Ben Shewry and Attica: The New Zealand Bridge

Ben Shewry grew up in Taranaki, New Zealand — the son of a farming family — and moved to Melbourne where he built Attica into one of the world's most celebrated restaurants (peaked at #20 on the World's 50 Best). Shewry's approach is the most land-connected of the modern Australian chefs: he harvests wild edible plants daily, grows ingredients in the restaurant garden, and constructs dishes that taste of specific places at specific moments. His cooking is the closest the modern Australian fine dining world comes to the Aboriginal philosophy of country-as-kitchen.

Shewry forages daily — sea succulents from the coastline, native herbs from the Dandenong Ranges, vegetables from his own plot. His signature dishes are place-specific: a potato cooked in the earth it grew in, served with its own soil; a dish of beach succulents that tastes of a specific stretch of Victorian coast. This is not foraging-as-trend — it is philosophical commitment to a specific piece of land.

Not yet written for this entry.