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DINING
Alvarez has designed her menu around ethicallysourced produce.
“As a kid, I never even imagined I’d be a chef, let alone have this beautiful restaurant in Australia. I knew I wanted to do something creative, so I went to culinary school, but it was never a conscious dream. That idea of taking things out of the garden and cooking with them that day, that’s a very Californian thing as everything grows there. It all felt very communal, free, creative and fun.” One can’t help but marvel at all the challenges Alvarez has taken in her stride, from being a female to a foreigner. “Moving to Australia wasn’t a major adjustment,” she explains. “There’s a relaxed atmosphere that’s not uncommon in California.” For her, the surprise has been less cultural than industrial. “In the US, it is so competitive and hard to get a job,” she explains. “I think we’re failing to inspire people to get into the business here and it’s forcing us as an industry to evaluate how we're doing things and attract a new workforce.” And like that, she’s also become an Australian advocate for change. When it comes to food, Alvarez let’s it do the talking. “We’re constantly trying to get in the nicest stuff and not do too much to it.” This, by all accounts, is one of the hardest things to do. Alvarez spent the better part of Fred’s long lead fostering relationships with the producers of all this nice stuff. “To show a level of commitment, and get those people to commit to you, was really cool for me. I’d only ever stepped into restaurants where those relationships were already established,” she recounts. Each day, Alvarez writes the menu off the vegetables that come in, then picks proteins to fit, describing the ethos as old-world, from scratch and with an Italian, French, Spanish and Asian leaning.
The Asian connection is something she’s really taken from Australia, as is the seafood. “It’s been the big thing for me. People take their seafood seriously here and demand greatness from it,” says Alvarez, who describes learning how to properly cook the wide variety of finand shellfish as incredibly exciting. “I’m still trying to work out native ingredients a bit more; that’s something that hasn’t come naturally to me, but I want to incorporate more of.” She highlights a summer vegetable panzanella with tonnato mayonnaise on the menu that day, which is predominantly vegetarian, comprised of produce from different farms and a showcase of the season. “It’s a symbol of what I want Fred’s to be. Simple, delicious and tailored to what’s good at the moment.” Since it opened a year-and-a-half ago, Fred’s has garnered critical acclaim, including Gourmet Traveller’s Restaurant of the Year 2018. The chef is at the heart of Fred’s – if not Fred’s herself – but the goal is grander, more noble. “If anything, I want my legacy to be a place where people have a respect for each other and create really beautiful food.” She references Sean’s Panorama several times as we talk. “I’d love Fred’s to be iconic in the way it is, still busy to this day and just adored, whether I’m here or not.”