Flavours: A Centre of Culinary Excellence

Capital magazine - Sept/Oct 2003

Cooking is all about flavour for German-born chef Jan Gundlach. It’s what inspired him to spend 11 years in Asia. It’s what he admires most about Adelaide chef, Cheong Liew, who he considers Australia’s finest chef. And it’s what he strives for in his own cooking. It is hardly surprising then that it is also the name he has given to his new venture, Flavours – The Culinary Centre, at Canberra's Fyshwick markets. With an impressive 25 year career in the kitchen behind him, Mr Gundlach will not only be passing on his own many and varied skills, he will also be inviting leading chefs from Australia and overseas to conduct classes. “That’s not meant as any disrespect to local chefs but I think it’s got to be something new and different,” he says.

Mr Gundlach wants the centre to “stimulate and motivate” people to cook, shop and eat well. He has fitted it out to cater for a range of possibilities. At one end is a kitchen where demonstration cooking classes will be held for 24 people, while separate benches provide for hands-on cooking classes for 12. A 24-seat dining table will allow people to relax over a meal, bringing together all the elements of the class they have just participated in. Mr Gundlach says the classes will be “pretty diverse”, with themes ranging from cooking on a budget to sophisticated classes for “hard-core foodies”.

Wine education courses are also planned, with guest winemakers invited to show their wines, and Mr Gundlach creating menus to match. He sees no end to the possibilities, inviting people to use the space for birthdays and other celebrations. “You can be involved as much or as little as you like, bring your friends along to help, use your own recipes or let us design the menu.” It can also be used for corporate functions or by companies conducting training sessions, with cooking included as a team-building exercise.

Mr Gundlach doesn’t know how he fell into cooking – “it must have been intuition” – but he has never regretted it, not even during his three-year apprenticeship in Germany providing “enormously hard labour” for a tough boss. He worked his way up the hierarchy in Switzerland and Germany, earning a Michelin star one year after undertaking a master diploma course in the mid-80s. After migrating to Australia in 1988, he worked at Hayman Island for two years, where he was exposed to Asian ingredients for the first time. “I was so excited, I wanted to go to Asia and explore them for myself.”

He spent the next 11 years working for the Mandarin Group in Singapore, Peninsula Hotels in Hong Kong and the Philippines, and eventually as executive chef for Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Every vacation, he returned to the farm he had bought near Hall. “Being outdoors, enjoying nature, I just love that. I always knew I wanted to come back to Australia because of the great lifestyle one could have, should have, here.” Together with a friend, he runs 200 Angus cattle and 300 Suffolk sheep, and he has already worked out the logistics for using the lamb in his kitchen. He might be biased, he says, but the taste is very special.

“Firstly, we’re pretty organic, and secondly, the sheep graze on decomposed granite which adds more flavour to the grass they’re eating, and that is reflected in the flavour of the meat.” Canberra, he says, is a “place of hidden treasures” and he is looking forward to using white asparagus from a farm near Yass, local cheeses and olive oils. “As I got older, I wanted to create a sustainable job and lifestyle for myself. I knew I didn’t want to work for hotels any more. I just want to cook and share my knowledge with other people.”

www.flavours.com.au or phone (02) 62957722

© Christine Salins

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