Australian Gourmet Traveller - (07)July 2020 (1)

18 GOURMET TRAVELLER

ON THE PASS

with JAMIE YATES

PHOTOGRAPHY JESSE HUNNIFORD (JAMIE YATES).

How did you end up in Tasmania? I came to Tassie on a holiday

to do the Agrarian Kitchen. Everyone who comes to Hobart is

charmed, and I totally was.

You’ve been based there for five years now. What keeps you

there? One of things I love about Hobart is that there’s the perfect

amount of slow and fun things. There are amazing restaurants

and bars in town, but you can get in a car and be somewhere

completely different in 30 minutes – the diversity here is so special.

I lived in Sydney for eight years, and it was fun, but you get to the

point in your life where you just want to slow it down. Moving here

has been an amazing equilibrium for me, where I’m doing what

I love, but I also have the time to relax.

Along with cooking, you also promote the benefits of self care on

your Instagram feed, which you’ve dubbed #jamietime. How did

this come about? I’ve always been pretty stern with myself about

not overdoing it, and making sure I take the time for myself. That’s

where “Jamie Time” came from – just my me-time. My colleagues

also started adopting it and taking time for themselves on their

nights off just to reset. Hospitality is such a hard but rewarding

industry. It’s so personal and you constantly have to be “on”.

It can be a little bit overwhelming, so downtime is important.

Working at Sonny, you honed your skills as a pasta maker, so

what’s next for you? It’s been a really big two and a half years

working at Templo and Sonny, and I’m so happy and proud to have

been a part of it. When the restaurant closed [temporarily], it really

shook me. I asked myself: “Who am I, if I’m not Jamie at Sonny?”

I think a lot of people in the industry felt this way. There are so

many community projects happening in Hobart right now. It’s been

so nice to have the flexibility to do a bunch of things, so I’m embracing

that. I also want to write a cookbook – so keep an eye out.

Jamie is doing regular pasta pop-ups at Oddfellows Bar & Eatery.

Follow her on Instagram to see what else she’s up to @_jamieyates

Kiwi-founded coffee roaster Allpress Espresso

is continuing to foster sustainability initiatives.

Its introduction of totally compostable packaging

will help divert more than one million coffee bags

from landfill each year. au.allpressespresso.com

While chefs were holed-up

in home isolation, GT got the

lowdown on what they were

cooking. Toby Wilson, of The

George in Sydney’s Waterloo,

shared his simple-but-effective

tricks for making tasty tacos,

using readily available

ingredients. Watch the videos

now on our Instagram feed,

@gourmettraveller

Orange is set to heat up with the annual

Winter Fire Festival this month. A roaring

bonfire is the inspiration behind this series

of food and wine events, which will take

place in the NSW town’s most popular

restaurants, vineyards and pubs. Think

campfire cookouts, red-wine tastings

and hearty Sunday lunches.

31 July-2 August, orange360.com.au