vegetables are grown nearby. The almond trees which dot the landscape of the McLaren Vale dominate his cooking, forming the basis of the dukkah (which others make with hazelnuts), and almond flavouring and meal for many cakes and pastries he bakes in his woodfired oven. As proud testament to his constant usage there are six 44-gallon drums of local almonds in his backyard. And the seasonings he uses are classical and local – olive oil, pepper and salt (ratio of 4 salt to one of freshly ground black pepper) and a fresh herb, usually thyme. He describes this as his ‘holy trilogy’ of seasoning.

The recipes he has given us show off his regionalism. Although Willunga is inland, he has provided a fish dish because fishing was a big part of his upbringing. He spent about eight years as a professional fisherman working around the country before settling in the McLaren Vale. He had started cooking when he was in scouts camp at 11, "I used to make cinnamon donuts instead of damper. I’ve always cared about cooking, I love the hospitality part of it, it is a way of giving yourself. People think fishing is about as hard as work gets, but cooking is much harder, that’s if you are trying to do real food." Russell says that true hospitality is a gift. In a restaurant you may get paid to cover wages and food costs, but the hospitality you offer is of yourself, it is not something that is paid for. "There can be no reward for making special things. That’s why true hospitality is very rare in the industry".

Russell Jeavons runs an extraordinary place, very far removed from the quality and style of some of the establishments of his great chef peers in this book. Where they have attained greatness in the food and in the finesse of the situation, he has created a sense of a food community without any help from the world of advertising or media, rather it has been through the example of his own work and the way he lives.

INFLUENCES

His fisherman father, Firebrand Bakery, living in the McLaren Vale, tango music,

Russell Jeavon's Recipes

Baked fish with leek and olive pie
Alomond and orange cake
Pears in wine, saffron and orange