Bill Granger

We can be forgiven for our mistakes but restaurateurs simply can't. If you want people to return on a regular basis, your food has to be on top form all the time. When Bill was in town a few weeks ago to promote the publication of Bill's Food, his second book, we asked him how he manages to strike the right balance.

Bills and Bills 2
Bill has two restaurants inSydney, Bills and Bills 2. Bills seats forty-five and the simplicity of the menu is set by the limitations of the place. Two chefs cook about 300 meals a day in a kitchen that is virtually run on the lines of a domestic one.

‘When I opened Bills, I saw a hole in the market. There were great restaurants: people like Neal Perry were doing wonderful things. There were Italian coffee bars but nowhere in between doing fresh food. There was nowhere to get a cooked breakfast.' Bill decided that he would not compromise on quality so decided to use the same suppliers as the top restaurants. The main costs in running a restaurant are labour and food. ‘You need to cut labour down and develop a style.' He has done this by serving simple dishes using lots of herbs and his clientele like it.

His second restaurant, Bills 2, seats sixty-five serving a slightly different variation. The breakfasts are the same while Bills has a more refined and lighter menu. Bills 2 is into hearty clubhouse sandwiches and steaks.

Part of the community
Bill is keen to emphasise that restaurants also offer a social aspect providing a community to people who are isolated in their work. In both Bills and Bills 2, the same people eat there every day, sitting side by side at the large communal table, gently acknowledging each other's presence.

Eating out is an affordable part of everyday life, the climate playing a big part. Even Bill and his family eat at Bills and Bills 2 a couple of times a week. Bill is in his restaurants every day but he no longer cooks. He trains the chefs.

The food
His early days spent cooking at La Passion du Fruit in Sydney were hugely influential, the Mediterranean food that Christine Juillet excelled at and the peculiar cooking practices adopted for service during the evening. The restaurant only had a tearoom licence, which meant that you couldn't cook food on the premises in the evening. Bill learnt to assemble meals, doing much of the preparation at home and then finishing off the food on site. He used to cook asparagus in a kettle and heat soup in a coffee machine, which regularly clogged up.

Bill likes clean flavours that boost your energy rather than drain it and when he came across Asian food at the end of the Eighties, he knew that he had found a way forward. David Thompson was having a big influence on the restaurant scene with Thai food. Bill likes to use fresh ingredients, finishing dishes off with handfuls of fresh herbs, like coriander and lemon grass or a squeeze of limejuice.

‘It's all about practice. The more you cook, the better you get.'
Bill finds that he is turning to simple and quickly assembled meals. Now that he has a family, cooking has become a necessity. Before it was a luxury, with restaurant eating figuring large in the weekly schedule. The philosophy behind his most recent cookbook, Bill's Food reflects this need.

Also he has kept the list of ingredients intentionally small, thereby limiting the expense. There is also a photograph for every recipe. ‘Food is such a visual thing,' that Bill feels that with a picture, the cook has something to aim for.

Artistic input
Bill studied art at university but found it very solitary preferring a profession with some human interaction. He has used this training in his career as a chef and attaches as much importance to the looks of his restaurants as to the food. On this basis, he took a very active role in the way Bill's Food was put together. The stylist was important in bringing the whole project together while Petrina Tinslay, a great friend of Bill's, took the stunning photographs, making it a group effort.

London versus Sydney
Bill reckons that London is one of the best places in the world to shop for food. When he's in London, he likes to visit the supermarkets to see what's available. He has praise for our supermarkets in that they stock a wide range of goods, even if they are lost leaders. They are still prepared to carry the stock.

Sydney just has big supermarkets. Growers markets are beginning to resurface but they only take place on the first Saturday of every month. Bill says, ‘The trouble with Sydney is that all the market space has been redeveloped and there is nowhere for the markets to go.' Melbourne is the great place for food in Australia, with a flourishing food market scene. The South Eastern European post war migration gave the city its restaurant culture, which is still strong.

English versus Australians
We are not talking rugby here but home cooking. With our culture of ready-made meals, have we all but given up chopping and stirring? Bill believes that Australians are better home cooks and they are definitely more adventurous. He believes that the Australian palate has become more refined with the greater opportunities for travel.

You will not find ready-made meals in Australia. A few years ago, a retailer launched with the concept of quality ready-made foods, in a store similar to Harvey Nicholls. People didn't buy into it. Freshness is important and as it's so cheap to eat it out with great Thai takeaways, far cheaper than you could cook at home, there is no need for them.

And finally
‘The ability to create food is one of life's reassuring skills.', Bill believes and he will carrying on doing what he is good at, only getting better all the time. There is no guessing what Bill's two year old daughter's first word was, ‘Tasty.'

To read the GWG review of Bill's Food, click here'); ?>.

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