COOKING UP SUCCESS ONE RESTAURANT AT A TIME

Words Stefan Posthuma

After finishing school in 2002, Daniel Sherley walked into Lorenzo’s Diner on Keira Street for his first shift as a kitchen hand. A decade later, he opened Rookie Eatery in a heritage building just two doors down from where he got his first kitchen job. When the original Lorenzo’s Diner site became available this year, Daniel jumped at the opportunity and opened his second venue, Debutant. We caught up with Daniel to hear about the journey, his passions, his ambitions and his food.

With a long-held interest in food and excited by the buzz of the kitchen, Daniel Sherley began his chef’s apprenticeship at Lorenzo’s Diner under Lorenzo Pagnan, and 10 years later found himself running the kitchen. Naturally ambitious, owning a restaurant was a logical step in the young chef’s career, opening the highly-acclaimed Rookie Eatery in 2014 and a second venue, Debutant, in August 2019. As a restaurant owner, Daniel has found a passion for business, with the process of refining restaurant concepts and management systems bringing him the same satisfaction he always found in cooking.

Have you always been interested in food?
I remember being about four years old and waking up to cook breakfast before anyone else was awake – that was where it all started. I remember once cooking a dessert for my parents and their friends when I was really young. They were having a dinner party and I put some passionfruit, eggs and flour together, put it in the microwave and served it to them. It was disgusting, no one ate it!

What are some of your other early food memories?
Dad used to take me to the motor show in Darling Harbour, and if I was good he’d take me to eat at Rockpool. That place blew me away, it was always such a special meal and I loved the Asian influence Neil Perry had in his food back in the 90s. That was before I became a chef but I think that had a big impact on my interest in food.

When did you decide to become a chef?
Becoming a chef was always in the back of my mind when I was young, but I hadn’t seriously considered it until after I finished school – it was at that point things just seemed to fall into place. I needed a job so I started as a kitchen hand at Lorenzo’s Diner. I enjoyed being around food and working in the fast-paced kitchen environment, so I began my chef’s apprenticeship under Lorenzo.

And you stayed with Lorenzo for quite a while?
I was at Lorenzo’s for 10 years and he taught me a lot. I completed my apprenticeship and he pushed me as a chef. I ended up running the kitchen which was the best experience I could have asked for. Learning how to make decisions and manage a team is a crucial experience for anyone that wants to own their own restaurant one day.

Tell us about the decision to open your first restaurant, Rookie.
By the end of my time working for Lorenzo I knew I wanted to open my own place. I wanted a fresh start, a new challenge and to do something completely different with my food. I always liked leading and running a team, I was pretty ambitious in that way so opening my own place was the next step. I felt ready, so I opened Rookie in November 2014.

Tell us about Rookie’s menu?
The menu is best described as pan-Asian. We take influences from all over Asia, doing it in a modern and refined way, always using quality produce. We wanted it to be quite casual to start with, but ended up going a bit further than that and making it more sophisticated. The menu is always changing depending on the time of year, so sometimes you’ll see more Chinese influence, and other times more Japanese and Thai flavours – it just depends on the season and the produce we have available.

What are some of your favourite dishes from the Rookie menu over the years?
Our raw kingfish with green nahm jim has always been a favourite. That’s stuck around the longest; I think there’d be uproar if we took it off the menu. We’re doing a steamed and fried flatbread at the moment which I really like. It’s served with fermented chilli and pickled cucumber. It’s a great way to start a meal. It’s like starting a meal with bread, but in an interesting, Asian-inspired way.

Rookie has been open for five years now. How does it feel to own a successful restaurant?
There’s no better feeling than having repeat customers in your restaurant – people who love coming back and who really appreciate and understand what you’re doing. That kind of feedback is always amazing; it makes you feel like you’re on the right track. Establishing a strong team of staff who really believe in the place and the food is also really rewarding. It can be difficult in a place like Wollongong, and it took a while at Rookie – but I now have a great team who I can trust to run the restaurant at the level I expect. That’s a great feeling.

You opened your new restaurant Debutant in the location where you had your first kitchen job. Why did you want to open a second venue?
As I became more experienced in business, the thought of having multiple businesses was really exciting. After five years at Rookie I finally managed to put a good team together and to set up systems that allow me to not be there as much, which is something you strive for as a business owner. I’ve always wanted to keep pushing myself, so opening a second restaurant was always going to happen.

Tell us about the concept of Debutant.
It’s a French-inspired steakhouse with a focus on quality dry-aged beef. We want it to be a local place where you can get a good steak and chips and a nice glass of wine after work – but also somewhere to have a premium cut of dry-aged beef on special occasions. We also do our own take on some French classics like cheese soufflé, duck cassoulet and steak tartare. When I came up with the concept it was about cooking food that I enjoy eating that I couldn’t find anywhere else in Wollongong.

Meat is central to the menu at Debutant, what makes your steaks special?
It comes down to quality of produce and the dry-ageing and cooking processes we use here. We only use good quality beef with high marble scores, and we have three purpose-built, dry-ageing fridges which have sensitive temperature, humidity and bacteria control. The dry-ageing process tenderises the meat, draws out moisture and intensifies the flavour. You end up with a deep, nutty flavour – almost blue-cheese like on some of the stuff we age for 80 days or more. We also cook all our steaks over a combination of wood and charcoal in our Mibrasa oven, which gives a beautiful smoky charcoal flavour. It makes a big difference; you just can’t get that flavour cooking on a traditional gas grill.

You’ve mentioned that quality produce is integral to both your restaurants – why is it so important to you?
Good produce makes life easy. When you have good produce, you don’t have to do much to make an amazing dish, and you can be confident that you’re sending out the best you can offer to the customer. I’m blown away every day that I can use the produce that I am. When I pull out an amazing rump cap or a fresh fish, I take a photo and I’m just amazed. I can’t go out and buy a lot of this stuff in Wollongong to take home, so I’m very lucky to be able to get it and cook with it in my restaurants.

Moving from owning one restaurant to two is a big step – what was the process like?
The process of opening new businesses really excites me. There’s a lot of creativity involved – building a concept and making decisions on design is really fun for me, I love it. In order to run two restaurants at once you also have to develop your management skills, which is something I enjoy. I’ve had to learn how to have staff work with me, rather than for me, and how to allow people to take ownership and do their job. Putting these structures in place and having a good team allows me to be creative in other areas and to continue pushing forward.

It sounds like you won’t stop at two restaurants – what’s the plan moving forward?
I’d like to have Debutant run without me. It’s more sustainable that way – I’m still young but I can’t be in the kitchen forever. I love cooking, but I also love running businesses, being ambitious and taking on new challenges. If you enjoy what you’re doing, work and life really become the same thing – so you just want to keep going. In the back of my mind I would like to open more restaurants but that’s quite a long way away for now. I want to make sure that both my restaurants are running at the level I want them to be, consistently serving the best food we can, getting better every day. Once that’s accomplished I might think about another place. Or two.

Rookie Eatery
125 Keira St, Wollongong NSW 2500
rookieeatery.com

Debutant
119 Keira St, Wollongong NSW 2500
debutantdining.com