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GOURMET TRAVELLER 19PHOTOGRAPHY AMY ANDERSON. STYLING KARLA MILAT.
NEW PERSPEX-TIVE
Like many restaurant enthusiasts, Ian Tran
remembers his last dining-out experience,
pre-lockdown. It was a weekend brunch
at Sydney’s Saint Peter, and the lemon tart
in particular was a standout.
Then Covid-19 came knocking. Vivid
festival was cancelled; so, too, the bulk of
work at his Rockdale laser-cutting studio,
Domus Vim. The studio typically providesa number of Vivid installation artists
with construction drawing and
fabrication services, and works
with retailers at other times
producing display units.
To keep busy, the studio turned
to creating its own range of
furniture and products made from
leftover pieces of acrylic that had
accumulated over the years. Tran played
around with making a Perspex wall mirror in
the shape of an egg in a frying pan. Then he
immortalised the Saint Peter lemon tart
(pictured) in three-dimensional plastic form.
“I love making random objects and pieces,
and I love eating out,” explains Tran when
asked what sparked the idea.
Since then, he’s given other Sydney
restaurant dishes the plastic-fantastic
treatment and showcased them on his
Instagram account, Dinner à la Perspex.
There’s A1 Canteen’s plate of curried eggs
and sausages, the puddle of soft scrambled
eggs rendered into rigid golden form;
four plump pieces of bluefin tuna nigiri fromSokyo fashioned into shiny, solid decks; and
the Neapolitan ice-cream sandwich from
Totti’s, its sculptural form accentuated by
the clean, sharp edges of laser-cut Perspex.
To replicate each of these dishes, Tran
refers to his archive of food photos, then
draws each element – a breadstick here,
a cube of pineapple there – using
architectural CAD software or Adobe
Illustrator. The drawings are then scaled
to size and laser-cut into a piece of the
coloured acrylic.
Tran recently completed his Masters in
Architecture, and his skills in this industry
have served him well.
“In architecture, we’re trained to think
in geometric shapes and spaces, and the
theory of colours,” he says. “Surprisingly,
it’s easy to apply this to food.”
Following positive feedback from chefs
and the greater food community, Tran
has set up an online store, where you can
purchase some of the immortalised dishes,
from $60 a piece. “This is kind of my
homage to restaurants,” he says.Closed circuit
Nikki To has carved out a name as one of Australia’s most in-demand
food and lifestyle photographers. So when venues began to shutter,
To did what she does best, taking photos of the restaurants and chefs
she knows and loves, even with the doors closed. The result is a stirring
series of snapshots, such as this one of The Apollo in Sydney, capturing
moments of transition while also illustrating the tenacity of the hospitality
industry. She’s chronicled the series on Instagram, tagged #hoursunopened,
and each photo series is presented with candid and hopeful reflections
from the chefs whose restaurants she shot. “To some, these may just
be a bunch of photos of people and empty rooms, but for others, they
represent an industry that was bought to its knees. Restaurants big and
small, adjusting in contrasting ways – no right or wrong – just a defining
amount of resilience,” says To. @nik_to