Australian chef Lennox Hastie is known for cooking one of the best meals in the world. He offers an Australian-influenced version of fire cuisine at Sydney's Firedoor. He is now world famous and his steaks are widely admired for cooking unusual dishes such as flame-touched caviar. Born in the UK, Lennox learned the nuances of cooking from his grandmother on the Isle of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland.
But it was in Spain's fine dining restaurant Etxebarri where he realised that fire could be the most beautiful form of cooking - 'simple, yet complex that could be used every day'. The chef now owns a fully wood-fueled restaurant Firedoor in Sydney, where he cooks with techniques that use only fire without the use of electricity or gas. “Cooking over fire highlights ingredients in their most natural state. Australia is not bound by tradition; with the freedom to carve its own cuisine, based on a wealth of native ingredients and its rich cultural diversity,” begins Lennox.
His restaurant was awarded the Restaurant of the Year Award this year and was also featured on Netflix's Chef's Table: BBQ aired in September 2020. “When I decided to make the move to Australia, leaving Asador Extrebarri and the beautiful foothills of the Basque Country behind, I knew I wanted to create something so incredibly unique, and special in Firedoor and that’s exactly what we have been able to do. The timing was crucial – it was the right time for me and the right time for Sydney, and I saw the opportunity to celebrate and tell the story of uniquely Australian ingredients cooked over a fire,” says the author of Finding Fire: Cooking at Its Most Elemental.
The chef was recently invited to Abu Dhabi for the Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants event. Following a cooking approach that is ingredient-driven and cooked over a wood fire, Lennox says it is always fundamental to look at the freshest high-quality ingredients and the types of wood available and create a story and a dining experience around them.
“My grandmother taught me the simple joy of bringing basic ingredients together to produce food to be shared at the family table; sustaining the soul as well as the stomach,” he shares adding that his earliest memories of fire were heating the house during the winter and the summer ritual of barbecues in the garden.
“Indigenous Australians have been cooking with fire for thousands of years so, for me, I get to be creative each and every day at Firedoor and at Gildas, a Basque-inspired wine bar in Surry Hills, by using one of the oldest methods of cooking,” he says insisting that his relationship with fire has evolved in the last two decades. “I am constantly learning and drawing inspiration from the past and different cultures around the world together with the ingredients I find around me.”
From fire to the ice with Gildas, Chef Lennox is on top of his game to be a fireball on the culinary scene. He hopes to bring conscious eating culture through his efforts in the coming years. “I hope people appreciate how and where the produce was raised or grown and eating it mindfully with an appreciation of the ecosystem to which it was created, including the incredible farmers, fishers, and producers,” says Lennox adding that he loves the diversity in the foods and the flavours found in each region. “I love the flavours and techniques in Indian food and look forward to when I am finally able to visit and learn more,” says the chef before we get him on to a rapid-fire round.
What is that one dish you tasted for the first time recently that is now a favourite?
IRazor Fish from Smoky Bay in the Eyre Peninsula.
Your favourite dish to cook and eat.
An Atlantic turbot grilled whole over a wood fire is something that I still dream about to this day.
One of your secret cooking traits?
Don’t ever expect the same – each time you cook with fire is different; you’re a slave to the fire, not its master.
Your favourite ingredient for cooking any dish?
Salt – it is so important to season correctly.
One place you likes in Abu Dhabi?
Louvre building
