Chef Wade Fordham has opened WADE at Wineglass Bay Estate, putting an Argentine asado grill, Tasmanian produce and the lessons of his Italian upbringing at the centre of his first restaurant as chef-owner
Wade Fordham has opened his first restaurant as chef-owner, with WADE beginning service at Wineglass Bay Estate on Tasmania's East Coast on 18 September.
Set on the edge of Moulting Lagoon near Freycinet National Park, the restaurant is built around open-fire cooking and seasonal Tasmanian produce, with an Argentine asado grill at the centre of the kitchen.
For Wade, the move into ownership brings together influences that started long before professional kitchens.
He grew up in Gippsland in an Italian family centred around a butcher shop, fishing for trout, freshwater crayfish and eels with his grandfather before cooking their catch over open fires.
That relationship with fire now sits at the heart of WADE.
From apprentice to chef-owner
Wade built his early career in Victoria before working through kitchens in Victoria and Tasmania.
As an apprentice, he competed at regional, state and national level and was selected as one of 32 finalists from around 400 applicants for the 2015 Fonterra Proud to be a Chef program.
His career history also includes time at Rockpool Melbourne.
More than a decade later, he is opening a restaurant under his own name.
The change from working in established kitchens to running his own gives Wade a much broader brief. WADE is not simply a place for him to cook. He is setting the food direction, building the kitchen culture and establishing relationships with the farmers, fishermen, growers and artisans supplying the restaurant.
Fire at the centre
The Argentine asado grill is the defining piece of equipment in the kitchen.
Rather than treating fire as an additional station, WADE has built much of its identity around wood, embers and smoke, with the restaurant describing the grill as the heartbeat of the kitchen.
The opening menu shows how that translates onto the plate.
Melshell oysters sit alongside ember-baked scallops with scallop roe emulsion, spring peas, cabbage and nasturtium. Tasmanian wallaby is served on a skewer with smoked egg yolk, garlic and oregano, while octopus is charred before being made into a terrine with fried capers and verjuice currants.
Larger dishes include buttermilk-brined chicken cooked over wood fire with confit garlic, charred leek, cannellini beans, thyme and chicken jus.
The menu is designed to be shared rather than following a rigid entree-main-dessert progression.
For Wade, that links the restaurant back to the Italian family meals he grew up around as much as it does the mechanics of asado cooking.
Letting Tasmania shape the menu
WADE is being built around what is available locally rather than a collection of fixed signature dishes.
Tasmanian seafood, meat, vegetables and artisan produce provide the starting point, with the restaurant saying its menus will move with seasonality and availability.
That approach makes sense in a kitchen centred on fire.
Cooking simply over wood and embers puts more pressure on the quality of the ingredient. There are fewer places to hide poor produce, but equally less reason to overwork something that is already good.
The opening menu reflects that restraint.
Coal-roasted asparagus is served with whipped goat's curd, hazelnut and preserved lemon. Tasmanian honey ice cream comes with poached rhubarb and lavender, while apple is smoked with kunzea and paired with brown butter cake crisp, apple caramel and creme patissiere.
For professional chefs, it is the combination that makes WADE interesting: strong local sourcing, a menu built to share and a kitchen asking fire to do much of the heavy lifting.
Building something of his own
The opening marks a significant change for Wade.
He is moving from working within other kitchens to deciding exactly how his own should operate, from the way the brigade handles fire to the type of food that reaches the table.
Fire cooking is hardly new in Australia, and Tasmanian produce already underpins some of the country's strongest regional restaurants.
The challenge for WADE will be turning those familiar strengths into a restaurant with its own identity.
Its starting point is clear: Tasmanian ingredients, food designed to be shared and a kitchen built around wood, smoke and embers.
For Wade, it also brings his career back to some of his earliest experiences with food: good produce, an open fire and people gathered around the table.
The difference now is that the fire sits at the centre of a professional kitchen carrying his own name.
WADE is now open at Wineglass Bay Estate, 1100 Coles Bay Road, Coles Bay, Tasmania.
