72 GOURMET TRAVELLER
Research trips for
Australia’snest
chefs are a source of
pleasure, pain, and
inspiration, writes
CANDICE CHUNG,
as she dives into
the relentless
eating, last-minute
bookings and all-out
extravagance that
feedstheircreativity.
HAPPENS
WHAT
D
uncan Welgemoed is at a family-run mezcal
distillery in Oaxaca for lunch where a whole
goat has been smoking underground since dawn.
To one side of the property there’s a view of
a prison, far off in the distance. To the other,
the tops of Monte Albán’s Zapotec ruins. At
his feet is a tiny crucifix and a rose – a makeshift memorial, he
figures, for the family’s now-barbecued goat.
It’s 2016, and the Africola chef is on a mission to eat
an encyclopedia of Mexican food: tacos, cecina, tamales –
traditional foods that might inspire his cooking back in Adelaide.
Welgemoed wants to bring the techniques of the cuisine back
home – the intricacies of barbacoa, say, or the different uses of
chillies and the way fruit can be used to soften or accentuate their
heat. He’s committed to the cause, often eating up to 25 dishes a
day in the name of research. “I was either eating or drinking or
sleeping,” he says. “There was nothing in between.”Welgemoed’s search for Oaxaca’s finest barbacoa has led him
to this distillery, where owner Don Felipe Cortés serves a day-long
feast. It’s a masterclass in nose-to-tail cooking. “You’ve got a goat
shoulder wrapped up in agave, smoking underground on the
coals,” says Welgemoed. “Then there’s a rack with a haunch and
a saddle – almost spit-roasting – with all the juices dripping into a
pot of consommé of internal organs. I don’t know many chefs
who can pull off something like that.”
For Welgemoed, this experience is also a reminder that
not everything can be learnt in a kitchen, or in restaurants.
“Restaurants are a curated experience,” he says. “To make sense
of food culturally, you have to get off the beaten track.”
Australian chefs travel regularly in search of new ideas.
Their trips might look like Welgemoed’s dedicated eating
odyssey, or they might start with a simple, specific purpose
and grow outwards. Last year, while he was working on his new
book about rare and forgotten vegetables,From the Earth,QuayClockwise from right: Duncan
Welgemoed at Don Felipe
Cortés’ distillery in Oaxaca;
and dishes from his Mexico
tour; Michael Ryan’s lunch of
ramen and soup in Tokyo; and
Tokyo’s Ginza district. Opposite
from top: Dan Hong (right)
with El Celler de Can Roca’s
sommelier, Josep Roca; chorizo
bocadillos at Asador Etxebarri;
and Etxebarri’s Basque Country
setting; lobster with sauce vin
jaune at Arpège.PHOTOGRAPHY DRIELY CARTER, PETER GILMORE, ANALIESE GREGORY, LENNOX HASTIE, DAN HONG & MICHAEL RYAN.