30/10/2024
Before opening the flame-driven fine diner arkhé, which turns three in November, chef Jake Kellie honed his skills working under culinary luminaries including Heston Blumenthal, Dave Pynt and Matt Moran. But he also found inspiration from plenty of other sources. Like the decadent foie gras burger he tasted when five chefs from the global Momofuku empire staged a takeover at perennial World’s 50 Best Restaurants inclusion Burnt Ends.
In the years since, he’s been introduced to a galaxy of new techniques, ingredients and flavour profiles through takeovers, pop-ups and collaborations with other chefs. And a desire to provide a similar experience for his own staff provided the inspiration for the yearlong arkhé & friends presented by Laphroaig Whisky.
Beginning in April this year, Kellie has hosted a series of monthly dinners with some of the hottest chefs from around the world. And because he wanted to ensure that each event would be unique, the only thing that connects the chefs (apart from their relationship with Kellie) is their ability to work in arkhé’s spectacular open kitchen, where everything from large proteins to delicate desserts has to be cooked over open flames.
So far the events have featured Michelin-starred James Lowe’s modern British cuisine, border-hopping Southeast Asian fusion courtesy of award-winning author and chef Rosheen Kaul and smoky Argentinian flavours from Porteño’s Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz. Next up, the world’s best Pastry Chef (he has the trophy to prove it) is curating an evening to remember on November 21.
“Having such different chefs gives the customer something to look forward to each time,” says Kellie, but it’s not just the diners at arkhé who benefit from this influx of world-class talent. “It’s a real advantage for the staff to have different chefs come in and create food that they might not always see… It's exciting to see them all come together and at the end of the night they all get the menu and they get the chef to sign it. And I’ve still got a lot to learn as well, so it's great for me to see the way these different chefs utilise the ovens and the grills and the hearth to create interesting flavour profiles and dishes.”
Each event is a full takeover, which gives the visiting chefs the freedom to use the kitchen in whatever way they want, while the partnership with Laphroaig allows them to bring in elements of peat, salt and fire that blend harmoniously with the flame-forward cooking processes. But Kellie is far from a bystander in the process. “I’m quite hands-on - I love getting into it and prepping with the chefs because a lot of them are people I’ve been friends with for a long time,” he says. “At the end of the day I love cooking with my mates, and we all get something out of these collaborations.”
