Patrizia Simone

Simone's at the Ovens Valley Motor Inn nestles at the foot of the mountains just outside Bright. The area with its fresh air, brightly coloured plants and leaves, the solidity of the towering tree trunks in the main street of the town and the clear light, all make an appropriate setting for Patrizia Simone's food.

Patrizia is from Perugia in the Umbria region of Italy. She waxes lyrical about the tastes she remembers from there. Clarity is a word she uses a lot - sauces which are clear and properly made; flavours which are strong, bright and clear; and, most importantly, about the clarity of direction which her mother gave her.

Her mother was a professional cook and caterer in Perugia, and Patrizia learnt cooking as she helped her with functions. She then worked as an apprentice and went to catering school. But the family had greater ambitions for her and she did a diploma in languages then went to university to study economics and commerce, but dropped out before completion.

She came to Melbourne and started working in commercial kitchens, first as dishwasher then as kitchen hand. After marrying her husband, George, the couple moved to the country where she decided to take cooking seriously and went to trade school in Wangaratta. They then decided to build a motel with a restaurant attached - now George looks after front of house and Patrizia directs the kitchen there, and at their Caffe Bacco in town.

Patrizia loves living in this area with all the different foods produced by the many nationalities (including a lot of Italians from other regions of Italy) who have settled in the Ovens Valley. There are varieties of sausages, salamis, cheeses, as well as vegetables, herbs and salad leaves produced by the Italian, German, Greek and Spanish communities in the area. Along with this comes a willingness to eat the Perugian specialities which Patrizia likes to cook. "I love my regional food, I love its style." For Patrizia it is 'true food' which is derived from the essence of the ingredients, from their own 'natural, beautiful flavours'.

But then she also enjoys seeing professional technique applied to food. She loves French food when it is properly done, and is a great admirer of Gualtiero Marchesi (the first Italian chef to be awarded 3 Michelin stars) who combines Italian flavours with fine French technique. But she feels that of most importance to her cooking was growing up within a strictly defined food culture, in which there was a clear understanding of what flavours went together and what was appropriate to combine. For her it's important to appreciate how regional food evolved and to always respect that. Then, she explained, with the right technique you can experiment with that. But she is adamant that you must have the base. "You can't always have the most refined food, (but) you can always have the flavours." Patrizia says that sometimes she feels that she should be trying out 'more modern things' but, you have to 'draw the line somewhere'. For her, the line is very clear. She doesn't try what she doesn't understand. And this means that her food always tastes as she wants it to, it always has an honesty about it which makes it both delicious and comprehensible.

It is also what makes her such a good teacher. She has trained many of the local young cooks and finds that they do not want to leave her. They learn so much because Patrizia's kitchen is filled with homemade products of all kinds: from pastas to preserves. She also does a lot of their own butchery getting whole carcasses of kid and lamb which her apprentices have to learn to prepare.

Patrizia enjoys being a chef in Australia. She feels that she gets more respect here than she would in Italy. Although conditions for the top chefs there are very good (they receive higher salaries than in Australia) the profession, in general, is not considered as well as it is here and "you can be more creative in Australia." Certainly people seem more prepared to be experimental in eating than they are in Italy, where eating habits are very conservative.

As well as the variety of foods available to her in the Ovens Valley, Patrizia also enjoys the resourcefulness of her country neighbours. She has a friend who has made her a variety of implements for the kitchen including a large dough mixer (which she uses for pasta and for bread) made from a beer barrel. And it gives a great result.

Reviews of Simone's at the Ovens Valley Motor Inn and Caffe Bacco

Patrizia Simone's Recipes

Terrine of bollito misto with horseradish vinaigrette
Risotto of pot roasted pigeons and Harrietville rasberries
Walnut semifreddo with persimmon sauce