Growing up Marcus Turner dreamt of becoming a budding golf professional, winning lots of tournaments and money.
These days, he has scored the ultimate hole-in-one, in charge of the kitchen at Lamberts – flagship restaurant for The Point Brisbane hotel. At the helm for the past eight years, Marcus has put in the hard yards to drive this top dining destination to the number one restaurant in Brisbane, according to TripAdvisor.
The course hasn’t always been with this talented Chef…while completing his apprenticeship, he turned up for his first day at New Farm Park café Summer House, only to find a burnt-out shell and three fire trucks – it had burnt down the night before.
The venue became a demountable kitchen and it was here Marcus finished his apprenticeship to become a qualified Chef.
He describes his style as French, minus the really heavy stuff!
"I like to instill a ‘make from scratch’ mantra in my kitchen, which utilises a lot of traditional French methods and techniques, requiring a lot of patience and care,” he explains. "At Lamberts, we make all our desserts, ice creams and sorbets from scratch, as well as our sourdough, Turkish bead and pasta, to name a few.”
Obsessive-compulsive about perfect preparation, Marcus adopts the five Ps mantra of a former English Chef mentor – perfect preparation prevents poor performance. This starts with the selection of good quality ingredients, fruit and vegetables, which he discovered how to do at an early age.
"My first encounter with good produce came when I was in Grade 5 and helping at my local fruit and vegetable shop in Kenmore at the weekend, packing groceries and loading the shelves with the day’s fresh produce.
"I remember waiting in anticipation for the owner to return from the Rocklea Markets with the new season fruit and vegetables on the back of the truck, wondering what surprises awaited me.”
Marcus’ feature flavour right now is tonka beans, an ingredient that has been missing from menus for quite a while.
"I decided to bring it back and we are utilising its unique flavour in one of our new desserts. We gently infuse milk and cream with it and use that in our crème brûlée recipe.”
He believes COVID has taught the hospitality industry to be able to adapt very quickly in order to survive certain situations, as well as supporting local farmers, Australian-made products and produce.
"We also need to cherish, listen to and look after our diners because without them, we have nothing.”
Without a doubt, diners are sure to be calling him the Golf-father of the kitchen for many greens to come!
