Hospitality has always been about more than sustenance. From the ancient Greek notion of xenia to the ritualised theatre of the modern dining room, the table has long been a site where aesthetics, memory and generosity converge. Audrey Shaw, Melbourne-based chef, restaurateur, and a former architect understand this intuitively. At Melbourne's Carnation Canteen and Bar Carnation, impeccable produce, rigorous cooking and an unwavering visual sensibility are inseparable from the atmosphere she cultivates. Here, she speaks with artist and friend Kitty Callaghan on the strange alchemy of restaurants, lunar folklore, inherited taste, literary heroines, and women who cook with conviction.
KC: Do you think it’s true that the energy is different inside a restaurant on a full moon? This would have to be Gio Paradiso’s subway take – he thinks that people act crazy on the full moon.
AS: Yes! At the Canteen we actually mention if it is a full moon in our nightly briefing, just to be prepared for additionally strange or erratic behaviour. It’s not usually sinister, but just a little odd. We opened the Canteen on a full moon. At the end of the very chaotic first service, having a drink in the courtyard, we looked up and there was a giant bright ring around the moon. Turns out it’s a Lunar Halo, an optical illusion caused by moonlight refracting through millions of hexagonal ice crystals suspended in high-altitude cirrus clouds. It felt like a good omen.
KC: For me, taste and scent are some of the biggest storers for memory. Can you recall one of your earliest memories of food?
AS: It’s not the earliest memory, but as a kid we used to have my Grandparents over for a Sunday lunch. From about age 10, I would plan what we would eat with my Mum and then painstakingly make a menu for each guest. I called the restaurant Le Eaglemont (after the suburb we lived in) and cut photos out of Gourmet Traveller to collage onto the cover of each menu. My Mum still has them in the kitchen cupboard.
KC: I am going to try and book Le Eaglemont for my next birthday party. What star sign are you?
AS: Capricorn sun. Leo moon and Aries rising. I’m disciplined to a fault, dramatic and oblivious to risk.
KC: Cap sun – no wonder your home is a sanctuary. What are some nesting requirements for your place of rest?
AS: Privacy. I’m always running between the Bar and the Canteen, chatting with guests, colleagues and suppliers. When I am home, I don’t want anyone to know. But for comfort, I seek warmth. I hate to be cold. We have an open fireplace in our lounge and bedroom, and light it almost all year round. Hot water bottles for my toes in bed. And very hot Epsom salt baths after work. As a luxury, nice bedding:a fluffed-up pillow and good cotton sheets.
KC: What are some favourite books you’ve read in the last couple of years?
AS: Ben Lerner's Transcription floored me. I read it in a single sitting. I love Cormac McCarthy, particularly the Border Trilogy. I'm a sucker for a cowboy story. Denis Johnson and Thomas McGuane occupy that same territory for me – modern-day cowboys. I read a lot of autofiction. Rachel Cusk is so cerebral, and Joan Didion shares that same cool, detached intelligence that I like so much. I love Natalia Ginzburg for her clarity and restraint. Then there's Eve Babitz, whose confessional voice feels effortless. I'd like to be mysterious and cool, but the truth is I'm probably much more Babitz than Didion. Javier Marías is more philosophical, but I like the sort of romance of it. I find something similar in Siri Hustvedt especially when she writes about art and psychology. I've also recently started reading Claire-Louise Bennett and have enjoyed that. For poetry I like Anne Carson and Eileen Myles. The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway is one of my all-time favourite novels.
KC: Where have you found some of the art that hangs on your walls? It’s hard to pick a favourite, but does any one piece feel most sentimental to you?
AS: For the Canteen we only bought a single piece. It’s a bunch of carnations by Sidney Nolan, from his 80s experimental era. My Pop died just before we opened – he was born and raised in Fitzroy. He left me a sum of money, and I blew the lot on that painting. He would have liked that.
KC: Do you have a furniture piece you are coveting to add to your home?
AS: I just bought a house with my husband. It’s an absolute ruin, but I’m excited to just get in there. I would love a nice stove, though. Does that count?
KC: It does. And if every piece of furniture or object in the home was a star sign, the stove would have to be Cancer. It is nurturing, giving. Sensitive (don’t leave that kettle boiling too long). Who has been the biggest inspiration to you inside the kitchen?
AS: I didn’t go to culinary school, I learnt on the job. For a long time, I would call myself a cook, not a chef. And say that with pride. I like to think of myself as a continuation of a string of women who cooked for their families first, not as a profession. Marcella Hazan, Patience Grey, Rachel Roddy. I hate to reduce someone by leading with “female”, but I admire a lot of female restaurateurs: Alice Waters, Ruth Rogers, Judy Rodgers, Margot Henderson, Clare De Boer. And of course, Brigette Hafner. These are all people who, as professional chefs and business owners, were uncompromising and very exacting in their vision. It gave me courage to open my own place. There is a different energy to kitchens run by women.
KC: What is the perfect vegetable? Sorry – I imagine this might be the hardest question of all.
AS: I don’t care about perfection in produce. I want flavour. Paul, from Days Walk Farm grew the most incredible celery this season. It’s gnarled and looks atrocious with worm bites, but the flavour is unparalleled. To look at it, you would never buy it, but I trust him.
KC: If food is a gift, what dish are you cooking for your husband on his birthday?
AS: Something that requires a labour of love, like lasagne. We both love Champagne, so we would have that to start.
KC: I remember the first time I came to the Canteen, what spoke so deeply to me was the sound system behind the bar. The amp was actually almost identical to one that my parents had growing up. There was George Harrison playing the first time I tasted your chicken. It’s one of those moments I won’t forget. Which album most reminds you of the chapter of your life when Carnation Canteen first opened?
AS: Ooh, I love this question. Music plays a huge role in the restaurant. I had never listened to so much music until we opened the Canteen. My Mum does the flowers on a Wednesday and we listen to Wham. I think chef Joseph started this, but it’s been almost two years of listening to All That She Wants at 11am on a Wednesday. We listen to the Strokes on Thursdays for our big kitchen prep day, but we also all became obsessed with Geese, chef Isaac would play them. But, to answer your question, the song that reminds me most of opening the Canteen is Chosen by Blood Orange. That song got us through a lot of hard services and busy Fridays.
KC: On the note of flowers – I love that your Mum does yours. What was the last flower purchase you made?
AS: A pink orchid I bought for the bar.
KC: You also have a fine collection of lamps. What qualities does the perfect lamp – or lighting situation – carry?
AS: I think the Artemide Tolomeo Lamp is close to perfect. Just so practical. But all the other lamps are vintage. I like old world glamour, something that is going to give a nice soft glow. At the entry to the Bar I bought at auction an old Japanese Ikebana vase that had been repurposed into a light.
KC: You have lived and worked here and abroad. Where in the world is your favourite place to cook?
AS: The kitchen at the Canteen. Before we opened, I lived upstairs with my husband. We basically camped with an outhouse for the toilet and shower, and a little gas cook top. Once we opened, we stayed upstairs for nine months or so. There was just a sink up there, so we would come down and cook our meals in the Canteen kitchen once everyone had left and when we were closed. To say ‘cook’ is incredibly generous, in reality we would raid the pantry and fridge for anything we could. But I tested all our Canteen recipes there. It’s so close to my heart.
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