AUSTRALIAN GOOD FOOD GUIDE - Home of the Chef Hat Awards
Marcus Turner
Born:
Brisbane, Australia.
History:
My first encounter with good produce came when I was in Grade 5 and I was 10-years-old. I was 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 with anticipation for the owner to return from the Rocklea Markets with the new season fruit and vegetables on the back of the truck and wondering what surprises awaited me.
It was here I learned at a very early age how to pick good quality ingredients and which fruit and vegetables were available at different times of the year.
It was however going to be another 10 years until I found my passion for cooking.
It all started when I was working as a kitchenhand at my local golf club in Ashgrove and Brother’s Rugby Union Club in Albion, where I was captivated by the environment of commercial kitchens and the food preparation side of it.
This would lead me to take on a Chef’s apprenticeship which started at a busy Italian restaurant called Avanti in Bardon, where I learnt very quickly how to cook with pans and in a fast-paced environment.
From here I went on to the ‘Summer House’, which was a very popular café situated in the middle of New Farm Park and on my very first day of work I arrived to find a burnt-out shell and three fire trucks. It had burnt down the night before.
This became a demountable kitchen and I finished my apprenticeship here and became qualified as a Chef.
I then followed Head Chef Darryn Sommerville to work in the kitchen at ‘Serendipity’, a small, cosy restaurant in the hub of Rosalie.
My greatest opportunity presented itself in the way of a Commis Chef role at the award-winning fine-dining ‘Circa Restaurant’ in Adelaide Street under the tutelage of Owen Lacey and then Andrew Budgen.
It was here I really caught the bug for cooking good food, attention to detail, neatness and having good preparation for the day’s busy service periods. I would also learn the majority of my pastry work here.
I worked my way up from Commis Chef to Sous Chef, Head Chef and finally Executive Chef at their new venture ‘Era Bistro’.
Now I have the privilege of leading a very talented kitchen in a boutique hotel, ‘The Point Brisbane’, looking after their flagship restaurant ‘Lamberts’, which has just been voted number 1 restaurant in Brisbane on TripAdvisor.
I have been at the helm here for the past eight years and have enjoyed every minute of it.
Have you always wanted to be a Chef?
No. I always dreamt of becoming a budding golf professional and winning lots of tournaments and money.
How would you define your style?
French cuisine but minus the really heavy stuff. I like to instil a ‘make from scratch’ mantra in my kitchen, which utilises a lot of traditional French methods and techniques and requires a lot of patience and care.
At ‘Lamberts’ we make all our desserts, ice creams and sorbets from scratch, as well as our sourdough, Turkish bread and pasta to name a few.
What is your feature flavour these days?
Tonka bean, I hadn’t seen it on a menu for a while and decided to bring it back. 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.
Obsessive-compulsive about?
Perfect preparation, one of my best English Chefs I ever had the pleasure of working with would have a saying. It was the 5 Ps - perfect preparation prevents poor performance.
Your greatest culinary influence:
Andrew Budgen and Marcus Waring.
What do you love about this business?
The people I get to work with and the freedom I am given to do what I am best at, running a commercial kitchen.
An ingredient you can’t live without?
The ingredient I enjoy working the most with and really can’t live without would have to be duck. It has so many uses across the world in many different cuisines.
The fat is used for cooking and flavouring vegetables and meats; the neck skin can be used to make beautiful sausages, the livers are turned into amazing patés and their frames are turned into the most flavoursome sauces.
Here at ‘Lamberts’, we use whole ducks, which are delicately butchered to remove the breast and legs. The legs are then confit in duck fat and we use the frames to make our delicate Grand Marnier sauce for our duck a l’orange dish.
Most ‘eyebrow-raising’ menu item?
Fresh Morel mushrooms flown in from France.
Morel mushrooms are most commonly purchased dried and are needed to be rehydrated. They are very expensive and have quite a unique earthy flavour. So, it was very exciting when I found out I could get fresh ones for a very short period of
time.
Signature dish:
Our seafood fettuccine has been one of our guests’ favourites for a long time, with housemade saffron fettuccine and our own sourdough, which has also delighted diners. I have also just launched an amazing chocolate tart.
Why should diners visit your restaurant and what can they expect?
I feel there is still a bit of a stigma surrounding hotel restaurants and people think they cannot walk into or book a hotel restaurant unless they are staying in the hotel. This however is definitely not the case and we would love for you to come to dine at ‘Lamberts’. Here you will receive great service, great food and a memorable experience.
What do you think the past 12 months of COVID have taught restaurants and Chefs about their diners and the industry in general?
It has taught us we need to be able to adapt very quickly in order to survive certain situations. We also need to cherish, listen to and look after our diners because without them, we have nothing. It has also taught us to support local farmers and Australian-made products and produce.
Tell us something no one knows about you?
I once had the pleasure of cooking for Michel Roux. I was Sous Chef at ‘Circa Restaurant’ at the time and in the middle of service, the maitre d’ came into the kitchen and said he had just received a phone call from Michel Roux’s personal assistant saying he was coming in for dinner in 30 minutes.
It was definitely one of the most exciting and also stressful service periods in my career. Everything went well. He loved the food and I got to say hello to one of the absolute greats of professional cookery.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
Running a successful kitchen, with a great kitchen team
Lamberts Restaurant
A dynamic Modern Australian menu and a casually refined dining atmosphere join forces at Lamberts Restaurant in Kangaroo Point. Tucked in The Point Brisbane Hotel on Lambert Street, this popular restaurant exudes charm with an open, light-filled dining area overlooking the pool and gardens; while the cocktail bar and lounge are the ideal spot for an after-work drink from a contemporary beverage list. From breakfast to dinner, expect gate-to-plate dishes from seasonally changing menus – think entrées of tea-smoked duck, sweet potato, pomegranate, broccolini, cinnamon and anise jus. For the main, opt for crisp free-range pork belly, wild rice pilaf, kamote cue, snake beans and sticky adobo sauce, or stuffed baby squid, prawn, fennel, chorizo, rapini, orecchiette, squid ink and bagna cauda.
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