By Laura Rancie.
Jamie Robertson is the Head Chef at Sydney newcomer, Sydney Common, a wood-fired grill restaurant and bar located within the prestigious Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park. I’m pleased to share my conversation with Jamie with our Australian Good Food Guide readers and hope you love meeting him as much as I did.
What stood out to me most during our chat was when Jamie described the story of when he finally decided to become a Chef at age 24.
He said: "If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it properly."
Being English and living in London, he wrote to the best in the business, Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsey, asking for a job! Marco’s Head Chef was the first to respond with an offer. That first week Jamie went from working 38 hours as a kitchen hand and night staff in a hotel bar, where he first got ‘the bug’ for the hospitality life, to working 90 hours in one of London’s best restaurants.
He recalls his initial days there: "I was learning every day, with the stimulation of a fast-paced kitchen. You’re tired but you’re learning so much! It was a feeling I never got from any other job. I think every day is different and the learning never stops. That’s what drew me in.”
Jamie didn’t always want to be a Chef. He grew up wanting to be in the fire service and even studied for it, but when it came to getting in, they didn’t accept him on account of asthma. He then decided to try for the army but with a similar outcome.
"So to be honest, I was lost for years. I then wanted to be a postie and did that for four years, but there was no stimulation and I knew I couldn’t do it forever.”
That’s when he started working night shifts at the bar, in a hotel. They needed hands in the kitchen too, so he did a few shifts there and the rest as they say, is history.
During his time in London, Jamie would also visit New York every year. Describing the food scene there, he just fell instantly in love: "The second year I went, I pushed to work in New York. I would then go and work for free in my holidays.”
Life had other things in mind and sooner rather than later he ended up in Sydney, Australia.
"It took me time to adjust. London was so fast-paced, I had lived and breathed it for ten years and just loved it. Sydney is very different. It’s not as competitive - which is better, but the adjusting was hard. I was homesick for the first couple of years and I had just become a father for first time. So that changed me too.”
Early on in his Australian chapter, Jamie had the opportunity to return to London which he accepted. After all he had missed it so much and that’s where he thought he wanted to be. However, after only two weeks into his new contract, he realised he had made a mistake and didn’t want to raise a child in London.
"I had changed as a person; I had changed as a Chef. I wasn’t striving to work at Michelin-star restaurants anymore. My mindset had changed. We did get a Michelin star in the first six months, but I realised there’s only so long I can do this for. I wanted to go back to Sydney and find my way around. I realised how much happier I had been in Australia and that I couldn’t work in London anymore. These days, I think Sydney is one of the best places to ever live. It’s funny how things change, and experiences change you.
"During my time in London, a mentor often said to me that I should work for Martin Benn once I returned to Sydney. So, it feels like a full circle moment to now join forces for the launch of Sydney Common.”
It’s apparent that Martin Benn feels the same about his mentee: "It has been a real privilege to be able to spend time mentoring Jamie over the last few months, working closely with him on the direction and menu of Sydney Common and connecting him with growers and producers to source local Australian produce working seasonally.
"I’ve had the pleasure of working with many great young Chefs and as I move into this next phase of my career having the time and opportunity to be able to guide new young talent is a real honour. I still love being creative in the kitchen, but the thing that excites me most right now is working with the next generation of Australia’s best Chefs.”
Sydney Common celebrates contemporary, ingredient-focused wood-fired cooking, with a uniquely Australian accent. Jamie has designed a menu brimming with some of Australia’s leading producers and ingredients.
When talking about what it takes to create a new menu, he admits: "It comes to the point where you have too many ideas. I learned from all these different styles of Chefs and then it got to the point where I had to find my own rhythm, my own identity. That may be the most challenging part, but in a good way. It’s a good thing.
"The ideas change 30 times before you get there. It’s not hard to find an idea but knowing where to stop that idea and carry it out, tyhat’s the creative part. Martin is a great mentor because he’s helped me find my identity. He’s part of me knowing where to stop and where not to go on. The menu has come together nicely.
"You’re only as good as the producers and farmers around you. Sometimes they’ll send me photos of what they have on the farm and that inspires me, it helps me create a menu.”
Like any great Chef, Jamie works off what’s available and what he can get a hold of at the time. He has the flexibility to change the menu daily if necessary.
The wood-fired grill is the centrepiece of the kitchen and Jamie has a deft way with vegetables including char-grilled romano beans with paprika egg sauce and roasted buckwheat tea and charred monterosa tomatoes with goats' curd, smoked oil and togarashi.
It’s clear that Jamie is excited to introduce Sydney Common: "It’s a culmination of my culinary journey that has been profoundly influenced by Martin Benn’s mentorship.”
