Jeremy Strode

It's hard to believe that English-born chef, Jeremy Strode, has been cooking for more than 20 years, he still moves and looks as if in his 20s. He does everything, specially talking, at super high speed. And his career seems to have been a series of high energy spurts to stardom. They've all worked but, through no fault of Jeremy's, have not given him sustained success.

It seems now at his restaurant Pomme (in partnership with Chris Young) in Toorak Road, South Yarra, that he is there for the long haul. After a year which saw the restaurant open to great fanfare, with waiting lists for bookings; and then the inevitable downturn and it took a while to come back up. His determination not to compromise means that the quality and level of finesse is still there, though prices were reduced from opening days.

Talking to him now reveals just how long and hard the path to developing his own restaurant has been for Jeremy. He started cooking out of necessity, now it is his life's work. His mother worked in hotels in West Hampshire and at home they would have a meal of French toast (bread dipped in egg and fried) which his mother called 'omelette'. "And that would be our meal...we ate very poorly. I had to work as a dishwasher for pocket money and then had to work to help the family, being the eldest in a one-parent family with three kids to bring up. I already knew at 14 that I would be leaving school at 16." He did an apprenticeship with the hotel chain, Trust House Forte, and "was out the college by the time I was 17-years-old. I got in very quickly."

Of his early mentors, Jeremy recalls the chef at London's Hyatt Carlton Towers, Bernard Gaune (now retired) who trained people like Marco Pierre White and other, now senior, chefs. Jeremy worked with him for three years and was due to be promoted to sous chef but decided that he did not want to stay in a hotel, which "has a different cooking culture to restaurants." At 24 he felt a "bit left behind" not having worked in restaurant kitchens and managed to get a trial at the Waterside Inn at Bray with Michel Roux. He succeeded in reaching this holy grail of cuisine and found it a life changing experience. The whole philosophy behind the running of the place, the sense of 'family', the discipline and the care which extended from the attention to detail in the choice of produce, in the equipment and techniques used in the kitchen to the attitude towards staff and working. "Being in the country, staff were living there, so we would all have coffee together early and break for lunch about 11am. If you tried to keep on working, they would turn off the lights." There was total discipline, and an 'awe' felt for the chef, Michel Roux, but it seems it was more submission to a god than to a tyrant.

So when he was summonsed to Michel's office and asked to go to London to work as sous chef at his brother, Albert's restaurant, Le Gavroche, it was a promotion which he did not want but could not refuse. Jeremy would have loved to have remained at the 'paradise' of Waterside Inn but the Roux Borthers wanted him in London where he was made chef. He learnt an enormous amount from Albert, whom he describes as "a great all-round cook, not so much the chef which Michel is [but] the kitchen operated so differently - everyone was terrified of getting their jobs done and wouldn't stop working. They would come in very early and take naps on the steps to keep going all day." As a reward for his hard work, Albert organised a job for him in France, and then Jeremy was able to work in Roger Verge's restaurants l'Amandier and the then three star, Moulin de Mougins. He found this a transforming experience, there were staff working there for nothing from around the world. Jeremy recalls a 35-year-old Japanese chef who wanted to learn French style cuisine, who taught him about using a knife. "I was in charge of his section but he was teaching me how to keep a knife in my hand, like an extension of your arm, and not using your hands, it was very quick and very clean. I learnt an enormous amount from him."

Jeremy had the opportunity to stay on but lacked the confidence to ask for a permanent position at the Moulin and so went back to London. He still regrets that, "I lacked the balls to do it," but he did have the courage to knock on the door of the legendary chef, Pierre Koffman, back in London and got a job, which was the next formative experience for him. At that time, Koffman would do everything himself and shut the restaurant on Saturdays and Sundays. Jeremy rather envies being famous enough to be able to do that - something no restaurateur could afford to do here.

Next Jeremy was invited to set up the newly renovated Belvedere in Holland Park and the restaurant quickly got rave reviews, but financial mismanagement by the owners put the place into receivership. By this time Jeremy had married Virginia Dowzer, an Australian, and arrived in Melbourne with her in 1992. His first six months were spent as chef with Greg Brown at Browns (Greg also trained with the Roux in England and his restaurant was considered one of Melbourne's best. He now operates a chain of very successful bakeries). Then he was approached by Donlevy Fitzpatrick to create the George Cafe in St Kilda, from there to The Adelphi. The George set a new style in Melbourne with its adjoining bakery and wine store. It has since been changed and re-developed as has The Adelphi. There, in a difficult basement space, the restaurant, with Jeremy as chef, developed a great following. Such was the loss at his departure that the restaurant closed for a long period and re-opened in August 1999 as Ezard at The Adelphi with chef Teage Ezard as partner.

Jeremy also took time out after leaving there, touring Austalia and New Zealand before finding the premises to open Pomme. By then he was very sure of what he wanted to do with his own restaurant. He describes it as "his own understanding," and feels that he now has dishes which are well thought through and 'right'. Now at 36, he has the confidence of his own palate. At Pomme he is very proud of his barramundi with ham hock, and of the whiting with oysters and of the dishes he does in the game season. "When I eat some chef's food I don't feel that it is coming from their heart, it is what they read in a book, they haven't lived through it."

Another interview with Jeremy and a review of his current restaurant Langtons.

Jeremy Strode's Recipes

Warm salad of smoked eel and pink eye potatoes
Roasted loin of venison, three vegetable purees, sauce poivrade
Thin tart of pear, quince and almond, cinnamon ice cream