Paul Merrony

Paul Merrony tells it as it is, he can’t help himself. He can be less than polite and doesn’t care what you think. "The secret to a well-run restaurant is that it has got to be owner operated, where it’s your balls on the line. No one else can care as much as you do about your own business". And this is not doubt why ‘Merrony’s’ is in its ninth year at Sydney’s Circular Quay.

He admits to being influenced by owner-operators such as the Roux Brothers, for whom he worked in England, "they were very demanding, very professional and lifted the whole food game in the UK virtually single-handedly". And so too, Gay and Tony Bilson at Berowra Waters Inn, "I learnt the passion of cooking from them, and that you needed to be passionate." Anders Ousback also figures highly amongst his mentors – "He influenced me in food philosophy, he knows what is good and what is bad, has a great eye for setting up restaurants and fitting them out".

Paul is very much his own man now and refuses to be sucked into following what is supposed to be trendy in food. He feels that if you follow that path, "it’s inevitable that you will then go out of fashion. Because sooner or later what’s in, goes out." So instead he sticks to what he knows – "There is, after all, only one way to grill a steak, there is only one way to braise something and stir fry something. There are fundamental methods of cooking, whether it be Chinese, Japanese or French".

He started to learn about cooking as a kitchen hand when he was 14. "I knew I wanted to be a cook, I just enjoyed doing that at home. I grew up in Canberra, which in the mid '70s was hardly a gastronomic destination, so I moved to Sydney in 1978 and worked at a few places, then at the best restaurant in Australia, Berowra Waters, which I got into by hassling them."

The next year, thanks to Leigh Herbert, then chef at Berowra, he was able to secure a place with the Roux brothers in the UK, who provide probably the best training ground possible for a young chef. Typical of Paul, he takes this piece of amazing good fortune in his purposeful stride. "I worked at the three of their establishments and then wanted to get to France. Albert (Roux) was quite supportive, and took me to the office and told me to ring up my mum and stuff like that."

Paul worked at some of the best known restaurants in Paris including La Tour d’Argent, where he ended up as chef de partie on the sauce (one of the most important positions in a French kitchen). Then he worked in a couple of other places in Paris. By the end of 1985, after nearly five years in which Paul had packed quiet a bit of great restaurant experience in, he was homesick.

Coming home meant juggling four jobs to get on his feet – from making sandwiches (with Anders Ousback), to a second chef position to waitering. Then Paul was executive sous chef for the opening of the Craigend Hotel, which he left to open a little bistro in The Cricketers Arms Hotel, in Surrey Hills. He then went to the Paddington Inn for the reopening of its bistro which became very successful. After two years, Paul and the owner of the pub went into partnership at Merrony’s, which opened in 1990. "And," he explained, "I bought my partner out a year ago, so now the whole catastrophe is mine."

The "catastrophe" as Paul calls it has been successful enough to allow him to close in winter to upgrade the dining room and to re-open with new chairs, cutlery, glasses and a whole new look in August 1999. As he put it in his usual blunt fashion, "we are in the retail business and you have to keep up with your competitors." Paul’s aim at Merrony’s has always been to make money, not to be a gastronomic shrine. But next on the agenda, finance permitting, is to enlarge and open up the kitchen in 2000 with a glass wall for passersby in Albert Street to watch the action. All part of the theatre of the restaurant. People go out for more than "a feed", as Paul puts it, they go out to show off. And if his plans come to fruition then his kitchen will become part of the show too.

INFLUENCES Gay and Tony Bilson, Anders Ousback, the Roux brothers.

Paul Merroney's Recipes

Salad of roast tomatoes and spring onions
Grilled tuna with mushrooms and mitof
Lemon tart