Food
Louis Tikaram Changes The Game
It may be a mere 150 kilometres from Mullumbimby to Meanjin but Louis Tikaram's journey from Byron Shire to Brisbane City has been a lifelong story of determination and dedication. If judged by company kept and the places experienced, Tikaram's tales of vaunted kitchens in places wide and far is as inspirational as it is influential.
His early years were spent on a sprawling 44-hectare property in Northern New South Wales that, in many ways, shaped the man he is today. After school, he would walk the three kilometres from the bus and would then gather and chop wood to warm his family home.
The kitchen was filled with the aromas of his Fijian father's cooking: dinner could be a crab curry or stir fry, learned from his grandmother, a Cantonese-Fijian who owned the first Cantonese restaurant in Suva. His mother's side, half Irish-half Scottish, filled his multicultural melting pot and earned him the schoolyard sobriquet 'fruit salad'.
Tikaram was surrounded by kids whose parents were banana and dairy farmers. "When I got to school, you could tell, they had been up working for hours with their parents milking cattle or tending to crops," he says. He reflects on the resilience that those early years gave him. "Growing up in the country taught me about hard work." Young Louis travelled with his father to Fiji to learn where he came from, and it clearly left animpression. "When we would go fishing in Fiji and someone would get a rock cod, I would always take it straight to my grandma and she would steam it with ginger and shallot."
His dad's influence was instrumental. Not only was he the cook at home, but he also helped a friend to cater events such as the Blues & Roots Festival by cooking his trademark curries. "People like Jack Johnson and Ben Harper were eating my dad's food. I saw that and it was just so cool," says Tikaram. "My dad was doing something that his mum showed him and getting recognition for it." And thus, the seed was planted.
"I didn't have to go and find something I wanted to do, it was right under my nose. It taught me that you can become someone by doing something that you know and love and to never give up on your dreams or goals there and then I realised I wanted to pursue it. I got a job washing dishes and I was off."
LOUIS TIKARAM'S JOURNEY FROM LONGRAIN TO TETSUYA'S... TO BEYOND
Tikaram turned up to Longrain in Sydney seeking an interview with legendary chef Martin Boetz. It didn't start well when he was turned away without even meeting Boetz. Undeterred, he turned up the next day and asked once again to speak to the chef, to no avail.
"My determination came from that long walk to and from school. I didn't want to walk home from the bus, but I had to do it and there was no point whinging about it," he reflects. "I've never gone for plan B, I've always gone for plan A, so I thought I'm just going to keep doing it." Boetz finally relented and a mentor-and-ward relationship was forged, that continues to this day.
A chance encounter with Brent Savage at Longrainled to Tikaram's next step, resulting in a position as part of the opening team at the iconic Bentley Restaurant & Bar. "In the kitchen it was Brent, Dan Hong (Merivale), Dave Verheul (Embla) and me a guy that had only cooked Thai and nothing else," he says. "It was the hardest six months of my life."
People like Jack Johnson and Ben Harper were eating my dad's food... it was just so cool.
He persevered, watched and learned. "Brent taught me about the importance of giving everything all the time. He was on the line every night, scrubbing the hoods, you could tell he was going to be one of the greatest."
At this time, Tikaram started to form friendships with kindred chefs who were also doing the punishing hours necessary at this level. Chefs such as Darren Robertson, Luke Powell, Jowett Yu, Dan Puskas, Phil Wood. "It was this group of friends that made it possible as we had shoulders to lean on when it was difficult."
Tikaram's next goal was to work overseas, so he hatched a plan to spend time at a world-class restaurant, that would open doors anywhere on earth. At the time, Tetsuya's was the fourth-best restaurant in the world. It was his ticket to a larger stage. He moved to New York and became a private chef in the Hamptons, cooked at the Winter Olympics in Canada and travelled to South America, Scandinavia, Europe and Asia.
After an incredible experience overseas, it was time to return to Sydney. That first day, whilst jet-lagged and in search of a coffee, fate had another surprise in store for Tikaram. Who should he bump into but his first chef, Marty Boetz? "He said, why don't you come to Longrain and have a cup of tea with me?"
In the midst of a huge renovation, Tikaram was offered the job of head chef. "Marty was moving on to open the Cook's Co-op and didn't want to leave it to anyone else," says Tikaram.It was a bittersweet moment. "I was upset as I thought we made a lot of magic together," Louis reflects, "but I felt confident with his words; it gave me the confidence to use all my experience overseas to take it to the next level."
Learn how Louis Tikaram conquered LA and returned triumphant to his home soils in the Sep/Oct edition of Selector, available at good newsagents and online via PressReader and Magzter.